Eric Boehlert of Media Matters always does a great job IMHO. And he brings up the fact that Dan Balz of the Washington Post has supposedly seen the light when it comes to the Republican Party’s obstructionism and extremism. Boehlert points out that the media was — and still is — in denial about Republican extremism, and he says it is because the media could not abandon their lazy narrative of “both sides do it.” It is one explanation or factor in media denialism, but there is another underlying cause for media rejection of Norm Ornstein’s work. Corporate owned media does not want to label Republicans as extremists because it will negate what we call the conservative corporate agenda.
Think of how effective Republicans and their allies in the media have been in negating any progressive agenda in the last 35 years. Step one is to label any progressive policies as “extreme.” If something is considered extreme, it can be dismissed as not viable or serious. This has happened far too often with progressive ideas.
For example, deficit spending to stimulate the economy is considered a radical or extreme idea. Look at how easy it was for Obama to embrace Republican austerity measures after the 2010 Election. Republicans and their media allies convinced Americans of the BS that government spending cuts during a recession were pro-growth! And congressional Democrats essentially rolled over and played dead.
Another recent example was that loser Tom Brokaw scoffing at the idea that we would ever have a single payer health care system in the U.S. He stated this as a matter of fact on MSNBC to dismiss Bernie Sander’s proposal for Medicare for all. And this is bound to piss of Hillary Clinton fans, but she even poo poos the idea for single payer. Bernie Sanders = Single Payer = Crazy.
Yes, Republicans want to rip up what good Obama has done on healthcare, but look at how far to the right healthcare is being “debated.” Throwing millions of people off of their health insurance is OK, at least to Republicans and their media cheerleaders. Why isn’t this notion being dismissed as crazy by the mainstream media?
And how often have we heard that Social Security needs so called “reforms” (i.e., raising retirement age or benefit cuts)? This is still considered to be a viable policy option for a program not in crisis by such electoral winners like Chris Christie. And this will piss off Obama supporters, but Obama was too willing to negotiate cuts in Social Security for some Grand Bargain.
The good news for Social Security was that Republicans could not accept “Yes” from Obama on the Grand Bargain, and progressive Democrats took the wild idea of raising Social Security benefits by lifting the cap to combat Republican lies. And it appears to be at least partially successful in shifting the political debate.
So while the mainstream media is lazy and wedded to the idea that Republicans are still a sane political party, a conservative corporate economic agenda drives this feigned denialism. If the media ever admits that the Republican Party is crazy, they will have to consider that conservative economic dogma is crazy. And if something is crazy, you can’t take it seriously.