The Left Was Right about the Right All Along

Mr. E.J. Dionne gets one, important fact wrong in his otherwise accurate assessment of our politics. 

See if you can spot it.

The centrist heavenly chorus is off-key
...

Among the myths that can steer us off course in the Trump era, three are particularly popular.

First, that political polarization is primarily a product of how elites behave and not the result of real divisions in our country.

Second, that a vast group of party-loathing independents can be mobilized by anti-partisan messages.

Third, that Republicans and Democrats are becoming increasingly and equally extreme, so they should be scolded equally.

All these pious wishes are false, as Alan I. Abramowitz’s latest book, “The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump,” makes clear.

The error?

This:

Among the myths that can steer us off course in the Trump era

The idea that these lies -- not myths, lies -- are some spontaneous, xenogenic phenomenon of the Trump era is not just wrong but exactly backwards.  These lies have been the universal alibi offered by every Republican for decades every time they're caught lurching ever further into outright fascism.  At the same time, these lies have been paying the mortgage on the estates of Beltway hack for decades.

And it was these two betrayals of democracy acting together -- the Right's long slog into madness and the media's fanatical insistence that it the GOP wasn't really going nuts, that it only seemed that way because of the Extremes on Both Sides, and that they should therefor remain obsessively focus on a nonexistent army of Independents who sat in the Sensible Center and were appalled by Both Sides -- that paved the way for a racist madman like Donald Trump to win the White House.

And if Mr. E.J. Dionne is really interested in further clarification about how the Big Lies of these two, cohorts of professional liars -- the Right and the Beltway media -- reciprocated and reinforced each other decade after decade, he can do the one thing that none of us can do.  He can lean across the table next Friday and ask his very good friend and NPR radio partner, Mr. David Brooks, some very simple questions.

Mr. David Brooks, who has made an entire fucking career out of inventing Independents out of thin air and algorithmically cranking out the same toxic "Both Sides Do It" drivel, twice a week, every week, year after year after year.

Ask him, E.J. 

Just ask him.

Behold, a Tip Jar!