The media has no right to complain about Donald Trump… They created him. It is funny to watch the “news” commentators almost apoplectic over Donald Trump and the things he says. Even more frustrating and upsetting to the “elite” (who know so much better than the rest of us yokels what we should think, believe, accept and do), is Donald’s popularity among the American people. There is a Brexit revolt taking place in the USA and a developing backlash against the elites and pundits who think they know what is best for us. The complacency of the ruling class over Islam, illegal immigration, transferring of jobs overseas, and erstwhile persecution of Christian values, is creating a fundamental backlash of the little guy towards the establishment, whether that be Republican or Democrat. The media overlords are incredulous, but also starting to realize that you can only push people so far until they decide they have had enough and are “mad as hell and not going to take it any more.” So the Donald, with his attack on political correctness and the PC police has gained a large following among those who feel like their voice is not being heard.

The media is upset with Donald’s crassness, his shock and awe, his loose mouth and questionable morals. But if you want to look at the root of this degradation of our culture, you have to look no further than the media and the entertainment industry. When I was growing up, the evening programming among the major channels (ABC, CBS, & NBC) regularly included things like symphonies, plays by Shakespeare and G.B. Shaw. The comedy was family friendly with things like I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver and Dick Van Dyke. The pop culture entertainment was tame, the high-brow culture educated the people. But beginning in 1964, the powers that be decided to go for titillation and put on serial show called Peyton Place… a show about infidelity, adultery, and fornication. It got good ratings and the race to the bottom began. It turns out that if you start appealing to the lowest common denominator in human nature: lust, greed, and violence, you can not only get a big audience for your advertisers, but you can train the people to respond impulsively to whatever commercials are put in front of them. Without thinking, they will buy products because it makes them feel good about themselves and will begin to vote for the one with the best slogans and sound bites, regardless of whether their policies will work or not. In fact, since about the time of the show Cheers, almost every comedy has had fornication as its central theme. Who is sleeping with whom outside of wedlock. Compare today’s comedies to Lucy, and you can see the decline in cultural standards. Aside from internet pornography, with cable tv, you can get all the nudity and sex on the screen you want. And if you really want to dish into the crudity of our times, watch Jerry Springer or Maury Povich for a deep dive into the dark side of humanity without morals.

Enter the Donald. With his emotional appeals, his brash character, his unrestrained tap into popular anger, he is playing to the very audience that YOU have created.

I have a friend, whose sister used to work for ABC News in NYC. She saw story after story killed that did not meet the agenda of the network power brokers, who desired a particular political outcome. They did not want people thinking rationally about the issues, and they did not want to present both sides of the story, which would allow people to make up their own minds. In other words, they fed people only what they wanted the people to hear, see, feel and believe. It is no different today. Only it isn’t working as planned. They have created a monster and they cannot control him. But they are also starting to see push back from the very people they sought to control.