Earlier this week, TIME announced that its Person of the Year for 2016 would be US president-elect Donald Trump
Earlier this week, Time announced that its Person of the Year — the 90th crowned in the history of the publication — for 2016 would be US president-elect Donald Trump.
Twitterati worldwide — well, a significant chunk at least — dropped a collective deuce at the announcement. It wasn’t bad enough he won the US Presidential Election last month, but calling him the Person of the Year? Has the world — or at least the part of it that runs Time — gone completely mad, they wondered? Some took umbrage at the
fact that he wasn't the people's choice , that is to say he didn’t win the popular vote. It wouldn’t be the first time. I’ll allow myself a smug grin for that one; you’re welcome to do so too. On a more serious note though, the question that really must be asked is: Was he not the person of the year? The events of 9/11 (or as the Americans would have you believe, 11/9) Trump started the year with
the lowest favourability rating among prospective Republican presidential nominees, lagging behind the likes of Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie to name but a few. He was widely viewed, particularly in the mainstream media, as little more than a joke candidate, who’d get his share of standing ovations, but would fall by the wayside when the business end of the presidential primaries were underway. Not only did he not fall by the wayside, the real estate tycoon actually dominated the primaries at the expense of career politicians like Bush and Rubio. And as we all know only too well, he went on to win the biggest prize of them all — a four-year tenancy of 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue. If you’re curious about just how he did that,
read this . A complete outsider without a hope in hell to president-elect in the space of 11 months. Take a moment to let that sink in. [caption id=“attachment_3146338” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]![President-elect Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally on Tuesday. AP]()
President-elect Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally on Tuesday. AP[/caption] Against all odds, women, Hispanics and Blacks A related point is the fact that the Trump campaign managed to alienate almost every single demographic that wasn’t middle-class white men. And unapologetically so, it must be stated — something that was noted the world over. However, he enjoyed the passionate support of the one votebank on which he focussed his entire ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign. In business terms, that appears to have been a solid return on investment. And he came out on top. That sort of achievement is certainly worthy of some sort of recognition. So too is the fact that unlike his opponent, Hillary Clinton, Trump had no star campaigners — or surrogates — hitting the trail with him or on his behalf. Compare these lineups: On Clinton’s star-studded bill were President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama,Vice-President Joe Biden, former president Bill Clinton and her rival in the primaries Senator Bernie Sanders. And then there was the glittering galaxy of Leonardo DiCaprios, Beyoncés, Ariana Grandes, Sigourney Weavers and so many others who came out in support of the former secretary of state. Trump, on the other hand, had to make do with his most loyal backer and former New York mayor and 2001’s Time Person of the Year Rudy Giuliani. And there was the Family Trump — who, it must be noted, in the early stages of the campaign, wore an expression of reluctance that was reminiscent of the one on the face of a child wheeled out by his parents with the instructions, “Beta, Aunty-Uncle ke liye ek accha sa gaana ga ke dikhao.”) In essence, what you had was the sort of lineup you would expect out of the collaboration between the organisers of the Wacken Open Air, Lollapalooza and Glastonbury festivals, stacked against this year’s NH7 Weekender lineup. A flag-bearer for the post-truth era There is no way this point needs elaboration. There is absolutely no way that this point requires elaboration. This point? It’s not one that needs to be elaborated upon. I don’t need to elaborate on this point, okay? You get the idea. In an era wherein the constant repetition of ‘facts’ and figures — no matter how erroneous or fictional — that appeal to emotions carries more weight among the masses than dispassionate debate about policy, Trump is unarguably the poster boy. That he has come to epitomise the post-truth movement says a lot about the appeal of a trailblazing outsider in a field like politics that is something of a private club. And in this era, the most powerful weapon is social media. Just look at the way a tweet or a Facebook post makes national news these days. Throughout his campaign, Trump wielded that weapon in much the same way as Rambo did in the end,
when his staff wanted him to cease fire, they had to pry it out of his Charlton Heston-esque cold, dead hands. And when there was no Twitter around, he needed a solitary word to silence all attempts to pin him down with facts: His status as the face of the post-truth movement more than firms up the fact that he merits the gong. What is a ‘Person of the Year’? Presumably, you need to have done something notable that year to be the Person of the Year, and here’s a quick look at some of the previous recipients of this honour:
Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Ayatollah Khomeini? Yup, that was them. If
making the news is an important criterion , Trump ticks the box… twice in fact. After all, when you’ve got most of the world’s newspapers baying for your blood, you’re going to spend a considerable amount of time in newsprint. The real reason Cue the drum roll, because here’s the real reason Trump is Time’s Person of the Year. It’s all about the chicken. More specifically, it’s because he
eats fried chicken with a knife and fork .
Believe me, that’s the reason. Believe me.
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