It is interesting as a political commentator, but depressing as a human being, to watch the polarization of the American political spectrum,now that the fun and games of the primaries are over.
For one brief instant in the political life of our neighbors to the south there was a time when unpopular and creative viewpoints could be heard. Think about Bernie Sanders. At what other time would his progressive ideas have received that degree of media attention?
But now the talking is over and the shouting starts, the minds close, and everyone falls into lockstep. The Republicans will retreat behind their barrier of violence and hatred, and spend all their time trying to whip up anger against Hillary Clinton. The Democrats will try vainly to campaign on a real political platform, which will pale in its newsworthiness against the headline-grabbing antics of her opponent.
A case in point: Wikileaks. Once upon a time, Wikileaks had a great deal of punch, because they were releasing real secret documents. Nowadays, however, they are as suspect as any other news source, because most of their leaks have been plugged, and they are now a target for any “documents” that anyone might want to “leak.”
So when there is a big splash on the news about Wikileaks releasing “proof” about what any campaign is doing, anybody with any brains becomes immediately suspect. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks. Because the supposed leaks don’t really say much. They are the usual “think outside the box” collection of ideas that any campaign tries on for size. By the admission of the article, there is no evidence that any of these were actually tried. The suggestion that the Democrats post a fake ad (very sexist and aimed at Trump) was obviously a joke. If it had been posted, it would have been perceived as a joke, and as such was only useful as a Facebook humour-spam. Trying to make some kind of political hay about this as if it was real is ludicrous.
But, because of the polarization, the people who only read the headlines will say, “Yes. Wikileaks has outed Clinton. Obviously we can’t trust her! Here’s proof.”
What I’d really like to see: The Wikileaks of the Republican Party’s attempts to oust Trump over the last 10 months.
It is also worth noting that the level of misdemeanour that Clinton is generally accused of is at least one order of magnitude less than the type of idiocy her opponent is propagating. There is a great deal of difference between using a frowned-upon email system that is not illegal, and the kind of out-and-out lying and hate-mongering coming from the Republicans.
However, because of the polarization, these mutual accusations get equal air time, and are thus perceived as somehow equivalent. If you don’t know how the Big Lie technique works, you should probably check it out. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie
Our only hope is that the American swing voters are not taken in by these blatant appeals to blind emotion, and use their brains before they vote.