On May 31st, conservative journalist David Frum wrote an essay in The Atlantic called “The Seven Broken Guardrails of Democracy”[1] in which he details the dangerous ways in which Donald Trump’s recklessness is harming the office of the President, and by extension, the country. At the conclusion, he ponders some of the questions many conservatives & Republicans have been asking themselves lately:
“Of all the alternatives for their post-Obama future, Republicans and conservatives selected the most self-destructive of the options before them. Why? What went wrong?”
Mr. Frum doesn’t offer an answer to this question, so instead, I offer mine.
First, a caveat: Although writing this essay was instigated by Mr. Frum’s question, its response is not directed solely at him or his actions specifically.
Although I’m glad Mr. Frum and others are finally asking these introspective questions, conservative media and organizations need to take responsibility for what has been wrought before any meaningful answers are found and acted upon.
Take responsibility for what? Years of escalating and unchecked propaganda, fear-mongering and intellectual dishonesty practiced on the public stage. In the past two decades, conservative/GOP political operations have grown into an enormous, corrupt media industry, with Fox News the most prominent member of this system. This is a system that has grown beyond the nefarious, singular political attack ads and into a system that now operates as a 24/7 political messaging operation. It has enjoyed success by relentlessly and audaciously preying on the lowest common denominators of the American electorate: fear and ignorance.
Some would say this success comes from effectively tapping a zeitgeist that was already there. That is true, but incomplete. News not only reflects public sentiment, but it also influences it. Journalists we look back upon with admiration earned their respect not only because they accurately reported what the public needed to know, they also sought to elevate its thinking about the issues.
In the era of partisan news, social media operations, and politically oriented “think tanks”, we have what amounts to 24-hour political advertising that is not interested in elevating anyone’s thinking.[3] It’s designed and paid for to push the American public to vote for policies that are often against its own self-interests. All that money has to show results for its efforts, so it is very calculated and ruthless. Just look at this example of just such an operation proposed by anti-wind energy interests, analyzed by Suzanne Goldenberg of The Guardian.[2]
Unfortunately in a society with a free speech, we cannot gag such efforts, so we must rely on a vigilant press to not only call attention them, but also to denounce them when necessary. This includes partisan journalism that is willing to call out their own team for the sake of integrity and the greater good of the country.
"An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people," said Thomas Jefferson. What we as a country have been subjected to for too long has been a persistent effort to make sure the citizenry is anything but educated. Let’s look back at just a few key examples of what has been unleashed upon the American public these past few decades:
- Conspiracy theories about President Obama’s legitimacy, his religious affiliation, or his loyalty to America. [8] [9] [10]
- “…we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.” -- former President Bush as justification for invading Iraq. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]
- “They’re coming for our guns!” “Gun control subverts the constitution!” [16] [17] [18] [19]
- Fear of Muslim extremists. Islamophobia. [20] [21] [22] [23]
- Keep out immigrants. Xenophobia. [24] [25] [26]
- Global warming/climate change denial. [27] [28] [29] [30]
- The Affordable Care Act is a government takeover of healthcare. [31] [32]
- Obama was born in Kenya, or somewhere outside the US. [5] [6] [7]
- Teaching sexual abstinence alone makes for effective sexual education and family planning. [33] [34] [35]
- Cutting taxes on the 1% helps the economy. [36] [37] [38]
- America was founded as a Christian nation. [39] [40]
For many more examples, I send you to this analysis of The Daily Show’s “50 Fox Lies in 6 seconds”. [41]
The conservative/Republican political system has promoted or enabled each one of these messages at one time or another. Each one is provably false, or at least intellectually dubious. Conservative media could have spent its time and money debunking or denouncing these falsehoods, but instead it either actively promoted them or allowed them to propagate unchallenged.
With so much deception piled on for so long, is it any wonder the American public is acting without regard to reality? Is it any wonder that they would gravitate to someone who so masterfully and willfully employs those same tactics?
