The 2016 Presidential election is already the most ridiculous election in recent history. The DNC worked actively to undermine a popular candidate, Bernie Sanders, while the GOP was dominated by an allegedly racist billionaire reality TV star. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton promises to be a woman of the people, but show won't hold press conferences, and has been busy winning and dinning billionaires (or being wined and dined?). That alone says a lot about the current state of affairs.
The most recent shenanigans, and specifically an article written by Elizabeth Chan on hillaryclinton.com, just go to show how messed up and increasingly desperate this election cycle is becoming. Ms. Chan decided to go on a long rant insinuating that Trump is in league with white supremacists because Pepe the Frog, a long popular internet meme, appeared on his website.
So who and what is Pepe the Frog, and why is the Clinton campaign insinuating that Trump's use of Pepe ties him to white supremacists.
As explained by the Clinton website:
“Here’s the short version: Pepe is a cartoon frog who began his internet life as an innocent meme enjoyed by teenagers and pop stars alike.
But in recent months, Pepe’s been almost entirely co-opted by the white supremacists who call themselves the “alt-right.” They’ve decided to take back Pepe by adding swastikas and other symbols of anti-semitism and white supremacy.”
Digging Into the accusation
Let's add some context, Pepe has been around for about 10 years and he is one of the most popular memes on the internet. Are there memes of Pepe featuring white supremacists symbols? Absolutely, but there are thousands upon thousands of Pepe memes. At this point, you'll be able to find a Pepe meme on just about anything.
Pepe was not created to support a racist agenda, and is nothing more than a simple frog. Oddly then, the Clinton campaign states that white supremacists are “taking back” something these never owned.
However, alleged white supremacists have made and popularized a Donald Trump version of Pepe, featuring Trump's trademarked hair. Donald Trump's media team has used the Pepe Trump, but it's a huge stretch to try to insinuate that using a meme based on yourself, and greatly resembling yourself, somehow ties you to the meme's creators, and in this case white supremacists.
Next, the Clinton camp might try to prove that since Trump uses Twitter, and known racists use Twitter, he must be racist. Or maybe they'll go after Facebook, or Youtube, or whatever. If using a meme, and especially a meme based on one's self, is grounds to allege racism, why should using the same platform as racists be any different.
I won't be voting for Donald Trump this fall, but with each passing day, the Clinton camp is making it harder and harder to vote for them. Criticize Trump all you want, but don't come up with half-baked, illogical allegations to prove that Trump supports white supremacy simply because
Hell, put together a well-constructed argument to flesh out the details on why so many white supremacists support Donald Trump. There's definitely a good argument and analysis there.
But stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes. The American people aren't as dumb as we're being treated, and the article written by Ms. Chan shows how dumb the Clinton camp thinks we really are.