'America became stupid' with Ronald Reagan and the 'corporate media’s' help: journalist

Critics of former President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement often use the word "radicalization" to describe Trump's influence on the Republican Party. Now facing four criminal indictments, the twice-impeached Trump has — many detractors lament — crossed lines that even the late President Richard Nixon wouldn't have crossed.

But in a biting and pessimistic think piece published by Salon on August 31, journalist Brian Karem argues that the GOP's fall from grace started long before Trump. And Karem believes the "corporate media" have helped aggravate the problem.

"The seeds of today's political division and reporting began with Ronald Reagan," Karem writes. "While lying to the press, Reagan also set out to destroy it."

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The United States, Karem laments, "became stupid" with the "corporate media's" encouragement.

"Donald Trump faces 91 felony charges in four different jurisdictions, brought by approximately 100 American citizens sitting on four different grand juries," the Salon writer observes. "This major play by the justice system is the last bid for accountability that I'll see in my lifetime for Donald Trump, and by extension for those who hold power and are willing to break the law in order to keep it."

Karem continues, "If it fails, then, quite literally, God help us. There will be no holding the rich and the powerful accountable — for anything, ever."

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Brian Karem's full Salon article is available at this link.