A Complicit Media

[Commentary] The rampant hysteria being generated by Donald Trump’s surprising run at the Republican presidential nomination is both needless and potentially destructive. It is being exacerbated by Trump’s narcissism, his scorched earth campaign, and the appalling indecency of his incendiary and tasteless style; but also it has been abetted by a complicit media.

For whatever reasons, the mainstream media is far more interested in political theatre than political history and therein lies the potential for a Greek tragedy that could possibly tear at the foundational fabric of our representative democracy. It is time for journalism to reclaim at least some degree of respectability by focusing on facts, and the most salient fact facing our political system this summer is that open conventions do not spell disaster. It is important for everyone to relax and for the media to perform its job, which is to report pertinent and inarguable facts. But it is not too late. Beginning forthwith we are calling on the media to devote considerable efforts in their broadcasts and election cycle presentations to bring forth the enlightenment that accompanies factual experiences and events that have shaped the nation. It is imperative that the media shoulder the burden of not giving comfort to the enemy of representative democracy. Make no mistake that the enemy in our midst is the contention that anger and violence is sufficient rationale for abandonment of the core principles of liberty, justice, and equal opportunity. Allowing emotion to substitute for rational discourse is an abdication of everything the Founders promulgated and purely and simply unpatriotic.

Lance Simmens is the author of The Evolution of a Revolution and Fracktured. Richard Dreyfuss is an actor, and founder of The Dreyfuss Civics Initiative]