{"id":19669,"date":"2018-01-24T17:51:38","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T22:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19669"},"modified":"2018-01-24T17:51:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T22:51:38","slug":"trump-winfrey-are-empty-brands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/trump-winfrey-are-empty-brands\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump, Winfrey are “empty brands”"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Re: Brock\u2019s Banter, January 18)<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s just what happens when you take an already \u201csimplistic\u201d idea and \u201cpare it down to its core,\u201d but after meandering through Brock\u2019s Banter last week, I was disappointed to learn that \u201cthe only way to fight a personality cult is with another personality cult.\u201d
\nI respectfully demur: personality cults, \u201cstrong leaders,\u201d and the attractions of \u201ccharisma\u201d are problems, not solutions. Democracies thrive when citizens are well informed and actively engaged in public life, not when they worship messiahs.
\nDonald Trump is a billionaire celebrity with a foul mouth and a deplorable heart. Oprah Winfrey is a billionaire celebrity with a winning smile and an effusive heart. Their personalities and political sentiments differ, but they are both empty brands. Neither one could reasonably be elected as a national leader in any democracy worthy of the name.
\nIn Canada, we are fortunate rarely to have succumbed to loudmouths, rigid ideologues, heroic visionaries and political saviours who promise to unburden us of the responsibilities of active citizenship. Let\u2019s forget about image and select thoughtful, principled and authentic representatives at all levels of government.<\/p>\n

Howard A. Doughty
\nRichmond Hill
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Re: Brock\u2019s Banter, January 18) Maybe it\u2019s just what happens when you take an already \u201csimplistic\u201d idea and \u201cpare it down to its core,\u201d but after meandering through Brock\u2019s Banter last week, I was disappointed to learn that \u201cthe only way to fight a personality cult is with another personality cult.\u201d I respectfully demur: personality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-57f","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 06:05:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}