The Media’s Continued Fascination of One Donald J. Trump

Commenter Mike Smith (?) has another good comment up in the Open Thread. I am putting him out here also in the main stream. Thanks Mike.

As media becomes more and more “boring” there is considerable ince time for news outlets to begin reporting from the sidelines again as Trump ramps up his 2024 campaign. Here in Texas, we already have people donating and flying Trump 2024 flags, Texans For Trump is all too often. As the Democrats yell at each other whether or not to break the filibuster, the Republicans are quietly consolidating power, and not so quietly changing the rules. 

As the rules are changed to make a highway to federal government have fewer speed bumps, the media will also start focusing yet again on the shenanigans coming from Trump rallies in the coming future. 

I say all of this because we have seen this before. The “no way he can be the nominee” folks who supported Hillary were then blindsided. The moderate democrats noticed one consistent thing that in 2015 looked like theater, but turned out to have predicted the outcome of 2016. Media coverage. 

The salacious nature of incendiary comments is ripe for click bait articles and headlines from both Fox and CNN. On one side the “can you believe he said ____” is then critiqued into crazy town to be put with all of the warped arrows in a closet. On the other side there is a “what he really means is” and is dutifully explained to whip up fear that leads to polling. 

My prediction is that the 2024 race will be Biden vs. Trump 2.0 where Biden will have 4 exhaustive years of presidential engagement, whilst the media whips up a frenzy and Trump begins to gain support at the Republican party works at the state level knowing that it will take years for SCOTUS to intervene in some of this new legislation that will guide the next election. Media coverage, highways with no off ramps, fear, and a stagnant economy with high unemployment is ripe for a demagogue takeover…once again.