The Right Wing Media's Civil War

In the past the right wing media from Fox News to blogs like Red State have provided a monolithic noise machine attacking Democrats and progressive policies while basically brainwashing its listeners.  It one of the reasons that much of the Republican Party base is so ill informed on so many issues even as the base reacts to the propaganda like Pavlov's dog.  Now, Donald Trump has thrown a wrench in the smooth running operation as some on the right find it impossible to support a serial liar and con-artist who is utterly unprepared and unfit to occupy the White House.  True, most of the right wing media continue to spin lies, but the cracks in the facade are growing as a piece in Salon examines.  Long term, this could be a very good thing for America.  Here are some column highlights:

What good is having a right-wing echo chamber if it’s not cranked up and blaring out a disciplined message during the presidential campaign? The conservative movement continues to grapple with that propaganda question in the wake of Donald Trump clinching the nomination, which has created deep fissures within the right-wing media and its historically united front.

For decades, conservatives have taken pride in their media bubble that not only keeps Republican fans selectively informed about breaking news, but also bashes away at all political foes. In full-fledged campaign mode, the right-wing media can effectively serve as a battering ram that Republicans use to attack their enemies or fend off in-coming volleys.

But Trump has scrambled that long-held equation. Embracing positions that often fall outside the orthodoxy of modern-day conservatism, while simultaneously rolling out non-stop insults, Trump has presented conservative pundits with a monumental headache: How do you defend a creation like Trump? Or as one National Review Trump headline lamented last month, “What’s a Conservative to Do?” 

That riddle is especially tricky when Trump puts would-be allies in the uncomfortable position of having to defend the truly indefensible, like the widening scandal surrounding Trump University, the presumptive nominee’s former real estate seminar business. Over the years the dubious venture has been the subject of several ongoing fraud investigations and lawsuits, including one by the state of New York on behalf of 5,000 alleged victims.
 The strange part? Some key conservative voices agree with the Democrat’s legal assessment. That’s why back in February, a National Review writer denounced the Trump seminars as “a massive scam.” And last month,The Weekly Standard warned that Trump U. represented a “political time bomb” that could doom the candidate’s November chances: “Democrats will see to that.” 

 [W]atching the conservative media this campaign season: It’s been completely knocked off its game. Known for its regimented messaging and willingness to almost robotically defend any Republican front-runner and nominee, Trump is finding only a smattering of defenders when it comes to damning allegations about his scam seminars.

And when Trump recently escalated the Trump U. story by attacking Judge Gonzalo Curiel and insisted he couldn’t be impartial because of his “Mexican heritage,” the presumptive nominee found himself even further isolated within the conservative movement.
 As The Atlantic noted after reviewing previously secret training materials for Trump U., “the playbook focuses on the seminars’ real purpose: to browbeat attendees into purchasing expensive Trump University course packages.” According to an affidavit from former student Richard Hewson, he and his wife “concluded that we had paid over $20,000 for nothing, based on our belief in Donald Trump and the promises made at the free seminar and three-day workshop.” . . . . The con appeared to touch every aspect of the real estate selling events. 

Even Trump’s fiercest media defender, Breitbart.com, has taken a timid approach to the Trump U. fraud story, with the site refusing to offer up a full-throated defense of the alleged scam.

The ferocious conservative echo chamber isn’t built for nuance and it’s not designed for internal debate. But by sparking so much general dissention and by putting conservatives in the position of having to defend something as noxious as Trump U., the nominee is helping to mute the right-wing media voice this campaign season.

Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee Whore Themselves to Kim Davis Followers

Money grubbing whores

If one wants to the degradation that has overcome the Republican Party, look no farther than Mike Huckabee - a snake oil peddling pastor who wants to put the Bible over the Constitution - and foreign born Ted Cruz.  Yesterday at a rally for four times married Kim Davis, there were few limits to how low either man would stoop to pander to the ugliest and most ignorant elements of the GOP base.  It was a frightening spectacle to behold in terms of the ignorance and bigotry that defined the crowd.  Perhaps the only humors part was when a Huckabee staffer blocked Cruz from sharing the stage with Huckabee who did everything but wear a sign that proclaimed that he is lower than a tawdry whore.   A piece in Salon looks at the spectacle and the goal of Huckabee and Cruz, each of whom are desperate to capture the knuckle dragging, Bible beating GOP primary voters.  Or are they?  Is it instead all about money and staying in demand on the wingnut speaking circuit?  Here are column excerpts: 

The best part of Kim Davis’s release from jail on Tuesday was how, well, campy it all seemed.

The entrance to “Eye of the Tiger.” The almost comical ecstasy of Davis’s skyward pose. In another light, it might have been a “Flashdance” outtake.

Is Mike Huckabee a “Flashdance” fan? Somehow it doesn’t seem to jibe with his whole deal. But there he was, right next to Davis, holding her hand, grooving on the rapturous reception. And why not? Huckabee had worked hard to get to that prime position. Had it not been for a crafty aide, he might have had to share the stage with Ted Cruz, his rival for the Republican presidential nomination. Luckily, the aide physically blocked Cruz from reaching Davis in time to join the fun.

[T]he cause that Kim Davis is fighting for is a doomed one. Her deputies have pledged to defy her if she continues to insist that they refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Nearly every single demographic group is becoming more comfortable with gay marriage, including young evangelicals. In their desperation to claim a piece of Davis’s fleeting celebrity, Huckabee and Cruz looked like nothing so much as the Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender after World War II had ended.

[B]oth of them are dyed-in-the-wool Christian conservative homophobes who don’t believe in equal rights for LGBT people. Fair enough. But Huckabee and Cruz are supposedly running for president as well, which means that they’re ostensibly trying to appeal to a somewhat broader section of the electorate than the dwindling numbers who are cheering on Kim Davis.

Here’s the thing, though: Neither man is actually running for president—not seriously, anyway.

Huckabee has long since stopped trying to become president; we’re talking about a man who declined to run in 2012 so that he could keep hosting a weekend show on Fox News. He’s the perfect symbol of the way in which the Republican primary has come to resemble a giant sack with a dollar sign painted on it. It doesn’t matter to Huckabee if he loses; what matters is that he keeps his name in the conversation so that he can maintain his extracurricular business activities. . . . There’s more money to be made pandering to the edges of the evangelical fringe.

Cruz actually has a day job, so he’s not as thirsty for cash. But he’s still targeting the same fanatical followers as Huckabee. Since he first stepped on the national stage, Cruz has made a career out of cheerfully destroying the Republican party from within. His fellow GOP senators loathe him to no end, but he’s already decided that they’re a constituency he doesn’t need to worry about. The run for the presidency is just his way of cementing his place at the top of the far-right food chain.

Luckily, none of this will matter too much in the long run. The Japanese soldiers eventually had to concede that they’d lost the war, and Huckabee, Cruz and even Kim Davis herself face the exact same fate.

A cynical analysis?  Perhaps.  But I suspect it is 100% on target.