Joe Henderson
Marco Rubio uses Twitter in the opposite way of the Twit Master himself, President Donald Trump.
Florida’s junior U.S. Senator tends to quote Bible verses and tries to offer reasoned slants on current events – although, I guess, anything looks “reasoned” when weighed against the non-stop jabbering that emanates from the White House.
But I have to call foul on one of Rubio’s latest tweets.
In an apparent response to the atrocious events over the weekend in Pittsburgh, Rubio wrote: “Our core problem isn’t Incendiary rhetoric. It’s the anger it taps into & stokes. Anger moves people to donate & vote. And outrage is good for media ratings & online traffic. Because anger is one of our most powerful emotions. But it is also one of our most destructive.”
If I’m reading the Senator’s point correctly, he seems to be saying that if the media wasn’t transmitting anger 24/7, we might not have to deal with so much tragedy.
With all respect Senator, you are wrong on that point.
First off, the accused shooter in the Pittsburgh massacre sounds like one sick individual. He clearly was filled with irrational hate for Jewish people.
The media had nothing to do with that. Neither did President Trump, for what that’s worth. The accused shooter apparently was no fan of the President.
But what we saw in the case of the alleged bomb-builder in Miami is a different story.
If anger is the dynamite, incendiary rhetoric is the fuse.
And President Trump is the burning match.
He is doing it deliberately.
It was a brilliant strategy; if all he cared about was being elected over the damage it would do to the nation. All he had to do was keep repeating to a targeted group of voters that they’re being screwed and that illegals are coming to take their jobs and harm their spouses.
It didn’t matter if what he was saying had not one scintilla of truth.
When the media called him out for those statements, it fed into his game plan because he had long convinced supporters that when he was being attacked, so were they.
The genius behind the move is that it put the media into a quandary that continues today. He is the President of the United States and what he says ripples around the globe.
When he says something outrageous, or lies, or conducts an inquisition by Twitter on members of his administration, should the media not cover that, even if it perpetuates the cycle of disinformation?
You have to report what he says and what it means. That’s how the game has been played for every U.S. President since I’ve been alive. No one ever came across a President as manipulative as this one, though.
Rubio is right that anger is destructive and dangerous, but it starts with the cynicism coming from the Oval Office. That’s the direction Rubio should have pointed his finger because the person in that chair sets the tone.
Republicans generally won’t do that, though.
It’s up to voters to send that message – if they want to.
Maybe they don’t.
I guess we’ll find out.
Plenty of people in Pittsburgh have sent their message. About 35,000 people signed a petition asking the President to stay away from a planned trip to their city in the aftermath of the slaughter. It’s a reaction to his penchant to demonize minorities and his refusal to denounce white nationalists.
Whatever he does, the media will report that, too. It might make some people mad.
