“ . . . in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.” – John F. Kennedy (Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961)

I was watching a news program the other night, and some of Donald Trump’s supporters were being interviewed by an earnest young thing as to just exactly why they were supporting the former reality TV show host. The answers ran along these lines:

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“He is saying things the other candidates don’t have the guts to talk about.”

He is talking about things the media is afraid to talk about.”

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And in that moment, the entire Trump candidacy, and how he has shot up to the top of the polls, despite all of the negative press he has been getting, became clear to me.

It all seemed so clever to the Republican party when Sarah Palin and folks like her began bashing the “lame-stream media.”

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And it suited their purposes admirably when paying attention to anything but FOX News or talk radio was scoffed at, advised against, and scorned in general. It became the Thing To Do when folks began limiting their sources of information, instead of expanding them.

To be honest, there are just as many bone-headed liberals who do the same thing. A pox on both their houses.

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And so here we are today, with a man who mistakes putting both feet in his mouth at the same time for eloquence, and hordes of followers, folks who don’t trust “the media,” be it television or newspapers (be they local or national) and seem to get most of the “facts” they take in everyday from Facebook, which is sort of like replacing your daily vitamins with M&Ms.

What passes for “mainstream” in the GOP can kick up as much of a fuss as they like, but what good will it do, if the folks who support Trump don’t read or hear their words?

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The Republican party created the world they are now living in. Suddenly, having a bunch of ill-informed voters isn’t quite so funny after all, is it?

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Quote of the Day

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Accidents will occur in the best regulated families. – Charles Dickens

rsdrake@cox.net

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