Anna North
"Trump tried to shame Nancy Pelosi by tweeting a photo of their meeting. It backfired."
Vox, October 17, 2019
President Trump recently made a tweet that contained an ad hominem attack on the current Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, including a picture of her standing up and "chastising" the President during a foreign policy meeting. Unexpectedly, however, many took to Twitter to defend Pelosi and spread the image to fire back at the President. Anna North commentates on this new, yet unsurprising, Twitter drama among the most powerful people in the country. North expands on the retaliation against President Trump by arguing for his consistent "misogynistic" behavior, utilizing examples from his past business and political careers, as well as much of his internet rhetoric. She criticizes his frequent and childish personal attacks on political opponents, especially women, claiming that his experience in male-dominated careers leaves him with a strong personality of "toxic masculinity."
North's own criticisms, however, ironically closely resemble the very kind that she is demeaning in this article. While name-calling, jokes about physicality, and other such insults used by the men and women in this laughable and increasingly-childish political climate (with much credit owed to the culture of the digital age), are absent from her language, North doesn't hesitate to call out the President's past remarks as cowardly and to classify him as a "bully" of sorts. Her approach is one that further fuels the adolescent style of social interaction and civil discussion among politicians and journalists in the modern era. The merit in her arguments are seemingly valid at face-value, but her strategy of antagonizing the President whilst glorifying Pelosi and other female politicians by similarly-irrelevant reasons model a less-appealing form of journalism.
I'll concede that the President is arguably fond of immature rhetoric to fuel his political popularity, but that doesn't excuse a similar retaliation, especially one where people blindly praise a corrupt and similarly-petty politician such as Mrs. Pelosi herself. Additionally, I get the sense from the author that the fact that Pelosi is a woman has a lot to do with this situation, as well as her popularity in general. This feels like an all-too-familiar argument where female politicians are glorified as "innocent" and "brave" for simply entering a male-dominated career. It seems like both parties are far too fond of drama and Twitter culture only continues to disappoint the nation.
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