Eric Boehlert: America isn't guaranteed a happy ending

[babylonsister]

America isn't guaranteed a happy ending
A failure of imagination
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago


The clarion calls of democratic doom are out there, but are newsrooms listening? Trump Republicans are methodically and unapologetically out to derail American democracy, yet there remains a working media assumption that it can’t happen here.

“I'm astonished that more people don't see, or can't face, America's existential crisis,” Hillary Clinton warned this week. She fears “our democracy will [soon] be broken and taken over and minority rule will be what we live under. The norm.”

Appearing on MSNBC, Republican Trump critic Stuart Stevens pleaded his succinct case: “My plea to Democrats would be to just understand what is at stake here. The problem King George had was he couldn’t imagine the creation of an American democracy, and we suffer from the same problem. We can`t imagine the ending of American democracy, but it can happen.”

And writing in the Washington Post, foreign affairs author Robert Kagan warned, “The amateurish “stop the steal” efforts of 2020 have given way to an organized nationwide campaign to ensure that Trump and his supporters will have the control over state and local election officials that they lacked in 2020.”

That’s the key — in the weeks following Trump’s defeat, he and his crooked allies utilized an ad hoc, Hail Mary approach to try to steal back the White House. After he failed, instead of the Republican Party recoiling from the idea of trying to throw out millions of legitimate votes, the GOP set out to create a backstop in states around the country that would codify the next attempt by Republicans to throw out millions of legitimate votes.

Today, Trump and his followers are using lawsuits, legislation, and terroristic threats to curtail the right to vote. It’s all being done in plain sight, yet there remains a stubborn newsroom assumption that American democracy cannot be systematically steamrolled.

more...

https://pressrun.media/p/america-isnt-guaranteed-a-happy-ending

[gab13by13]

1. The MSM is helping

to end our democracy.

[calimary]

13. Sometimes it sure does seem so.

[bullwinkle428]

2. Rachel M. regularly tries to call out the prevailing mindset on the part

of the MSM, where the American political theme is presented like "here are the two opposing parties, and it's just a battle of different ideas trying to achieve the same noble goal".

Unfortunately, she and the few others courageous enough to rise up against this form of thinking seem to be lone voices in the wilderness.

[GoodRaisin]

5. Her bosses seem to have conflicting objectives.

Ending democracy vs. ratings.

[Roy Rolling]

12. MSM

The term “mainstream media” has been co-opted as a right wing term. The bad players are “commercial media” gone rogue for profits.

Media empires who sell advertising next to the burning of American democracy are different than media outlets who are responsible corporate entities.

Target advertisers who pay money to sell their products next to images of deplorables beating policemen. They are the ones who sponsor the bad media outlets and enable them to survive while tearing everything down.

[Tommymac]

3. That's because the 1% want to end Democracy...Capitalism works better in an Authoritarian system

China has proven this is so, at least in their eyes.

No worry about the workers or social nets. Treat them like subhumans. Human Rights? Bwaaahaahaahaa.

Give a few ignorant, self centered and greedy middle class types the illusion of wealth and privilege and those fools will kiss 1% ass until the Universe ends.

Give the masses circuses like the NFL or NBA or NASCAR or Pop Country Concerts, and QAnon rallies for the really stupid, destroy public education, destroy trust in Democratic institutions and wallah ... Trumpland for eternity.

Since they own the MSM and Cable TV and FB and most US newspapers and magazines and all those Reality TV channels no worries about their disinformation reaching the majority of people.

It CAN Happen. I'm waiting to see what happens in VA - Terry is clueless about campaigning and is a traditional politician (Like many in the Senate) who refuses to see the real and present danger to Democracy - I fear that the 1% is using this Governor's election as a test case.

Hope I am 100% wrong...

[jalan48]

4. +1

[FakeNoose]

6. Exactly! The evil one-per-centers have no use for democracy

They don't even like "capitalism" very much, but "democracy" makes them shudder. We've let ultra-wealthy have their way for way too long now.

Those of us who AREN'T ultra-wealthy have gone through Ronald Reagan's looking glass, and it's time to come out and face reality.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

10. It's the propaganda, it's destroying us. I fear you are right.

[Lonestarblue]

7. I sincerely want the US to split into two countries.

Thomas Edsall has an interesting piece in today’s NYT on why Trump supporters believe as they do and why they prefer an authoritarian leader. At the end of the article, he cites a poll on splitting the US. “Among Trump voters, 52 percent agreed, with 25 percent in strong agreement; among Biden voters, 41 percent agreed, 18 percent strongly.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/opinion/trump-voters-2020-election.html

We have reached an impasse where neither side trusts the other and partisanship in Washington means that nothing much gets done. We Democrats are sick of Republican policies of placing right-wing evangelicals’ ideas above the law and taking away reproductive rights, voting rights, healthcare for the poor, and refusing to address climate warming but sicking their hands out for money when another damaging storm hits. Republicans are turning public education into fictional studies. Let them have their own country. They’re ruining the US for the rest of us.

[JHB]

8. The cost of that is setting up a Russian or Chinese puppet state right on our border

Most of the red areas where that sentiment is strongest are "taker" areas where Federal dollars -- whether in direct payments or via defense contractor and military base employment, federal agencies, etc. -- are big chunks of the economy. The people who answer that question with "agree" are rarely thinking of how much of that will go away.

Dramatic mouthing off is easy, but that drops fast once the prospect of an exodus of money gains a higher profile.

And who would try to fill in the money gap? Corporations and foreign powers.

[erronis]

11. And yet, in another way, Brexit is an attempt to set up a "red" area. It looks like it is failing.

BoJo seems to have read the same playbook template that the djt folks followed. Perhaps Orban, Bolsonara, other strongmen wannabes.

For the US it looks like an internal splitting - family against family. Much like the Civil War.

For GB it seems more an attempt to cause isolation and havoc in the supply chains, cross-border person movement, etc. Definitely trying (succeeding?) to weaken NATO.

Your perspective always welcome.

[LT Barclay]

9. Basic theme of the book Lies My Teacher Told Me. The author would love your post.