The United States as led by His MAGA-sty, Donald Trump, is suffering one of its most serious challenges since the Civil War. In many respects the current crisis embodies some of the same threats that tore the nation apart in that deadly and divisive conflagration. The Trump driven turmoil that America is undergoing today is ripping apart families over political and moral differences, and interpretations of law and principle.

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Trump and his Republican Party have taken the lead in disparaging Democrats and even Republicans who fail to be sufficiently worshipful of Trump. And it is not merely the divergence of opinion that is common in a healthy democracy. The MAGA-tists have embarked on a crusade that mirrors the hostilities that resulted in the Battle of the States almost 200 years ago. Their invectives and lies are off the charts crazy.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Press Secretary and Fox News Go All-In Maligning Democrats as Hamas Terrorists and Antifa

A new poll by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) sheds additional light on the severity and the causes of the division in American political life. And, not surprisingly, much of the responsibility lies with the media. The poll found that…

“Americans who most trust far-right news, including Newsmax and One America News, for accurate political information show the highest level of approval of Trump’s job as president (92%), followed by 86% who most trust Fox News. Smaller majorities of Americans who most trust the radio (67%) and who do not trust any media source also approve (61%). Far fewer Americans who most trust YouTube or podcasts (46%), social media (42%), mainstream TV news (25%), and newspapers (19%) approve of the job Trump is doing as president.”

In short, viewers of Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, and other MAGA media, are by far the most likely to believe the flagrant lies that prop up Trump’s public image. Those viewers are the glassy-eyed cult followers who regard Trump as a pseudo-deity who can do no wrong. And the reason they buy into that nonsense is that it is all that they are exposed to from the pro-Trump propaganda sources that they hungrily consume.

The poll delved deeply into a broad array of other political subjects and where Trump fit in. Or more pointedly, failed to fit in. For instance…

• A majority of Americans agree “President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy” (56%).
• A majority of Americans (56%) disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as president, compared with 42% who approve.
• Americans who most trust far-right news show the highest level of approval of Trump’s job handling the Epstein files at 70%, followed by 68% who most trust Fox News.
• Six in ten Americans (62%) believe things in the country are going in the wrong direction, including most Democrats (92%) and independents (71%), compared with 24% of Republicans.
• Majorities say that the cuts in federal funding of health care programs (60%)…have gone too far.
• Republicans (22%) are more likely than independents (16%) and Democrats (12%) to agree that political violence may be necessary to save the country.
• Most Americans agree that “What President Trump is doing to the federal government is an assault on constitutional checks and balances and the rule of law” (54%).

While it is comforting to see that most of the American people reject Trump and his aspirational authoritarian agenda, it is troubling that there are still a fair number of weak willed citizens who are so easily misled. And the fact that they are swayed by the deliberately dishonest right-wing media is a disconcerting affirmation of the power of propaganda.

If the American experiment is to endure, there must be a solution to the harm posed by media that is purposefully lying on behalf of special interests, both political and financial. That solution must be careful not to step on the right of free speech. And while the right to speak may be practiced freely, it is not necessarily free of rebuttal or consequences if it deliberately causes harm.

Part of the solution was demonstrated in the $787 million settlement that Fox News had to pay to Dominion Voting Systems for defamation. There needs to be more of that. And it needs to hold individuals like Trump accountable as well. Because the more that liars in politics and media are held to a higher standard, the fewer opportunities evildoers will have to create the chaos that empowers the perpetrators of propaganda.

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