2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumEnough of the media's Republican-friendly reverse logic!
The country is being fed some reverse logic by our media.
They would have us believe that we need to take Donald Trump seriously as as candidate for President of the United States by virtue of being duly chosen by the primary process of the Republican Party. The Republican Party is, after all, the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. If that party nominated Trump, the media pundits logic goes, he is in some august company, and therefore there is more to him than meets the eye or ear.
But the Republican Party is also the party of Warren Harding, Richard Nixon and Dick Cheney (dba G.W. Bush), not to mention Darryl Issa, Steve King, Joni Ernst, Louie Gohmert, Fox News, and Herman Cain. They are the party of Watergate, Iran-Contra, the Iraq invasion scam, the Clinton impeachment, 8 years of obstructing Obama for the thinly disguised sin of his fathers DNA, and climate change denial. Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower wouldnt have been able to win a Republican primary for street sweeper these days, much less higher office. Twenty years of having Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdoch and Rush Limbaugh telling them what they believe have had the desired effect. Well, AN effect, anyway. The nomination of Donald Trump has woken up even some Republicans to what has become of them. They now have a nominee that stands for nothing. Trump doesnt take a stand. He does stand-up.
Thus my observation/accusation that the media is using reverse logic on us. Trump is not deserving of being attributed some magically acquired gravitas simply by virtue of being nominated by the Republican Party. It is the Republican Party that is deserving of our utmost contempt for devolving into a party can nominate the likes of Donald Trump for President, and still ask to be taken seriously. They have resources at their disposal that need to be taken seriously, dont get me wrong. The Kochs are pumping a billion dollars (or more) into their candidates this election, and other serious money is flowing in their direction as well, even if good will, patriotism and sanity are not. But these resources are not due to a groundswell of support from tens of millions of voters. They can be withdrawn at a whim if the owners get offended or simply decide not to play any more. Subtract the big money from the equation, and Republicans Beverly Hills villa becomes an unheated damp wooden shack in Appalachia whose tap water causes cancer in children.
We do have to take Trump, the nominee, seriously, at least for two more months. But this is for the threat he presents to our country. The party that willingly chose him is no longer deserving of being taken seriously except as a clear and present danger. How much longer the media will choose to ignore this is anyones guess. Except for Putins Russia and North Korea, one would be hard-pressed to find citizens of ANY other country that express something other than a mixture of horror and disbelief at Americanot only for Trumps candidacy, but over the party that put him there. (Suzy Creamcheese, what's got into ya?)
Maybe the Republican Party is not yet an unsafe brand that needs to be taken off the shelves entirely, but they have been offering a lot of toxic product of late. The medias responsibility to the public does not stop at having found that out. Their responsibility, once they HAVE found that out, is to tell us.
jodymarie aimee
(3,975 posts)Magnificently said. You do DU proud.
handmade34
(22,757 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)That's because they have no leader.
DFW
(54,437 posts)After all, mob ruel doesn't necessarily need a leader, but you're right. A political party DOES. And they have none. No standard bearer to set the tone, to enunciate policy (of course, that's no easy task when they don't have one to enunciate).
But when their most "eloquent (wrong word, I know)" spokespeople are personalities on Fox Noise and National Hate Radio, with actual politicians like Mitch McTurtle getting in the occasional soundbyte, they are indeed a rudderless boat, albeit one loaded with bunker-buster bombs and toxic waste. But they have no one like a Howard Dean, who was indeed an eloquent and forceful voice for us while we were in the opposition. Preibus is like a bookmarker--he holds the place, but adds nothing to the narrative. Trump can't really be said to be their leader either. A party leader has a message. Trump doesn't have "a" message. He has 78 of them, half of which contradict the other half.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)He's just not subtle about it.
BTW: Have you seen his "Make America Safe Again" ad?
It shows scary dark skinned people vs a WHITE family.
DFW
(54,437 posts)So I don't see any of that stuff
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)DFW
(54,437 posts)At least some other are writing about this as well.
Thanks for the link!
BumRushDaShow
(129,450 posts)That article not only knocked it outta the park, it knocks it right to the moon!
BumRushDaShow
(129,450 posts)DFW
(54,437 posts)You'd have to be a Republican to miss it!
BumRushDaShow
(129,450 posts)although there are a few who didn't miss it and an even smaller fraction who have been willing to at least bemoan the fact that their party has been hijacked and even call it out. I think those are the ones who are choosing not to vote for their party's standard-bearer. The fact that the Dallas Morning News did what they did still has me doing this -->
DFW
(54,437 posts)Usually the home town paper goes through all sorts of intellectual contortions to find SOME reason to endorse the Republican nominee. That they didn't do so this year is a strong statement of their inability to find SOME way to endorse the man whom their fellow Republicans nominated.