Kremer’s Corner: Media bears responsibility for Trump’s rise

Jerry Kremer

It is painful for me to remind our readers that there are just over five months left until Election Day. It is especially painful because of the low level that people like Donald Trump have reached, in his goal to be elected as the leader of the greatest country in the free world. 

What is just as bad is what the public will think about politicians based on what they will be hearing in the months to come.

A few years ago, there was a Gallup poll on the issue of which jobs were held in the highest and lowest esteem. 

Once again, politicians were rated lower than used car salesmen. 

If you follow current polls rating the U.S. Congress, they all show that the Washington establishment is at its lowest polling level in 50 years.

Even though the House of Representatives actually passed a budget, the vast amount of their time is not spent legislating. 

Rather than pass laws that will enhance the quality of life of our citizens, the majority of the members find their time investigating every facet of government, with the goal of tearing down the place.

Taking his cue from the ugliness of the legislative debate, Donald Trump has brought the current campaign for president to its lowest level in over 100 years. 

Historians will tell you that there was plenty of nastiness in previous campaigns, but somehow it doesn’t match the current one for its tone and the level of discourse. 

When Mr. Trump launched his campaign last year, there was some expectation that he would run as a successful businessman and try to translate that into a vision of an effective leader.

But, once the Trump campaign was in full in full swing, benefitted by almost $1 billion in free media time, the whole Trump effort was marked by wholesale insults and mean-spirited attacks. 

I know a political debate when I see one, but the past years round of debates was a discourtesy to the flag we love and pledge to uphold. 

Sadly, the media, desperately in need of higher ratings, has promoted Trump and his creepy conduct, just to make a buck. 

Equally depressing is that there are millions of people out there who applaud  every Trump attack whether it’s on women, minorities, the handicapped and anyone else that gets in his way. 

A typical Trump representative on television, will defend the insults saying the public doesn’t care about anything that Trump says. 

After all, Donald has boasted that if “he shot someone on Fifth Avenue near his office no one would touch him.”

Donald Trump says he is doesn’t have to be politically correct so he can label his opponents “Little Marco” “Lyin Ted, “Low Energy Jeb” and on and on. 

He can say that John McCain wasn’t a war hero because he was captured and it doesn’t make a ripple. He can mock a handicapped reporter and then deny that he even knows the person.

He can make bold and stupid statements and then retract his comments, without a hit to his ratings. 

This look at the Trump campaign has nothing to do with his expected opponent. Hillary Clinton will rise or fall on the public perception of her ability to run the country and on how badly the voters dislike Trump, more than her. 

It’s a hell of a way to elect a president but we are stuck with what we have and the message of this campaign is indeed a sad one.

We are a great nation. 

We stand head and shoulders above Putin’s Russia and all the other powers, both big and small. We save lives around the world, we intervene in crises to prevent slaughter and we lift up the economies of countries in need. 

We are so much better than what this year’s campaign has become. 

We are diminished by the 2016 election campaign and it will take many years for us to recuperate from this experience.

Share this Article