"You're gonna need a bigger narrative" Edition.
As much fun as it was to watch various highly paid media persons (*cough* Chuck Todd *cough*) attempt to interview Donald Trump about his stunning come-from-ahead victory in America's Cradle of Sedition...
...and as much fun as it was to watch various highly paid media persons attempt to explain the Trump victory without saying anything that would transgress the Holy Beltway Both Siderist Master-Narrative gibberish...
,,,the runaway hit of the day was watching bottom-feeding invertebrates like Alex Castellanos and Matthew Dowd shoot panicked Both Siderist squid ink in every direction and attempt to undulate away as fast at possible as Roland Martin deposited an entire dump-truck of full-driftglass "This is the fucking GOP's fault from crotch to crown" unpleasant truths on the table over at "This Week...With Whomever". Big h/t to Heather at Crooks & Liars for getting this up so fast:
It is worth watching all 5:50 of the video in all its delicious cringiness, but since you are a very busy person, here are selected highlights (with emphasis added because it amuses me):
MARTIN: I think Donald Trump is plutonium. Candidates have learned that, you know, it can fuel your business, but it can also kill you...Warning, Will Robinson! Extreme danger! These are the kinds of questions which the Beltway media was specifically designed to contain and avoid, not flop out on the table and talk about.
...
MARTIN: This is their problem, they invited evil in. And now evil is taking over, OK. 2009, the night of Obama's inauguration, we will stop him at every turn. They loved the Tea Party anger. They took advantage of it in '10 and '12 -- '14. They always said, we can control it. We can harness it. Now all of a sudden, Trump is taking advantage of it. He lead the whole birther deal. The Republican establishment at some point has to say, you know what, we played with fire and now it's about to consume us.
They have to accept some...
Republican strategist SARA FAGEN: The Republican establishment never played with fire. Donald Trump...
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: ...all day.
FAGEN: I don't think the establishment has played with fire. It looks more like a hostile takeover to me. Donald Trump is not a conservative. He is not a Republican.
MARTIN: So, why did they like his birther against Obama? Why did they like his fundraising in 2012? No, no, no. If the Republicans allowed Donald Trump to ride the birther (inaudible) to Obama. They dig his fundraising prowess in 2012, yes or no?
Which means it's time for Republican two-bit four-flushed Alex Castellanos to swing into action:
CASTELLANOS: What created Donald Trump is the failure of the Republican Party to lead this country into the future. We've told America that our principles are only good for saying no and telling people what they can't do.Bwahahaha! Trump isn't a Republican! Both Sides! The past never happened! Also please for fuck's sake, stop talking about this!
There's a Democratic Party that's only offering more of the same old failure. Washington just hasn't done enough. There's a Republican Party that can only say no to everything. Guess what, the American people are furious on both ends. And they want to throw everybody out.
The failure belongs to both parties.
And so in jumps Castellanos' trusty Both Siderist sidekick, Matthew Dowd. Defend the Hive, Matt! Defend the Hive!
DOWD: It's what created Donald Trump is both party establishments. Basically, the country feeling like the institution that exists in Washington does not work for anybody. And it certainly doesn't work for the working class of the country. That's what created...But today, for whatever reason, Mr. Martin wasn't having any of it:
MARTIN: And this is why -- this is why I'm saying don't try to blame the Democrats for this one, the Republicans they love that anger when it helped them in the mid-terms, but now the anger is about to take over their party. They have no idea what to do.But Mr. Martin isn't done yet. He moves from blaming the Republican party leaders for pandering to the rage, paranoia and racism of the base...to straight up blaming the base for voting for stupid, catastrophic shit over and over again. Which, in turn, thoroughly freaks out Matthew Dowd:
MARTIN: I will say this part, part of this whole issue when you talk about that anger. Yes, they're ticked off that America is changing when it comes to how we look in terms of becoming a majority minority country. They're ticked off when it comes to a Republican policy. They're saying I have been impacted economically.
