If you really want to break down the problems in the current political era, you have to start with the idea that no one knows what's going on. We're all getting plenty of news, but almost all of it filtered through the miasma of bullshit the professionals call analysis. This term is used to launder opinion in a way to make it seem like it's informed by something beyond personal bias.

I'm sure in some cases people provide clear and meaningful evidence in analysis, but usually, it's just people pontificating from "their gut." Which any idiot can do, this website being case in point. Why do you have to sit through Cialis commercials for someone in an overpriced suit to do the same thing you can do every day reading through the wire services?

None of this is unique to the Trump era. Though it does feel different, Cable News has been dashing from crisis to crisis since 9-11. Defining the modern media landscape, constant crawls across the bottom, endless speculation disguised as information, and an infinite series of meaningless "alerts". The ratings were huge and carried on to breathless coverage of bombs falling in Iraq. It continued with Obama's election, his standoffs with the Tea Party, and culminated in the shit sandwich that was Trump's election.

The bluster that his Twitter account got him elected is an attempt to make him an anomaly. The pervasive fake Facebook posts were also new, but probably less effective than most advertising on Facebook. The media emphasizes these two factors to hide their own complicity. If you really have to know what makes Trump special, it is the way that he plays the cable news cycle. If he watches as much Fox News as he is purported to, he already knows the rhythm. Television just works a certain way. He manages to suck all the air out of the room, then just put out enough information that it looks like his missteps are the media trying to frame him.

This strategy is a perfect play for Conservatives. They've been steadily fed a diet of "distrust the media" to keep them inside the media ecosystem of Fox and Talk Radio. That plays into the inherent cultural differences already between your average reporter and an exurban conservative. The left isn't immune to it, but there's no united front to influence and manipulate. Which is why the hyperbolic outrage of mainstream commentators and the fringy left manages to come off as chaotic ranting. Nate Silver is fond of pointing out that despite all this Trump's approval rating hovers around 40%.

The press loves this schtick because the ratings are up. Democracy was already in a tailspin long before the sideshow came to town. Trump is really just the first one to show us how naked the hustle in Washington really is. The media doesn't care because it stays in emergency mode, and emergency mode makes money. The longer we feel like the end of the world is right around the corner the better.

When magazines like Wired are publishing editorials comparing Trumpism to toxic fandom, you know there's a racket to chase. The protests are more for social media attention than anything else on the right and left. With pointless displays of vandalism, or lacking the self-awareness to figure out that you're being trolled. Everyone is eager to get into the game.

I have no love lost for Trump, he is every venial and deadly sin rolled up into a walking punchline. All he managed to show is that Washington is a reality show, easily masted by someone who knows how to play the game. In the parlance of the genre, "he's not here to make friends." Lining up fans and haters alike to see the storm roll in. Other than that, until the tariffs, he didn't do anything all that different than any generic Republican.

In fact, if the increasingly less likely Democratic wave manages to hit in November, the ratings go up. Getting to face down an obstinate Congress and play the tough guy on Fox will do wonders to win back people the trade policies and brutishness are chasing off.

Either way, we should worry about the series finale. It's going to get weird.