After years of building this dysfunction into the American psyche, the irrationality of all this fear has finally moved in a direction that wasn’t planned for nor desired. The conditioned public heard in Donald Trump an unfettered expression of that fear and ignorance, and they went towards it like a moth to flame. You can see this reflected in interviews with Trump supporters. When asked the reasons for their support, the only consistent theme they espouse seems to be, “Because he says what I think/feel.”,“Because he’s unfiltered”, etc. Many can’t even go into specifics to explain further. This is a sure-fire indicator that support for Trump isn’t being found through a rational process. They’re acting on emotion, not intellect, which is why so many in the political establishment can’t fathom how his numbers stay up when he says and does the things he does.
So the answer to David Frum’s ponderings is, “The conservative media have brought this monster into your midst out of wanton dereliction or willful neglect of your duty as journalists. You have brought this on yourselves, and if he gets elected you will have brought this on us all.”
My hope now is that in pondering these musings, Frum and any of his circumspectful peers will seek to repudiate not just Trump, but the methods and media sources used to create such fertile ground for his ascent. To openly renounce those in their industry who seek to co-opt the American electorate’s ability to make clear, informed decisions. To use their pulpits to educate and inform. To have the integrity to call “bulls&*t” on their own. To hold each other accountable for the accuracy of their work. To put country ahead of ideology and party.
It will take decades to undo to the damage. But if we don’t seek to change the partisan media’s status-quo, America will simply elect one demagogue after another, to be followed by more pointless self-examinations asking, “How did we get here?”
Citations:
[1] “The Seven Broken Guardrails of Democracy”, David Frum, The Atlantic, May 31, 2016, www.theatlantic.com/…
[2] “Conservative think tanks step up attacks against Obama's clean energy strategy”, Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, May 8, 2012, www.theguardian.com/…
[3] “16 of the Dumbest Things Americans Believe -- And the Right-Wing Lies Behind Them”, Sarah Seltzer, AlterNet, November 13, 2010, www.alternet.org/…
These citations have been marked as either an “example” of a specific claim, or “refutation” of such a claim.
[4] Example: “Obama Busted: Birth Cert Contains Words/Places That Did Not Exist In 1961! African American & Kenya”, Richard R. Silverlieb, The Minority Report, Jan 3, 2014, ihavethetruth.com/…
[5] Example: “Iowa’s GOP Platform Endorses Birtherism”, Annie-Rose Strasser, Think Progress, May 22, 2012, thinkprogress.org/...
[6] Refutation: “Birth Certificate. Is Barack Obama's birth certificate a forgery?”, David Mikkelson, Snopes, July 22, 2012, www.snopes.com/...
[7] Refutation: “Born in the U.S.A. The truth about Obama's birth certificate.”, FactCheck.org, August 21, 2008, www.factcheck.org/...
[8] Example: “Texas Tea Party Leader On Obama: He ‘Might Be Muslim’ ”, George Zornick, Think Progress, Feb 9th, 2011, thinkprogress.org/...
[9] Refutation: “Obama is not a Christian?”, Timothy Stanley, CNN, February 8, 2015, www.cnn.com/...
[10] Refutation: “Lawrence O’Donnell Takes On Steve King Regarding ‘Obama And The Muslim Question’ ”, Alex Alvarez, Mediaite, February 9th, 2011, www.mediaite.com/...
[11] Refutation: “Lie After Lie After Lie: What Colin Powell Knew Ten Years Ago Today and What He Said”, Jonathan Schwarz, Huffington Post, Feb. 5, 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/...
[12] Refutation: “Ten Appalling Lies We Were Told About Iraq”, Christopher Scheer, AlterNet, June 27, 2003, www.alternet.org/...
[13] Refutation: “Truth from These Podia. Summary of a Study of Strategic Influence, Perception Management, Strategic Information Warfare and Strategic Psychological Operations in Gulf II.”, Sam Gardiner, Sept. 8, 2003, www.informationclearinghouse.info/...
[14] Refutation: “How the Bush administration sold the Iraq war”, Michael Isikoff, MSNBC, Feb, 16, 2013, www.msnbc.com/...
[15] Refutation: “Engineering consent: The New York Times' role in promoting war on Iraq”, Antony Loewenstein, Sydney Morning Herald, March 23, 2004, www.informationclearinghouse.info/...
[16] Example: “The Obama administration is planning a second-term attack on gun rights”, Wayne LaPierre, Daily Caller, Dec. 12, 2011, dailycaller.com/...