Well, guess what, those same voters at some point you can say I was the one who screwed up, because I kept voting for some folks.
Now, they've also got to say, what does Donald Trump...
DOWD: It's never a good idea to blame voters.
MARTIN: No, no, no. Here's the deal though. No, no, no, that's the mistake that we make. We want to hold everybody accountable except the folks who actually vote for candidates. And the other piece is, I will say those same folks who say old John Wayne, Donald Trump is my man, show me how that man has actually cared about the regular Republican voter over his career.
DOWD: It's a bad strategy to attack voters.
MARTIN: No, no, no. Hold them accountable.
If this all feels depressingly familiar, it's because it is. This is exactly where we stood during the very worst days of Bush Administration, when the Holy Beltway Iraq War Master-Narrative had completely collapsed, but its shreds and tatters we're defiantly held together by the sheer, collective "La!La!La!La!We!Cannot!Hear!You!" will of highly paid mainstream media frauds and hacks like Dowd and Castellanos.
Once again, the Beltway finds itself both protected and imprisoned by another Big Lie it has invented to prevent the Republican Party from being run out of Western Civilization on a rail. And once again, I have no doubt they will continue to get away with paving over terrifying Reality with warm, gray, Both Siderist sludge,
But as someone who has been adding my small voice to the chorus of despised and ignored Liberals who stand outside the massive, iron walls of the Holy Beltway Both Siderist Master-Narrative, shouting heresies like these and getting pissed on for our troubles, all I can say is "Wow".
Because every now and then, a little light breaks through the bars of the vast media prison they have built for us, And moments like that, as small as they are, should be celebrated.
11 comments:
It's all good and up to your very highest driftwood standards, but I particularly like this:
". . .the Beltway finds itself both protected and imprisoned by another Big Lie it has invented to prevent the Republican Party from being run out of Western Civilization on a rail."
That's it in a nutshell. We are watching the panic of people experiencing the dying of the white Christian (primarily Northern European Protestantism) dominance of American society and politics for 200 years. What was it? 1960? When America was 90% white? Now in 15 years they're talking a white minority role! That can't be right! To arms! Build a wall! Buy a gun! Fire up the Wayback Machine and punch in "1955"!
This is evidenced further in the reaction to Obama's filling of Scalia's seat on the Supremes. Which is expertly flensed and deconstructed by Jeff Toobin at the New Yorker and called by its true name - "Panic".
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/29/antonin-scalia-looking-backward?intcid=mod-most-popular
If there is one thing Trump does know (other than how to grease the right local zoning and regulatory officials) it's reality TV. But this "Beltway" of which you speak is not good TV. Nevertheless the "Beltway" has to protect their phony baloney jobs (h/t/ Mel Brooks) doing what you so ably report on. But there ought to be panic in their quarters too. It may be that what Trump is doing to conventional politics (real conflict instead of political cant) could happen to the sanctimonious preening assholes on the Sunday shows if someone realizes there might be real numbers in having a real fight with armed liberals instead of phantom strawmen.
However, if as I suspect the Sunday shows are really loss-leader vanity projects to stroke the egos and rolodexes of the plutocratic owners, you may disregard all of the above (except the kudos to you part).
What are the odds of Roland Martin ever being on any Sunday Show again?
And, as counterintuitive as it may seem, thank Trump for running. I mean, if it were just Rubio v. HRC at this point, the BothSidesDoIt™ claptrap would be just as ubiquitous as ever.
Instead, Republicans are having to sort through their own party's sickness in public, and the BothSidesDoIt™ clowns are pointed at and laughed at, in public.
Of course, electing Trump to anything would be absolutely terrible, but to some extent, if Democrats stay home and Republicans double-down on their tribalist idiocy, so be it. Such is representative democracy.
