Oprah at the Golden Globes - with the Cecil B. Demille Award
Can’t Run for President
OK, I started making a comment on Scandalous One’s diary, “You Have No Business Telling America's Most Successful Black Woman She Can't Run for President”, written in response to TheDogFather’s diary, which rather disdainfully stated and made a case for (“Oprah Winfrey Has No Business Being President), which I’d just finished reading. TheDogFather’s diary sent me up in flames, frankly. I’ve been waiting to calm down so I could comment on it. That’s how I came to read the Scandelous One’s diary. Scandalous One captured, very well, some of what I was feeling, and I thought just to tell him so, but when I got started, I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to hijack the comments, so I’m posting my whole, original regurgitation as a diary.
STARTING COMMENT:
Preach it. And thank you, for doing so. While TheDogFather’s diary makes some valid points, other points made me so angry, seemed so offensive, that I couldn’t comment on that diary — I still can’t — and be polite, fair, or civil. I’d likely speak in anger, and I don’t want to do that. I can say it better in this space, it seems. How ironic.
Agreed, TheDogFather is entitled to an opinion but to pre-emptively pronounce that “Oprah has no business” doing ANYTHING, is not only sexist, but borderline racist. I have more to say, but my comment’s getting long ...
CONTINUATION
In fact, anyone who has dared say something like that to me or to another female in my vicinity, that she — or I — has or have no business doing ANYTHING, with respect to ambitions, professional life, academic studies/career, political acitivities, or personal life — has come to regret it bitterly. You’d be surprised to know how many people have dared to try it over the years, including people I’ve had to supervise (I don’t believe in retaliation, but I DO believe in supporting lateral transfers).
No one has the right to make such a pronouncement about Oprah, or anyone else — no man, woman, or child may determine what another man, woman or child has any business doing or not doing, lawfully, in a free and open society like the one our Constitution supports (BILL OF RIGHTS, anyone?).
Last time I checked, tRump has NOT YET managed to destroy our Constitutional protections: we all have the right to aspire to anything we care to. Oprah has the right to do as she wishes, and the money to make it happen. She earned every damn penny herself, she didn’t rob or cheat anyone, and she isn’t laundering dirty money. TheDogFather, you have no right to say what you did, especially to or about THAT woman.
Once more (say it with me): NO ONE has the right to say that to anyone else, especially to any woman, and for damn sure, not a woman of color.
Oprah has proved her worth and success a hundred times over: she's a bona fide self-made billionaire, actress, and philanthropist, NOT just a celebrity, with NO bankruptcies, no scandals, no deplorable, reprehensible habits that we know of, and as far as anyone knows, does not have a reputation for being a repulsive fool.
Now, about that Golden Globes Speech ...
She is a sexual abuse and rape survivor who was first assaulted at the AGE OF 9 — when speaks about #MeToo, it’s just as personal for HER as it is for me, or for at least 12 other women and men on this site that I know of, and at least 20 of my personal friends around the country (male and female).
NO ONE has considered that Oprah may have meant EXACTLY what she said, and did not have a hidden agenda.
The press, especially, finds it MUCH MORE exciting to whip up a frenzy about an alleged 2020 presidential run. And now that idea is out there, it may be used to insult and put her in her place. That’s what TheDogFather’s diary sounded like to me, rightly or wrongly.
Perhaps we should talk about that a bit — Oprah and #MeToo, and perceived suitability (or not) for the presidency.
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Oprah is one of us - a sexual assault/abuse survivor. She made it to where she is, on her own determination and grit from NOTHING.
Give the woman her due, she has earned the right to do whatever she wishes. She is no fake Billionaire/Celebrity/Fool like the current resident of the White House. She is no pathological liar — she is not known to play games, by being coy with her intentions. She’s done some st
I would not necessarily want to see her run, but she has the right to do what she wants. TheDogFather is free to vote against her, if she DOES run for something, as are we all. Or not.
But let me put a question to you in terms everyone should be able to understand: never mind the alleged sins of the former Senator Al Franken.
Consider that if this was Al Franken we were talking about, instead of Oprah, in an earlier period in his career, no one would have DARED say he had no business running. Why is this relevant?
- Al Franken had come from relative obscurity to become a well-known comic, then a nationally known entertainer on SNL.
- He transitioned to a talk show host, becoming commentator/political /radio host (Air America — where I discovered him),
- Al Franken authored books and articles, including making a hypothetical case for running in 2020.
- He shilled for and sponsored humanitarian and charitable causes, and progressive issues.
- Al Franken transitioned to someone with great influence politically and socially in Minnesota.
- His comments on society, social issues, and politics found a wider audience nationally, in time, and he ran for senate.
- Al Franken became a Senator, and an extremely effective one, and is STILL being mentioned as a viable candidate in the future.
So considering the above, and changing the name and modifying activities somewhat to Oprah Winfrey, tell me:
- Why can’t Oprah do the same, follow a similar path? Even though she took time out to become an actress, writer, and movie producer ...
- Why does Oprah “have no business” aspiring to President or any other damn thing she pleases? Like Al Franken?
- Why do so many people have an issue with this?
- What is it, really, behind the contemptuous dismissals of what is, in the end, talking head speculations?
- What is making people so prone to attack her for something she has said she doesn’t plan to do?
And I believe she means what she says — at least, right now.
Here’s what I think
I think she’d be a fool to think about running for President, personally, and until she says she IS, I’m going to assume she means what she says about not doing so.
Here’s the thing: if people are getting this ugly and authoritarian about it now, given it’s only a manufactured news flash that the press has cooked up, the attacks are only going to get worse.
She’s shown herself a person who successfully, for the most part, keeps her private life separate from her professional one. And she can do much more good right where she is.
As the “only a celebrity” who has more international name recognition, as well as respect and real political and humanitarian influence. Unlike the current celebrity in the White House.
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