Trump’s mugshot from the Fulton County, Georgia Sheriff’s Office.
Trump’s mugshot from the Fulton County, Georgia Sheriff’s Office.
It is high time the vaunted Fourth Estate stopped treating this election cycle like some sort of horse race, calling out positions and issuing prognostications to fill air time and column inches.
So Trump just won the Iowa Caucuses for the start of the 2024 Primary season. This was very predictable, but this tells a sad tale on many levels.
First, the Republican Party and a majority of its voters are in lock step—or should we call it goosestep—behind a man who has openly declared antagonism to our Constitution, and intends to set it aside.
Of course the other two remaining candidates running against Trump in the primaries are just watered down versions of his dictatorial aspirations. Let’s make a rapid review of the Republican and Trump positions:
- Openly admiring the anti-democratic actions and policies of Vladimir Putin and Victor Orbán.
- Supporting Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by refusing to support that country against Russia’s full-scale invasion and blatant attacks against civilians.
- Open attacks against Social Security and Medicare, claiming them to be “entitlements” rather than trusts Americans have paid into from their wages.
- Endorsing expansion of the scam operation known as Medicare Advantage which is a naked attempt to privatize Medicare and place it in the hands of profit-ravenous insurance companies—who have already over billed by over $140 billion, per year.
- Vehemently opposed restraint of the rampant price gouging of prescription drugs by pharma companies
- Voted against all efforts to expand the use of sustainable and renewable energy sources and going to the mat to support fossil fuels.
- Oh, and supporting calls to entirely dismantle the non-partizan structure of government operations in favor of appointing people who are only loyal to Trump rather than the Constitution.
Some may take this list to be something of an exaggeration. If anything it is woefully incomplete.
The idea that this presidential election could be our last is not hyperbole. This is demonstrated by statements from Defendant Trump and groups like the Federalist Society and their published plans to accomplish the final destruction of our Democracy.
In just about every published media report covering the Iowa Caucuses, the upcoming primaries in New Hampshire and other states, Trump is referred to as the “Republican front runner.” How soon we forget. Trump is a defendant in four major criminal cases and answerable to 91 criminal charges—charges that would not have been filed without voluminous evidence.
For the media to keep calling him a “candidate” and “front runner” is simply disingenuous and dishonors not only our Constitution but each outlet’s own coverage of these subjects. This statement of course does not apply to propaganda operations like FOX, OAN, Newsmax and other far-right hysteria outlets which fully back Trump and work to whitewash his crimes.
Of course another matter that major media outlets seem to be fully ignoring is the fact that Defendant Trump is simply not eligible to hold ANY office. A casual reading of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment makes this abundantly clear to all but the most addled mind. The fact that there are court cases and appeals in progress on this very subject seems to be some sort of a sideshow at best.
This election is a contest between Democracy and dictatorship. It is high time the vaunted Fourth Estate stopped treating it like some sort of horse race, calling out positions and prognostications to fill air time and column inches. The stakes are clearly much higher.
Just as Trump ignored his duty to the Constitution and then tried to render it moot, the media cannot fail to live up to the very reason they are protected by the 1st Amendment.
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.
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