A Unified Theory of Never Trumpism

As MSNOW, and the former staff of The Weekly Standard (The Bulwark) and Barack Obama's former joke writers (the Pod Save lads) continue to amalgamate into a single, Centrist/Center-Right media keiretsu, their third-rate/too-late epiphanies keep coming fast and furious.

This one in particular kept me chuckling all the way through the three-and-a-half hours Blue Gal and I spent at a local cinema watching half an hour of coming attractions (90% horror flicks) and three hours of Christopher Nolan's substantially revised version of The Odyssey.  I had no fear that my soft chuckles might disturb our fellow cinema patrons  because HOLY FUCK IT WAS LOUD.  And not ordinary, Nolan-loud.  I have no objection to ordinary, Nolan-loud.  This was loud -- like a jet engine and a fire alarm simultaneously going off six inches from your ear loud. "Trying to drive Manuel Noriega out of the Vatican Embassy in Panama City and force him to surrender." loud.  "My God, why didn't I bring a pot of wax to seal my ears?" loud.   

Repeatedly.  For minutes on end.

Anyhoo, I kept right on chortling because this time their third-rate/too-late epiphany came in the form of a sneaking suspicion that maybe, just maybe, the problem with the Republican Party stems from the fact that it's full of Republicans and a brief lament that no one else has thought to entertain this possibility.

Sad!

Jon Lovett (Pod Save lads): There's the quote going around uh it's something to the effect of more Americans are fascist than we realize.  And one day we're going to find out. And so I I want to I want to this is actually where I wanted to go next because um I think this is an old Hemingway.... But the gist of it I think does apply. A point you've made repeatedly which I think there's very little equity to in politics is... uh... you can blame Trump, you can blame misinformation, you can blame  Republicans, but and this is a a paraphrase of something you've written.  77 million Americans who voted for Trump are some combination of unserious, decadent, or weak. Now it it's a lot cheaper in politics to blame the powers that be. That's true on the left, that's true on the right. There's not a lot of discussion about the culpability of the actual voters and their agency in this. So, can you just as somebody that has been an observer uh of conservatism from the inside for a long time, uh what have you learned about um the voters themselves through this period?

Jonathan V. Last (Bulwark):  Well, so I mean I can tell you my impressions. I can't tell you that they are like facts that I've learned. Um, what I have seen suggests to me though that you to avoid ... to avoid...uh, coming to the conclusion that voters wanted what they chose, you got to start creating a whole bunch of  Rube Goldberg contraptions. And the minute you push on any of these constructs even a little bit, they start wobbling and so you have to build another one, right? 

And h/t to Alert Listener Walt for pointing this out.

My Unified Theory of Never Trumpism?  

That they will always be on the verge of catching up with where Liberals were 20 years ago.  

They always present their epiphanies as if they just discovered an elusive, and previously unknown element lurking between Fluorine and Nitrogen on the periodic table.

Their new element?

It's called 'oxygen' fellas." 

Congratulations.  You 'discovered' oxygen.  

I Am The Liberal Media

Pod Save... Glenn Greenwald?

 

In case you were wondering what the Pod Save lads have been getting up to.  

Going Full Gavin Newsome is all the rage now, because Bros before Foes, kids.

Great.  

Just great.

I Am The Liberal Media.

The Pundit Brain That Wouldn't Die

Listening to professional pundits on various Big Giant Podcasts can be quite entertaining if you look at it from a properly jaundiced perspective.  For example, this is not an actual transcript, but it is a fairly accurate distillation of the all-over-the-place criticism that proprietors of various Big Giant Podcasts are tossing around these days.

Pundits:  You have to understand, people are stupid.  Voters are stupid.  They don't understand anything political and don't know how anything works and you can't expect them to.  Trump tells them crazy bullshit and they believe it.  So, what are we to do?

Well, then how about starting by kicking the crap out of Trump on stuff like the price of eggs.  These stupid voters said that's why they voted for him.  He said he'd lower prices.  He said he'd do it on Day One.  We're well past Day One.  Start with that.

Pundits:  Look, these people aren't stupid, OK?  Voters aren't stupid.  They know he's only been in...

And back and forth we go, on and on, whiplashing between "Voters are dum-dums who know nothing and believe nonsense" and "You can't treat voters like dum-dums who know nothing and believe nonsense.".

