I am beginning to come to the conclusion that the national discussion is poisoned by what certain people at the top on both sides are putting into the political food chain.
Since many of us are aware of the fact that Trump, and some other candidates, but mostly Trump, have made extensive use of "Big Data" from firms like Cambridge Analytica, it is important to remember how CA worked, how it got its data, how it interpreted it, how it interpolated it, how it filtered it and how it applied it to the Trump model.
If we don't know that stuff, it is impossible to understand the Trump model at all.
Even though CA no longer is in business, make no mistake, dozens of other CA clones have sprung up in its place.
The song remains the same, the dance is the same dance, and the poisoned food chain is still poisoned.
As long as most of us derive our sources for issues discussion from the same poisoned food chain, we will continue to dance to the tune that Trump calls and act on his terms, as defined by him only.
It is necessary to UNPLUG for a while, remain at a distance. If we already have a well developed sense of what's what, of how society is supposed to operate, of how a healthy nation responds to stress and a sense of right and wrong, the "crisis du jour" and Trump defined criteria is unimportant, or shall we say, LESS important, because seeing as how we KNOW the Trump MODEL, it is important to apply OUR MODEL to the issues instead.