Media and political responsibility may seem like an unlikely combination for a blog topic, particularly in today’s divisive, antagonistic, and destructive political environment. However, what prompted me to write about it was a perplexing thought. That thought was the question of why the liberal media doesn’t directly call out, in no uncertain terms, the far-right republican fringe that is currently determining Washington’s political decisions.
I hear the cry that they are doing just that. True, but in an incomprehensibly muted way. Current Republican Party decisions are being controlled by a lunatic, naïve, politically uneducated, self-centered, myopic, and dumb, half-dozen or so Trumpers. So why is the liberal media not reacting with a full-court press.
However, the first question is why the vast majority of normal republicans are allowing this tiny fringe group to lead them around by the nose. (I know the response will be it’s because of the small majority they hold in the House of Representatives). What happened to guts, integrity and backbone? The idiotic stupidity of holding up aid to Ukraine is an excellent example of this ridiculous situation. I should perhaps add, here, that holding that approval up has nothing to do with policy, it is just this tiny group’s childish and dangerous wish to stop the government doing anything at all.
The current behavior of the liberal media is playing right into the hands of this lunatic fringe as well. Why are they not going for the jugular when so much is at stake for the future of the United States, and for democracy worldwide? The much-anticipated January’s Atlantic Magazine on Trump’s plans for his second term is a bright light in the otherwise dismal efforts of the liberal media to do their job. It defies belief that liberal journalists would not be lambasting the people who are planning Trump’s dictatorship, ridiculing the far-right republican lunatics, and blasting the republican majority for allowing these dangerous idiots to control their public image and policies. What are these journalists afraid of?
The simple answer would be that they are under orders from their bosses not to jeopardize sponsorship money, and I’m sure that’s part of it. Could they also be hedging their bets, in case Trump wins in 2024? That sort of cowardice is not only reprehensible, it’s downright dangerous, and totally undermines any integrity they might still have left. The far-right media seem to have no compunction about pushing their agenda, so why aren’t the sensible elements of left-leaning media doing the same thing? (I have deliberately left out the far-left lunatics, because they are playing the same distracting role as their lunatic opposites).
The goals of the “Trump for Dictator” planning group, and the current power of the fringe republican lunatics is not exactly hidden from view. They bask in their ability to attract media attention, and to talk about their plans. So why hasn’t the liberal media exposed them for the country-destroying charlatans that they are?
I hate to repeat myself, but it comes down to sensationalism. The Republican lunatics understand that the primary motivation of the media is “selling more newspapers”, and that means sensationalism dominates everything. The Left just doesn’t seem to understand that. Why not a headline that says, “DICTATORSHIP – TRUMP’S PLANNING GROUP EXPOSED”? Name names of the group, interview them, and then plaster their responses all over everywhere, and repeat, repeat, repeat: I am sure those people would love to be interviewed and given their “day in the sun”, so it would not be difficult.
People, we are talking about the loss of American democracy, the loss of the US’s place as a world power, the loss of democracy worldwide, and a dictatorship similar to Hitler, Mussolini, and Julius Caesar – remember, the dictatorship established by the latter lasted for 500 years as I reported last week. If that is not enough of an incentive for the liberal media to wake up, and pull out all the stops in their attack, then we may as well give up the country to Trump, the world to Putin and Xi, and all our hard-won freedoms to past memories.
Yes, that is mellow-dramatic, I know, but that doesn’t make it impossible. It is real, and the sooner we all wake up to that fact, the more likely we are to survive as a nation. The American dream, its democratic experiment, and democratic world-order are all on the line.
