Today’s Edition: What does “GOP” stand for? Nothing.

December 6, 2021

          Professor Heather Cox Richardson’s December 3rd essay highlights a disturbing truth that explains much about our nation’s current difficulties. She reports that Senate Republicans will not adopt a platform for the 2022 or 2024 election cycles. The absence of a Republican political agenda will reprise their performance in 2020, when the GOP failed to release a platform for the presidential election. Per Professor Richardson, “Rather than advancing any sort of a positive program, Republican Senators will be focusing on culture wars.” So, what does “GOP” stand for? Nothing. And I mean that in the most literal sense possible.

          A rational observer of the American political scene would reasonably expect that the media would be highly critical of Republican nihilism. No so. Rather, they are devoting most of their energy to criticizing the only major party in America that is bothering to offer solutions. See Dana Milbank in The Washington Post, “The media treats Biden as badly as — or worse than — Trump. Here’s proof.” Milbank asked a data analytics firm, Forge.ai, to review 200,000 articles from 65 news sites to compare coverage of Trump and Biden during the first eleven months of 2020 and 2021, respectively. Recall that during 2020, Trump botched the response to the pandemic thereby killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, was tried in the Senate for extorting Ukraine, embraced white supremacists and QAnon adherents, and refused to concede defeat in a free and fair election. That stretch of bad news rivals the worst single-year performance by any president in U.S. history.

          A rational observer of the American political scene would expect media coverage of Trump to be more negative than the coverage of Biden. Spoiler alert: I don’t even have to tell you the spoiler alert for you to predict the outcome of the analysis.

          Milbank writes that the findings of the analysis confirmed his fear:

          My colleagues in the media are serving as accessories to the murder of democracy.

          Criticizing the media for providing negative coverage is rarely productive. But for those of us who are resisting Republican efforts to dismantle American democracy, it is helpful to know that it is not our imaginations: The media are treating Biden unfairly on a relative basis compared to Trump. Why? Answer: Laziness, plain and simple. It is immensely easier to pick at the efforts of someone who is doing something than it is to explain the existential threat of a political party that refuses to adopt a political platform. Indeed, political reporting that treats the Republican Party as a responsible participant in American democracy is based on a premise that is universally acknowledged to be false. And yet, virtually all of political reporting reduces to false equivalencies, both‑siderism, and predicting “who is leading the horse race” in the next election.

          Here’s my point: Acknowledge the unfairness and move on. More importantly, don’t let it get you down. Dan Pfeiffer (of the Pod Save America crowd) addressed the dangers of falling into the “doom loop” of negative media coverage. See Dan Pfeiffer, “The Dangers of the Democratic Doom Loop.” If you want / need a kick in the pants, read Pfeiffer’s essay. His thesis is this:

          If Democrats believe they are doomed, they will be doomed. Republicans are trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

          As you would expect, Pfeiffer isn’t falling into the doom loop. He reminds us that “things will get better” and that Democrats still have a fighting chance to retain their control of Congress in 2022. He also asserts that Glenn Youngkin (of Virginia’s governor’s race) is the exception, not the rule. True! It is plain that Trump is acting like a political black hole, dragging the GOP into a death spiral of extremism that will make it increasingly difficult for the GOP to convince persuadable Independents who voted for Obama in 2012, Trump in 2016, and Biden in 2020. Let’s take a look at a few developments over the weekend that highlight this dynamic—which should bolster your confidence that we can win in 2022 and 2024 despite the media’s negative bias towards Biden and the Democratic Party. Read on!

Trump continues to warp the political fabric of the GOP

          Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is one of the GOP’s rising stars. So, of course, Trump is trying to end Kemp’s political career. Kemp must stand for re-election in 2022 and will face the formidable Stacey Abrams—if Kemp is the GOP nominee. Trump has convinced former Senator David Perdue to challenge Kemp for the GOP nomination for governor in 2022. See The Hill, “Perdue to challenge Kemp in Georgia governor primary: report.”

