Trumped By Destiny

Donald Trump, continuously trying to associate himself with the conservative extremist movement in these United States, recently blasted Beyoncé's halftime show performance at the Super Bowl. The noted boorish condo peddler and short-fingered vulgarian (to cop phrases from the late and lamented Spy magazine) found Mrs. Shawn Carter's dancing to be suggestive and inappropriate, an affront to good ol' American values.

Naturally, the Trumpster's opinion of the former Destiny's Child member has proven to be a very unpopular one. In fact, not only do many pop fans find his views snobbish and elitist, they've also found a racist and misogynistic subtext in his comments, suggesting that Trump would never have called out a fellow male Caucasian for doing what Beyoncé did. One Hispanic woman, writing on Facebook, came right out and said it: "Would he say the same thing about Elvis?"

Uh . . . yes?! Because Elvis Presley, back in the beginning of his own career, was as shocking and offensive to people in 1956 as Beyoncé is today. Trump is 66 years old as of this writing. If he were the same age 1956 as he is now, he would have said the same thing about Elvis. He'd also have been the same age as then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower was in 1956 . . . and Ike loved Fred Waring, a schmaltzy bandleader whose TV show isn't re-broadcast inexplicably on PBS.

Of course, Elvis was threatening to a lot of people because he helped push folks like Fred Waring out of the way, just as Beyoncé is pushing veteran rock and rollers out of the way, much to the chagrin of sixtysomethings like Trump. Now, I don't know how Donald Trump's own musical tastes run. I will say this: Anyone who runs a cheesy second-rate international beauty pageant that includes a swimsuit competition, like Trump does, has no business protesting against the inappropriateness of a physically attractive woman's "dirty dancing."

And by the away, Trump could have found out what a spectacularly bad idea it is for a white man to complain about the stage antics of a singularly named dance-pop diva with a large muti-ethnic fan base.  All he had to do was ask me.