And that sentence is, "The Left was right about the Right all along."
And I will stack those nine little words up against any article of any length by anyone in any publication who's goal is to write their way around that very simple fact so that they can get on to the important business of explaining the many way in which they believe the Left must bend a knee to the Never Trumpers.
What the Never Trumpers Want Now
The former cultural core of the GOP is exiting the party. The Democrats should keep those voters in their corner. Here’s how to do it.
What our policies should be.
What our priorities should be.
But for me the real fun begins when, after 1,785 paragraphs, Mr. Frum goes full Tone Police, lecturing us what our vocabulary should be.
Because as every mooching, Murrica-hating, terrorist-loving, dirty Commie libtard can tell you, all Republicans -- current and former and nearly-former -- are known far and wide for the incredible delicacy of their fee-fees and their reverence for civility and respectful discourse.
From The Rolling Stone:
Rush Limbaugh Did His Best to Ruin America
How the right-wing talk radio icon corrupted the Republican Party, spread hate, racism, and lies, and laid the groundwork for Trumpism
Bill O’Reilly’s Dangerous War Against Dr. TillerO’Reilly waged an unflagging harassment campaign against the abortion provider before Tiller was murdered in 2009
Damn. What is wrong with me this morning? Probably the bad night's sleep I had, tossing and turning and worrying about how my +16 years of salty comments about the Party of Bigots and Imbeciles may have offended the sensibilities of our extremely fragile Republican fellow citizens.
So let's give this another try. David Frum's stern rebuking of my wicked ways in 3...2...1...
Is the horse dead yet...
Quick hit: Ann Coulter is the worst person in the world
...or should I go on...
...beating it?
The Politics of Slash and Burn
Published: September 20, 1990
'Sick.'' ''Traitors.'' ''Bizarre.'' ''Self-serving.'' ''Shallow.'' ''Corrupt.'' ''Pathetic.'' ''Shame.'' The group that urged political candidates to use these epithets has since regretted suggesting the word ''traitors,'' in response to inquiries from the press. But the others were allowed to stand; they appear in a glossary that a conservative Republican group recently mailed to Republican state legislative candidates.
The group is Gopac, the G.O.P. Political Action Committee. Its general chairman is Representative Newt Gingrich. With the pamphlet, ''Language: A Key Mechanism of Control,'' comes a letter from Mr. Gingrich himself. Its message to candidates: Step up invective. Use words like these to describe opponents. These words work.
Mr. Gingrich's injunction represents the worst of American political discourse...
The Gopac glossary may herald a descent into even lower levels of discourse. It comes blessed by a politician of some influence - the Republican whip in the House - and it is intended for candidates on the state level, many of them presumably running for the first time. Even though Mr. Gingrich himself may not have seen the list before it was mailed, this is a disturbing document...
Ok, Ok, having taxed your patience long enough, here, at last, is Mr. Frum uncovering the terrible truth that we Liberal bloggers have tried so hard and so successfully for so long to keep hidden from the public.
Here’s the warning for the future: The Democratic Party is also home to some abrasive loudmouths.
Honestly I never feel more seen than I do when some former Bush administration wordmonger struggles to find a way to call people like me "asshole Libtards" without saying "asshole Libtard".
And although none of those abrasive loudmouths has mounted a serious campaign for the presidency, some hold other high offices, and others occupy visible places in the media. Liberal communities tolerate and even approve of language about white men like Mike Baker [a fence-straddling Republican goof who is torn agonizingly between voting for fascists who promise to cut his taxes and turn women in to baby factories for the Fatherland...or voting for not-fascists] that they would never tolerate or approve of about anybody else.
Really? "language...that they would never tolerate or approve of about anybody else"? Have you ever read a Liberal blog Mr. Frum?
