Let me start off with this declarative sentence.

Not everyone involved in politics is crazy.

I know that’s sometimes hard to believe when you watch the news or read the online chatter.

It seems like every time they show a conservative MAGA-hat-wearing Trump supporter, they’re all dressed up in red, white and blue apparel, saying something stupid. Or you’ll see a liberal PETA protester with a megaphone dressed like a turtle, and you think those folks are nuts.

The news does show sane, rational people, too. But the crazy ones are the ones reinforced by late-night comedians, which makes them more memorable, and therefore, you think everyone involved in politics is nuts.

Those folks ARE nuts, but those folks aren’t the norm. Those folks are loud. Those folks are aggressive. Those folks are even entertaining and make for good TV. They reinforce the stereotypes we want to believe about the other side. But those folks aren’t representative of the majority of people who are involved in our political system.

Last Saturday, I was the only person affiliated with the media at the Douglas County Democratic Party Convention. I didn’t see anyone demanding to use another gender’s restroom. There was nobody there dressed up as a furry. I didn’t even see any of the so-called radical leftists.

Were there liberals? Yes. But I wouldn’t call them radical leftists.

What I did see was a union hall filled with Americans who had ideas of how this country should be run and wanted to be a part of making it happen.

Not everyone had the same ideas, and there were passionate discussions that could get a little messy, but it was democracy in action.

I continued my politically focused weekend by attending a gathering on Sunday to hear Second District congressional candidate and military veteran Kishla Askins speak.

There were about two dozen people there to hear her talk about her experience working in the Pentagon and serving in the Middle East. The audience was young and old, male and female. They know the importance of being an informed voter and not making their decisions based on slogans and TV ads.

Nothing crazy about that.

After the event, I spoke with two young men who were with the Young Democrats. They weren’t angry, they weren’t loud, they were rational young men who were active in the political process. It was a good conversation, but it would have made for lousy TV.

I wrapped up the weekend by watching the five main Democratic candidates for the Second District Congressional race on KETV. I still haven’t made up my mind, but they were all intelligent, rational people. However, it was boring TV.

I met President Trump twice when he was running in the Iowa Caucus in 2015. He was a Type A personality to be sure, but he was not the unhinged candidate claiming that immigrants were eating cats and dogs in Ohio. My impression of him was that he was a rational person. But at that time, he was still the star of Celebrity Apprentice, not a full-fledged political candidate.

People like to blame the media for what is going on in our country today, but is it the media or is it the consumers of the media?

I was doing talk radio in 2016, and I asked my audience what they were seeing in Trump that I wasn’t seeing. One caller said that he was good reality TV. I pointed out this was reality, not reality TV. But that didn’t matter. People want to be entertained.

With all that is going on, President Trump has started a war of words with the Pope. Trump posted a meme of himself posing as Christ healing the sick. It would be crazy behavior for anyone to do it, but it’s especially crazy when the President does it.

But is it crazy or is it smart?

On the surface, it appears to be crazy, and maybe it is. But if people are talking about that meme, they’re not talking about the war, inflation, or the Epstein files. Which, for Trump right now, is a smart strategy.

When you see stuff like that, you might think that everyone in politics is crazy. And indeed, there are some crazy folks in the game.

But I felt good being reminded that there are mostly sane people in politics as well. That’s true of both sides of the aisle.

But if we, the people, keep rewarding this behavior when we go to the polls, that’s just plain crazy.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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