Remember the good old days? Like, four weeks ago?
Remember when, before the first presidential debate it looked like America might be spared the worst of two bad choices for president and Donald Trump might actually be elected president?
The polls showed him up nationally by a couple of points and he was ahead in places like Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and even Colorado. Could it be true? Could we Americans really be saved from that horrible, contemptuous, arrogant…
Now must come the eye-opening knuckle rap upside of the head. Wake up, folks!
I predicted in my column almost three months ago that this might happen. It is that depressing “build us up just to let us down” effect that has happened the last two presidential election cycles. Our candidate looks like he might win … but no, reality sets in with that “October surprise” by our friends in the national media and down the tubes we go.
I have not watched a single debate this election cycle. I just can’t stand watching any of it. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I guarantee the debate Wednesday night won’t make any difference in this awful presidential race. The spin is already in.
It is more than a little frustrating — it is infuriating. At the same time that a number of emails from The Anointed One’s campaign are being released, few in the national media are focusing on anything except the deplorable Access Hollywood tape and the New York Times articles regarding Trump’s inappropriate behavior and vile comments.
One of the latest emails released by WikiLeaks shows that apparently emails were deleted from her server after a U.S. Congressional Committee had requested them. I’m not 100 percent here, but isn’t that illegal? But it is “Move on folks, nothing to see here” among most in the “corporate” media.
There have been more damaging revelations in her email trail, and I suspect there will be more to come. In reading many of the email accounts from her campaign staffers and others, you get an idea of what things are going to be like in America come January. Based on the attitudes of these staffers, who I suspect will being moving into the White House and hence will hold a lot of power in her administration, you had better mind your manners and be on your best behavior by not criticizing the Anointed One.
Her staffers appear to be a strident, smug, arrogant, condescending and vengeful lot. So if you do raise objections or criticisms after she is in the White House, you had better watch out. They will be coming for you. And sadly, the national media will be right there to back them up.
Look at the Access Hollywood tape as a good example of the bias of the media. I have looked through all the articles I could find, and not once in any TV, online or print news account (except perhaps Fox) has anyone actually called out The Washington Post, NBC or any other media that “broke” the tape story? No one demanded to know the source of the tape. No one even asked how long the media outlets sat on the tape before releasing it Oct. 7. Months, perhaps? No one looked behind the release.
But there have been lots of challenges to the release by WikiLeaks of the emails. Every reference to the emails was meant to lower their credibility. They were “hacked,” “illegally obtained,” “alleged” and “unconfirmed.” It was all about the Russians and the Trump campaign. No one seemed to care about the source or political motivation of the Access Hollywood tape.
We have seen the last few weeks after the first and second debates and the Access Hollywood tape, the “get Trump” media is doing exactly what I predicted a couple of months ago before the Republican Convention. I said at that time in a column that once Trump got the nomination, the national media was going to rain such a “beatdown” of negative coverage on Trump that he would be lucky to carry a single state.
With just three weeks to go before the election, we need to prepare ourselves for the inevitable. Trump is going to lose. Make no mistake, when I go to the polls I am not voting for a candidate, I am voting against the Democratic candidate. Many people are doing the same on both sides — voting against rather than for.
Once we resign to the fact that, barring some incredible bombshell disclosure that even her doting media cannot dismiss, Donald Trump is going to lose, we must focus all our energies from coast to coast to making sure the Republicans retain control of the House and Senate.
Without that measure of checks and balances, our nation will be in deep, deep trouble come January. Trump needs to stop arguing with Republican leaders like Paul Ryan and talk only about the failures and problems of his opponent. He needs to do it 24 hours a day and seven days a week for the next three weeks.
It may not save his campaign, but it might remind voters that they need to elect Republicans in the House and Senate to stand firm again the White House the next four years. Please, Mr. Trump, at least do that.
Gary Brock is a resident of Washington Court House and the editor of Rural Life Today, a Civitas Media publication.
