Pardon my kvetch but Jesus, the media’s hand-wringing over the demise of the Republican Party is starting to annoy the shit out of me. Yes, it was amusing the first four days, but enough already. I’m really tired of every single news channel and cable program trotting out this or that Republican to discuss what’s wrong with their party, why they lost, how they can make a comeback, what they need to do, etc.
You know what? I sure don’t remember Democrats dominating every news program when they lost the 2010 midterms, or when they lost in 2004. I really don’t. Do you? I think what we saw then was the same group of Republicans paraded out to discuss how wonderful they are and that’s why they won.
Christ.
I mean, seriously, CBS This Morning? Now you’ve got Mike Huckabee on to talk about how the GOP needs to reach out to minorities? Like I give a shit at this point? This is news? How about we have a Democrat on there to talk about how wonderful they are. No? Why not? Oh, I forgot, it’s always good news for Republicans.
Look, we’ve been hearing about Republicans being the party of old white men since forever. This is not news. Seems like last time the GOP decided they needed to reach out to minorities what that really meant was tokenism — putting Michael Steele in charge of the RNC and combing the land for every conservative African American to appear on the TeeVee box spouting the glories of the free market and the dangers of the deficit.
This does not work. This is image over substance. Hearing that Voter ID is necessary to prevent imaginary voter fraud does not go down better when it comes from Ron Christie’s mouth. The Republicans don’t get it, the problem is their ideas, not the color of the skin of those spouting them. And the media doesn’t get it if they think we’re all so fascinated with the Republican Party that we want to hear about how it can be nursed back to health. There’s a reason these people lost the election. We are tired of them and they got shown the door. So, enough.
Forward, people. The election is over. Let’s get back to work fixing this country.
And don’t forget the last best representative for the “moderate” Rs, the one and only Michael Stephen Steele. Is there any talk show he hasn’t presented his oh-so-smug and smiling face? Conventional wisdom at its finest, as they present the rebranded version of the bubble mentality where losing is good and winning is for losers.
But how do you FEEL about all this, S.B.? I sense you’re blocking.
What’s cracking me up right now is all the facilitators, enablers, mouthpieces, sycophants and stenographers coming out to lecture us all on how the popular media need to be a little more reality-based next time around. And not a breath is being spent on their own complicity; it’s all you other people who need to clean up your acts.
This will last for about two days, after which time they will go right back to their old habits. I’ve known junkies with more self-discipline.
gratuitous — OMG it’s the fucking Iraq War all over again, without the dead bodies, bloodshed and $3 trillion pissed away.
As any businessman knows, it costs a whole lot more to win a customer back than it costs to keep them in the first place (and don’t the repubs run on being good businessmen?)
After all the gratuitous lip service the repubs have given to various issues – is anyone gonna believe them the next time they say they are including issue X in their platform?
As the news pundits for the repubs are the inhabitants of the administrations of shame (such as Ollie North and Liddy for Nixon, the Roves, the Gingriches, the Palins) it seems totally disingenuous that they are the ones talking about how the repubs have changed.
The repubs got hijacked by the extremists so strongly, I hope this will be a legacy for the next decade. Running with your example, they have worked so hard to disenfranchise voters (including voter ID, caging, “cleaning” voting rolls, dirty tricks such as announcing dems would vote on Wednesday,…) and it has been with such an obvious racial bias. Why would anyone believe that they are voluntarily introducing a new and improved party that welcomes all races?
While it is true that the election demonstrated that the Democratic coalition is larger than the Republican coalition the fact remains that the corporate media and the majority of corporate media talking heads are in the Republican coalition and are very concerned about their taxes being raised to pay for the unworthy people they are in the business of conning.
Until the viewers come to the realization that they are the product being sold by the media to their corporate sponsors they will not understand the nature of their relationship with the media.
I think y’all’d all feel better if you unplugged your TVs for a couple days …