The campaign of Donald J. Trump may be playing, and giving voice, to some of the more unsavory characters and positions in our society, but those views are not his invention. Instead, Mr. Trump has made the choice to harness them to further his electoral interests.

It’s a cynical strategy, but it affords us an opportunity to ask ourselves some questions. For instance, what does it means when a candidate vying for the presidency can openly call for violence and attack women, immigrants and Muslims under the guise of ‘telling it like it is’?

What would it have cost Mr. Trump to immediately denounce the endorsement of David Duke and his ilk when asked about it? What would the damage have been if he offered, “our differences are many but we must be unified in resolving them peacefully” as a response to the violence at his campaign events?

Maybe it would have cost him some marginal amount of support. Maybe he would have been perceived as bowing to the pressure of the media elite. The more likely scenario is that he would have finally looked presidential.

The hard truth is that Donald Trump is running the campaign that we want him to run. Sure, not all of us want to see a campaign that is this erratic and divisive decide the next leader of the free world, but Mr. Trump hasn’t been given any incentive to do things differently. As the saying goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Consider for a moment the outsized amount of coverage that the Trump campaign has received. Despite constant attacks on the media for being “terrible people,” he leads the pack in hourly mentions by the cable networks. Before we fault the media, remember that their coverage of Mr. Trump is driven by ratings. Much like with CNN’s wall-to-wall coverage of the loss of MH370, the viewers have spoken. We keep watching the coverage and enlarging both Mr. Trump’s platform and ego. Much like the producers of scripted television, the news media, and The Donald, are giving us what we want.

We have the nation that we do because of the collective decisions we make each day. The votes we cast with our dollars, time and deeds matter as much as those that are cast at the ballot box. Americans are possibly more divided now than ever, but that isn’t the fault of Donald Trump. Our communities, social circles, media diets and workplaces are becoming increasingly homogenous. That lack of diversity comes at the cost of our perspectives. What will become of our republic if we lose the ability to understand one another?

We keep talking about Donald and all of the offensive things he says. We keep talking about Donald, and all of the ways he drives us mad. We keep talking about Donald, when we should be talking honestly with ourselves.