And by the way, there are at least +75 million voters who aren't stupid, who do understand the stakes and who did understand the assignment.  So in future bull sessions among your fellow pundits with Big Giant Podcasts, it would be an enormous boon to your credibility with folks like me who are one of that +75 million to refrain from bitching about "people" and "voters" and "Democrats" and instead get specific about which clusters of MAGA or uncommitted/"independent" voters you are planning on targeting for persuasion and what exactly your big plans are for accomplishing that goal.

I Am The Liberal Media

Sunday Morning Comin' Down

Everything that is broken with the Beltway media in easy-to-swallow pill-form.

First, this headline in  The New York Times magazine:

Chuck Todd Thinks It’s Important to Stay Neutral

Second, the interviewer is Ana Marie Cox, of Crooked Media/Pod Save DC, NYC and LA America.  So, y'know, I'm there.  I'm buckled in for a epic verbal fencing match between the personification of Everything That Is Wrong With Our Political Media --

-- and The Latest Shiny, New, Coastal Liberal Media Thingie That Will Be The Solution To Everything That Is Wrong With Our Political Media.

Cool.

Cox:  You’ve been moderating “Meet the Press” for just over three years. Do you think your job is the same today as it was, say, 10 months ago?

Todd:  What the audience expects hasn’t changed. People come to us for the same reasons: to be educated and informed. My biggest change is that I feel the need to reinforce the wall between the news media and the politicians. The wall has always been there, but sometimes there have been too many holes in it. One legitimate criticism of the political press over the last two decades has been the appearance of coziness between people in the media and the political elite. It’s a lot easier for me, say, as a sports fan...

Ruh roh.

Cox: O.K., but you did vote for someone. You have opinions. Is that the same as being biased?

Todd:  No. I don’t advocate — that’s the big difference. Now, that said, we’re all human beings...

Yes, we are indeed all human beings.

Except for Hugh Hewitt.

Who is, as has been long-established, a cyborg sent from the future to destroy America.

And who has also been (for reasons no one dares to explain to us rubes out here in flyover country) jumped up from Crackpot Wingnut Radio Drone to Chuck Todd's BFF and a regular in the rotation on "Meet the Press".

Just like Charlie Sykes!

And Rick Wilson.  And Bill Kristol.  And Joe Scarborough.  And David Brooks.  And Danielle Pletka (The American Enterprise Institute.)  And Rich Lowry.  And Peggy Noonan.  And on and on and on.  Each with long established records of being horribly fucking wrong about everything, and each repeatedly refurbished with unearned credibility by the mere fact that Chuck Todd keeps giving them a seat at the "Meet the Press" table along with his personal guarantee that no one will bring up the inconvenient fact of their ongoing horrible wrongness.

Because Chuck Todd just loves neutrality so god damn much!

Which brings us back to Hugh Hewitt, who was once again called up to the Big Kids Table on "Meet the Press".

Which, in turn brings us back to Ms. Cox's ruthless cross-examination laid-back, beanbag-chair rap session with Mr. Todd:

Cox:  If someone is a bad character, what is your role as a journalist?

Todd:  You just point it out. At the end of the day, it’s still up to the voter, not me.

Sigh.

Cox: Do you think you did a good job covering the events of 2016?

Oh!  Oh!  Call on me!  I know the answer to this one!  Like most of the rest of his caste, Mr. Todd did a fucking godawful job -- 

.@chucktodd: #debatenight exposed Trump's lack of preparation, but Clinton seemed over-prepared at times.

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 27, 2016

-- covering the events of 2016.

Now, let's see how close I got to Mr. Todd's actual answer!

Todd:  I’m going to give you a Donald Rumsfeld answer...

Sigh.  Again.

Mr. Chuck Todd's searching and fearless moral inventory goes on like that for a bit longer, until it sorta just piddles out.

You know, speaking only for myself, if enjoyed the kind of privilege and network of personal contacts that could swing me a sit-down with Mr. Toddler under a New York Times byline, I do not think I would use that opportunity to ask him "If you could be any kind of tree, what kind of tree would you be?"-level questions.  After all, at least theoretically, with great mission statements come great responsibility.  And if I am marketing myself as The New, Coastal Liberal Media Thingie That Will Be The Solution To Everything That Is Wrong With Our Political Media, then I believe it would have been my responsibility not to go all Uncle Fluffy (as happened both here and on-stage with Mr. Michael Steele last week) but instead use my privileged access to people like Chuck Todd to ask some very hard and pointed questions about how he and his caste have fucked the media up almost beyond redemption.  

Sure Chuck Todd, and his people, and the corporate myrmidons who negotiate these little marriages-of-media-convenience would all probably never speak to me again.  But by that time I would have already done the Ed Sullivan Show.

Behold, a Tip Jar!