Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
OTHER VIEWS
The sexual politics of 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
I
OTHER VIEWS
n the middle of the Civil War a
powerful urges that men sometimes
colonel named Robert McAllister
feel in their presence. In this misogyny,
from the 11th Regiment of New
women are the powerful, disgusting
Jersey tried to improve the moral ¿ber
corrupters — the vixens, sirens and
of his men. A Presbyterian railroad
monsters. This gynophobic misogyny
contractor in private life, he lobbied and
demands that women be surrounded
preached against profanity, drinking,
with taboos and purgation rituals, along
prostitution and gambling. Some of the
with severe restrictions on behavior and
line of¿cers in the regiment, from less
dress.
David
genteel backgrounds, rebelled.
Trump’s misogyny, on the other
Brooks hand,
They formed an organi]ation called
has a commercial Àavor. The
Comment
the Independent Order of Trumps. In
central arena of life is male competition.
sort of a mischievous, laddie way, the
Women are objects men use to win
Trumps championed boo]ing and whoring,
points in that competition. The purpose of a
cursing and card-playing.
woman’s body is to reÀect
In her book “The Gentlemen
status on a man. One way to
and the Roughs,” Lorien
emasculate a rival man is to
Foote notes that this wasn’t
insult or conquer his woman.
just a battle over pleasure. It
Writing for Slate, Frank
was a contest between two
Foer has one of the best (and
different ideals of masculinity.
most disgusting) compilations
McAllister’s was based on
of Donald Trump’s history with
gentlemanly chivalry and
women. Most of the episodes
self-restraint. Trumpian
are pure dominance display.
masculinity was based on
For example, A.J. Ben]a
physical domination and sexual
was a writer who confessed that
conquest.
his girlfriend had left him for
“Perceptions of manliness were deeply
Trump. Trump called into a radio show he was
intertwined with perceptions of social status,”
appearing on to brag.
Foote writes.
“I’ve been successful with your girlfriend,
And so it is today.
I’ll tell you that,” Trump said. “While you
These days we’re living through another
were getting onto the plane to go to California
great rede¿nition of masculinity. Today, both
thinking she was your girlfriend, she was some
men and women are called upon to live up to
place that you wouldn’t have been very happy
the traditional ideals of both genders. So the
with.”
ideal man, at least in polite society, gracefully
When the commentator Tucker Carlson
achieves a series of balances. He is steady and
critici]ed him, Trump left voice mail bragging
strong, but also verbal and vulnerable. He is
about how much more sex he gets. He told an
emotionally open and willing to cry, but also
interviewer that you have to treat women like
restrained and resilient. He is physical and also
dirt.
intellectual.
It’s not quite right to say that Trump is a
Today’s ideal man honors the women
throwback to midcentury sexism. At least in
in his life in whatever they want to do. He
those days negative behavior toward women
treats them with respect in the workplace and
and family members was restrained by the
romance in the bedroom. He is successful in
chivalry code. Political candidates didn’t go
the competitive world of the marketplace but
attacking their rivals’ wives based on their
enthusiastic in the kitchen and gentle during
looks. Trump’s objecti¿cation is uncontrolled.
kids’ bath time.
It’s pure ego competition with a pornogri¿ed
This new masculine ideal is an unalloyed
Àavor.
improvement on all the earlier masculine ideals.
In this way, Trump represents the spread of
It’s a great achievement of our culture. But it is
something brutal. He takes economic anxiety
demanding and involves reconciling a dif¿cult
and turns it into sexual hostility. He effectively
series of tensions. And it has sparked a bad-boy tells men: You may be struggling, but at least
protest movement and counterculture, currently you’re better than women, Mexicans and
led by a group we might once again call the
Muslims.
Independent Order of Trumps.
