Tonight’s second GOP presidential primary debate is going to be a marvel. It’s going to tell us a lot about how the media chooses to cover political contests and it’s also going to reveal the character of the people on stage. Asa Hutchinson, alas, will not be on the stage. He was the one honest man who rose his hand in Debate One to say that he would not support Donald Trump if he got the nomination. So much for the fate of honest men in today’s Republican party.
So we will find out firsthand 1) Will Fox News host Dana Perino, Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney or Univision anchor Ilia Calderón have the balls to come right out and ask what any of the candidates up on stage think about the frontrunner, the adjudicated rapist, who just lost his business licenses in the State of New York yesterday, or 2) is that going to simply go unaddressed, like it doesn’t exist, or if it does exist, it’s of little consequence?
Concurrently, we will find out if the candidates on stage are willing to take a stance, either morally or politically against Donald Trump. I am certain Chris Christie will sound off. At least we’ll get that much. But Pence, Ramaswamy, DeSantis, Haley aka Birdbrain, Scott, and Burgum will probably mouth some platitudes, if not come out and openly praise Trump like happened last time.
Nobody in the GOP acts like the house is on fire. They all smell the smoke, they all see the flames, but they’re pretending it’s just the neighbors’ bar-b-que and really has nothing to do with them. Meanwhile, democracy could be burning down.
One pundit who is not taking this lying down is Tim Miller. His thoughts are spot on.
Look at this screengrab from yesterday’s Drudge Report which offers a little taste of the American Carnage that Trump has planned.
Those headlines read like they are from a dystopian, authoritarian fantasy world, not the American democratic republic we grew up in. Shutting down media outlets. Killing disfavored generals.
Any human of any ideological stripe who is capable of looking at that news rundown with the slightest discernment must concur that Trump needs to be stopped. Which is why it’s the absence of Trump panic in GOP discourse that is the outlier, not the reasonable ongoing discussion about the best course for President Biden coming from the left.
But they’re choosing to ignore it. If they ignore it at the debate tonight, we are going to know that we are well and truly phuqued. Because if it’s the job of political blogs and small but classy media outlets like DC Report to tell the unvarnished truth, I sincerely do not know what’s going to happen. More from Tim Miller.
Despite Trump’s disastrous track record and his scary stated plans, it is inarguable that the institutions/politicians/commentators in America’s center-right are more sanguine about a Trump nomination now than they were at this same time in 2016. There’s no Against Trump magazine cover coming. No “Based” Senators plotting convention coups. No new Stop Trump PACs on the horizon. There’s no Shep Smith or Chris Wallace on Fox trying to inject some truth into the madness.
It is impossible to envision a David Ignatius of the MAGA movement, whoever that may be, penning a column calling on Trump to step aside. Hell, just yesterday on Fox there was a former GOP congressional candidate who called on Ron DeSantis to step aside so the party can unite behind Trump.
The only movement against Trump that I can detect on the right is Chris Christie and a tiny number of lower-level former White House staffers who have seen the light. Even Trump’s leading primary opponents barely attack him!
They not only don’t attack him, they praise him on stage. The GOP is a splintered, fragmented, dysfunctional and non-functional mess right now. Their frontrunner is to all intents and purposes a gangster, who is in the midst of no fewer than five ongoing trials at the moment. This is insane. But very likely, when we turn on the TV set tonight, we will see a group of Republican nominees and members of the media act like this is perfectly normal.
And that normalization of insanity is what may bring the pillars of democracy a tumbelin’ down.
Fascism 101. Think about it. The billionaire Romney claimed he spoke with members of congress who went along with not voting against Trump BECAUSE THEY WERE AFRAID! Geez cowards. Most, if not ALL of you are so financially secure you have ZERO ideas about those of us spending our lives paycheck to paycheck, IF WE’RE LUCKY! You have jobs paying 200k per year and don’t even work 40hrs/week. You have free healthcare, privileges that cost you nothing, and fancy jobs waiting for you when you leave office. You either have security or can afford it. So, instead of honoring your oath, YOU THREW DEMOCRACY ON THE ASHHEAP!!! Why? Because you were afraid. PHUCK YOU PISSANTS!!! Sometimes I think maybe the majority of us need to start acting like a cult and calling, harassing, etc. TO MAKE YOU AFRAID TO NOT DO THE RIGHT THING!!!
I can guarantee you the Germans, Italians, and Japanese were afraid when WE MADE THEM FEAR FOR THEIR GODDAMN LIVES!!!!! You are vile.
I simply cannot watch/listen to the morons on that stage tonight. I’ll be watching MSNBC and I hope Rachel and group don’t play too many moments from the ‘debate’. Sycophants suck and offer nothing new, just more vile insights into their own depravity.