A few months ago the biggest joke candidate on the planet decided to run for the office of the President of the United States. A man with no legislative history, not one moment of public service, a mean-spirited, racist, xenophobic asshole with a foul mouth and nothing to recommend him but anger.
The GOP has no bench. They spent a couple decades stoking white fear of government and everyone else, and the result is a GOP with a rotten core of self-righteous bullies filled with hatred and bile.
The mainstream media treats that core group as if they are merely polar opposite of liberal democrats instead of the ignorant and unreasonable — and dangerous — crowd they are. And they are dangerous.
Exhibit 1: A black man is beaten and kicked at a Trump rally. Trump says he was annoying his “10,000” supporters and deserved it.
Exhibit 2: Trump invents from whole cloth a “memory” of hordes of Muslims celebrating the collapse of the Twin Towers.
And the media is so dumbfounded all they can do is report it.
But they’re complicit too. Because Trump has never made an ounce of sense but he could always rely on the media to print and report his inane stream of racist accusations about the duly elected President of the United States. The media barely lifted a finger to refute Trump. It was just too great a spectacle. He’s harmless, right?
But then he decides to run for President. Suddenly it’s all Trump all the time, on every news channel, MSNBC being some of the worst culprits until — I’m guessing here, but it seems like — folks like Rachel and Chris Hayes called bullshit on the 45/25 Trump/everything else nightly agenda. They’ve even admitted they “should have” been covering Bernie Sanders but Trump was so much fun! The only thing they could bring themselves to report other than Trump’s latest flatulence was Benghazi-mail-gate.
And then Carson goes ahead, so it’s all Carson for a bit. So now the hybrid GOP/Media celeb-monster is hungry for another fix, and he knows he has to go big. So he finds some CT online, wakes up convinced that hordes of A-rabs over there in Jersey City were tailgating and high-fiving as the towers fell instead of actually being the receiving station for the horrible influx of wounded New Yorkers coming across the water. Yeah, they must’ve known it was coming or how did they make sure they had the falafels ready?
All the media can do is stare and point and look at us, as if Trump started doing something different. But he hasn’t. He’s always been a cruel, self-important blowhard who is either ridiculously gullible or willing to lie even if it means people die, as long as the media eye stays on him. Or both.
This isn’t funny. It’s not even just sickening. It’s frightening. This is how fascism starts. We’re here.
Even the crowds seemed sort of stunned to hear this outrageous garbage. The big lie. And then they cheer.
The big lie works.
I mean, he’s either clever or a total sociopath. Or again, both. Because he says the only reason we can’t find the videos he’s manifested out of his own ass is that the “liberal media” didn’t like them and has hidden them. And his supporters say they've seen his ass-born-videos too. And it’s so perfect when you’re dealing with folks who have been groomed to hate anything liberal, or brown or black, or progressive, or thoughtful, or scientific, or tolerant, or charitable, or kind. By the GOP.
And the media lapped up this whole game as it’s escalated with little comment because “access”. They forgot the concept of ‘truth’ and pretended there were two equally valid answers to every question and forgot their job was to investigate and report. They all turned into Ed Sullivan, setting a camera on anything that entertains. And nasty lies about the first Black President are so fucking entertaining, right? And the prospect of a crazed carnival barker running for president is just delicious! Oooh, and he’s saying such terrible stuff, lol our sides ache!
And now this lunatic is in a position where 30% of Republicans would elect him to lead the nation. He’s in a position to try to rewrite history and the media stares at the spectacle in confusion as if it’s not the normal outgrowth of the way they’ve treated him, as if any of his ridiculous spew has ever been worth reporting at all, let alone more than serious Democratic candidates for President.
How is it that our election process has fallen so low that the likes of Trump and Carson are considered viable candidates despite the fact that they spew obvious, dangerous nonsense? Why is it that the media just reports the nonsense — if they even do — without correcting the record, without question, and we rely on folks like Stewart and Colbert to set it right.
And they’re on to other jobs. And we’re left with crowds who lap it up and pundits who don’t really know how to respond. This man has no business being anywhere near a podium on any subject, let alone the Oval Office. Yet here he is, and the crowds love it, and the rest of us stare in anger and disbelief.
The local news, as I type, at this very minute says “many say” Trump’s bullshit about Jersey City isn’t true. Not that it IS a lie, but that it’s a controversy but “no video has surfaced”. Just enough fuzziness that they can say they were “unbiased”, because coming down on the side of truth might make them look like they’re choosing sides. And of course, that it hasn’t hurt his standing in the polls. He’s still ahead.
I’m rambling. I’m scared. Is this really happening? Again? A “leader” is stoking anger and fear and violence by LYING about a specific ethnic group. No one calls him on it so he ratchets it up. People are getting hurt and he says they deserve it. He’s been going full on fascist for a while now. Is there a shark for him to jump some time soon or can he keep this up and maintain his lead? How is what he’s saying NOT shark jumping?
Gee, last time this happened, there wasn’t such a great outcome.
I can only hope the GOP Powers That Be are in some room somewhere figuring out a plan to stop this man from stoking up their “base” and destroying their party when they try to nominate someone marginally less insane. They act like they don’t know where he come from, or how he came to be on that dais, but he’s a creature of their invention, spawned from 30 years of GOP Southern strategy and white fearmongering.
And I hope it’s not an empty dream that the media stops reporting this shit as anything else but “Trump goes off the rails with horrible, dangerous lies.
Don’t know if anyone is listening. I had a root canal today and my jaw hurts. I felt the need to rant.