I’ve grappled with understanding how much
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is a
to blame Trump’s supporters for his rise. Many
revolution in manners, a rejection of the civility of them are victims of economic dislocation,
codes of the educated class.
and it is hard to fault them for seeking a change,
As part of this, he rejects the new and
of course, even if it is simplistic and ignorant.
balanced masculine/feminine ideal that has
But in the realm of cultural politics, Trump
emerged over the past generation. Trump
voters do need to be held to account. They are
embraces a masculine identity — old in some
participating in a descent into darkness. They
ways, new in others — built upon unvarnished
are supporting a degrading wrong. This is the
misogyny.
world your daughters are going to grow up in.
Trump’s misogyny is not the historical
Ŷ
moralistic misogyny. Traditional misogyny
David Brooks became a New York Times
blames women for the lustful, licentious and
Op-Ed columnist in 2003.
We’re living
through
another great
redefinition of
masculinity.
Will Vragovic/The Tampa Bay Times
President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro take their
seats before a baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban
national team in Havana, Cuba.
A baseball game
to remember
N
o good deed goes
hand. That was an exceptionally
unpunished.
meaningful gesture from a man
Especially if you are
who defected from Cuba years
an elected leader.
ago.
On last Friday’s “PBS
No player had a more
emotional experience than Rays
NewsHour,” columnist Mark
out¿elder Dayron 9arona, who
Shields critici]ed “the optics” of
Àed Cuba in 2013 and was
President Obama’s presence at
reunited with his family upon the
a Havana baseball game, which
Steve
occurred on the heels of the
Forrester team’s arrival. 9arona received
a cool reception from the Cuban
Brussels airport terrorist incident.
Comment
audience during pregame team
Shields said it would have been
introductions. So when he
better if Obama had not been
headed to home plate for his lead-off
wearing sunglasses.
batting assignment, his teammates piled
The game pitted the Tampa Rays
out of the dugout to
against the Cuban
clap for him.
national team. It
Major League
was the ¿nal act of
Baseball was one of
Obama’s three-day
the corporate players
groundbreaking visit
who joined Obama’s
to Havana. He had
mission. MLB made a
also met privately with
signi¿cant investment
Cuban President Raul
in reconditioning the
Castro, held a joint
press conference with
Havana ball¿eld. Tons
Castro, met privately
of clay remade the
with dissidents and
in¿eld. It was applied
spoken to the Cuban people.
by hand, because there is no mechani]ed
Unlike Shields, David Brooks said
farm or landscape equipment in Cuba.
there’s no good reason for not going to a The ¿eld was also resodded.
baseball game. He added that presidents
Among the ideas MLB has Àoated is
can do more than one thing at a time, and a Cuban minor league team, as well as
that telephones are always available.
baseball academies, similar to what has
While the Tampa-Cuba game was
produced the wealth of MLB stars from
not close (Tampa 4, Cuba 1), it was
the Dominican Republic.
freighted with emotion. This was
The joint press conference of Obama
baseball diplomacy. American baseball
and Castro was something to behold.
royalty came for the occasion. Derek
Like the baseball game that would
Jeter was in the audience. So was
follow, this was an emotional event.
Jackie Robinson’s widow, Rachel (as a
While Castro had agreed to take one
minor leaguer, Robinson played on the
question, he eventually took three. And
same ball¿eld). The legendary Cuban-
dictators don’t do press conferences. One
American pitcher Luis Tiant threw out
of the three questions was about political
one of the two pitches that preceded the
prisoners, and it was asked by an
game.
American newsman of Cuban descent.
When the Rays scored the ¿rst run,
Ŷ
Obama reached over to shake Castro’s
Steve Forrester is publisher of The
hand. Late in the game, Tiant approached Daily Astorian, sister paper of the East
the presidential box and shook Castro’s
Oregonian.
America’s
baseball royalty
came for the
ice-breaking
game.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
A more presidential Donald Trump visits the capital
T
he Trump campaign
times, but his delivery was
did something last
as smooth and polished as
Monday evening
the best politicians.
that other campaigns do
Which worried
all the time but that the
some Trump critics.
