Oz has
changed his entire position on the political
spectrum. First he’s 100 percent a
Trumpster. Then, almost overnight, he turns
his back on Trump.
I wasn’t
born yesterday. In fact, I’ve been around
for 74 years, so I’ve seen a lot of
elections come and go. I am fully
cognizant of the facts of American
political campaigning. I’ve seen
candidates flip-flop like fish out of
water. I understand that in American
politics there is no such thing as “the
high road,” that every campaign finally
descends into innuendo, smear tactics,
distortions, and outright lies.
But I
recently saw a campaign ad on television
that literally took my breath away, the
audacity of it truly awe-inspiring, though
not in an uplifting way. It was
Pennsylvania Republican senatorial
candidate Mehmet Oz proclaiming,
“Extremism on both sides makes things
worse.” And then he proceeded to portray
himself as a perfectly reasonable moderate
middle-of-the-roader who would help
working families, lower taxes, promote
community, reduce crime, and an assortment
of other things that most reasonable
moderate voters actually want.
The
problem with this is that I lived through
the Pennsylvania Republican primary
election last winter and spring. And in
that campaign, Oz vigorously presented
himself as the most MAGA of all the
candidates running.
Even
before he received Donald Trump’s
endorsement in April 2022, Oz’s campaign
ads regularly featured Trump, presenting
Trump as Oz’s fellow traveller and
philosophical soulmate. After he received
Trump’s endorsement, Oz flooded the media
with images of Oz and Trump together, Oz
just behind Trump’s right shoulder,
Trump’s right-hand man.
Oz’s
Twitter account mentioned Trump seventy
times between April 9th and primary
election day on May 17th. Both Oz’s
Twitter account and his Facebook account
repeatedly reminded people that Oz was
“endorsed by Trump” and “Trump-endorsed.”
The ads he bought on Google and Facebook
were heavily Trump-focused.
But
here’s the amazing thing: ever since Oz
won the Pennsylvania primary confirming
him as the Republican candidate for the US
Senate, Oz has not made a single mention
of Trump on Twitter. His campaign
literature now says “Thank You
Pennsylvania” instead of “Endorsed by
Trump,” and carries a solo photo of Oz
instead of a photo of Oz and Trump
together. His Twitter biography no longer
says "Trump Endorsed Candidate for U.S.
Senate," and his general election ad says
only “The PA Senate Race will determine
who has the majority. Donate to take back
the US Senate.”
In a
recent debate with John Fetterman, the
Democratic candidate for US Senate, Oz
made a big deal of Fetterman’s change of
opinion on support for fracking.
Apparently, Fetterman has changed his
opinion on this single issue. Meanwhile,
Oz has changed his entire position on the
political spectrum. First he’s 100 percent
a Trumpster. Then, almost overnight, he
turns his back on Trump and now pretends
he’s never even heard of the guy.
So
who
is the Republican nominee for the
open US Senate seat from
Pennsylvania? The perfectly
reasonable moderate
middle-of-the-roader? Or the proud
ally of Donald Trump?
I realize
that some people reading this believe
Donald Trump is the bee’s knees, the cat’s
meow, and just what this country needs. I
can’t begin to argue with such people, for
whom facts, science, and reality bear no
relationship to their personal views and
political opinions.
Some
people apparently believe that it’s okay
to grab women by their genitals, publicly
mock disabled people, cozy up to dictators
like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un,
subvert the Constitutional electoral
process by any means possible, and say of
the soldiers buried in Arlington, “I don’t
get it. What was in it for them?”
Those
people,
I’m sad to say, are beyond any reasonable
argument I can give them that Donald Trump
is not fit to be president, and I’m sure
their opinion of me is nothing I’d share
with my mother.
But
any
candidate who proudly announces that he’s
been endorsed by Donald Trump ought to be
viewed with a healthy skepticism by anyone
and everyone else who plans to go to the
polls on November 8th.
Apparently,
Mehmet
Oz agrees with me. After gaining enough of
the MAGA Trumpster votes to win the
Republican party’s nomination, he has ever
since been trying to get you and me to
forget that he ever had any connection to
Donald Trump.
He’s
just
a perfectly reasonable moderate
middle-of-the-roader who lived and voted
in New Jersey as recently as 2020, owns an
$18 million mansion in Florida, regularly
touts health care products with no medical
evidence to support their benefits and
even in some cases going against medical
research, but only wants the best for
ordinary work-a-day Pennsylvanians.
So
who
is the man behind the curtain in the
Emerald City? I hope we don’t have to find
out the hard way.
This
commentary is also posted on LA Progressive.
