WHAT TO MAKE OF THE MEDIA CIRCUS OF THIS YEAR'S AMERICAN ELECTION?

JUST LAST WEEK, SLIGHTLY BEFORE THE SECOND DEBATE, NBC NEWS RELEASED WHAT THEY KNEW COULD BE A DEFINING MOMENT IN THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE. THIS WAS THE LATEST IN A LONG SERIE OF "SURPRISES" THAT SPRINKLED THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN SINCE THE IOWA PRIMARY.

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The White House has been since its rebuilding, the symbol of the power of the executive in the United States. It is where the winner of the Presidential Election officially resides, and where  the President runs the country from.

It is no surprise then, that this "prize" has generated countless electoral campaigns which have been bloody, nasty and very competitive. Despite what our modern "moral" censors would like us to believe, this election cycle is no more violent than previous ones in our History.

Several presidential races are still remembered for having been quite contentious.

These three Presidents were particularly the targets of vicious and personal attacks, not unlike what we have seen during this election cycle. Some say they actually were a lot worse that what we have experienced.

The major difference resides in the weight of modern main stream media in this election, and the active and partisan role they have played so far.

Outside of Party politics, the concentration of media in our modern world is playing a major role in the construction or the destruction of the image of candidates.

Already Jackson faced the savage onslaught of the media of his era. Jackson was considered as populist and had the bad idea of putting the country's interest first, rather than those of the robber barons and other private interests. The old general was an avid opponent of the idea of a Federal Reserve, or second bank as Hamilton had termed it.

You have to go back to the attempted run for a second Term by President Taft, a popular and respected republican, and the "surprise" return of Teddy Roosevelt as a third candidate, with the ultimate win of Woodrow Wilson and the take over of the Senate by the Democrats, to find the first blatant intervention of Wall Street and the Media they controlled, into a presidential competition, similar to what we are experiencing slightly over one hundred years later.

Rarely a populist candidate along the lines of Donald Trump has the opportunity to launch a candidacy with so much success as the Donald has done. It is so rare, that the political, economic and media establishment were very baffled by his surviving of the primary process. In fact, you have to go back to Andrew Jackson's Election to find anything slightly similar.

It is not surprising then to witness the litany of attacks against Mr Trump. Just like the vicious, and very personal campaign against President Jackson, the Trump camp is under attack from all side.
The media have dropped any appearance of neutrality, and they have become an active party in the attempted destruction of the character and hopes of Mr Trump and his supporters.

Not only is the Trump camp under constant and blistering attacks, but the Clinton's camp is being aided and abetted by an over friendly journalistic profession who owes its well being into towing the line their owners want them to follow. Every attempt is made not to talk about the many shortcomings of Mrs Clinton, and every diversion is made to distract the general public of the revelations of her secret emails and other backroom deals.

The only bright light in this Kafkaesque scenario, is the internet.  Citizens are still able to weight in through this medium. Actually this is how Trump was able to win the primaries, by being the first candidate to understand the reach of that new medium.  Yet it is far from sure that this will be enough to tilt the balance in his favor. The odds are strongly against our modern populists. The merchants of false dreams and distorted views are hard at work.
A new wrinkle is now in play. President Obama, in all his wisdom, has decided to give away the control of the internet to a nefarious internationalist group. God knows what will happen to this last frontier of freedom, but personally I am not very optimistic.