Does Kaley Cuoco Flag Controversy Give A Glimpse Of Trump’s America?
Big Bang Theory actress Kaley Cuoco offended many American’s on Independence Day when she posted a picture of her dogs laying on the Stars and Stripes. Kaley’s snap featured her three dogs sporting Stars and Stripes neckerchiefs whilst two of the pups sat on the flag which was spread out on the ground. Clearly Cuoco was trying to show her patriotism but Kaley totally failed to appreciate that many people would see the sight of dogs sitting on the American flag as a grave insult.
As reported by the Huffington Post, Cuoco was not actually guilty of taking the photograph, nor did Kaley lay the flag on the ground as a dog bed. Cuoco was actually out of town and her pets were being looked after by a dog-sitter who presumably took the snap. Chances are that Cuoco simply thought the snap was cute and shared it on Instagram without thinking. Nonetheless, Kaley was widely criticized by those who saw the picture as insulting and unpatriotic.
Cuoco later deleted the post, apologized, and replaced it with a much more patriotic message.
Kaley’s new message was largely greeted positively and one commenter wrote a post that seemed to reflect the views of many.
“People are just looking for the most convenient and trendy causes to act offended over. Bring up genocide and worldwide starvation and the governments that aren’t helping the cause.”
People magazine report that Kaley admits that she “made a mistake” and commented that living in the public eye is difficult because “every mistake and every imperfection is amplified.”
Some of those who have become aware of Cuoco’s mistake and castigated her for it will perhaps also be aware that the Washington Post is reporting that presidential hopeful Donald Trump has praised former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during an election rally in North Carolina. Earlier in his campaign, Trump claimed that the world would be a better place if dictators like Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still in power.
As Kaley has found out, Trump’s brand of politics has engendered the kind of nationalism that led the Harvard Political Review to conclude that Trump is the “new nuclear madman.” Trump’s rhetoric has without doubt touched a chord with many American’s who see him as the outsider who speaks for them and the antidote to all of America’s ills. As Cuoco has discovered, Trump has mobilized the sentiment that attacking anyone you don’t agree with is a good thing.
In praising Hussein for “killing terrorists,” Trump overlooks the fact that Hussein murdered millions of his own citizens. He deployed chemical weapons against citizens in the Kurdish region of his own country, under the guise of them being terrorists. Thousands of American and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives have been lost under the banner of saving the Iraqi people from state terrorism under Hussein.
It is arguably Trump’s brand of politics that makes people feel that it is not just acceptable to attack people like Kaley Cuoco when they make a mistake. Many will feel it was their patriotic duty to bring Cuoco to heel over her mistake. As many of Kaley’s supporters have noted people think nothing of sitting on an American flag beach towel or wearing stars and stripes shorts or shirts. Is that too unpatriotic?
Kaley Cuoco showed a great deal of respect, courtesy and humility in apologizing without reservation for her mistake. Will Donald Trump do likewise for the insults he has thrown at Muslim’s, Mexican Americans or women? Of course not. It seems that many people are more than happy to hold Cuoco to account for making a mistake whilst buying into politics Trump style.
You have to wonder if this week’s Kaley Cuoco and Donald Trump sagas has given us the clearest glimpse yet of post-November American life.
[Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP]
