The coronation by the Republican party of the creative hair comber and the exit of John Kasich herald a new era of politics nearing fruition in the United States. The remaining step is the election of a spectacularly unqualified person to the most powerful office in the world.

Despite the smug confidence of Democrats everywhere, that apocalyptic result is a real possibility evidenced by the current success that was initially unexpected by political experts.

Theories abound about how this result was possible. Disenfranchisement of the electorate, in one form or another, is the root cause when most editorial prose on the subject is boiled down to a single phrase.

Disenfranchised voters are nothing new, so what factor in this election season has been notably different from prior elections?

Free media for one candidate.

Publicity Genius

There’s little sense in rehashing many of the billions of words available on the Internet describing the person’s, bullying statements, racially charged attitudes, misogynistic rhetoric, stunningly ignorant beliefs, and behavior that no Mom anywhere would condone.

Lies don’t matter to the faithful, they’re excused and shocking statements are celebrated as “telling it like it is, refreshing!”

Media attention doesn’t have to be positive, it only must exist to be valuable.

Feel free to peruse favorability ratings of candidates to convince yourself that being a winner no longer necessarily means being an example for our children to emulate.

The bellwether statement of this campaign came from the pouty lips of the candidate himself in January:

“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

He was completely correct and he went on to prove his theory repeatedly.

Why would a person running for President of the United States do something as ludicrous as to refer to the National Enquirer as a source for “proof” that one of his opponent’s fathers was involved in the assasination of JFK?

To garner free publicity. There’s even a name for it, “earned media” and this blog post is, even without using his name, part of that pile.

What is Earned Media?

Simply put, earned media is anything distributed by someone else that you didn’t pay for. The ascendance of social media as a news and pablum outlet made earned media easier to come by, far surpassing the days of Hollywood discovering “all publicity is good publicity”.

An entire family of Kardashians made fortunes by incessantly hyping themselves on every available social media outlet. They only have the traction to do so because of a sex video pushed to social media. They ran with it then and haven’t stopped, building a lucrative empire based exclusively on douchebaggery and booty.

The Republican candidate has done the same. It’s an easy argument to make that he was working the same earned media system to great effect long before Kim K leaked her meal ticket.

Frequent appearances on the Howard Stern show, for example, prior to any announced candidacy demonstrate a lack of restraint and willingness to fully engage in braggadocio, boorishness, and impropriety.

Having survived lurid and ridiculous public marital and business failure misadventures while maintaining an air of superiority, the Manhattanite honed his craft of loudmouth bullying and eventual “forgiveness” that has become his trademark.

Consorting with gangsters, felons, and shady people of all sorts haven’t been an issue for the real estate guy. Apologist fans usually respond that being involved with shady types is a normal part of a business where concrete is used, garbage is hauled, and palms must be greased to get variances.

Openly mocking the physical disabilities of a reporter he knew for years had no ill effect on the guy and resulted in tons of free ink. As a person with a disability that could be easily mocked, it’s baffling to me that people I know will still admit supporting this person in the face of his third grade bullying attitude.

The lesson is, say anything to get a rise out of people. It doesn’t have to be true, it doesn’t have to be sane, it doesn’t have to be anything other than aggravating to enough people that a reaction is forthcoming.

Is The Head Dead Yet?

There was a flurry of activity in the media regarding the amount of free air time and publicity the candidate was receiving.

While other candidates were forced to spend prodigious amounts of money, the small handed New Yorker skated along without having to dip too far into his overbragged pockets.

We all slow down passing a car crash, sound bites sell, and the clowns will eventually take over the entire circus if given free rein.

Everybody knows that. PT Barnum and many others banked on the ultimate gullibility of the public and their lack of desire to educate themselves beyond a partial sentence platitude.

Billions (with a “B”) of Dollars FREE

A New York Times piece from March is typical of a spate of others that appeared around the same time in the campaign.

The Times detailed how the huckster was doing with his campaign on the cheap. As of February, he had already scored nearly $2 billion of free media. The number is more staggering because it represents TWICE the entire price of the most expensive Presidential campaigns ever waged.

Think about that. One candidate received a gift of free advertising from the media that was more than double what the next closest candidate (Clinton) was able to squeeze from them.

Beyond that, by February, the free publicity already handed to a person that even fans agree is rude and devoid of coherent strategies to govern a country was nearly double the total cost of any Presidential campaign in the past.

What do the networks and other media outlets get out of their relationship with this guy? Ratings, eyeballs, clicks. That’s all. The more controversial and stupid, the better.

It’s all about the money.

There’s no reason to believe any of this will stop. There’s no reason to believe the Democratic candidate won’t be in for a contested election.

Ignore this guy and his bile at your peril, voters. There’s plenty of history to prove unbelievably heinous people may be elected when douchebaggery is celebrated.