The Trump fact, not fact-checked (op-ed)

In 1998 the political comedy Bulworth was in the movie theaters. It starred and was co-written by Warren Beatty, a long time supporter of the Democratic Party and an “inner circle” member and fundraiser for Senator George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign. So Beatty has some inside knowledge of Democratic politics.

The movie has a silly storyline. Bulworth is a disillusioned liberal senator who orders his own assassination to take place while he’s campaigning for re-election. And since the senator knows any moment could be his last he tosses his prepared speeches and “tells it like it is”.

Bulworth’s first campaign stop was a black church in South Central, Los Angeles. A black woman asked what happened to the federal money that was promised to rebuild the community. (This was a reference to the riots after the Rodney King verdict.) Bulworth responded, “We knew it would be big news for a while and we all came down here … Me, Bush, Wilson, Clinton, we got our pictures taken, told you what you wanted to hear and we pretty much forgot about it…”

The crowd was shocked.

Another black woman complained about the lack of health insurance and demanded to know why Bulworth didn’t support legislation that attempted to remedy the problem. Bulworth replied, “Because you haven’t really contributed any money to my campaign. Do you have any idea how much these insurance companies come up with? They pretty much depend on me to get a bill like that and bottle it up in my committee during an election and then we can kill it when you’re not looking…”

Someone else yelled, “Are you saying the Democratic Party doesn’t care about the African American community?”

Bulworth replied, “Isn’t that obvious. You see any democrat doing anything about it? Certainly not me, what are you going to do vote republican?

C’mon … You’re not going to vote republican.

Let's call a spade a spade … You can have a billion man march, but if you don’t put down the Malt Liquor and chicken wings and get behind somebody other than a running back who stabbed his wife … You’re never going to get rid of somebody like me.”

Comedy, right?

Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy was considered a comedy by his Republican primary opponents because of his unscripted speeches and outlandish remarks. Trump acted like the movie character Bulworth except Trump was a poor imitation, Bulworth was an experienced Senator who spoke his mind and Trump is a political novice who says the first thing that comes to his.

But, just like the movie, people disillusioned with politics respected Trump’s candor, supported his “plain talk”, and Trump won the republican nomination.

During the general election Trump made an effort to court the “black vote”. (In 2012 Mitt Romney received 7 percent and 2008 John McCain received 4 percent.) Trump’s sells pitch to black voters was, “What do you have to lose?”

This was also considered comedy, but it was a candid question, one Bulworth didn’t have to ask because he was a Democrat who posed as the lesser of two evils.

But at the first presidential debate Trump said to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, “The African American community has been let down by our politicians. They talk good around election time, like right now, and after the election they say see you later in four years … The African American communities have been so badly treated, they’ve been abused and used to get votes by Democratic politicians, because that’s what it is, because they’ve controlled these communities for up to 100 years.”

Now this sounds similar to Bulworth but Donald Trump is not the Bulworth character in this debate. Trump is pointing out that Hillary Clinton is the Bulworth character before his conversion; Clinton is the politician Bulworth said the black community will never get rid of unless they back something else.

Hillary Clinton ignored the accusation. (She did invite the audience to fact check but Trump’s 100 year claim has not been refuted.)

In 1992 one of Bill Clinton’s campaign slogans was, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Instead of asking black voters what they had to lose maybe Trump should have simply said, “It’s the lesser evil, stupid.”

First published in New Pittsburgh Courier 10-5-16