Did the LEFT elect Trump? (And would they do it again?)

I wrote a term paper for my college Journalism class entitled, "News From Nowhere." It outlined how all news services derived their stories from only two major sources, the Associated Press (AP) and the United Press International (UPI). The report was a term paper that Don Henley could have used as inspiration for his hit song, "Dirty Laundry."

But things have certainly changed since I left college.

Reporters, journalists, news anchors once filled their newsprint and broadcasts with somewhat reputable stories from one of the news sources mentioned above. That is no longer the case. Today they regurgitate whatever they see online. Stories from blogs and social media filter into the mainstream media and their stories become our news. Katie Couric actually claims to get many of her story ideas from her Twitter followers.

So what does this have to do with the Left electing Donald Trump?
EVERYTHING!

Donald Trump had considered running for POTUS for decades although during the majority of that time he never bothered to learn anything about diplomacy, policy or the international affairs. His possible candidacy seemed more like a publicity stunt than real political ambition. After all, running for President makes good headlines.
And of course, nothing ever came of it.

By 2015, however, the playing field had changed and Trump's "incendiary, provocative, and unpredictable personality" became an asset rather than a liability. Trump perceived what most politicians missed, that the Twitter Culture of social media devoured all other news sources. We became a country governed by public opinion where, if something was being talked about on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, it would filter up the media chain and eventually into our culture itself.  

In this society, people can't even talk to each other anymore. we are caught up in running our own little "polarized" world on social media. Opposing sides will label each others' stories as "fake news" because we no longer agree on the simple, basic truths that once ruled our culture. And in the midst of all this, a reality TV show star emerges as President of the United States.

"When journalists first covered Trump, they loved him because they thought he was a joke," writes Ryan Holiday in Trust Me, I'm Lying. "They loved how he polarized the audience and how each crazy thing he said or did made for better headlines." Donald Trump was perfect for the liberal news media's bottom line. In other words, he was good for business. 

The problem arose because the constant coverage, non-stop news reports and incessant attention given to Trump actually made him a serious candidate. The left-winged liberal media never believed Trump could win. They believed he would eventually crash and burn and a more "normal" candidate would emerge. But that didn't happen.

In the end, the left-winged media gave Donald Trump somewhere around 4.6 billion dollars  of free publicity.  Bill Bonner, author of Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets, wrote that "it is not news that sells papers, but papers that sell news."  

In Donald Trump's case, it was the left-winged media that gave him the Presidency.

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