Republican front-runner
Yair Rosenberg, at
has never, ever done. It
Tablet, found Trump’s
sent out an email with the
performance downright
prepared text of Trump’s
alarming. “What was
Byron
speech to AIPAC, the
so disturbing about
York
pro-Israel group meeting in
the speech was that it
Comment
Washington.
demonstrated that Trump
Prepared text? Anyone
can comport himself like
who has ever watched a Trump
a traditional politician — and do
speech knows he doesn’t do
so very well,” Rosenberg wrote.
prepared texts. But there Trump
“Reading a political address off
was, on the Àoor of the 9eri]on
a teleprompter for the ¿rst time,
Center in downtown Washington,
Trump jettisoned his race-baiting
looking from side to side as
and incitement for boilerplate
he read his speech from a
bromides on Israel, Iran, and the
teleprompter.
Middle East. Drawing on his years
Yes, Trump ad-libbed a lot. But of television experience, he came
as he glanced at the prompter’s
across like any other talking head,
glass panels, he was delivering a
adeptly delivering his text without
speech just like the politicians he
a single serious stumble. In
has mocked over the course of the other words, it was Trump’s ¿rst
campaign.
presidential campaign speech that
And doing a really good job of
sounded remotely presidential.”
it. John Kasich addressed AIPAC
Also disturbing to Trump’s
half an hour before Trump, and he critics was the reaction of the
also read from a prepared text, too, AIPAC crowd. Going into the
but it was on a piece of paper on
event — it was huge, perhaps
the podium and Kasich started off
, people ¿lling the arena
wearing glasses and looking down — there was talk of protests, of
a lot. Trump was clearly reading at rabbis turning their backs and
“It was Trump’s first
campaign speech that
sounded remotely
presidential.”
— Yair Rosenberg, Tablet
walking out. And yes, there was
some of that. But it’s fair to say
that overall, Trump’s reception at
AIPAC was friendly. You know
how an enthusiastic crowd can ¿ll
an arena with roars? There was
never that. But the applause for
Trump grew from polite at the
beginning to more-than-just-polite
at the end.
It was a presidential day for
Trump. He did an extended,
on-the-record interview with
the Washington Post editorial
board. He had a get-to-know-you
lunch with a few lawmakers,
arranged by Trump endorser Sen.
Jeff Sessions. He held a press
conference. And he addressed
AIPAC.
You know how Trump often
expresses ama]ement that he’s
doing all the political stuff that
candidates do? “I can’t believe
I’m a politician, can you believe
this?” Trump said last year on
Fox. “I’m a politician, all my
life I’ve disrespected politicians
now I have to say I guess I’m a
politician.”
In Washington on Monday,
Trump was a politician. And he
was good at it.
That doesn’t mean Trump
was an ordinary politician. How
many presidential candidates can
hold a press conference at the
Washington landmark they are
now transforming into a luxury
hotel? That’s what Trump did at
the 2ld Post 2f¿ce, gathering
the press in a dusty worksite that
will be the atrium of the newest
Trump International Hotel. Trump
¿nished the event by leading
reporters around the construction
site, with more than a few shaking
their heads at Trump’s ability to
add an element of showmanship
to everything he does. Why were
they following him around the
stacks of sheetrock? Because no
other candidate does that sort of
thing.
At some of the lowest moments
of the campaign, when he has said
some outrageous thing or when
his rallies are targeted by waves of
protesters, Trump has often said he
can become more “presidential”
any time he likes. It hasn’t been
appropriate, Trump has explained,
because he is still ¿ghting off
rivals in the bare-knuckle battle
for the Republican nomination.
But in the future, Trump promised,
look for President Trump to
emerge.
Last Monday, Trump gave the
public a glimpse of what he was
talking about.
Ŷ
Byron York is chief political
correspondent for The Washington
Examiner.
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