There Is Only One Way to Deal With the Reality Show Called President Donald Trump. Turn It Off.

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page

12 October 17

rump craves attention the way most of us need air. He has to be at the center of chaos and controversy. He covets high ratings. He needs an audience that’s mesmerized by his outrageous tweets, his incendiary insults, his keep-them-guessing asides, his over-the-top story lines, his petty vindictiveness.

He’s a showman and salesman, a conman and a charlatan, a circus barker who would be nothing without the roar of the crowds.

So suppose the crowds stopped roaring? Suppose we all stopped reacting to his every taunt and jeer? What would happen if we no longer paid attention to his tweetstorms and tantrums? What if the media and the rest of us focused only on the real news – decisions actually made by Congress, the courts, and the Trump administration? Policies actually put forward? Official acts that have a practical bearing on our lives?

After all, Trump doesn’t really govern America; he just stirs America up. If we ignored him and got back to the basics of governance, Trump would nothing -- isolated, alone, dismissed. He would be a showman without a show, a barker without a crowd, a provocateur without anyone provoked. Like the Wicked Witch of the West he’d melt away, shouting at all of us as he disappeared: Look what you've done!! Ohhhhh, what a world, what a world. Who would have thought that you could destroy my beautiful wickedness!

Worth a try, isn’t it?