Two months ago, I attended a rally for one of the candidates running for President of the United States, billionaire Donald Trump.
Under the guise of it being an excuse to "spread my journalistic wings" away from the area of sports writing I ventured forth to the Oral Roberts University Mabee Center to stand in the same room with someone who might become the 45th POTUS.
Yup. I sure did.
You can read about it in Tulsa Today, in a piece co-written by my publisher and I, and it is a fair stab at political writing but the entire experience rang hollow with me. Indeed, I was not moved to support Trump but I wasn't compelled to condemn him either.
To be 100% honest, I was there to see the dog and pony flea circus.
I wasn't disappointed.
As I said earlier, this rally was in January and since then several primaries have taken place. Unless there is a serious meltdown on the part of Mr. Trump he will be the GOP nominee.
Seeing that this is abhorrent to many...including the very media machine I hope to be part of one day...there is a major effort to torpedo Trump on the way to the nomination.
Forgive my naivete, but to me it's a wee bit staggering to imagine that anyone, especially a journalist or a group of journalists would suspend any commitment to truth they may have to undermine a candidate for an elected office. Of course, I should also keep in mind that the average American is an idiot when it comes to voting and typically they are not consciously choosing someone when they vote...they are being told who to vote for.
For myself, I am not a huge fan of Trump. I don't like him, but I don't hate him necessarily. That alone lands you in a unique position, especially in the social media circles.
Since mob rule is the norm on any social media outlet if you are not moving with "the herd" the predators try and pick you off like cheetahs and antelopes we saw on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. The mere fact that I am not on the balls to the wall "hate train" attached to Donald Trump, that automatically makes me a supporter.
Just like I was told that I was a "closeted Republican" last time around when I was considering changing parties to Libertarian, which was just plain stupid. Now it is true that I don't like the presumed nominee (Hillary Clinton) on the Democrat side either and the same effect applies but with a twist. If you say you don't like her "the herd" not only labels you a supporter of Trump but then adds misogyny and sexist to the mix to apply the obligatory shame and ridicule that comes from that side.
All of this rot makes for a much more entertaining election cycle in 2016 than anyone could have hoped for. With the exception of the 2000 election of course. At the end of the day I am glad that I listened in school when I was told that elections were IMPORTANT and not to be taken lightly.
The problem us...no one else did.
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