As incendiary and dangerous as he is — and he is very dangerous — and as much of a main event as he has been in this election season, Donald Trump is largely a distraction from what really ails our political discourse. Long after he is gone from the scene, the Republican Party that engendered him, facilitated him, and now supports him — despite a severe case of buyer’s remorse — will no doubt still thrive, booting up for a future candidacy of Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or Paul Ryan. And the media will still act as if Trump were an aberration, a departure from so-called “sensible” conservatism. If so, it will be yet another act of media dereliction.
During the Republican primaries many of us grew frustrated by what we called Trump TV. Every time one would turn on cable TV news, one would see or hear about Trump. Worse, the cable news stations would break away from its coverage to report on a Trump event. The TV industry helped to make Trump. Trump also knows how to use the medium to his full advantage. Trump essentially received free air coverage without having to run ads about himself or his agenda.
In fact, worse than dereliction, because the Republican Party, with its history of dog-whistle racism, sexism, homophobia, nativism, and gun addiction, salted now by incipient fascism, has been legitimized by the mainstream media for years. One could say that the GOP and MSM have operated in collusion to the great detriment of this country. One could say that and not even be a liberal, just a commonsensical American.
It is hardly a stretch to suggest the GOP and MSM have operated in collusion. Just take a look at the Sunday morning talk shows. All are dominated by Republican guests. The hosts ask soft ball questions and few follow-up when a guest tells a tall tale or stretches the truth. The hosts rarely grill a Republican guest. “We’re going to leave it right there” can follow a whopper and it is usually the wrap up. I stopped watching Meet the Press years ago because David Gregory and Chuck Todd turned the show into Meet the Republicans or Meet the Apologists for Republicans.
The MSM continue to treat the Republican Party as if it were just another constellation of ideology and policy — another way of governing the country, even though this campaign season, if not the last 30 years, should have disabused journalists of that notion. Today’s GOP is closer to a religious cult than a political institution. It operates on dogma, sees compromise as a moral failing, views enemies as pagans who must be vanquished, and considers every policy skirmish another Götterdämmerung.
The Tea Party faction certainly made compromise a deadly sin. And there is no doubt that many within the right wing literally lost their minds when President Obama won in 2008. Every closeted racist in the country crawled out of their rat holes.
That isn’t politics; it’s a modern version of the medieval Crusades, and as the ancient Crusades did to Europe, it has inflicted untold damage on our country. Because it is deep in the bones of the Republicans, it won’t end with Trump, who is a non-believer himself when it comes to conservative orthodoxy. It can only end with the extinction of the party itself as presently constituted — Cruz, Ryan, Rubio, McConnell, et al. — and the rise of a new conservative party, not a cult.
The author suggests the MSM is reluctant to call the GOP for what it has become due to the requirement of “deadly balance” and tit for tat journalism. “Both sides do it.”
No we don’t.
Part of this is laziness. Part is fear. The press knows that if it were to come right out and criticize the GOP for its denial of climate change, its campaign to deny the LGBT community its civil rights, its efforts to strip food stamps from children and health insurance from the poor, its systematic attempts to suppress minority voters, its recent howl to protect the Second-Amendment rights of suspected terrorists while at the same time calling for greater surveillance of us all, there would be hell to pay from the right wing, which would invoke the mythical and dreaded “liberal media.” The historian and columnist Eric Alterman calls this “working the refs,” and the MSM fall for it every time.
The author criticizes the MSM for its refusal to discuss “boring” policy values. It instead focuses on strategy, election horse races, who’s up in the polls, who’s winning, who’s losing, blah, blah, blah.
Avoiding talking about values is one of the reasons we find ourselves in our current political situation. Doing so might have stopped the threat of Donald Trump. Thirty years ago, it might even have stopped the march of the current Republican Party; its values could have been exposed as indefensible, which could have shamed them (and us) into changing. There is a reason the Republicans contrived the slogan “compassionate conservatism.” It was because even they knew their compassion was dubious. It would have been nice to have the MSM examine that, though, of course, it would have required both the courage to buck the right-wing, who would howl, and the seriousness to discuss just how important values are in our politics. In some measure, because we never got that discussion, for three decades the GOP has gotten off scot-free.
Now that a fascist is running as the GOP Presidential nominee the November election will be about whom we choose to be as a people.
This isn’t about whom we elect as president. It goes much deeper. This is about who we want to be as a people. For three decades, the MSM have been collaborators with the GOP, pretending the cult is a normal party with values just to the right of center. The result is the proto-fascist Donald Trump and an institution that continues to legitimize what is worst in us.
This is a chilling scenario that confronts all of us, our children and grandchildren’s futures. If nothing has motivated us to vote in the past, this is the time to galvanize.
Fortunately Democrats have a far, far more viable and accomplished candidate in Hillary Clinton. I know the Bernie Sanders’ supporters are not overjoyed by a Clinton candidacy. But wake up voters. I can see Bernie joining the Clinton administration in a major role, just as Clinton joined Obama’s in 2008. Democrats pull together. We are a coalition of groups that care about our country and its future. It’s not about me. It’s about us.
This is the most important election of our life times.
It is up to make sure Trump never gets anywhere near the White House.
Meanwhile, here in Houston, Democratic activists gathered on Friday night to listen to an area Civil Right’s icon, the Reverend William Lawson, speak. He reminded us about the quiet desegregation of Houston in the 1960’s. The Reverend is 88 years old. He has many stories to share about the battle against hatred and the segregation of people. It is a cause well worth fighting. An aura of peaceful strength and dignity surrounds the Reverend. He didn’t necessarily pick his battles but when the struggle for justice needed him, Rev. Lawson stepped up.
Reverend Lawson cautioned our group that ethics did not drive the fight to de-segregate Houston. Bottom line. Houston did not want to be depicted as another Birmingham, as in beating, killing and arresting African Americans who fought against Southern segregation.
Economic opportunities at the time, i.e. the Houston Ship Channel, Shell Oil Co. and the promise of NASA forced the city away from the Southern hate train. Let’s pull together to put a stop to Donald Trump's and his Party's malignant bigotry.
Rev. William Lawson, June 24, 2016, Molly Ivins Final Fridays, the Houston Heights
Comments are closed on this story.