The Rise of the Freak: Slander Populism

"What goes around comes around", goes the saying. President Trump is justifiably outraged by the vicious, unproved accusations of being a Russian agent or even a Benedict Arnold spread during the last weeks by anti-Trump media.  He is right on that, for sure. Now he can appreciate how  it feels being at the receiving end of what he usually launches at his rivals.

Donald J. Trump made outrageous accusations a key component of his campaigning tactics. Now Democrats and their "friendly media" (CNN, MSNBC) returned him the favor, spreading accusations of being a Russian agent or some kind of Benedict Arnold.

For normal people -still a sizable portion of the US electorate- the kind of slander politics that populist candidates use for lack of ideas and policies becomes tiring and off-putting.

There is an extra benefit in slander politics: voter suppression. 

For Far Left and Far Right fringe extremists, slander contests help keep the moderate majority away. And favor extremist and fringe candidates that live from the politics of hatred and confrontation.

• On the Right:  Birthers, (still looking for Obama's closet-Muslim, resented Kenian nationalist past) , Tea Partiers, White Nationalists (formerly Supremacists)  and those listening to the likes of Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh. Add Ann Coulter and Newt Gingrich for better articulated English.
• On the Left: Black Lives Matter (still looking for white policemen to blame for abuse while deflecting or rejecting attention to black-on-black crime) , Antifa (looking for White Supremacists) , La Raza (waving Mexican flags to demand US citizenship) and a myriad of identity politics causes.

Since the election of the first black president, the politics of slander became more belligerent on both extremes of the spectrum. 

Unfortunately, fringe politics are spectacular and eye-catching, like reality shows or Jerry Springer's catfigthing spectacles. They have been that way since P.T. Barnum and Ripley discovered and popularized freak shows.

Democrats -the party of no ideas- have decided to compete for the party of bad ideas championship with a series of their own:

1. Matching  Trump's slander and personal aggression with theirs.
2. Voting and shouting down those that are not extreme enough.
3. Embracing fringe politics such as "Green Taxes" to the "rich", open-ended liability for speech, identity politics, "cultural appropriation" bans and barriers and taking campus politics mainstream. 

Will these policies help Democrats get elected? Maybe. It's a matter of time to see how they do at the polls. 

But even it they work to help them win: what kind of policies will "win"? 

Who are "they", the winners?

"Engagement" in slander politics is perhaps worse than indifference.