Our Failed Political Press ™ are throwing the Republicans a life preserver. It is in the press’ best interest.
As Eric points out there is no Trumpism, there is only Republicans. I keep reminding myself that Trump won the primary with more votes than any Republican in that Party’s history. He didn’t bamboozle them, THEY embraced him so much that there was no Republican Party Platform at the 2020 nominating convention, except a bland statement that they support Donald Trump. Think about that.
No, our Failed Political Press ™ needs to have two parties to continue their lazy journalism that there are always Both Sides. If they admit that one of our two parties is full of crazy people, then they have to admit that they’ve been wrong since at least the Reagan era. And they also would have to admit that the Left has been correct all this time, and that the Press themselves have been wrong for 40 years.
That’s quite a losing streak. Who is going to listen to, believe in, and continue to read someone who’s got it wrong for 40 years?
I have always struggled to understand why the press has stayed so White and male even as the world has changed around them.
Similarly, since at least Reagan, the Press has needed to see themselves as relevant, accurate and truthful. The Washington Post with the Pentagon Papers, The Boston Globe with the Catholic Priest child rape stories… this canon of The Fourth Estate being so great for democracy gets a ton of ink. I’m sure it would be true if we had a democracy.
My guess is the press would be better if we had a better democracy. I wonder which will come first? Will the press become less anti-Black first or will Black women keep pushing the ball forward to a point that our government will start representing the will of the majority of people and the press will, like they did with Stacy Abrams, start to run more stories on how Black women are actually helping this country become a better place for everyone…
"...all the intellectual cover of the right had been this tiny, thin layer on top of... something or other..."
Um, RACISM. It's been clear to us all along, but Sykes and Will still resist admitting what this "ugly something" is that has been driving the Republicon Party to this moment of anti-democratic, cult-of-personality fascism since the 1960s. Our government now takes seriously it's responsibility to protect minorities from the majority's complicit and complacent support of systemic oppression, instead of simply restricting the minorities' ability to oppose the majority. So now conservatives oppose government.
Comes back to the 1619 Project and the fierce resistance to it from the right. The Project reveals the deep hatred and cruelty felt by white slave owners and those whites in power toward their fellow human beings way before 1776, and the ends they went to in order to keep Blacks ‘in their place’ to deny them wealth, dignity and humanity and the right to govern. Today’s characterless Rs are made in that slave owner image and refuse/won’t/can’t see themselves for who they are, but I bet it feels good harboring all that hatred and resentment under their well tailored suits. Disgusting.
White people like this author need to call out racism. And we all need to link it to the oppression we see today.
Not all oppression is systemic racism backed by our elected officials, but all racist laws and actions by our government is oppressive.
Saying that it is not just Trump is a great start and is true. But the reason we have the GOP today has a lot more to do with racism and keeping the poor from uniting than the author gets into.
This is rather like scene towards the end of “Atlas Shrugged” where they are torturing John Galt, and are forced to realize that they’re in love with cruelty, death, and suffering - they’re anti-life.
The difference is that they’re not horrified by the knowledge - they’re liberated by it.
George Will and the like have spent their whole careers building an elaborate facade over the essential nature of conservatism: do unto others because you know they’ll do you if you let them.
No kidding. Do you think Will was out of the country when it was revealed that the Bush II administration had fired US attorneys - appointed by Bush - who had refused to bring phony voter fraud cases against Democrats? It was a huge scandal at the time and yet Sykes, Will, other “mainstream” Republicans as well as the mainstream media pretend they never heard about that.
More like "Do unto others and salve your conscience by acting like a victim and convincing yourself that they would have done it to you, even though they didn't." Call it "preemptive revenge," maybe.
The republicans are terrified by the knowledge that their 'old white mens' manifest destiny era is coming to a close, and there is nothing that they can do about it except adopt politics of exclusion at all costs. Appropriate that your "Good Stuff" followup covered the UNC journalism school fiasco. The bottom line is glaring; money, race, power. The founders' version of government of, by and for is a threat to them, and they'll kill it, "The People" be damned. You're right, journalists are one of the last lines of defense.
