Please spare us the Oprah-Donald contest in 2020

Jan 18, 2018 | 4:00 AM

KAMLOOPS — It’s co-incidental that Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration, and that the nominations for the Academy Awards will be announced only a few days later.

Coincidental, yet appropriate.

American politics and show business have become one and the same. The only thing that would make it more official is if Trump got a Lifetime Achievement Oscar and made a rousing speech about making the movies great again.

He’d likely have to be bleeped out here and there for comments about some of the unworthy countries in which those movies are made, but he wouldn’t be the first nominee to use inappropriate language.

When the president-elect stood in front of the biggest crowd ever and gave his inauguration speech about putting America first, who among us could have imagined the kind of year that would follow.

And now, it’s just possible that in 2020 the presidential election could be between a rich, narcissistic former realty-TV host and a rich, popular TV and film sensation.

What a race that would be. Oprah’s ego seems a match for Trump’s, but her compassion and common sense provide such a positive alternative to Trump that many Americans are salivating at the very thought.

Talk about turning the world’s biggest super power on its head.

Is this what the world has come to? Our southern neighbor so brought to its knees in desperation that the only way out is through a TV star better liked and better known than the one they’ve already got?

What ever happened to politicians running politics? You know, people who actually know how government works?

If Trump has proven one thing, the great experiment in draining the political swamp has been a failure of epic proportions, and the bad news is there’s lots more to come.

Way up here in North Country, of course, we have no say in any of it. All we can do is watch, and wait … for the movie. Which is sure to come along shortly.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.