What Eugene Robinson Gets Wrong

"We thought the GOP would never recover from lying us into Iraq, endorsing torture, Katrina, etc.  But then Obama wore that damn tan suit..."

-- driftglass

Dear Mr. Robinson,

I love your work, but until your profession is purged of its legions of flunkies, quislings and Both Siderist Republican-enablers, your headline today will never come to pass:

History will remember the Republicans who stick around

...

With only a few exceptions, however, GOP political leaders have been too timid to denounce the president and the reprehensible game of racial politics he’s playing. I think the corporate chief executives who bailed are making the right bet: History will remember who spoke out, who was complicit and who stood idly by...

Sorry, Gene -- may I call you Gene? -- but given the state of your profession today, this is nonsense.

Really dangerous nonsense.  

Because perhaps you hadn't noticed, but thanks to the legions of flunkies, quislings and Both Siderist Republican-enablers that pollute your profession, "history" gets reset after every Republican atrocity.  

For example. the minute the Bush Administration started feeding the Constitution through the wood-chipper, the GOP and the legions of flunkies, quislings and Both Siderist Republican-enablers that pollute your profession all agreed to suddenly forget all of the righteous pieties they spouted during the Clinton years about the moral imperative of holding presidents maximally, impeachably accountable -- even for little things like blowjobs -- no matter the cost.

See, "Like A Virgin", September 11, 2009.

For example. in 2009, Newt Gingrich -- one of the Founding Father's of Republican lying and hate-speech, and one of its most dedicated ongoing facilitators -- was also the most frequent honored guest on "Meet the Press".  In fact, the Beltway media's open-ended dedication to blotting-out Gingrich's monstrous behavior and rehabilitating his public reputation over and over and over again is such a blatant stain on your profession that it has earned its own title:  "The Gingrich Rules".  

Of course, after the Bush Administration imploded, these same, Republican meatheads had the same-but-opposite problem:  how the hell were they going to make their eight years of relentless cheering-leading the Bush Clusterfuck disappear?

And then, right on schedule, along came the Fake Tea Party.  

See, "Now, The Bush-Belly Sneetches", September 17, 2010.

And while that "History" thingie which was supposed "remember" their complicity and hold them accountable was busy chasing rainbows, the entire Bush Administration disappeared straight down the same memory hole into which the entire Clinton Administration had already been consigned. Suddenly all human history began on January 20, 2009 and nobody remembered nuthin' that happened before then.  

See "Croatoan Conservatives", August 20, 2016.

And what do all of these massive crimes against democracy and history have in common?  None of of them would have been possible or sustainable without the very active cooperation of those legions of flunkies, quislings and Both Siderist Republican-enablers that pollute your profession.  

And the fallout from 20 years of media complicity in helping Republicans lie about who they are, what they they believe and what they have done has been catastrophic.  The entire Republican Party from the leadership to the base is now addicted to the belief that, no matter how recklessly they behave or how much ruin they leave in their wake, thanks to the on-demand intercession of those legions of flunkies, quislings and Both Siderist Republican-enablers that pollute your profession, they will never be held accountable or have to pay any price for any of it.

And that, Gene, is why 63 million of these meatheads felt perfectly OK going to the polls in November and casting their vote for a lying, racist madman.  

Because why not?  

After all, it don't cost nuthin'.

Behold, a Tip Jar!