Exactly right! Trump's popularity is dwindling. His blog is floundering with little traffic. It's not Trump. It's the Republican Party that s hell bent on taking over this country on behalf of the billionaire class. It has been a goal decades in the making. They are a party who have no ideas for a majority who want progressive solutions. The only chance the Republicans have to regain power is to cheat and that is the only thing they are good at. Think about Memorial Day yesterday. Today's Republicans disgrace the honor of all those fallen heroes with the intent of destroying the very democracy our military died to protect. Trump gave everyone permission to remove the hoods. The Republicans are simply using Trump as an excuse as to why they will do nothing on behalf of the American people. And sadly, it boils down to the press who refuse to report the truth.
I don't buy that Sykes and Will had no idea what conservatism is all about after living through the racism and above-the-law behavior as far back as the Nixon and Reagan administrations. Iran-Contra was a huge, corrupt ordeal, to say nothing of Watergate. And Nixon's strategy of attracting the votes of the Dixiecrats post-Civil Rights Act is simply a matter of fact at this point for the Republican Party.
Blaming the FG is the easy way to report on the current behavior of the republicans. It’s been too hard for the main stream/ beltway press to report the truth for at least the last four years. And probably longer. The republicans no longer believe in the democratic principles on which this country was founded. Their only motivation is keeping power and making money. Period.
Present company excluded......I have come to realize that many in the press lack the critical thinking skills necessary to confront reality. There is context to all of this and far too many (very well known and "popular") journalists lack the skill set required to observe and then contextualize the "big picture".........sadly, they are mostly stenographers.
Why do people use phrases like “democratic principles on which this country was founded” when this country is FAR more democratic now than it was when it was founded. It’s stunning to read following a statement about how the press is only now finding it difficult to report the truth.
The truth is that 100 years ago today a mob of White terrorists were killing Black people and burning their homes and their businesses in Tulsa. The press did not report that truth then and most of them have never reported it.
The truth is that Black Lives >>DON’T<< matter to people who govern and never have. The truth is that the lives of women and LGBT lives don’t matter either.
Wealth matters. White Supremacy matters. Election manipulation has ALWAYS been the norm. We have never had a single election where even 70% of eligible voters had their voices counted. More than 70% of people pay their taxes. Why are not more than 70% represented in a government of their choosing? Isn’t that the definition of Democracy - a government chosen by each person getting one vote and every vote counting equally?
We don’t have that now. We have never had that. Black people have never chosen to be governed by racists who think of us as somehow different humans and not equal to White ones. The First People’s have ALWAYS voted and fought against their own genocide. That’s the truth. Report on that.
The Republicans have never been about democracy, with them it has always been about power and greed. They will sell America and it's people to the highest bidder from another country and we all know who that is. I think about their followers and how they will feel when we are invaded, will they still think they have privilege, or the guns they have to kill p.o.c. immigrants and people who don't look like them be used on the invaders. Just my thoughts
I was reading this as the TV was airing one of those 'scary music Nancy Pelosi yadda yadda' ads by an outfit called the American Action Network. Holy echoes of Jane Mayer, Batman, they don't need to disclose their donors, but its where defeated senators go when they appear to have dropped off the face of the planet (Norm Coleman). I'm convinced that is what has the Republican party in its grip: the dark money which the press relegates to the opinion pages, if it gets covered at all. Could it be the same need for cash has the press in its grip?
Eric- I would love to see a forum or gathering of journalists and media personalities with moderators who are black and brown (including Native Americans) have a conversation or reckoning about their own trajectory in reporting on race. I’m married to a black man and we have a daughter who is bi-racial (active in advocacy for Native A communities) and I thought I was ahead of everyone else until I realized I WASN’T. Some more known politicians and others have acknowledged the same. One moment that sticks in my mind was on Morning Joe where JS had Eddie Glaude Jr. as his expert on race. It was before hosts had the courage to call DJT a racist. Joe S cut EG off. It appeared demoralizing. I was really frustrated. There was a time not long ago where black and brown journalists were recognized only when they talked about racism and policing.
Eric, I think it's possible that both explanations for GOP behavior are correct. Otherwise, why did Rs who initially condemned the Capitol riot subsequently change their tunes?
Two nominations for president from the Republican Party are the only things Donald Trump has ever gotten without cheating. Says a lot about the Republican Party, and any reporter other than a big-money national political reporter would see it.
Our Failed Political Press ™ are throwing the Republicans a life preserver. It is in the press’ best interest.
As Eric points out there is no Trumpism, there is only Republicans. I keep reminding myself that Trump won the primary with more votes than any Republican in that Party’s history. He didn’t bamboozle them, THEY embraced him so much that there was no Republican Party Platform at the 2020 nominating convention, except a bland statement that they support Donald Trump. Think about that.
