The rise of Donald Trump is surely partly a reflection of the failure of the mainstream media in the United States to provide for informed citizenship.
Watching John Kerry working to achieve a historic nuclear accord with Iran, I find that I am still miffed about the swiftboat attacks on him in 2004. President Obama has had to endure much worse than Kerry. But Barack Obama turned out to be one of the most brilliant political campaigners in U.S. history and managed to outmaneuver and outwit the Republican propaganda machine.
The Republican Party is no longer the party of Eisenhower. It has morphed into a right wing party. The Right believe that they have a monopoly on The Truth and that they and they alone define what it means to be a "true American". They have little interest in addressing the problems and concerns of their constituents. For them politics is all about power and control. They mobilize support by delegitimizing their political opponents and creating fear, resentment and misdirected anger in the voters.
Ordinarily the swiftboating of John Kerry, Birtherism, Sarah Palin and her death panels, misinformation about Obamacare, the lies about Saddam Hussein and the weapons of mass destruction would only be believed by fringe elements of American society. But because of the failures of the mainstream media, all of those things have become received wisdom among the majority of Republican voters.
I have been wondering if the same attributes that made President Obama such a good campaigner, are now making it to possible for him to outmaneuver the relentless obstructionism and disinformation by the Republicans. Barack Obama has also redefined the meaning of the phrase "lame duck president". I am also wondering if he would make the same speech today as the one he made at the Democratic Convention in 2004.