I want to begin by acknowledging the inherent hypocrisy in talking about Trump in order to write an article asking everyone to stop talking about Trump. However, I’m willing to ignore my better judgement to help get the word out. See, we have a situation on our hands right now. Donald Trump is running for president. He’s not just running for president; he’s leading the Republican candidates in most polls. (I know—this is America, this is a free country, anyone can run for president.)
But this is a bigger problem than it seems. At the time of publication, the leading Republican candidate has revealed just one formal policy proposal. However, the 17 percent of Iowa Republican voters and 18 percent of New Hampshire Republican voters who favored Trump for the nomination after the debate—but before the debut of his immigration policy—based their decisions on solely Trump’s grandiose statements and campaign claims, ludicrous behavior, and name recognition. Trump’s first official position on immigration entails building a wall he’ll make Mexico pay for, tripling the amount of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and other standard Republican immigration policies. Realistically, this plan would receive little to no support in Congress, except perhaps from some further-right members. With just one formal policy position this late after his announcement, the focus of Trump’s campaign has not been his groundbreaking policy initiatives, and this is not likely to change dramatically in the future. His strategy does have at least these two principles: 1) to ignite a tired-of-politicians base and 2) to gain the votes of apathetic and uninformed voters. Here, we can see how the media’s constant coverage of Trump becomes an issue.
When Trump makes one of his absurd claims like “I will build a great wall” to keep Mexicans out of America, ultimately that “news” dominates the next news cycle. For example, when I was watching CNN the Friday after the debate, about 70 percent of the time the anchors and their guest dissected Trump’s performance, about 20 percent was spent talking about other candidates in relation to Trump, and the other 10 percent discussed real news. Any coverage of the election on local news is restricted to top stories, which, according to national news sources, are about Trump.
This type of constant media coverage simply feeds the fire behind Trump’s campaign. His words and actions get him on the news and in to the minds and memories of American voters, some of whom love Trump for his blunt, often crass, behavior, and others who lack any true interest in politics and will likely support the candidate in their party who they have heard about the most.
Although it is important for all voters, especially moderate ones, to be aware and be critical of the sheer farce that is Trump’s campaign so far, the best defense against creating support for Trump is simple: the media must stop covering his campaign, particularly with the thoroughness that has been typical since Trump announced his candidacy on June 16th. The media has to take time to cover other candidates besides Bush and Trump when so many other great candidates are challenging them. The media has only just begun dedicating appropriate coverage time to candidates like Marco Rubio, John Kasich, and Carly Fiorina since their memorable and stand-out performances in the debates. (The Democratic race has similar media problems). The sad fact of the matter is that most voters have limited knowledge about the candidates when they give one of them their vote. And with such a populated field, keeping all of the candidates straight is more than difficult, it’s near impossible.
What it comes down to is that the media is business. People love hearing about the latest crazy thing that Donald Trump has done. The media needs viewers, so, understandably, they give the people what they want. Change then, needs to start with the people. So please, join me in a boycott of Donald Trump on mainstream media. Turn off the news when they talk about Trump, refuse to read any more articles about him online, demand to hear about the other candidates. Together we can trump Trump. #trumpTrump2015