No, our Failed Political Press ™ needs to have two parties to continue their lazy journalism that there are always Both Sides. If they admit that one of our two parties is full of crazy people, then they have to admit that they’ve been wrong since at least the Reagan era. And they also would have to admit that the Left has been correct all this time, and that the Press themselves have been wrong for 40 years.
That’s quite a losing streak. Who is going to listen to, believe in, and continue to read someone who’s got it wrong for 40 years?
This is perfect.
I have always struggled to understand why the press has stayed so White and male even as the world has changed around them.
Similarly, since at least Reagan, the Press has needed to see themselves as relevant, accurate and truthful. The Washington Post with the Pentagon Papers, The Boston Globe with the Catholic Priest child rape stories… this canon of The Fourth Estate being so great for democracy gets a ton of ink. I’m sure it would be true if we had a democracy.
My guess is the press would be better if we had a better democracy. I wonder which will come first? Will the press become less anti-Black first or will Black women keep pushing the ball forward to a point that our government will start representing the will of the majority of people and the press will, like they did with Stacy Abrams, start to run more stories on how Black women are actually helping this country become a better place for everyone…
"...all the intellectual cover of the right had been this tiny, thin layer on top of... something or other..."
Um, RACISM. It's been clear to us all along, but Sykes and Will still resist admitting what this "ugly something" is that has been driving the Republicon Party to this moment of anti-democratic, cult-of-personality fascism since the 1960s. Our government now takes seriously it's responsibility to protect minorities from the majority's complicit and complacent support of systemic oppression, instead of simply restricting the minorities' ability to oppose the majority. So now conservatives oppose government.
great pt
Comes back to the 1619 Project and the fierce resistance to it from the right. The Project reveals the deep hatred and cruelty felt by white slave owners and those whites in power toward their fellow human beings way before 1776, and the ends they went to in order to keep Blacks ‘in their place’ to deny them wealth, dignity and humanity and the right to govern. Today’s characterless Rs are made in that slave owner image and refuse/won’t/can’t see themselves for who they are, but I bet it feels good harboring all that hatred and resentment under their well tailored suits. Disgusting.
This is all true.
White people like this author need to call out racism. And we all need to link it to the oppression we see today.
Not all oppression is systemic racism backed by our elected officials, but all racist laws and actions by our government is oppressive.
Saying that it is not just Trump is a great start and is true. But the reason we have the GOP today has a lot more to do with racism and keeping the poor from uniting than the author gets into.
This is rather like scene towards the end of “Atlas Shrugged” where they are torturing John Galt, and are forced to realize that they’re in love with cruelty, death, and suffering - they’re anti-life.
The difference is that they’re not horrified by the knowledge - they’re liberated by it.
George Will and the like have spent their whole careers building an elaborate facade over the essential nature of conservatism: do unto others because you know they’ll do you if you let them.
hard to image folks like Will didn't know for decades the conservative movement was a con
No kidding. Do you think Will was out of the country when it was revealed that the Bush II administration had fired US attorneys - appointed by Bush - who had refused to bring phony voter fraud cases against Democrats? It was a huge scandal at the time and yet Sykes, Will, other “mainstream” Republicans as well as the mainstream media pretend they never heard about that.
As long as Will was profiting by it, sure, why not go along?
But wouldn’t he then have had to deny to himself his intellectually infallible self image?
More like "Do unto others and salve your conscience by acting like a victim and convincing yourself that they would have done it to you, even though they didn't." Call it "preemptive revenge," maybe.
The republicans are terrified by the knowledge that their 'old white mens' manifest destiny era is coming to a close, and there is nothing that they can do about it except adopt politics of exclusion at all costs. Appropriate that your "Good Stuff" followup covered the UNC journalism school fiasco. The bottom line is glaring; money, race, power. The founders' version of government of, by and for is a threat to them, and they'll kill it, "The People" be damned. You're right, journalists are one of the last lines of defense.
they have no plans to give up power w/o a fight.
Exactly right! Trump's popularity is dwindling. His blog is floundering with little traffic. It's not Trump. It's the Republican Party that s hell bent on taking over this country on behalf of the billionaire class. It has been a goal decades in the making. They are a party who have no ideas for a majority who want progressive solutions. The only chance the Republicans have to regain power is to cheat and that is the only thing they are good at. Think about Memorial Day yesterday. Today's Republicans disgrace the honor of all those fallen heroes with the intent of destroying the very democracy our military died to protect. Trump gave everyone permission to remove the hoods. The Republicans are simply using Trump as an excuse as to why they will do nothing on behalf of the American people. And sadly, it boils down to the press who refuse to report the truth.
