Shooting immigrants or homeless people is for some RWNJs, like shooting wolves, but not all pundits or GOP candidates are Joe Rogan or Todd Akin. Dems may be throwing money at GOP candidate primaries while crying wolf, thereby defining a brand of “wise use” democrat. Closer general election races cannot always be marginal choices when good money can be thrown after bad.
Democratic Party groups have intervened in several Republican Party primary races this cycle by running ads which describe particular candidates as Trumpists who are too extreme for their states. When those candidates win, journalists and right-wing pundits point to the Democratic spending and suggest that it shows the party is not serious in its warnings that such candidates pose a threat to democracy.
I don’t think it is wise for Democrats to spend money this way. But reporters are missing a key aspect of the story: To the extent that the Democratic ads are working, it is because given the opportunity, the Republican base wants to nominate illiberal, antidemocratic candidates. The GOP’s extremism is a demand-side problem.
Take Tuesday’s Maryland gubernatorial primary. Larry Hogan, a Republican Trump critic, had governed the blue state for eight years. Facing term limits, he supported as his successor Kelly Schulz, who had served as commerce secretary and labor secretary in his administration. Schulz’s opponent was state Del. Dan Cox, a QAnon adherent and election conspiracy theorist who described former Vice President Mike Pence as a “traitor” for refusing to subvert the 2020 presidential election on Donald Trump’s behalf. Trump endorsed Cox in November; the next day, Hogan described the candidate as a “wackjob.”
www.mediamatters.org/...
Wolf attacks on livestock boost the electoral fortunes of candidates of far-right political parties, according to a new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study analyzed data from Germany, where wolves have been reintroduced in recent decades following their eradication in the 20th century. Wolf attacks on livestock, which were virtually unheard of prior to 2000, now occur hundreds of times per year.
The authors found that when a wolf attack occurred in a German municipality, candidates in the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party – which is skeptical of immigration, opposed to gay marriage and promotes climate denial – received a larger share of the vote in the following election. AfD candidates for federal office received a bump of just a couple percentage points, while state candidates saw increases ranging from 5 to 10 points. The results held even when controlling for various social and demographic factors.
https://t.co/fyDnE7hmUf