“Politicians are never going to turn this country around… they’re weak and ineffective.”
This sentence expresses one of the few points from presidential hopeless Donald Trump with which I agree. He expressed this dislike for politicians in a CNN interview from July 22. Politicians are not the leaders that this country needs. Politicians play into party politics and keep the media’s focus superficial, derailing this country’s ability to fully form a national dialogue on the important events of today that will define our tomorrow.
The problem is, Trump is a politician, in aim and in action.
So is SC Senator Lindsey Graham.
Our current media craves politician antics, and politicians are now responding to the need for flashy and attention-grabbing content. My friend and colleague Jared Warzala (Twitter: @JaredWarzala) once commented, “Kind of funny to see presidential candidates treating their campaign announcements like album drops or Jordan release dates.” Kind of.
Building hype and drawing attention have replaced garnering support and building respect for some candidates. Much of the behavior like that of Trump and Graham belongs in the realm of celebrities as opposed to potential public servants.
Trump and Graham have been engaging in some form of correspondence that I refuse to call a debate. It’s been loudmouthed brouhaha; it’s been fronting and overblown accusing. I was mostly disappointed by their decisions and actions, but now I am angry, because I feel that the behavior they’re displaying and the attention they’re receiving fundamentally exposes the failed relationship not only between the media and politics, but also between public officials and those they serve.
In his video response to Donald Trump, Senator Lindsey Graham destroys the phone supposedly associated with the number Trump gave out to the public at a rally in South Carolina. As a constituent of Graham and an active voter in South Carolina, my understanding is that Graham would rather send a message to Donald Trump than to receive a message from his voters.
This, to me, is disappointing and shameful. It’s an example of a politician putting politics over public service. This exchange is also an example of how the media is failing to uphold its responsibility as an impartial Fourth Estate, the monitor of the nation.
I understand that a public official’s cell phone is private and that Graham would prefer constituents use his professional contacts in order to reach him, but his response to Trump was a mockery of the political debates we should be having during this formative time in American politics. He mimicked Trump when he had a chance to demonstrate difference, a commitment to his constituents and the American public.
I’m not interested in having leaders represent me who manage to represent themselves so poorly.
Echo Foxtrot 
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