By Glenn Lovell
It was only a matter of time. We all knew Donald Trump’s big mouth would get him into trouble, erode his standing in the polls, if not scuttle his campaign. Yes, the bellicose self-promoter has finally had his Lonesome Rhodes Moment, named for the TV demagogue in the 1957 movie “A Face in the Crowd.”
Larry Rhodes, a country singer-turned-media sensation played by Andy Griffith, rides his grass-roots support to political prominence … until someone turns the microphone on as Rhodes, thinking he’s off air, spews invectives aimed at his gullible supporters.
“Those morons out there,” he chortles. “I can take chicken fertilize
r and sell it to them for caviar. I can make them eat dog food and think it’s steak … You know what the public’s like? A cage full of guinea pigs. Good night, you stupid idiots. Good night, you miserable slobs. They’re a lot of trained seals. I toss them a dead fish and they’ll flap their flippers.”
No one had to leave the mike on for Trump to insult his base. Like Rhodes he was destined to “open his big yap once too often.”
On Saturday, before an Iowa crowd, he talked about how malleable his “loyal followers” are. Cocking a finger-gun, like Charles Bronson’s subway vigilante in “Death Wish,” he crowed, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s like incredible.”
Fadeout on Trump, like Rhodes, alone in his Manhattan penthouse, except for a sound engineer ready to cue thunderous canned applause when his boss shouts, “The people love me! The people love me!”
Title “A Face in the Crowd” links to trailer.
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