This past Tuesday I turned on CNN and watched a conservative political pundit go off the rails when she stated that Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server was somehow connected to Monica Lewinsky. In that moment I knew Republicans and the blatantly anti-Hillary media had overplayed their hand, as most voters simply don't give a horses' ass about Hillary's email, but instead care deeply about the following four issues that the carnival barkers rarely seem to discuss.
ECONOMIC ACCESS
It's no secret that from the purplish Regan-Democrats to the azure blue Warren-Progressives to the ruby red-Republicans to the colorless independents, voters are worried about the shrinking middle class. No issue strikes closer to the heart of the electorate's concerns than the fact that the rich in this country keep getting richer while the rest of us are left scrambling to keep our heads above the water. Instead of endlessly bickering about what information was classified then versus now, why doesn't the news focus on the lives of real Americans that are either looking for work, working more than one job while trying to make ends meet, or holding full-time jobs that have left them far away from achieving the American dream?
COLLGE AFFORDABILITY
It used to be that you went to college and that led to a better paying job, which in turn brought you home-ownership and a brighter future. However, today many students leave school saddled with extreme debt and little else. While they may eventually be able to get that higher-paying job, the cost of their student loan payments are so astronomical that although the higher salary looks good on paper, they are defaulting on their loans at record rates and would have been better off going directly into the work force than college. I for one would love to see less media scrutiny of Hillary Clinton's Snapchat joke and much more scrutiny of Sallie Mae and the despicable laws that allow for billionaires in our country, like Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, to go bankrupt multiple times and keep their properties, cars, furs, and cash, while the average Joe can't even cancel student loan debt through bankruptcy.
RACE, GENDER, AND SEXUAL EQUALITY
People across our nation face discrimination every day. African-Americans are being unfairly targeted and often killed in our streets, immigrants live frightened in the shadows of every city across our land, transgender people are attacked and murdered at alarming rates with little outcry from the public, and women are still paid less than men in the workforce. Yet, somehow every time you turn on the television or open up a laptop, the leading headline is about whether or not Hillary was angry when reporters asked her about her server. When video surfaced this week of Hillary pushing the organizers of #BlackLivesMatter to think about what laws and systems they want to change through their important civil rights movement, there was barely a blip of media coverage. Yet that same day countless hours were spent dissecting Mrs. Clinton's off the cuff remark about cleaning her server with a cloth. a clue people...there are far more important matters!
ENVIRONMENT
Finally, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported today that this past July had the highest average temperatures since they began keeping records. The polar ice caps are melting, California is burning, and extreme weather is becoming the norm. We should be in full-fledged panic mode over the viability of our planet due to global warming and its effect on our environment. Yet, on the FoxNews website, one can't even find a mention of this crisis, but rest assured Hillary's email is front and center. Voters want to hear from our candidates about what they are going to do to save mankind from ourselves, not if the GOP-led congress has opened yet another political probe into Hillary.
The era of endless breaking news and constant political witch hunts is not going away any time soon, but media beware, voters are sick of being told what to think and want to hear about issues that actually matter. One need only look at how many Trump obituaries political pundits have had to eat like their hats in the past few months to see that the same holds true for the non-existent but overly exploited Hillary email scandal. No matter how much the talking heads and windbags pontificate on the demise of Hillary Clinton because of these stupid emails, we the people are not interested. Stop focusing all of your attention on partisan garbage and focus instead on the things that directly affect the voting population.