By CALIBE THOMPSON

‘False equivalency’ is a term we didn’t hear nearly enough in this election cycle, but it was the term I believe was the most fitting to describe the way the media portrayed the two nominees for president.

Here was a belligerent, orange-colored, punany-grabbing bully who was screaming at, demeaning, insulting, and bold facedly lying to Americans. He spoke down to women, inspired racists, encouraged physical fighting at his rallies, was happy about the housing crash because rich folks like him would profit, hadn’t paid taxes for possibly decades, disrespected veterans and the handicapped, and robbed small business people without remorse. He openly said his first priority is taking care of himself and his family. He was fine with nuclear war and wanted to take advantage of every international trade and labor loophole, while simultaneously cursing international trade and labor agreements as a disaster.

He was pitted against a reasonable, centrist, woman, lifelong public servant who used the wrong email server, didn’t have sufficient troops in Benghazi, married a philanderer and referred to murderous, predatory gang bangers as such. Those are the few ‘mistakes’ that the media could point to throughout her 30 plus years in public life, yet somehow to satiate the their need to appear fair and balanced, Trump’s and Clinton’s misdeeds were portrayed as equivalent.

Saturday Night Live presented the most apt satire of this false equivalency that I’d seen throughout the whole election period. Trump kissed an FBI agent, then Putin, then the KKK, but Clinton’s emails were always the bigger story. The skit showed that in a country run by supposedly very smart people, the narratives they deliver to help common folk decide our collective destiny is decidedly not very smart.

We’re all breathing a sigh of relief that the race is over now but we, as a country, need to think long and hard about the behavior we are willing to tolerate in the name of democracy. There’s a thin line between “telling it like it is” and losing any sense of decency. Now that we’ve finally made our decision, hopefully decency will make a strong comeback. God bless America!

Calibe Thompson is a video media producer, speaker and author. Learn more about her services at www.islandsyndicate.com and watch her on ‘Island Origins’ Mon at 10:00PM and Tues, Thurs and Sat at 9:00PM on South

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