*Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!  It’s funny how things stay with you.  Vietnamization will end U.S. involvement in the war.  Even if you’re a kid and you don’t really understand, if you hear something often enough it becomes part of who you are.  Never has it been doubted that everything’s better with Blue Bonnet on it, or what kind of kids eat Armour hot dogs or that Jesus died for our sins or that America is the greatest nation on Earth.

Some of these are ingrained in us before we have any chance to understand what they mean, never mind question them.  Whether we hear them on TV, in church, at school or at home, if words are repeated often enough, long enough, they become part of who we are; and we believe them.  How else can you explain prejudice?  Kids get along fine until someone important in their life tells them why they shouldn’t.

BTW: Fat kids, skinny kids, kids that climb on rocks.  Tough kids, sissy kids, even kids with chicken pox love hot dogs.  That old commercial could never run in 2018 because of the words used to describe the kids.  Try calling a child fat, skinny, or a sissy and prepare to deal with an onslaught of anger from whoever happens to be standing near!  The words matter.  Now more than ever before.

Insidious: proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects.  treacherous; crafty.  

The two most important words in the American lexicon are Fake News. 

The president repeats them more often than beer commercials during a football game.  Over and over, every day, and after a while they begin to sink in.  They start to ‘go together’ – you hear one and think the other, or the phrase.  And in the same way that I know that I deserve a break today or that Mazda goes hmmm, even the best and brightest and most logical among us will eventually start to think of the news as fake, unreal, unreliable.  At that point, he won and America is lost.

Every time you hear him say “fake news”, say “Real News. Fake President”.

These words are important too:
I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

They mean that the president will defend our constitutional rights and not work arduously every day to take them from us; that he will insure that free speech and an unrestricted press are maintained and protected as one of the cornerstones of this nation and not label it is the enemy of the people.  On the contrary, our enemies are those that work to relieve us of our rights.  It is painful to have to say that the president is the enemy of the people, but it is undeniable.

What we can do is easy, free and crucial: every time you hear him say “fake news”, say “Real News. Fake President”.

It may seem silly and pointless but it is no more so than trump crying ‘fake news’ at every turn.  In a crowd or at home alone, recite it out loud: ‘Real News.  Fake President’.  Put it in your email signature, on your social media profiles, on your bumper, in your consciousness and daily activities.

Say it boisterously and say it often.
Real news.  Fake President.

••••••

The next two elections – the upcoming midterm, and the 2020 presidential election –  are the most important elections in our nation’s history.  It is critical that we become activists, patriots, unafraid to stand up and let people know how we feel; willing to shout ‘Real News.  Fake President.’ into the air or into a crowd.

Donald Trump is a lot of bad things, but he is not stupid.  He knows exactly what he is doing by hollering ‘fake news’ all the time.  He’s heard of Pavlov’s dogs and behavioral conditioning and he is playing America like “Oh Susanna” on a cheap harmonica.

Recently he said that in seven years the fake media will be gone.  Unchecked, that’s exactly what will happen.  We cannot let him get away with it.  We cannot be shy or hung up about saying ‘Real News.  Fake President.’ even when there’s no one else in the room to hear it.

Real News.  Fake President.