And please note that Mr. Frum takes enormous pains to not call out any "abrasive loudmouth" by name. Which is passing strange, considering how free and easy Mr. Frum was with his language of allies and enemies back when he was helping Dubya lie us into the wrong war. You'd thing that if this tiny handful of abrasive loudmouths really has the ability to single-handedly destroy the Biden administration, drive millions of waffling Republicans in the arms of Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott and plunge this country into a 1,000 years of fascist darkness, he'd feel that it was his urgent, patriotic duty to identify these dangerous malefactors:
That language exacts immense political costs.
An absolute majority of white Americans believe that white people face adverse discrimination in the United States. They are not reacting to personal experiences of mistreatment; only one-fifth to one-tenth of white Americans report anything like that. They seem instead to be reacting to a more generalized drumbeat of derision and hostility.
Fun Fact: Generalized Drumbeat was the original working title of this blog. Then for awhile I toyed around with calling it Cokie's Law. Then Kathleen Turner Overdrive. Then driftglass.
The influx of anti-Trump Republicans into the Biden coalition should highlight the importance of discouraging that kind of talk.
And here Mr. Frum has uncovered the other half of the terrible truth that we Liberal bloggers have tried so hard and so successfully for so long to keep hidden from the public. The terrible truth that we Liberal bloggers are just too damn powerful. That we are Thanos-level beings who, with a snap of our Cheeto-stained fingers, could destroy American democracy on a whim.
Obviously such power cannot be allowed to run wild and unchecked. So if, for the good of the country, we Liberal bloggers must give up our dominant presence on cable news and our virtual monopoly of talk radio, then so be it. If the cost of Democracy means surrendering our mighty, coast-to-coast radio empire, our book publishing corporations and our stranglehold on the op-ed pages of America's most respected newspapers, then so be it.
Of course we'll all miss seeing Digby whipping the shit out of Joe Scarborough three hours every morning on MSNBC, as well as Atrios' hour's long conversations with Noam Chomsky, George Soros and the ghost of Eugene Debs about the merits of public transit every night on the 11th Hour. And speaking selfishly, I'll miss the extra few dollars that come my way each month from my long-running New York Times column.... and my PBS gig... and my NPR gig... and my college lecture gigs... and my NBC contributor contract.
But damnit, it's a small price to pay when Freedom on the line.
1 comment:
Mr. G; I mentioned yesterday that the Lincoln Lads were using their vast powers to mess with our Gov. Abbott here in Texas, but there MAY be a vast conspiracy afoot! From the Guardian;
Lincoln Project says ad attacking Greg Abbott pulled from Texas football game
A group of disgruntled Republicans has questioned if the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, used political influence to pull a TV ad criticising his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a statement issued on Sunday, the Lincoln Project was told the ad, Abbott’s Wall, was being pulled just 10 minutes before it was due to air on ESPN during a nationally televised football game between the University of Texas and Rice University on Saturday night.
The 60-second slot, which the Lincoln Project said cost $25,000 and was approved by ESPN lawyers, blames the Republican governor for more than 60,000 Covid deaths in the state, against a backdrop of images of the US southern border wall.
“If Governor Abbott wants to build a new wall, tell him to stop building this one,” the message says, showing a wall constructed from coffins.
Wood from caskets of all the Covid-19 victims in Texas would stretch 85 miles, the ad claims. It remains watchable on YouTube.
“We were told it was a ‘university-made decision’” to pull the ad, the Lincoln Project said in a press release. “Did Greg Abbott or his allies assert political influence to ensure the advertisement was not broadcast?”
Abbott is an alumnus of the University of Texas and appoints members of its board of regents, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The newspaper said neither Abbott nor university officials responded to requests for comment. Neither the governor nor the university immediately responded to messages from the Guardian.
On Sunday, the group said it intended to file a public records request with the University of Texas to see if Abbott’s office influenced the decision to pull the ad.
“Instead of focusing on the task of keeping Texans safe from the coronavirus pandemic, it appears Abbott and his advisers are focusing their time and energy on censoring their political opponent,” a statement said.
“We’re not finished with Governor Abbott.”
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