Unfortunately, one of the greatest sports in the world doesn’t qualify for the Olympics or doesn’t even rate an honorable mention on any of the major sport shows.
Yet this sport is followed and watched religiously in every corner of the world on a daily basis.
Its birth can be traced back to the dawn of time. Although entertaining and other times boring, it is a vicious game. A fickle game full of strategy and skill. Not for the faint of heart. A brutal sport with ruthless competitors and no holds barred.
Now enter Donald Trump, who has taken the sport of politics to a whole new level.
Despite the fact that I despise Trump and all he stands for I have to admire his political tactics.
He is using a warfare tactic that dates back to Julius Caesar — “Divide et impera.”
To use a combination of political, military and economic strategies that aim to gain and maintain power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into chunks that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy. In other words, divide and conquer.
He has created unrest, turmoil and chaos all over the world but especially in the United States. The U.S. people are confused. Most people don’t follow politics on a daily basis and with so much controversy surrounding Trump that when they hear his name so much, it gets ingrained in the brain.
Since becoming president, he has insulted the Pope, the Queen of England, The British Prime Minister, London’s Mayor, the Australian Prime Minister, Canada’s Prime Minister, and the list goes on.
Mexicans, African Americans, gays, women and, again, the list go on.
But I digress for a moment. He has never insulted Putin.
But with every negative you can bet there is a positive.
The media worships him.
Late night talk show hosts weren’t getting great ratings because of lack of material. The big news networks weren’t getting a lot of viewers.
Now enter Trump. Reporters, especially on the weekends, have had their sleep habits interrupted.
A majority of his tweets come before sunrise on the weekends. You snooze, you lose.
Between his tweets and his daily lies, especially at news conferences and political rallies, there is enough material to last a lifetime. He is after posting that many tweets (last count 42,000) that there is definitely a book in there. His lies or misquotes or lack of knowledge, another book.
People who have had dealings with him have written books and made money. To think that he has only been in office less than three years.
Now they are trying to impeach him. Realistically if they do impeach him it will be very unlikely that he will be removed from office. Only twice in U.S. history have presidents been impeached. Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson, yet both served out their terms. The Senate has to approve by two-thirds majority to remove a president. Trump Republican’s control the senate.
Figure that one out.
I’ll wager that no matter what comes out of this inquiry he will finish out his term.
After all it is difficult to compete with a genius. Well, a self-proclaimed genius but on the flip side his political savvy and unorthodox methods may well get him elected again.
Politics, the most underrated sport on the planet.
William Sheppard,
St. John’s
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