Depends upon how the media frame it
Our failed political press is finding some of their vestigial spines and finally saying that Prznint Stupid is “liar,” and in the case of the Republican caucus, “cowards” for not standing up to him.
It’s a start, but it is also missing the target.
Today’s PressRun is pretty great:
Trump’s just “sulking” and Republicans are nervous and upset about his actions — that’s the false narrative too many in the press are pushing.
“Senior GOP lawmakers grow anxious over Trump’s effort to overturn election results,” read a recent CNN headline. But CNN could find just three Republicans who were supposedly “anxious” about Trump trying to overturn an election where more than 150 million Americans voted. One CNN report last week suggested Republicans had “no choice” but to back Trump’s election sabotage. Politico dismissed Trump’s ongoing rampage as nothing more than “performance art” and “bad sportsmanship.”
When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State to making the stunning inquiry about throwing out legal ballots, the New York Timesheadline made it seem like a quirky strategy: “Lindsey Graham’s Long-Shot Mission to Unravel the Election Results.”
Dan Pffeiffer has a more aggressive take:
“The leading theory in Washington is cowardice. Most political observers believe that for the last four years Republicans remained silent about Trump’s chaotic incompetence and crass corruption out of trepidation. Whenever a Republican enables another Trump transgression, every liberal blue checkmark tweets ‘COWARD.’ The sense among reporters is that Republicans don’t like what Trump says or does, but if they speak up they will be tweeted out of the party.”
“This narrative is comforting because it implies that the Republican Party is not beyond repair — they are just cowards, not bad people. Here’s the problem: the events of the last few weeks make it crystal clear that this narrative is wrong. It is way too generous to the Republicans.”
“Cowards want to to do the right thing but are too afraid to do it. I do not believe the Republicans want to do the right thing and I do not believe they are concerned about the damage Trump is doing to our democracy. Ultimately what bothers them about Trump is not that he is a racist authoritarian. It’s that he is a clumsy, incompetent racist authoritarian. The Republican supplication to Trump’s whims — before and after the election — is not cowardice, it’s calculation.”
I agree. I don’t think Republicans are cowards, I think that the Republicans are his co-conspirators in trying to destroy our democracy. They don’t like it, and never have; and while previously their actions were about suppressing the vote, they are now fine with Lord Damp Nut’s attempts to throw democracy out.
Oh come on, how the hell are they supposed to bothsides on side wants to turn the US into an authoritarian dictatorship and the other side wants to…[checks notes] provide affordable healthcare to all.
I mean they’re starting to contort themselves already:
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LDN is simply a means to an end. I’m sure they wish themselves better luck next time.
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If they can swing it, half of America won’t have a problem with it. That is what scares me the most. Hello Nazi Germany circa 1930 something.
w3ski
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We watched a show on PBS last week The Rise of the Nazis https://www.pbs.org/video/episode-2-the-first-six-months-in-power-fcglhv/
It appears that it is available for streaming for free.
Scary-ass shit, man. “Hey trump did that! He did that too and tried to do that!”
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Thanks, bdr, for the link.
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In more than one news story, I’ve seen the “long shot” chance of overturning the election results and I would like to remind these dimwits that the election is over, Biden won, and there are no shots of any kind that will turn it over.
I see the “Republicans are cowards/not cowards” as actually both being true. They are not cowardly in their brazenness to keep Trump elevated and in power. They’ve managed to create him and they like what he did for them. But they are also cowardly in their decisions to not only make a public stand against him, first during impeachment and now after his loss, but in failing to even address these issues face to face. When I see the R Senators scurrying away from reporters, I see cowards.
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Just what I was thinking. Cowards or co-conspirators? Can’t it be both?
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Let’s unpack the media’s new excuse for bad republicanism.
Cowardice?
Let’s ask some of the REPUBS money daddy’s — Mr Koch who just claimed he had been responsible for the countrywide clusterfk in which we find ourselves and how horribly he messed up and how he suddenly wants to help handsome Joe Biden.
Well, lo and behold:
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/11/koch-funded-alec-planned-february-claim
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