Sexism. Celebrity. Racism. Money. Media. Science denial. Ignoring past bad behavior. Over-scrutinizing the woman on the other side. A famous, bad man, with his team of loud and colorful characters beating a qualified, smart woman. If this sounds like the 2016 election, it was. If it sounds like the O.J. Simpson Trial- yes, it was that too.
Two decades before Hillary Clinton’s landmark campaign for the Presidency fell short by about 80,000 votes in three states against Donald Trump, a very similar battle played out in Los Angeles, CA. O.J. Simpson, who had a history of spousal abuse, a DNA match with blood at the scene, a motive, and the means to have committed the murder of his ex-wife, was acquitted by a jury of his peers because none of that mattered in the circus-atmosphere his trial created. Simpson won on power of personalities, clouding the facts of the case, and playing on the insecurities of his audience- sound familiar?
Much like Hillary Clinton in 2016, hindsight tells us that Marcia Clark never had a chance. Oh sure, both started as close to locks in the minds of the public, and still both were never really given a fair hearing. Like with Clinton, Clark’s “tough woman” persona was used against her, putting not her competency on trial, but how she made people feel. Just as insignificant, stupid things like the tone of Clinton’s voice and what she wore were used against her, Marcia Clark faced the double standard in appearance and tone too. For Hillary it was her e-mails, for Clark it was naked pictures that her ex-husband sold to the tabloids, both perfectly legal and totally insignificant things, but things that were used to tarnish the reputation of the woman in question. Both were given slam-dunk cases that they couldn’t possibly lose, at least in the eyes of the punditry. Both were never given any shot at all in the way they were covered.
Then there was O.J. and Trump themselves. Both were wealthy and extremely famous. In fact, they remain two of the best known men in the world. Trump’s past bankruptcies, his “grab them by the pussy” tape, his ties to Russia, and his complete and utter lack of knowledge were ignored by a public who feels like they “know” him from his television persona, and decades of fame. O.J. was pretty similar. He had dozens of domestic violence calls made against him, he tried to flee after it was clear he was a suspect, his DNA matched, he had motive, and his timeline fit- but none of that mattered either. For many people, O.J. was innocent- because there’s no way the former Heisman winner would do this.
O.J.’s team was very similar to Trump’s very public, very vocal team, as the prosecution team was to Clinton’s. Line-up Johnny Cochran, Robert Shapiro, and F. Lee Bailey with Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, and the rest of the “Trump Train,” and you see similarities- larger agendas, willingness to lie, willingness to cloudy the waters when needed, and need for self-promotion. The two teams are very similar. Meanwhile, contrast that with Marcia Clark, Christopher Darden, and the rest of the prosecution, who like the Clinton team, tried to run a text-book case and remain above the fray of their opponents. In both cases, they failed.
There are obviously lots of other elements too. The way O.J.’s team discredited the DNA evidence against him can remind one of climate change denial in 2016. The discrediting of the LAPD in that trial could have come right out of the Trump playbook, particularly because it should have been immaterial to the case, but it ended up dominating the conversation. Much like with Trump’s outrageous behavior, the media ate up Johnny Cochran’s antics, and covered them as substance, when they were often show. Ultimately, the rich, famous man won despite all of his flaws, while the competent, qualified woman lost- despite her fairly obvious strengths. Media coverage focused so much on the outrageous and over-the-top, and not so much on the substance of the discussion.
There is an 8,000 pound gorilla in this room that has to be mentioned, which is of course race. O.J. Simpson is an African-American man, and that played a huge role in the trial. Donald Trump is a racist, old white man, and that played a huge role in the election. There is probably little overlap in their support in the public, if I had to guess, yet they employed the same playbook in using race. For O.J., they played on distrust of the system, the white DA, the police, and even the victims, in a way that hit at deep fears among African-Americans about how they were treated by the police, which clouded their view of how he was. Donald Trump played on the fears of white people that President Obama’s term had marked the end of their country and way of life, and that Clinton would continue to erode their basic view of society and the world. While they both played to different audiences, they essentially played the same game of stoking fears and distrust among people who generally weren’t really racial separatists.
There is a sad outcome, one that we already know about the case, and one that I am fairly confident in predicting about Trump- nothing good comes of either instance. O.J. Simpson was hit hard financially by paying for his “Dream Team” defense, and more so by his loss in the Civil case that followed, which he lost. He tried different stunts after that to get his hands on money, but ultimately ended up attempting armed robbery in Las Vegas to get memorabilia of his back, and now is sitting in jail as he ages away. Donald Trump is sitting in the White House now, a place he knows literally nothing about, signing executive orders to ban Muslims and tear apart the government he leads. He’s being rebuked by courts, and in time will probably be rebuked by voters, and his own political party. He won’t bring back factory jobs, mines, or the “great America” that his supporters imagine to have existed in the past, and he’ll be regarded as a failure. No, Donald Trump has not brutally murdered anyone in cold blood, and so there is a real difference in these two men. Their outcomes are heading on similar paths though. I guess that will be just one more way that Donald Trump is the O.J. Simpson of his time.
No comments:
Post a Comment