The popular media loves simple issues and scapegoats.
While it's important to analyze errors with care and detail, it's also important to look at the importance of issues.
Too often I believe the media loves to focus on issues that are "easy issues"--issues that are easy to discuss without any commitment to action or change.
One "easy issue" I think that many like to talk about is abortion. It's easy because many of the people that talk a lot about abortion never have to consider having one or not. Abortion is a difficult issue for those who have to truly consider this with regard to their lives, health, beliefs, or more. If you're an older man, it's unlikely that you'll have to sacrifice much to advocate one way or another with regard to abortion.
A "tough issue" however is poverty--we don't hear a lot of talk or depth with regard to poverty because to truly deal with poverty will require sacrifice amongst all of us. To rid our country of poverty means we have to deal with privilege, and many don't want to discuss this issue because it might mean that they have to share what they have including power, land, and money. The issue of poverty demands action, so it is rarely discussed. Poverty is a "tough issue."
Spicer's poor choice of discussing Hitler the other day is an important issue, but an "easy issue." Yes, he was wrong and he erred. He needs to apologize, and Trump's entire team has to stop shooting from the hip with their conversation, facts, and discussion--their communication is horrible since they often don't rely on the experts, facts, or truth of matters, but instead use hype and marketing strategies. What would be better is to bring in the experts, and let them talk about the serious issues. No one expects Spicer to be able to talk about all the important issues that face our country--a bright leadership team would rely on experts and let them speak or at least let them write what Spicer will later say. There are people who have devoted their entire lives to the study of these important issues, and those are the people who should be talking about them and helping leadership teams make good decisions.
We can spend hours talking about Spicer and his poor explanation, but instead we should be focused on how the executive team makes decisions and shares information in general. This is a big, tough issue and one that requires the best among us to research, learn, and advocate for what is right and good in this regard. Further we can't let hype and exaggeration get in the way of the tougher issue which is Russia's influence on the election and the executive branch--this needs to be teased out and understood in order to go forward. If Russia did collude with our current executive branch then that is a big worry with regard to any decisions our executive branch makes. That is the "tough issue" we need to understand.
There are "easy issues," and though these issues are important, they are issues that don't require depth, sacrifice, and time--instead those "easy issues" are issues that most of us can remark about and finger point without doing anything that takes any energy to make a difference. Then there are tough issues like poverty, the Russia effect on the election, world peace, hunger, violence, and inequality that are really tough issues--issues that require sacrifice, time, study, and good strategic process to solve.
We need to separate the "easy issues" from the "tough issues," and while both require attention, we can't let those "easy issues" stand in the way of the more important, "tough issues," issues that when solved truly enrich human lives and experience.
I'm going to think more about this, and welcome your thoughts.
