Today Nichole Wallace asked one of her guests who is to blame for the unchecked actions of the incumbent for president.
Without hesitation I yelled at the radio, “You and your colleagues!”
The Press have been in love with him since, well, basically forever. He was in the New York papers on a regular basis. He was on radio talk shows on a regular basis. He even got his own tv show because he is so controversial, and because The Press bought his illusion of being rich and business savvy.
One must give him credit for being a rainmaker for The Press. In return, they gave him between $4-6 billion dollars in free advertising during his last candidacy.
Most in The Press fell in love with him because he makes money for them and lots of it. One tv executive even went so far as to say he may not be good for the country, but he is good for our profits.
In my opinion, they didn’t do their due diligence on him as a candidate. They haven’t really held him accountable over the last four years. They have run with every red herring he has thrown them. They have asked him fairly easy and innocuous questions, and rarely follow-up when he doesn’t answer a question. They even help amplify his message by playing his words over, and over, and over, again.
Yes, The Press is largely to blame for helping get into, then enabling him while in, office.
The Press are not the only ones to blame.
The people he hired to be part of his administration are also to blame. Very few of them have come out against him, or truly stood up to him, while working for him, or after leaving the White House. Plus, many of them have made a lot of money after leaving by writing books about him, rather than reporting him to Congress, or testifying before Congress.
The trumpists (formerly called Republicans) in the House and the Senate are to blame. They abdicated their duty to check the incumbents power. In fact, they have enabled him, and have helped him, to destroy many of our valued and venerated institutions. The enablers have even magnified and trumpeted Russian propaganda, disinformation, and outright lies.
The uninformed voter is to blame. The single issue voter is to blame. The white supremacist voter is to blame. The voter who skipped voting is to blame.
The good thing, each and everyone of us, as a team, who love our democracy, our Republic, our freedoms, and our way life have the opportunity to right this wrong by voting blue up and down the ballot.
Vote and let’s bring back decency, civility, and calm, so we can move forward with righting other wrongs, such as racism and inequality.
Remember, you, me, each of us has the power to move us forward or move us backward. I hope, and invite, you to join me in moving us forward.
Plan your vote. Then Vote!
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 