Two things I heard recently are causing me sleepless nights.
The first was the news that Univision, the Spanish-language media giant, was shifting to a more Trump-friendly format. Long viewed by Trump as a leftist propaganda machine, Univision conducted a fawning, softball interview with Trump last November. It predictably caused Trump to gush about how great Univision suddenly is.
It’s easy to understand Univision’s about-face. The company knows that if Biden (or any Democrat) is elected this year, Univision won’t suffer any penalty for its political shift. But Univision has calculated that if Trump is elected, they better be on his good side or suffer the consequences: attacks, coercion, attempts to shut them down, loss of profits.
The reason this is important is the huge reach Univision has among Spanish-speaking Hispanics in the U.S. Univision’s Trump-friendly or Trump-supporting profile has the potential to move a large swath of Hispanic voters in Trump’s favor.
The second thing haunting me is something I heard Rachel Maddow tell Chris Hayes in his podcast, “Why Is This Happening?” Maddow said (I’m paraphrasing): What happened in Germany in 1932 didn’t happen in a vacuum. Hitler was voted into power in a legitimate election. Maddow argues this could not have happened unless that was the direction the country already wanted to go (my emphasis). Either a majority of the country truly wanted a dictator or, more likely, only a minority did, but the majority couldn’t be bothered to show up and a minority of authoritarians prevailed in the election.
We know the rest of that story. Do we really want to risk going there? Having influence and making an impact isn’t hard: Just show up.
Scott Bell, West Jordan