Confessions of a news junkie
I’m hooked.
I’m one of those people who leaves their television on in bed, because If I awaken in the middle of the night, I want to know what’s going on in the world.
I’m addicted.
I watch news all day and evening long, with detours to watch Pirates’ baseball games. I flip to CNN and MSNBC between innings.
This isn’t a boast.
I’m a news junkie.
I sometimes wonder why I don’t get mad at myself for having this nagging fear that I might miss something newsworthy, because I was watching the wrong channel.
On most days, while watching political news, I’m reading political news on the internet.
When I’m not reading the news, or watching it (I know this may come as a shock to you), I’m writing about it.
I’ve had this news monkey on my back since the Kennedy assassination when I was a kid.
It enables me to watch an endless parade of political reporters, pundits, campaign operatives and candidate’s surrogates, without getting bored – especially this political season.
In fact, I find it’s a bit entertaining when I see a pundit make a prediction in the morning, and that prediction is disproven by dinnertime.
The scattershot presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump proves just about everybody who has an opinion about political campaigns has to rethink what they thought about them yesterday.
There’s one thing I’ve noticed that none of the political experts have been able to figure out.
How did Donald Trump happen?
Well, I have my own theory.
Pundits frequently define the political pedigrees that exist across the wide spectrums of voters.
There’re evangelicals, moderates, fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, progressives, the so-called Republican and Democratic bases, the Republican and Democratic establishments and even “socialists.”
The voters, at least this campaign season, aren’t putting themselves into any of those boxes.
When Ted Cruz, or Rick Santorum claimed they were “consistent conservatives,” many Republican voters said, “So what? I’m voting for the guy who’s gonna build a wall, and send 12 million Mexicans back to Mexico.”
Trump vanquished 16 competitors, who lavished in their own conservative credentials, while they questioned whether he’s a “real” Republican.
Trump doesn’t really seem to care.
In fact, he’s been a registered Independent, a member of the Reform Party, he was a Democrat twice – as late as 2009 – before becoming a Republican for the second time in 2012.
But his less-than-fervent adherence to the stated principles of his various political affiliations, doesn’t seem to bother his legions of voters.
They still vote for him, providing he keeps promising that he’ll, “Make America Great Again.”
The same with Bernie Sanders.
He’s only been a Democrat, officially, since way back in, well, 2015.
Before that, he was an Independent from 1979 until last year, and a member of something called the Liberty Union Party before that.
He’s built his burgeoning campaign by attracting lots of newly registered young voters, who have been Democrats a shorter time than he’s been one.
Those young voters don’t seem to care if Bernie is a “true” Democrat, as long as he promises to fight for free public college, and a $15 minimum wage.
And then there’s Hillary Clinton.
You probably didn’t know this, but if she’s elected president in November, it’ll be the second time she’ll be a president (of sorts).
Hillary Rodham was the president of the Wellesley Young Republicans when she was a freshman in college.
And, she’d campaigned vigorously for Barry Goldwater when he ran for president back in 1964 – while she was a teenager.
Her voters aren’t really concerned about her somewhat conservative statements about exacting a no-fly zone over Syria.
All they care about is her stand on healthcare, and her fight to bring about debt free college if she’s elected.
All of the conventional political playbooks have been thrown out of the window.
New ones are being written daily.
It all started with that Trump guy, who’s exploded any notions of party loyalties with a vengeance – while his party is stunned by it all.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net