Seventy-two percent of mainstream media leans left. It’s a fact of life that the media expresses its perspectives based upon their political prejudices. Conservative media is also biased, but their audience is smaller. They often feel under attack by the 72 percent and have rejected much of what they hear from mainstream media (MSM).

I have been doing something called opposition research on candidates in different parts of the country. Full disclosure: I’m a moderate who works very hard at seeing all sides of an argument, whether I agree with the view or not.

I recently researched a Georgia Republican. I started from scratch by reading his candidate website and his Twitter and Facebook pages. He is a former Marine who served his country faithfully in Afghanistan as a medical doctor. He now works full-time in a Georgia hospital’s emergency room. He is a conservative Christian who receives open support from his church and many other conservative Georgia churches. This candidate is also a strong supporter of Donald Trump and has received an endorsement from the president.

Several things struck me that I’d like to share with you about my research.

The candidate spoke in black-and-white terms, using the words “socialist” and “liberal” like they were four-letter words. At no time in any of his tweets, Facebook comments or video interviews did he define what he meant by socialism or liberalism. These concepts were evil to him. Yet, his becoming a member of the Marines was to become part of a socialistic organization. The goal of the military is to fight for the nation, for the common good. Someone pays their board and room, and the soldiers risk their lives for a higher cause.

Socialism is defined by wordnik.com as: “Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.” Socialism includes fire, police, state legislatures, Congress, road construction, sewers and water. All of these vital functions are controlled by central governments.

Liberal means: “Favoring reform, open to new ideas, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; not bound by traditional thinking; broad-minded. synonym: broad-minded.” When describing the media, which of the above parts of the definition are really bad, based upon the context? It seems that since the candidate didn’t define the terms, he was relying on emotion rather than reason. That is not a healthy trait for any public official to possess if he/she is seeking the common good.

The candidate distrusted the liberal media and rejected their information. Therefore, he would have to rely upon some other source of authority to sell himself to the public as the best candidate. What was that source of authority? How does he know whether it is accurate? How can he be certain his sources are unbiased? It seems that his source is what he was taught by his religion, by Marine culture and by Donald Trump. Why should he trust them more than the liberal media? I’m not saying these sources are wrong, I’m just questioning how he knows. He’s a highly educated emergency room physician who makes life and death decisions based upon scientific knowledge. Why diverge from that rational, fact-based approach when it comes to politics?

His silence on major issues was deafening. This candidate strongly supported Trump in his decisions, whether it was building the border wall, putting tariffs on China, objecting to Trump’s impeachment trial or even refusing to wear a mask. The candidate’s response to the mask issue was, “I think he [Trump] knows what he’s doing.”

In an interview the candidate stated, “It is a lie that Trump is a racist.” But the candidate was silent on the death of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter protests, the recent Stone Mountain, Georgia, demonstrations supporting white supremacy, defense of the Confederate flag and Confederate statues being torn down. The candidate supported the police and ignored the injustice done to Blacks that created the BLM movement in the first place.

He doesn’t need to trust the liberal media to know that President Trump openly stated that he was going to use the USPS to make it more difficult to vote in the November elections. The liberal media only reported what he stated publicly.

In another interview, the candidate stated, “you don’t win people by calling them names.” His silence to the many times the president has criticized others is deafening. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know what Trump’s motives are. He tells you. If you want to know what Trump is thinking, all you have to do is to listen to what he accuses others of doing.

Conservatives are right, MSM is biased to the left. The question we should all ask ourselves is, “What is our bias, and how do we know we are right?”