(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
The NY Times: Oblivious that Fascism has gone mainstream in America, and it's name is GOP [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2023-05-25
Take a look at this and tell how it differs from what the Republican Party stands for today. The NY Times won't.
There is a stomach turning exercise now happening in The NY Times, where a panel of thought leaders take turns discussing the assorted candidates fighting for the Republican Party 2024 presidential nomination within a carefully limited framework. The words of wisdom in the latest installment are coming from David Brooks, Bret Stephens, Michelle Goldberg, Rosie Gray, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Michelle Cottle, David French, Jane Coaston, Daniel McCarthy, and Ross Douthat.
The most useful thing about it is the graphic at the top of each assessment where they show the faces of these very serious people plotted on an axis that shows how each of them thinks a candidate should be ranked from weaker to stronger. Clicking on their portraits pulls up a quote summarizing their assessment.
They began with Nikki Haley on February 15, Asa Hutchinson on April 28, Tim Scott on May 23, and now Ron DeSantis on May 25. So far the plots show their consensus is that DeSantis is the strongest candidate — although on a scale of 1 to 10, I have a suspicion that they’ve assumed Trump is at 10. (Meatball Ron doesn’t get more than a 7 from most of them.)
Needless to say, this is pure horse-race political analysis. All they’re really looking at is how each of them stack up as potential voter getters, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and who stands the best chance of winning. (Not much discussion of Biden so far, at least nothing beyond “he’s too old” and should not even be running.)
Here are the questions presented to the panel in this format:
How seriously should we take (fill in the blank) candidacy?
What matters most about him/her as a presidential candidate?
What do you find most inspiring — or unsettling — about his/her vision for America?
Imagine you’re a G.O.P. operative or campaign manager. What’s your elevator pitch for a (fill in the blank) candidacy?
Pretty much missing from all of this is any discussion of how any of these candidates would address real problems, or what those problems even are. Taken as a given is that all of these candidates are now considered mainstream; none of them are proposing anything that is automatically off the table.
The current piece on Ron DeSantis is particularly egregious. There’s only one mention of Ukraine, 2 mentions of abortion, 1 on impeachment. There’s nothing on climate, the economy, race relations, gun violence, China, or Russia. It also gives a look at the biases each of them brings to the discussion. Compare and contrast these two answers to “What do you find most inspiring — or unsettling — about his vision for America?”:
Goldberg Of all the Republican candidates, DeSantis is the most likely to govern as an American Viktor Orban. He’s been relentless and at times very effective — despite his Twitter broadcast — in using the power of the state to persecute his enemies and impose his ideology. A DeSantis presidency would represent a more orderly and disciplined kind of authoritarianism than we saw with Trump.
versus:
McCarthy Higher education wields enormous power over American life but is disproportionately the preserve of a single party and political outlook. DeSantis has a vision of greater representation, balance and intellectual diversity in Florida’s universities, and ultimately America’s. It’s an inspiring vision that shifts conflict from the culture, and all its private and public institutions, back to the realm of ideas. More ideological balance on campus means more of it in corporations, journalism and beyond.
Ross Douthat is particularly alarming with this answer:
Douthat The thing that many of his critics loathe most about DeSantis, his willingness to use political power directly in cultural conflicts, represents the necessary future of conservatism in America. The line between politics and culture is always a blur, and a faction that enjoys political power without cultural power can’t serve its own voters without looking for ways to bring those scales closer to a balance. There are good and bad ways to do this, and DeSantis’s record is a mixture of the two. But the project is a normal part of democratic politics, not an authoritarian betrayal.
emphasis added
Douthat — fully on board with culture war, using political power to impose conservative ‘values’ on America. Yeah, screw democracy — Fascism is just fine with him, and he sees it as all conservatism has left to offer: rule by force.
Here’s how they all wrap up this exercise in normalization.
Imagine you’re a G.O.P. operative or campaign manager. What’s your elevator pitch for a DeSantis candidacy?
Brooks Many fast-growing states are run by Republicans — Texas, Georgia, Florida. Florida has passed New York in population, Miami is becoming a tech hub, times are good. We need a president who has a record of economic success, not someone a majority of Americans have already rejected. Coaston He’s like Donald Trump with a plan. Cottle He knows how to use theatrical jerkiness to own the libs without getting himself impeached. [That’s the one reference to impeachment — xax.] Douthat He turned Florida a deeper shade of red. He knows how to govern. And nobody else who can win is walking through that door. If you don’t get behind DeSantis, you might just as well get behind Trump. French He’s the only man who can unite every faction of the party. Anti-Trump or Trump-weary Republicans will vote for him despite their reservations, and he’s the only other candidate who can pry the populists from Trump’s grasp. Goldberg He’s still the leading Trump alternative, so if you don’t want an insurrectionist loser who’s fighting off felony charges, it’s time to coalesce. Gray DeSantis has shown that he can run a state that attracts hundreds of thousands of new residents while at the same time making the MAGA right feel good. Mangu-Ward DeSantis: He’s Trump, but also not Trump! McCarthy Ron DeSantis is sternly disciplined, strikes an irresistible contrast between his own youth (44) and vigor and Joe Biden’s age (80) and infirmity, and can serve two consecutive terms if elected. He’s primed to be the most transformative president since Franklin Roosevelt. Stephens To beat a creep takes an even bigger creep.
Give Bret Stephens credit for this much. Although it’s pure snark like almost everything he writes, it’s as good a summary as any.
This exercise in calculated inanity/banality — whatever you what to call it — is being shaped by whoever is crafting the questions put to the panel. This is where the NY Times is putting the Overton Window, defining what can be talked about, and what can’t. Imagine how different this exercise would have been if all of them were asked to rank the GOP candidates by where they fall on each of the Warning Signs of Fascism shown at the top of this post.
This is why the mainstream media is failing us — its reflex aversion to looking outside of what is ‘acceptable’ and its normalization of what should not be. The fact that DeSantis chose Twitter for the Big Announcement — badly as it went — says a lot about the media establishment.
To be fair though, how many people would give even this much consideration to what these candidates are bringing to the table? If it can't be reduced to a soundbite — as Stephens does — how much will it matter? The four years of the former guy’s presidency show, among other things, how much political discourse fails to get any deeper than “MAGA” and “Lock her up” along with “Witch Hunt!”
Can “Let’s finish the job!” inspire the passion it seems to take to get anything done these days, without carrying a bible and wrapping it in the flag?
Get used to this one-sided heavy press coverage of the Republican Party and their talking points, because that’s where all the drama is as their candidates struggle with how to beat Trump without appearing to reject Trump or Trumpism. Republicans threatening to destroy the economy for partisan blackmail is not news — just business as normal. (And besides, who wants to hear about Biden? He’s too old and too boring.)
Sic transit gloria mundi — Tuesday is usually worse.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/25/2171318/-The-NY-Times-Oblivious-that-Fascism-has-gone-mainstream-in-America-and-it-s-name-is-GOP
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
