Dear Mainstream Media: You're Squirming and We Love It
Democrat-Media Complex panic over Presidentish Joe Biden's reelection chances is turned up to 11, and the sound is so glorious that I'll gladly risk permanent hearing loss listening to it.
The fear is palpable in stories ranging from gentle advice aimed at nudging Biden in a better direction politically to out-and-out panicmongering over Orange Man Bad that makes the anti-Trump stuff from 2016 and 2020 almost look sane in comparison.
The gentle version is when Democrats hit up the Mainstream Media to ask Biden to show more "empathy on the economy." Things aren't that bad, you see. Biden just needs to show the kind of concern voters are looking for.
From there, things escalate with lame attempts to tell readers that it's the voters who are wrong.
Northeastern's David Lazer, who heads up the Civic Health and Institutions Project, explained the shift this way: "In general there’s been a lot of negativity about Biden and younger voters may have been more responsive to that." Not that Biden has done a bad job, mind you, or that Trump has somehow become acceptable. There's just this vibe, you know, this negativity about Biden. The denial is strong with this one.
Then there's the swing-for-the-fences panicmongering like this one from The New Republic: How the Hell Can People Be Nostalgic for Donald Trump? Yet—They Are.
I dunno — low inflation, rising wages, peace?
The New York Times chose Memorial Day to publish an op-ed by Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, comparing Biden to aged-but-lovable Boris Yeltsin in 1996 and Donald Trump to the resurgent Communist threat represented by election opponent Gennady Zyuganov.
Is Trump supposed to be Literally Hitler™ or a filthy Commie? It's so hard to keep track these days.
Vox even devoted one of its trademark sleep-inducing "explainer" columns today to squirming over Biden's loss of support among young and non-white voters. "High turnout may actually favor Republicans this year," namely Trump, despite his "paranoid vision of American life and a populist contempt for the nation’s political system."
Young and non-white voters don't understand they're voting for the end of voting!
The crème de la crème of squirming alarm is today's Politico article that my colleague Rick Moran already gave a full writeup. But please let me break out this particularly tasty bit from it. Enjoy this classic bit of panicmongering boilerplate from an unnamed Dem operative: "This isn’t, ‘Oh my God, Mitt Romney might become president.’ It’s ‘Oh my God, the democracy might end.'"
These are the same people who said Romney would give people cancer.
It's impossible to tell whether Democrats actually believe their own nonsense, whether they know that Politico and its readers will lap it up, or both.
But Politico did, indeed, lap it up. The magazine required no fewer than three (!!!) reporters — Christopher Cadelago, Sally Goldenberg, and Elena Schneider — to serve up today's heaping helping of Orange Man Bad, including this whopper: "Despite everything, Trump is running ahead of Biden in most battleground states."
Despite every which thing? Stubborn inflation? Depleted savings? Maxxed out credit cards? Record debt and deficits? Hot wars in Europe and the Middle East? War looming in the Pacific?
The fear has reached deep into the Democrat base. Rasmussen revealed today that "Fifty-four percent of Democratic likely voters would approve of Biden being replaced" as the party's nominee.
And what is Biden doing? Falling asleep at Arlington on Memorial Day.
If there's a better metaphor for the Biden presidency — and his reelection campaign — I haven't yet seen it.
But, dear Lord, would I love to.
No comments:
Post a Comment