I don't buy that Sykes and Will had no idea what conservatism is all about after living through the racism and above-the-law behavior as far back as the Nixon and Reagan administrations. Iran-Contra was a huge, corrupt ordeal, to say nothing of Watergate. And Nixon's strategy of attracting the votes of the Dixiecrats post-Civil Rights Act is simply a matter of fact at this point for the Republican Party.
I look forward to The NY Times headline. Maybe soon.
“IS AMERICA IN THE GRIP OF A REPUBLICAN FASCIST MOVEMENT ?“
“OPINIONS DIFFER” - will be the subhead
Blaming the FG is the easy way to report on the current behavior of the republicans. It’s been too hard for the main stream/ beltway press to report the truth for at least the last four years. And probably longer. The republicans no longer believe in the democratic principles on which this country was founded. Their only motivation is keeping power and making money. Period.
agreed, the press doesn't want to confront the shocking nature of GOP
Present company excluded......I have come to realize that many in the press lack the critical thinking skills necessary to confront reality. There is context to all of this and far too many (very well known and "popular") journalists lack the skill set required to observe and then contextualize the "big picture".........sadly, they are mostly stenographers.
Why do people use phrases like “democratic principles on which this country was founded” when this country is FAR more democratic now than it was when it was founded. It’s stunning to read following a statement about how the press is only now finding it difficult to report the truth.
The truth is that 100 years ago today a mob of White terrorists were killing Black people and burning their homes and their businesses in Tulsa. The press did not report that truth then and most of them have never reported it.
The truth is that Black Lives >>DON’T<< matter to people who govern and never have. The truth is that the lives of women and LGBT lives don’t matter either.
Wealth matters. White Supremacy matters. Election manipulation has ALWAYS been the norm. We have never had a single election where even 70% of eligible voters had their voices counted. More than 70% of people pay their taxes. Why are not more than 70% represented in a government of their choosing? Isn’t that the definition of Democracy - a government chosen by each person getting one vote and every vote counting equally?
We don’t have that now. We have never had that. Black people have never chosen to be governed by racists who think of us as somehow different humans and not equal to White ones. The First People’s have ALWAYS voted and fought against their own genocide. That’s the truth. Report on that.
The Republicans have never been about democracy, with them it has always been about power and greed. They will sell America and it's people to the highest bidder from another country and we all know who that is. I think about their followers and how they will feel when we are invaded, will they still think they have privilege, or the guns they have to kill p.o.c. immigrants and people who don't look like them be used on the invaders. Just my thoughts
I was reading this as the TV was airing one of those 'scary music Nancy Pelosi yadda yadda' ads by an outfit called the American Action Network. Holy echoes of Jane Mayer, Batman, they don't need to disclose their donors, but its where defeated senators go when they appear to have dropped off the face of the planet (Norm Coleman). I'm convinced that is what has the Republican party in its grip: the dark money which the press relegates to the opinion pages, if it gets covered at all. Could it be the same need for cash has the press in its grip?
Norm Coleman!
Eric- I would love to see a forum or gathering of journalists and media personalities with moderators who are black and brown (including Native Americans) have a conversation or reckoning about their own trajectory in reporting on race. I’m married to a black man and we have a daughter who is bi-racial (active in advocacy for Native A communities) and I thought I was ahead of everyone else until I realized I WASN’T. Some more known politicians and others have acknowledged the same. One moment that sticks in my mind was on Morning Joe where JS had Eddie Glaude Jr. as his expert on race. It was before hosts had the courage to call DJT a racist. Joe S cut EG off. It appeared demoralizing. I was really frustrated. There was a time not long ago where black and brown journalists were recognized only when they talked about racism and policing.
Eric, I think it's possible that both explanations for GOP behavior are correct. Otherwise, why did Rs who initially condemned the Capitol riot subsequently change their tunes?
To be fair, the headline here doesn't work. The republic party isn't descending into madness. It has been there for decades.
Two nominations for president from the Republican Party are the only things Donald Trump has ever gotten without cheating. Says a lot about the Republican Party, and any reporter other than a big-money national political reporter would see it.