A huge part of American leisure culture is centered around television. Whether we are watching the news or celebrity drama, there is always some kind of gossip at the root of trending stories. Gossip is why reality television and Donald Trump have both done so well in our society. He is turning our political process into a reality show right before our eyes–and we can’t get enough of it.
When Trump first declared that he was running for president, there was uproar in the media. What we didn’t realize was that Trump got tons of free advertising, without needing to do anything, but come across as crazy as possible.
While many of us were outraged by the outlandish claims that came out of his mouth, many others heard his message and resonated with it.
Candidates will do and say whatever they need to during their campaign in order to get elected. Most politicians will talk about all of the great things they’re going to do, but Donald Trump took a different route.
It’s a quite simple formula, really… The crazier the ideas, the more news stories, the more publicity for Trump, the more people who end up supporting him.
We waited for months and months for Trump to collapse, but it never came. Like all celebrities and public figures, he’ll collapse right before our eyes, right? It would be the train wreck we’ve been waiting for, a train wreck like the characters on TV, the train wreck that we get a sick thrill watching unfold–but Americans never got that satisfaction.
Now here we are, just a few months before the General Election and Trump has beat out every other GOP candidate: 17 of them to be exact. He seems unstoppable. It was all fun and games a year ago, but now we’re scared.
America loves a train wreck, and the media loves a good story. This is why for the last year we have not been able to go a day without hearing Donald Trump’s name in the news. While countless journalists get the popular story for the day, thousands of other citizens are constantly hearing Trump’s message, and some of them are bound to bite the bait.
All of the negative stories surrounding Trump seem as though it would make him less likely to be successful, but this has proven to be quite the opposite: the negative stories have only fueled his success, and that’s what he wanted.
Donald Trump is a businessman. He knows that if he continues to be outrageous and say ridiculous things like, “We need to build a wall!” that he will continue to get news coverage. Trump hasn’t spent a penny on these news stories, while candidates like Bernie Sanders were lucky to get a few seconds a week on mainstream television.
Sanders’ campaign had no scandal, no gossip, and no juicy headline, so he fell by the wayside while Trump took over.
Americans love scandals. Americans love gossip. Americans don’t care about the facts–we want the interesting story. Our fixation and obsession with reality TV infiltrated our election. Instead of researching candidates ourselves and forming our own opinions, we go off of what we hear the most of on television: Trump.
The only way to stop Trump is to have a complete media blackout from him. Without people constantly talking about him, and without his name constantly on the forefront of our consciousness, Trump will lose his luster.
This potential of a Trump presidency speaks volumes about our society.
Where are our priorities? Have we become so wrapped up in the alternate reality of the Internet and television, that we don’t see how our real-life actions are impacting the real world? I guess we’ll find out in November.
If this wasn’t enough to show how easily Trump could actually win this thing, remember that ISIS has already used his nastiness to recruit new terrorists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1yQoJ8q6QA&ab_channel=VoteIt!Election2016
Featured Image: Screenshot Via YouTube Video.
