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How does one describe President Donald Trump? If youre a left-leaning journalist or a member of the media, you look for stories that highlight the faults in our President. You do not outright call our President names, but instead criticize his policies and decisions. You describe a situation and allow audiences to place their own labels on our President.

Overall public opinion of President Trump has taken a negative turn, evident from his approval rating reaching new lows. As our new government kicks into gear, it has created a gold mine for programs like The Late Show and Saturday Night Live.

Political satire is not new in our culture, but has steadily increased during the 20th and 21st centuries. While the majority of our population enjoyably digests this, our UW College Republicans find that the media has overstepped its boundaries.

At their last meeting, the majority of members expressed concern and disgust with todays political satire. It was surprising to discover that members have reached a point where they stop consuming political satire because of how upsetting it is.

To them, the mockery of our President feels as though they are being mocked. One said, When President Trump is called stupid, I feel stupid. Others maintained that a line needs to be defined between berating Trump and berating supporters.

These students seem to feel that they are personally responsible for getting Trump elected and are now being punished for it. This is slightly ironic since now all of America knows how the Electoral College works because of the popular vote fiasco.

Despite that, I can sympathize with this: People want others to support the politicians they voted for. We want others to like what we like. Its a fundamental concept that can be applied from our choices in music to our choices in politicians. Its easy to feel personally attacked when those politicians are constantly made fun of.

Why is it that these College Republicans are so concerned with immediate political satire? Many individuals expressed that if President Trump is being mocked, they want other politicians to be mocked as well.

Much of the media does criticize our President, but is it because the media has a vendetta toward Trump? Trump is not the first president to be targeted, nor will he be the last. Presidents like George W. Bush and Barack Obama received a wide variety of criticisms, with topics ranging from actual crises to Obamas birthplace.

The College Republicans maintained that previous mockery was funny, but it has now progressed to coming off as rude and harsh. However, political satire has not evolved in its type of content from these past two presidential administrations, and there have largely been the same jokes and same type of mockery with Trump as there was with Obama.

The only variable that has changed is the amount of political satire we are exposed to. There are more late night shows and more political skits than ever. It seems that the College Republicans are okay with previous mockery because they didnt personally vote for those presidents being mocked.

So whats wrong with todays media according to the College Republicans? Its far too left-winged. But if were going to criticize the medias political orientation, we should take into account the viewers and the current majority political party.

Newspapers today are struggling to remain relevant. To stay afloat, they try to reel in readers with the most controversial and interesting news. In the 2014 film Nightcrawler, the news station focuses primarily on stories of urban violence in affluent communities in order to increase viewership. Current media is guilty of the same thing; they know viewers would rather hear about Trumps latest verbal mishap than an international crisis in Germany.

To say the media is left-winged doesnt really capture the big picture. Media only seems to be liberal now because it is negatively approaching a current Republican administration. A few years ago, the media appeared conservative because it took the same negative approach toward the Obama administration.

There may never be complete peace between our government and our media, but that may not be so terrible. The critical lens that the media takes demands the most of politicians and allows President Trump to know where he stands with the majority of the American population.

Reach columnist Christine McManigal at opinion@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @clmcman

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Redefining Republicans: Has today's political satire gone too far? - Dailyuw