I'm getting this all second hand from Charlie Sykes of The Bulwark but, if true, Ms. Charen has single-handedly cracked the code behind the most sinister yet effective political strategy in the Republican party's arsenal.
Sykes: I should have pushed back on this a little bit when I was on Morning Joe this morning they were talking about the Comer investigation and, uh, discussing y'know why are Republicans continuing to talk about these investigations. So they were talking about the Durham investigation which fell flat on his face, y'know didn't uncover anything. And the question was, " Doesn't it seem like political malpractice that you keep bringing up these investigations, it just sort of reminds people?" And I thought that missed the point that...I believe it was our colleague Mona Charen who wrote about how the Hunter Biden investigations and all of this other stuff is psychologically necessary for people in Trump World.
Are you ready?
Sykes: Because at some point they don't want to defend Donald Trump as much as they want to say, "Well everyone is corrupt. Everyone does it."
So, working all by herself, late into the night, at the Bulwark's Advanced Zeitgeist Research Facility, Mona Charen has discovered...Both Siderism.
Wow. Your Pulitzer awaits.
But wait! There's more!
Sykes: See this is the flex is to be able to say, "Well what about this?" So they need -- deeply need -- to have Hunter Biden so they can claim to have some sort of a moral position and suggest that all of the attacks on Donald Trump, y'know, are... are motivated by politics and what about this? So it is essential, if you're going to defend and support the Trump crime family, you must invent the Biden crime family. If you are going to look the other way at the incredibly horrific character of Donald Trump you have to create something else that is more fearsome and fearful. And so that's why they are so obsessed and why it is so necessary for them to stick with all of this.
So hold on. You're telling me that, not only did Mona Charen single-handedly figure out that Both Siderism exists and is the last refuge of scumbag Republicans...but she also posited the need for what we'll call a "Liberal strawman" villain which the aforementioned scumbag Republicans would conjure out of thin air so that these scumbag Republicans would have the means of mentally balancing the scales...so they could claim "Both Sides Do It"?
The genius here. It is...dizzying.
In fact, the only other place I've ever encountered such advanced semiotic theorizing was on [checks notes] literally every single Liberal blog dating back to the dawn of the Liberal blogosphere. Y'know, back during the Before Time. Back when it was goofs like, say, Mona Charen and Charlie Sykes ... and literally every other Conserative in the media ... and literally every other mainstream pundit in Christendom who were constantly manufacturing imaginary Liberal strawmen so that they could all play the Both Sides Do It game for power and profit.
And finally...
Will Saletan [Bulwark in-house "Liberal"]: Right. That's an excellent point. That's absolutely true.
Because agreeing with Charlie Sykes is why Mr. Saletan is on the payroll.
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