[17] Example: “NRA: The U.N. Is Coming For Your Guns, Send Us Your Money Today!”, Chris Brown, Political Correction, August 19, 2011, politicalcorrection.org/...
[18] Refutation: “Obama's gun actions absolutely legal, profoundly right”, Laurence H. Tribe, CNN, January 5, 2016, www.cnn.com/...
[19] Refutation: “The Right To Bear Arms”, Warren E. Burger, Parade Magazine, January 14, 1990, www.guncite.com/...
[20] Example: “A New Low In Anti-Muslim American Bias”, Dean Obeidallah, CNN, Sept. 19, 2014, www.cnn.com/...
[21] Example: “Heritage’s ugly Benghazi panel”, Dana Milbank, Washington Post, June 16, 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/...
[22] Refutation: “Fear, Inc. 2.0: The Islamophobia Network’s Efforts to Manufacture Hate in America”, Matthew Duss, Yasmine Taeb, Ken Gude, Ken Sofer, The Center for American Progress, February 11, 2015, www.americanprogress.org/...
[23] Refutation: “Chris Christie slams fearmongering over Sharia law”, Chris Moody, The Ticket, Aug 4, 2011, www.yahoo.com/...
[24] Example: “ABC News' Ingraham: Immigrant Humanitarian Crisis Is ‘An Invasion Facilitated By Our Own Government’ ”, Solange Uwimana, Media Matters, June 3, 2014, mediamatters.org/...
[25] Refutation: “GOP should remember: Data show immigrants enforce, not threaten, US values”, Daniel Allott, Christian Science Monitor, July 10, 2013, www.csmonitor.com/...
[26] Refutation: “Jeb Bush: Immigration is not a felony but an act of love”, Dana Davidsen, CNN, April 6, 2014, politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/...
[27] Example: “Study: Climate change disbelievers get most column space in U.S. and UK newspapers”, Leo Hickman, The Guardian, Oct. 5, 2012, www.rawstory.com/...
[28] Example: “Fox boss ordered staff to cast doubt on climate science”, Ben Dimiero, Media Matters, December 15, 2010, mediamatters.org/...
[29] Refutation: “Debunking the Denial: ‘16 Years of No Global Warming’ ”, Phil Plait, Slate, Jan 14, 2013, www.slate.com/...
[30] Refutation: “Fox News botches climate-change coverage”, Erik Wemple, Washington Post, April 7, 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/...
[31] Refutation: “A Triumph of Misinformation”, James Fallows, The Atlantic, January, 1995, www.theatlantic.com/...
[32] Refutation: “Lie of the Year [2010]: ‘A government takeover of health care’ ”, By Bill Adair, Angie Drobnic Holan, Politifact, December 16th, 2010, www.politifact.com/...
[33] Refutation: “Impacts of Four Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Education Programs, Final Report”, Christopher Trenholm, Barbara Devaney, Ken Fortson, Lisa Quay, Justin Wheeler, Melissa Clark, Mathematica Policy Research, April 2007, aspe.hhs.gov/...
[34] Refutation: “The Abstinence Gluttons”, Michael Reynolds, The Nation, May 31, 2007, www.thenation.com/...
[35] Refutation: “A disaster for abstinence ideology”, Esther Kaplan, Talk2Action, May 25, 2006, www.talk2action.org/...
[36] Refutation: “The Impact of the Recovery Act on Economic Growth”, Mark Zandi, Written testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Senate, October 29, 2009, www.economy.com/...
[37] Refutation: “Five myths about the Bush tax cuts”, William G. Gale, Washington Post, August 1, 2010, www.washingtonpost.com/...
[38] Refutation: “Do the rich save more?”, Karen Dynan, Jonathan Skinner, Stephen Zeldes, Natl. Bureau of Economic Research, Sept., 2000, www.nber.org/...
[39] Refutation: “A Wall of Separation”, James Hutson, Library of Congress Information Bulletin, June, 1998, www.loc.gov/...
[40] Refutation: “Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Article 11”, U.S. treaty signed at Tripoli, November 4, 1796, avalon.law.yale.edu/...
[41] “The fact-checks behind 'The Daily Show's' 50 Fox news 'lies' ”, Politifact, Feb. 26, 2015, www.politifact.com/...