No, media don't really drive people to corners

Tucker Carlson, once a backbencher

Much is made of the divisions in America. Surely this is not unprecedented. Most people realize that, but then they'll say the nature of the media today exacerbates things.
People choose sides and then gravitate to whatever media sources satisfy them. Myth? I'll suggest that highly ideological people actually like seeing what "the other side" is saying. This is from the standpoint of "seeing what the other side is up to." The opposition's tactics are important. So I'll tune in to Fox News sometimes.
Have we forgotten that Tucker Carlson used to be a backbencher? There was a time when he'd even appear on MSNBC. I believe even on the Keith Olbermann program. We should note that while Carlson has always been conservative, there was a time when his arguments were much more restrained, less strident than today.
If you really want to consider contrasts over time, here's a trivia question for you: Who was MSNBC's afternoon host as the Lewinsky/Tripp matter was unfolding? Well, it was John Gibson! He's quite the opposite personality of what MSNBC offers today. Gibson subsequently had a gig with Heather Nauert on Fox News but I believe the network bosses eventually judged him unacceptable.
Gibson had a little gag called "Ollie Cam" while on MSNBC. It wasn't special technology as he joked it was - it was just a little corner of the screen where Ollie North would speak from the studio of his radio show.
Olbermann was ultimately judged too much of an oddball for MSNBC. Many of his old fans still miss him though. Oh, to get a taste of what Olbermann would say about Donald Trump! Just imagine a script, which brings us to the present: Trump, who if we're all lucky, will end up serving a purpose of inspiring countless - countless, I say - books, movies and made-for-TV movies looking back on the absurdity of it all.
"All the President's Men?" That was the Watergate theme. The new theme, assuming our nation even survives the Trump presidency - I'm not sure - has yet to be coined. At present it is nothing to joke about, quite to the contrary. The TV late shows might seek levity from it. They have an obligation to do that.
It's bad enough when normal Republicans are minding the store. All they do is toss out regulatory controls. And then the excrement hits the fan.
All these whispers about the "repo market" - strange doings - make us wonder if an earthquake type of financial event is coming. Perhaps its impact will be beyond the whole 2008 affair which left us all whistling past the graveyard. Did the problems really get fixed? No bankers went to prison, right? Was the whole thing just sort of papered over? In other words, have we just been buying time? And will the piper have to be paid soon? Are the early cracks now opening up, as we speak and as we have become so preoccupied with the behavior of the occupant of the White House?
 
Ergo. . .
The "real news" might not be what we think it is. "The repo market" thing, as a presaging event might be what's really huge. Trump's payoffs to the porn star and Playboy model might really be ho-hum. And yet Trump's behavior grabs our attention as if it's a soap opera.
Some people say the current dust-up is like Watergate. No it isn't. That was then, this is now, and Nixon at least had a substantial resume of government experience before being president. Maybe experience is important for a reason.
We should be so lucky as to see a litany of books and movies as the main product or residue of Trump's time in office. The coverage of Trump's problems drags on through the myriad media outlets. Cable news has a gold mine with it all, whereas a normal or boring president would leave them groping to try to get an audience. We'd like to think the media movers and shakers aren't gleeful about the scandals.
The likes of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham seem like absolute clowns, beyond parody really, with their nightly histrionics. It's not hyperbole to call it a freak show. Such personalities are intertwined with Trump and the circle around him, as promoting "nativism" as their only reason for being. Their emotions and devotion are so strong, it could cause our nation to seriously erode. Or even collapse?
How in any sane world could we describe Lou Dobbs of Fox Business?

"South will rise again?"
One looks at Lindsay Graham and you really have to wonder: do all of his contradictions indicate mental instability or is there a subtle motive underneath? Senator Graham is from South Carolina. That was the hotbed for secession efforts in the19th Century. If the U.S. were to fracture, to become literally more than one nation, perhaps Graham could then crow that the South won after all! Perhaps this is an outcome he'd be most comfortable with.
I'm sure many southerners only posture when they talk about being such great patriots. They have gnashed their teeth ever since surrendering. There is a track record of southern politicians, e.g. Strom Thurmond with his "Dixiecrats," as they try to assert themselves. They lose.
Maybe the Great Plains states, that sparsely populated swath of America that loves Trump for reasons not readily apparent - oh it's nativism, nothing tangible - could become its own country. Surely the American Southwest seems to have identity of its own. They ought to thank God for the Hoover Dam, courtesy of the U.S. government. Meanwhile "the South could rise again," perhaps bringing a gleeful reaction from Lindsay Graham. Oh, he'd deny that of course.
Losing is in the South's DNA.
What would happen to programs like Social Security and Medicare if America were to fracture?

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The shoe does fit
If Trump is a catalyst for the destruction of the U.S. as we've known it, we can blame the Christian religion, without which Trump wouldn't have been elected.
The alliance of zealous Christians and Trump and his crowd is bizarre and defies any easy understanding, unless we want to get back to the nativism argument. That's my home base: it's people who feel threatened by change, like the simple change of gay rights which is a cause that has come and gone with the rights basically approved by a plurality now. It was never any big deal! All it was, was an affirmation against discrimination. So, now we can all move on. I expect that's hard for a lot of people in the Great Plains states. It's where senior citizens gather at main street diners to decry their boogeymen of "liberals" or "Democrats."
I cannot predict how all of this will turn out. Hopefully it will be with a huge spate of books and movies about the Trump presidency, and little more. Maybe we can land the plane after all. If we cannot, then heaven help us. But let's not plead for Jerry Falwell Jr.'s heaven, please.
You have probably all watched TV westerns where the bad guys start fighting with each other at the end. As I write this, it seems possible that the coterie of people around Trump might be about to fragment that way. Book authors, take note.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com