By Clarence McKee
All Americans can be proud of the countless acts of generosity, heroism and unselfishness of those rushing to help victims in the aftermath of hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
In Texas, members of the “Cajun Navy” came from Louisiana to help rescue flood victims in Houston. Utility company crews from nearly 30 states rushed to Florida to help restore power to more than six million people, that’s 60 percent of the state. And in New York, police and fire department teams went to Florida and Texas, assisting with rescue efforts there. Also, the 106th Rescue Wing of the New York Air National Guard was deployed by New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, directing them to these rescue efforts.
These, as well as the valiant work of the U.S. Coast Guard and other members of the military, were just a few of the acts of tireless, unselfish heroism of thousands of Americans expediting assistance to their fellow Americans in distress. No one cared about the race or color of the victims.
As I watched video and viewed pictures of the “Cajun Navy” rescuing blacks and whites from Houston’s flood ravaged homes, power company linemen in their trucks queued up ready for dispatch to various communities to restore power after Irma.
Rescue teams from the New York police and fire departments convoyed, assisting in both Texas and Florida, as did members of our military. Yet, I couldn’t help but think, that in other circumstances (referring to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic establishment’s coastal elites, and much of the hate Trump media; including many of the tuxedoed progressives on display at the Emmy Award ceremony) most of these heroic volunteers would be considered to belong to the “deplorables,” that is “racists” and “rednecks,” because most of them most likely supported our current president.
Remember when Hillary said ” . . . you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorable . . . racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic … ” Clinton later said she regretted saying “half.”
These likely Trump supporters and heroes are the people who the high brows at ABC and ESP (P for “political”) N show contempt for when they fire personalities who make any comments in a pro-conservative vein, like Curt Shilling tweeting about transgender bathrooms or Hank Williams Jr. saying negative things about Barack Obama.
Yet, black liberal ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor Jemele Hill can call the president a “white supremacist,” “bigot,” and “unfit” for office and still keep her job.
The likely reasons she was not fired is probably because 99 percent of the major network and cable elites share her views. Do ESPN viewers and those heroes of Harvey and Irma? It’s highly doubtful.
ABC/ESPN’s inaction on Ms. Hill reveals that the corporate brass has a similar view — not only on Trump, but also of those who voted for and support him. Supporters and voters — like many of the unsung heroes of the past few weeks.
These network and cable progressive blue bloods can favor and side with Jemele Hill all they want. They do so at the risk of turning off a vast audience of blue collar “deplorables” supportive of Mr. Trump and who were offended by her outrageous comments. Hopefully they will decide that SportsCenter and ES-Political-N is not their cup of viewing tea!
As I recently said on Newsmax TV’s “America Talks Live,” ESPN should be apologizing to the president. “Hill is getting a pass because she is black and if you are a black liberal you can say anything you want to against anyone on the right … ESPN will start to lose viewers . . . just as the NFL has …
” over the disrespect Colin Kaepernick and others have shown for the national anthem.
Jemele Hill should have been fired! Be assured that the media and Democratic elitists in New York, Los Angles, San Francisco and Washington D.C. bent over backwards to resist commending Trump and Republican governors in Texas and Florida for doing what a Democratic governor did not do in Louisiana’s Katrina!
While victims of Harvey and Irma were being rescued and assisted by those whom many progressives and media pundits deplore as rednecks and deplorables, no doubt more than a few were just looking for federal missteps so they could attack Trump.
In fact, there are those who believe that some of the pundits at MSNBC and CNN, and certain newspapers, would have preferred more loss of life and confusion in federal response so they could use these human tragedies to blame Trump. These are the very low levels both journalism and politics have sunk to in our nation.
You can bet that many in the mainstream media who criticized Trump’s so-called lack of empathy and the first lady’s shoes would and do not associate with people like those in distress in Texas and Florida — unless they happen to be their housekeeper, driver, hotel maids, lawn tenders, electricians, plumbers, or others they take for granted and — admit it or not — are looked down upon, as did Hillary Clinton.
As we enter the last half of the Atlantic hurricane season, let’s hope the day will not come when these anti-Trump elites and their families need to be rescued by Trump’s “deplorables.”
Clarence V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political, and media relations consulting firm in Florida. He held several positions in the Reagan administration.
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