Trump, authoritarian and fascist forces have taken over the Republican Party, which is no secret for anyone with their political eyes open or anyone here at KOS. America’s rather limiting two party system has a gigantic flaw in it that has been driven through by a GOP tractor trailer. It assumes both parties are on the same page and have agreed to certain operating principals and respects certain political lines and does not endorse crossing those lines. Their other unwritten agreement was that they both one believed in a democratic form of capitalism.
National Media Neutrality is not Neutral
Neither of these premises exist anymore except in the mind of the corporate media. It still gives equal time, more or less, to reporting what both parties say. Even though its corporate nature seems to favor the Republic side of economic arguments. And the Democratic side on some cultural matters.
Even corporate news not directly tied to the Republican right can be expected to maintain so-called neutrality and report the statements of Republican fascists like Trump and other authoritarian mouthpieces without judgement or commentary. No matter how reactionary, terroristic or ridiculous. In this way, figures like Trump have been able to play the media like a fiddle and make fascistic rhetoric appear “normal.”
A prime recent example are Trump’s incoherent ramblings about calling for a special election related to charges allegedly covered up by the FBI over Hunter Biden’s alleged laptop. I almost expect we will also soon hear more recycled Bengazi anti-Hillary rhetoric added to the fire. The Republicans know that all the stale spaghetti stories they toss out daily to the corporate media will be faithfully reported, no matter how false, baseless or ridiculous. I have not encountered one article in the major media that mentions how politically impossible and irrelevant this Hunter Biden story is.
Nor will the corporate media ask Republicans tough but honest questions. Like when Senator Graham recently promised “riots in the streets” if Trump is indicted. I understand Graham’s reluctance to answer questions on his statements, but most outlets faithfully reported the statement without comments or opinions. Can you imagine media commentary if Biden promised Black Lives Matter riots in the streets if there were no police reforms passed?
The National Media will never call a Fascist a Fascist
There never has, nor there ever will be, an acknowledgement of the fascist goals and intentions of the Republican Congress or of Trump himself. This leads us to what the Democratic leadership must do and up until recently has not done nearly enough of. Which is to counterattack and make lots of political noise and force the media to cover their side of major issues on a daily basis. Biden seems to finally have realized the necessity of making some major changes concerning messaging with his recent remark, which was actually a bit too kind, calling them “semi-fascists.”
Just as the Republicans decided to go all in on Trump, the Democratic leadership needs to develop a different path to counter the move towards fascism. Significant financial backing for the Republican fascists can be traced to elements from the same capitalist system that the leadership had tied itself too. This cannot help but delude the leadership’s ability to take forward looking, progressive and class-based positions.
Truth be told, the capitalist system is backed by the might and wealth of the federal government and revenue contributed by the taxation of millions of average Americans. Obama may have saved the capitalist banking systems in 2008, but he did so by loaning/advancing them billions of our own public dollars. In essence, the federal government so hated by that same capitalist class is their ultimate insurer. If the Democratic Party desires to be a permanent and reliable opponent of fascism, it cannot hope to succeed without major reforms in the way the capitalist system operates without responsibility or social consciousness. The two-party system is dead and cannot and should not be resurrected. Just as Republicans have sold their political souls to the MAGA monster they themselves helped create, the Democratic leadership needs to change the party’s class priorities away from blind support for Wall Street and move towards reform and a more equitable distribution of wealth.
The Wars to Come
I would add one more factor to the equation. Which is that the Republicans have revealed their willingness to try anything in favor of achieving their goals. No matter how destructive or dangerous it might be and no matter how much it costs or how much damage it will do to national interests.
This is especially true since the JD has the goods on Trump over his theft of national security documents. I’m expecting a major distraction campaign of epic proportions to be launched in the coming weeks. As they can be sure to get the corporate media to report faithfully on every aspect of their attacks. I trust that Biden and the leadership are expecting and preparing for it. And have learned the importance of responding to Republican rhetoric quickly in the same news cycle. Something Bill Clinton, whatever else you might think of his presidency, realized and practiced. I also expect Putin to pull off something as the mid-terms approach.