The Trump Distraction.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.
• Position: STATE OF THE NATION

THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY is, if nothing else, bizarre. Even more important, it is a distraction from our major problems. Supporters and critics alike are so fixated on Donald Trump that they seem unable to think about anything else--especially the future. In the Republican primaries, supporters made a candidate's undying love for the man the essential litmus test. Trump's detractors jump on every tweet, personal attack, and arrogant outburst. CNN and MSNBC devote hour after hour to Trump's alleged threat to democracy and the always-looming "constitutional crisis."

Even if the Robert Mueller investigation fails to prove collusion with the Russians, this will not dissuade the Democrats. If they gain control of House of Representatives, articles of impeachment will be drawn up, no matter what. Trump loves the fight, as he is combative to his core and would be bored as president in quiet times. Governing is a minor interest. Battling constantly with his enemies in the media, the Democratic Party, and the bureaucracy is what gets his juices going.

He knows his audience and understands that many Americans have come to see politics as spectacle and entertainment. The cable networks--now the major source of public information--know this as well, having pushed out the staid newspapers of yesteryear. Actually, the staid newspapers no longer are the staid newspapers. Many resemble the openly partisan publications of the 1790s, when most were controlled by one political faction or another.

Rather than take up the role many newspapers once performed--that of informing and educating the public--television news has entered into the entertainment business itself. Gone are the overseas news bureaus with seasoned reporters. In Washington, few television reporters actually cover the Federal agencies where policymaking takes place. Scandals, shootings, and disasters push important stories aside. The Trump presidency, with its daily drama, fits neatly into this picture. As much as MSNBC and CNN love to pummel the President, they cannot talk about him enough. Political entertainment and opinion are easy and cheap to do--no political digging, no covering events in far-off lands, just self-important people sitting around a table. The older television audience that should know better seems not to mind at all. The millennial generation, the most-politically and -historically ignorant of our modem age, is unable to decipher the difference between politics and...