Much of mainstream media threw Donald Trump`s bulls--t into a national petri dish
just to watch it...and their ratings...grow.
"Newsrooms" closed their windows, turned up the heat and watched that putrid mess overpower just about everything else. Up sprang false equivalents, up sprang arguments over whether or not a debate moderator should fact-check a candidate, up sprang full-fledged racist comments excused as understandable utterances from people in economic distress, up sprang blatant misogyny explained away by Trump surrogates, one being Mr. Lewandowski, who was paid (at the same time) by both the Trump for President campaign and CNN.
If you think this is just politics, think again. What do you suppose would happen if a Democrat had openly mocked a disabled person? Or humiliated a Gold Star mother? Or said he/she knew more than the generals? Or bragged about helping himself to whatever part of a woman he felt like grabbing? Or brayed about how much better a leader Putin was as compared to our own president?
Just as important, what national/international news has gone largely unreported because of our Trump-ratings, Trump-Clinton poll watching fixation? Standing Rock? Mosul? Aleppo? Chris Christie? Heroine epidemic? Earthquake in Italy? By the way, what`s happening in Flint, Michigan?
When this election is over, we must demand more from the media and politicians, and require more from ourselves. Donald Trump might not be where he is today if we had demanded fewer stories about the Kardashians and more stories about boarded-up factories. We get more "news" about Trump steaks and Trump vodka than we do about (all-but-forgotten) Native Americans peacefully protesting a pipeline....in the face of attack dogs and rubber bullets. It`s not right and it`s not good for our country.
We need to dig deep and start asking questions about our national aspirations. What kind of country do we want?