Thom Hartmann: What white Americans believe – yes lying to us works – 7 minutes

How many of you realized a couple of weeks ago that we have now been subjected to the daily rantings or activities for over 9 years as of this most recent election. With the results we are apparently on the cusp of another at least 4 years? It is almost overwhelming how this perversion has crept into our lives.

Sadly, thanks to the media that constantly engages in ‘sane-washing’ his rants  and oddities he has become normalized in the absence of what should be a picture of normalized Americans and their behavior. His aberrant behavior shouldn’t be presented as the norm, yet it becomes so in absence of a countervailing image.

Right now as Trump overwhelms the media with constant news of putting his horrible cabinet together, media once again treats the story of a child abuser as the nominee for Attorney General or a full blown woman abuser and misogynist as Secretary of Defense calmly as if is any normal day.  

Of course these are not normal times. These times are, depending on your perspective, about to be among the worst ever in the history of the US. Many, including real historians, fear that this period we are about to enter into will be the final end of the American democracy.

Yet there are only a few minor voices being raised in opposition and those often on much splintered media. Through the use of the marketplace and Democrats enduring faith that their message is the most important piece of what they have to sell and it can almost sell itself.

Over the years businesses have used the various media of the day to sell products. Using radio and TV businesses sold cancer in the form of cigarettes. They sold death in the form of alcohol and still do with the disclaimer not to overdo it. There are potions and lotions galore that are pretty useless if not harmful. Yet they are sold through the media of the day fairly successfully.

The adverts for such products are constant, sometimes irritating – have you seen a medicare advantage ad today? – and often targeted. While Democrats push their main product for three months and then seem to disappear, we see the ads for other products continue on daily even hourly to create a presence in the collective psyche of Americans.

We have been seeing Trump pretty much daily since 2015 and weekly for a decade before that on gawd-awful reality TV. Most of what we have seen is really bad. A man who is a blubbering idiot at his best who peddles hate with half baked ideas and bad slogans. But through his presence in our living rooms through TV and social media he has come to be thought of as acceptable. Normalized is the common word for how Trump is presented.

Many people are making a noise about the money the Harris campaign spent this fall. But it was nothing compared to the years of free media that Trump has been given over the past decade and the amount that he was given in free media by the likes of Fox and Xitter.

I think the time has come, I hope it is not too late, that Democrats must understand that that we need a daily presence in the media. We do not need to be as perverse and abnormal as Trump. No – our strength will be in bringing back truth and decency back into the daily dialogue.

Since the media is almost fully owned by the right it won’t be an easy trick, but we have lots of very bright media savvy veterans and youngsters looking to make an impact on the old media methods and on the new media such as tin-top and Instagram. 

The recent emergence of Bluesky as an alternative to the right-wing crazy media sites is truly encouraging. It looks like a site where the right wing can’t overpower and eliminate their opposition. 

What the Democrats have to fight with are what Americans prefer. The truth along with intelligent and well thought out policy. But currently we are seldom heard. If the democrats can establish a daily dialogue with America where they can express what is so terrible about MAGA ideas and why Democratic policies are so far superior.

Perhaps you have heard that many MAGA voters, especially the youngsters,  are now truly regretting their vote for Trump because they are now finding out that they will probably be losing their health insurance. Seems many of them thought that they were voting for someone who would end Obamacare but that was ok with them since they felt they were safe because they were on the Affordable Care Act (the ACA).

As you know Obamacare and the ACA are one and the same and a big chunk of Americans are looking at losing their insurance that they get throw the ACA next year. And for the rest of us that will likely raise insurance rates. Surprise.

Democrats have true stories like that plus stories on feeding the poor and housing and guns and Social Security and medicare and on and on that the American public simply isn’t hearing.

So Democrats and progressives need a daily presence that can’t be ignored and that does what we do best: tell the truth, counter the lies and give well thought out policies.