Is it Entertainment or is it Propaganda?

One of the things that bothers me most is that we now live in a society that openly embraces the pernicious behavior of deceit and, for the moment anyway, outright lying in politics. The malevolence of partisan politics should not be misconstrued as a form of entertainment.  When politicians make irresponsible statements or take actions that imbue reactions within their constituencies that lead to heinous acts, they need to be held accountable.
It's understood that, as an electorate, we have differences of opinion about the proper path for this great nation to take. It's not acceptable, however, to allow those differences of opinion to circumvent the rule of law or, indeed, the constitution itself.
There is a great difference between spirited dialogue and engaging in activities that cross the threshold into illegal or immoral behavior that put our nation or its citizens in harm’s way.
The responsibility for maintaining an environment that tempers the balance between exercising the constitutional right that we all have as Americans to state our opinions on issues that affect us all and the recidivation of that discussion to a point that it causes derision and outright hatred belongs to our elected leaders.  
Yet our current President (Trump) seems to believe that he can make incendiary remarks with impunity, while passing the responsibility for the public’s subsequent reaction to the press.  He criticized the media for dividing the country and lectured it on “a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks.” 
Nothing could be further from the truth.  This has never been the role of the press – nor should it ever be.  One need only look back to Nazi Germany and the nationalistic fever that was stirred by Adolf Hitler for a tacit example of this. 
I want to believe that we're better than this.  As a nation, we need to dial it back and speak with our votes and not with regrettable actions that denigrate this great nation of ours to third world status.  If we fail to do that, the future of this country is in grave danger.