Remember when you were told as a kid that if you ignore someone, they’ll just go away? Well America has done a really terrible job of ignoring Donald Trump. We’ve all fallen for countless clickbait news links and shown our friends the latest bigoted thing he says. But every time the news talk about him, we are giving his campaign more news coverage and more power.

The bottom line is it’s time to stop being entertained by Trump and his supporters and it’s time to start being worried about the future of our country and the world.

According to the New York Times, Trump is trailing Hillary Clinton by a mere 6 percent. This is even more tragic because almost 7 percent of the polling is towards Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.

This is no longer the time in the election to think that these polls are not an accurate depiction of the events to come. We’re two weeks before the election, and things can change, but not without some common sense. So here it is.

Hillary Clinton is the most qualified presidential candidate in the history of this country. She served as Secretary of State for five years, senator for eight years, and has been an active political public face for the past forty years. So why has a billionaire real-estate tycoon with zero political experience been able to challenge her for the presidency?

A large role in this degradation of American politics can be given to the mainstream news sources that play into the ratings that the public can give if they are reporting the news they believe matters. They have been playing off the faults of both the major presidential candidates as if they have committed equal crimes.

Let’s start first with Clinton’s email “scandal.” On Sept. 2, the FBI released a report clearing her of criminal charges related to her use of an insecure server to handle classified information. In fact, both Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell also admitted to using their private servers to access work materials. But since the beginning of the campaign season, her opposition and some media have presented Clinton’s use of her private email server as a reason not to vote for her.

In contrast, Trump’s recent sexual assault allegations have been propped up on major news outlets with panels of “surrogates” from each side of the aisle. When a Trump supporter quoted Beyonce lyrics to respond to the panel’s views on Trump’s sexual assault statements, both liberals and conservatives fell for the clickbait. Although it may be entertaining to watch a Trump supporter put their foot in their mouth, it allows the Trump campaign to have a lot more screen time on major news networks than it deserves.

We’ve all fallen for the trap. Every time something unintelligent or politically incorrect comes out of Trump’s mouth, it is covered by news stations on repeat. A man who last year was an absolute joke has risen to power simply because he’s so interesting to watch on television. Don’t get me wrong, Trump’s presidential nomination has a lot to do with systematic racism and conservative principles. Trump supporters are overwhelmingly White, while Clinton’s does much better with the Black and Hispanic vote. Trump has built a lot of his support through anti-immigration policies such as “building a wall” and a “ban on Muslims.” These racial tactics are a definite part of Trump’s rise, but the media has been a crucial element to his success.

The three presidential debates showed that Clinton was a poised and collected candidate with real policy plans to help the country, while Trump was a blubbering toddler who was upset when debate moderators cut him off when he was out of time. The media’s portrayal of this election as an equal playing field has been an insult to the intelligence of the American people.