          Perdue is a newly radicalized Trump acolyte who will run to the hard right to defeat Kemp. In turn, Kemp’s only choice will be to outflank Perdue on the right—a losing proposition for Republicans in a state that is becoming more urban, educated, and diverse. Both Perdue and Kemp will suffer damage in a bruising primary. Perdue is a climate crisis denier, voted against the Affordable Health Care Act and voted to repeal it, and dumped hundreds of thousands in stock immediately after receiving a private Senate briefing about the recently discovered virus, SARS-CoV-2. In short, the challenge to Kemp by a Trumpist should be good news for Stacey Abrams.

          Another example of the warping of the GOP political landscape is occurring in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, where Democrat Dr. Annie Andrews just announced that she will challenge GOP Rep. Nancy Mace in 2022. Mace has depicted herself as a moderate Republican who can reach across the aisle. Mace recently denounced statements by Rep. Lauren Boebert that used slurs against Muslims and Islam. For that stance, Mace has been pilloried by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has apparently convinced Trump to back a primary challenge against Mace. See The Week, “Nancy Mace vs. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the fight for the future of the GOP.”

          While Trump is considering exiling Mace for being a moderate, Dr. Annie Andrews’ campaign announcement video, here, has garnered over a million views and raised $200,000 in the first 24-hours. For good reason. Dr. Andrews makes a compelling case based on her focus for the health and safety of children in a state where one-in-six residents lives in poverty. She is an active volunteer with Moms Demand Action, the largest grassroots gun violence prevention organization in the country. All I know about Dr. Andrews is that she appears to be an articulate, committed, and caring advocate who wants to reduce gun deaths among children. She has made a tremendous first impression.

          Compare Dr. Andrews’ compassion with the recent “Christmas Card” from GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, which was sent only days after the school killings in Michigan. Massie’s holiday greeting depicted the congressman in front of a Christmas tree while his family members hold seven assault rifles under the caption, “Santa, Please send more ammo.” See HuffPo, “Rep. Massie Posts Gun-Laden Christmas Photo 4 Days After School Shooting.”

          For those of you inclined to send emails to me saying, “Trump’s supporters won’t care about Massie’s Christmas card,” I know, and that’s not the point. The point is that we are competing for persuadable Independents. As Trump lurches the party to the right and gives cover for disgusting behavior like that exhibited by Rep. Massie, Democrats are attracting candidates like Stacey Abrams, Beto O’Rourke, and Dr. Annie Andrews. We should feel confident in that trend, despite the inability of the media to notice the good news.

The killings of four students at Oxford High School in Michigan.

          It is always difficult to find the words to describe the latest school killings. Each outrage should be the last, mobilizing the nation into action. Instead, the tragedy quickly fades from the news as the media finds another story to generate more clicks and revenue. Dan Rather, writing on his Substack blog, Steady, has penned an eloquent piece that deserves your attention. In his essay A Tragedy on Repeat, Rather writes:

Before continuing, let us acknowledge the four victims of the shooting in Michigan. Please read each name. Perhaps out loud. They had meaning. They had life.

Hana St. Juliana, age 14

Madisyn Baldwin, age 17

Tate Myre, age 16

Justin Shilling, age 17

          Yes, say their names so they will be remembered, if only for a moment. They deserve so much more—especially our efforts to prevent similar tragedies in the future. There are many deserving organizations that are working every day to curb gun violence in the U.S. Two leading organizations are Everytown for Gun Safety and Brady Campaign. Support their work!

Concluding Thoughts.

          It is a natural human tendency to focus on personal shortcomings, perceived or real. In doing so, we exaggerate our own challenges and minimize the challenges faced by others. Democrats have refined that tendency into high art. We need to knock it off! Any objective observer would say that the GOP’s strength is a fear-based uniformity that is driving the party to wage a culture war based on grievance.  That same observer would say that the GOP’s greatest weakness is a fear-based uniformity that is driving the party to wage a culture war based on grievance. The greatest strength (and weakness) of the Democratic Party is its effort to create a governing consensus based on an appeal to the common good.

As between those two models, which will prevail over the long-term—the model based on fear, or the model based on promoting the common good? The answer is self-evident, which is why we should escape the doom loop and move ahead confidently, ignoring temporary setbacks and lazy journalists focused on today’s shiny object. We are on the winning side of history. We should act like it!

          Talk to you tomorrow!