All the democracy talk is marketing shtick

America is in crisis because Donald Trump was narrowly elected president of the United States in 2016.

The crisis worsened when he refused to concede his defeat in 2020.

It deepened when he incited an insurrection against the peaceful transition of power with a fusillade of lies.

What comes next is catastrophe.

What began as a farce — a TV show of sorts, a ratings magnet that fueled cable news the way the OJ trial did — quickly degenerated into something that proved the wisdom of John Kennedy’s admonishment about winding up in the belly of the tiger for the fools who think the tiger can be ridden.

Waves of meanness, capriciousness, cruelty, insanity and nonsense spewed forth from Trump and his family, while the overwhelming majority of the American media was the last to figure out that Trump meant every word of his toxic Borscht Belt shtick.

Trump was feted and celebrated by America’s media mandarins, who saw a golden calf, where most saw an orange buffoon.

They loved the ratings, and were mostly blind to the autocratic movement that was congealing underneath the bed from which Trump called in to so many morning shows.

There were rarely challenges or confrontation.

Mostly, there were giggles and little inside jokes. With a few exceptions, Trump steamrolled everyone in front of him with the same ease he emasculated and humiliated Jeb, Little Marco and Ted Cruz.

Ambitious men with no core, great ambitions and fragile egos seem to be a particular, susceptible prey for Trump. They are hapless seals to his malevolent shark.

Can you imagine the conversation in the moments before Justin Trudeau, JoMika, or any of the capitulant elites who have made the Mar-a-Lago pilgrimage arrive to kiss the ring?

Nine years have passed since Donald Trump descended the Trump Tower escalator, and initiated the series of events that would lead to the great American crisis of the 21st century — and one of the greatest in American history.

It is important to remember that without the work of the American political media and transactional political journalists, trust would likely not have collapsed in every consequential American institution over the last 30 years. The last holdout was the military, but even the Armed Forces couldn’t hold the integrity line.

This collapse of trust and the inability of so many media stars to understand that they possess somewhere between none to little is startling to observe.

All of it begs some questions:

How stupid is this moment?

How much dumber can it get?

The Musk Christmas shutdown is a perfect example. The richest man in the world is going to do for Trump what George Custer did for the cavalry.

George Armstrong Custer was dumb.

Very dumb.

How dumb?

American political media dumb.

Though he was dumb, he was also very brave, which makes him better than his contemporary peers, who possess none of his virtues.

He graduated last in his class from West Point, and then took it from there. After the Civil War in which he fought valiantly as the youngest Union general and a fearless cavalry leader, he headed west to fight the Lakota.

One day, Custer peeled off from his men and chased after a buffalo. He rode off by himself in hostile country, drew his revolver to shoot the magnificent bison, and blew his horse’s brains out instead. The horse collapsed, and Custer was thrown, alone and lost. He was saved by the random passing of a few of his men.

What’s the point of the story?

It’s simple. It’s the only example I can think of to properly illustrate the stupidity of Musk’s shutdown.

This country is in crisis because the concept of democracy is in danger. It is endangered because of the lassitude of the citizenry, the malice of a fascist movement, and a dishonest billion-dollar media industry that revels in conflict. At the same time, it is repulsed by the truth because it is too contentious for the liars who demand coddling and accommodation in the name of “balance” and “fairness.”

The American media isn’t a stakeholder in the epic fight underway for American democracy besides being billion-dollar economic players.

That’s the only “balance” they are interested in.

All the democracy talk is marketing shtick.

They don’t mean a word. The problem is that the fascists mean everything they say.

That’s the truth. They have conviction, and mostly, the opposition does not.

It is what makes this a tragedy.

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