If you think about it, the Washington Post’s Nelson Pressley went to his bosses and said “hey, I have this idea on Trump and the pardons and how utterly horrible it was” and they said “run with it.” In the lifestyle section. Not even in the opinion section. And we end up with
Trump’s presidential turkey pardon felt like a reality show meets absurdist theater
In theater, the definition of a “turkey†is a disaster that can’t be saved. Does that apply to the perpetually peculiar presidential Thanksgiving turkey pardoning? Can Donald Trump do whimsy?
Performing America’s pre-dinner theater demands it, topped with a dollop of sincerity. Weird as it is, there is reassurance in routine — as travel and grocery shopping logistics pile up, you sort of want to glance at this novelty act and hear healing words just a moment — and on Tuesday in the Rose Garden, the president played the role of hardball politician softening for the week’s holiday pretty much by the book. He joshed about the annual event’s brand-new “reality show†wrinkle of public voting between two turkeys named Peas and Carrots to see which one gets, you might say, the embrace.
“The winner of this vote was decided by a fair and open election conducted on the White House website,†the president announced as the first lady looked on. “This was a fair election. Unfortunately, Carrots refused to concede and demanded a recount, and we’re still fighting with Carrots.â€
Democrats might not honor these pardons, Trump warned. Watch out for a reversal by that dastardly Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, he said, as another court was reversing his administration’s asylum policy.
This elbow in the ribs had a sharp Trumpian edge but fits within the established script for turkey pardoning, which, in this 2018 edition, lasted a fleet eight minutes. Beltway quips, some earnest platitudes (“All joking aside, this is a time for Americans to unite together in a spirit of love, understanding, unity and joy as one very proud American familyâ€), then the main course. “I hereby grant you a full pardon,†the president said, stepping toward the turkey named Peas as the assembled crowd dutifully laughed.
No, the article never takes an really sharp jabs at Trump, but the very fact that it was written, that the whole pardoning turkeys thing is apparently a silly farce, that online voting on the turkeys, which included a background on Peas and Carrots, just shows how deranged Trump makes liberals. Does anyone remember articles quietly slapping Obama over pardoning turkeys?
“Extremely lucky birds,†Trump noted.
All this taps into the something deeply loony that hangs on Thanksgiving’s beak like a snood. Thanksgiving inspired the legendary “WKRP in Cincinnati†episode “Turkeys Away,†with the radio station promoting itself by generously dropping free live turkeys onto startled Ohioans from a helicopter. Thanksgiving gave us the brilliantly daffy “Turkey Lurkey Time†dance in the 1969 musical “Promises, Promises†(thank you, Donna McKechnie), plus a thread in “West Wing†when President Bartlett wondered if pardoning birds would make him seem “soft on turkeys.â€
Humourless scold. Even the small things drive liberals over the edge.
