Insulting journalists and the disabled, attacking the parents of a dead solider, calling women pigs, making comments that, if not racist—well, they are clearly racist—whether out of ignorance or intent, calling on a foreign power to hack a U.S. public official. Donald Trump has pushed the bounds beyond which his possible pro-business policies can trump the divisiveness of his rhetoric.
There are even GOP rumblings about what to do if Trump drops out. He has been talking about the election being rigged against him, for example. Seemingly each new day brings another comment that turns heads, or stomachs.
Coming out of the conventions, the choice is now clear, and it is not between Democrat or Republican, or the old guard and new blood, or regulation and deregulation. It is about picking the less divisive of two candidates when the country appears on the edge of splintering along racial, political and class lines.
The GOP ticket would be the first media duo in history to get the two highest offices in the land, featuring reality TV star Trump and former talk radio host Mike Pence. That would be some kind of bragging rights for the industry, but not ones we want to exercise.
While Hillary Clinton is clearly the candidate less likely to further fragment America, we have some requests should she prevail in November. We urge her to steer clear of putting a thumb on the scale on FCC decisions—it’s an independent agency, something the Obama Administration seems to forget on occasion.
Clinton and the Democratic party have made broadband access a campaign pledge. We urge them to make it as easy as possible for private capital to do the heavy lifting on broadband build outs and speeds since they are far better equipped to do so than the federal government. We urge her to name an FCC chair who can balance the need, or the impulse, to regulate with the reality that businesses large and small are the engines of the broadband economy. “Her record of public service shows a leader who stands up for workers’ bargaining and organizing rights, for family and medical leave and other programs that help working families,” the Communications Workers of America said of Clinton, whom they strongly endorsed.
As we said back when Trump started to be more than an angry flash in a pan beginning to sizzle, we don’t usually advise voters on how to cast their ballots, but this election is anything but usual.
Donald Trump is the wrong person at the wrong time.