Was it not remarkable how they all rose at once to refute Mr. Martin? A chorus of refutation, all singing the same familiar tune in excited harmony, with not one note of evidence. They couldn't hold themselves back from attempting to block out the truth - fingers in their ears, la la la la I can't hear you - all at the same time. The shocked Clinton guy was shocked again, but with a different grin. I wonder if we will be seeing more of this as the Yam, healthy with everything that Castellanos and the rest of them have fertilized him, spreads through their electorate like an invasive species.
@stickler, Norman Ornstein used to be a regular on the Mouse Circus until he co-wrote It's Even Worse Than It Looks. Since then, he's been exiled to the frozen wasteland of upper Saboonia.
And yes, a tiny light from a window-hole a hundred yards away is all we ever get to know 'bout the regular life in the day.
Was Roland wearing his ascot? Sometimes I love that guy...
-Doug in Oakland
Uh, Drifty, boy-o. Forgive me. The beer is kicking in, and I had a thought. As I do.
What IF we Liberals, as a group, started claiming responsibility for everything the far Right accuses us? Bear with me. We could back up our claims of sponsorship with links to the very people who think we have god-like powers. Sure, you think I'm drunk and crazy. That's OK, I'm not volunteering for a desk job at the conspiracy.
But think about it. First off, it works out, short-term. Second, the idiots will suddenly distance themselves with agreeing with Liberals (as we burnish our cred for destroying all that is good and wholesome).
This a plan that that is so crazy it might work.
I refer you to the prophetic words of Tom Waits, specifically "Going Out West."
We need to out-crazy the crazies. That's the plan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27LLPANAgzw
Another reason to celebrate ... guess who's using your scripts? Brother Charles!
"....a political party and a nominating process gone truly rogue, burning and consuming itself, using itself as its own fuel like some great breeder reactor of rage and fear."
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a42331/jeb-bush-drops-out/
This keeps up and you're going to become establishment, DG.
A great follow up question to these beltway hacks before they jump into their luxury SUVs and run off to the gated communities is:
Trump is being voted FOR in double digit margins. Cruz's Iowa victory is just the third straight example of how irrelevant Iowa is electorally.
What exactly can the people that sign your pays checks (aka. Republican Establishment) do to counter GOP primary voter actions?
These voters have already resoundingly rejected each donor class candidate. This is in part the establishment's fault from overusing RHINO primary tactics to change most state governments, the House and the Senate into a cabal of paid employees looking to take the Wisconsin/Illinois/Kansas act national. But it is becoming a victim of its own success as the rubes are now hurting too much and THOSE people still don't know their place.
Are you all suggesting the "establishment" needs to rig the primary to protect your personal 401K....er..I mean get an establishment candidate to the generals? What about polls that show that the current crop of establishment candidates would get frog stomped by a ham sandwich wearing a Democratic Party button?
Please discuss...
DOWD: It's a bad strategy to attack voters.
Strategy? Is Matt running for office?
It is obviously apparent to the trained ye and ear of a media consumer that these folks want to, are compelled to continue their denial. There is no GOP power without the hate vote. And they know it better than anyone.
If you did not pick up on it. They are willing to ride out the Trump nomination/ presidency (which they will support over a Democratic nominee as loyally as a fly attracted to defecation.
It is unclear what Trump means for farthing the Conservative Brotherhood's creation of world dominance. They see their base is not as reliably assimilated as in the past. The money put behind Jeb, and Jeb (like a overflowing toilet) smack back in their bathroom and Joe the Plumber is not around.
The base was promised that these "other" people will be punished and the window of opportunity to wealth will open exclusively for them. Of course none of that economic unicorn fairy tale never got to the end where they all lived happily ever after. More anger and more fuel needed. Blame Obama!
Since the "voter" was discussed.
Perhaps the GOP can selectively use their voter suppression prowess to cull out these rebel GOPers that yearn for the Trump fairy tale's end.
It will be the return of the Reagan Jedi............
You notice, the ideological principals for sale were not even available at the discount counter? In this media saga.
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