The ugly truth behind Kari Lake's made-for-TV politics

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Marisa Kabas
@MarisaKabas
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NEW: Kari Lake and Tudor Dixon are running as female Trump stand-ins, and prove that “elect more women” is simply not enough when some of those women are actively working to diminish our rights.

My first @MSNBC column:

msnbc.com
Opinion | The ugly truth behind Kari Lake's made-for-TV politics
Being a woman isn’t enough, but Republicans want you to think it is.
12:48 PM · Oct 17, 2022

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/arizona-nom-kari-lake-interview-shows-trump-s-most-dangerous-n1299892

Arizona Republican nominee for governor Kari Lake declared in a Sunday interview on CNN that she will accept the results of her state election in November — if she wins.

In that declaration, and in her refusal to say if she will accept election results if she loses the Arizona gubernatorial election, the former local TV news anchor was merely doing an impression of a previous candidate for office who ascended an escalator more than seven years ago, ushering in a new brand of made-for-TV politics. “I’m a reporter, I’ve been sitting on your side of the desk for a long time,” Lake told CNN’s Dana Bash, while casting skepticism on the U.S. electoral system.

As we enter the final stretch of the midterm election season, we’re seeing the party of Donald Trump forced to perform on the national stage without its notorious leader on the ballot to juice turnout. And the MAGA movement seems to have identified a new type of candidate to hold the front lines and fill the Trump-shaped hole: the hardline female media personality.

In a seemingly hostile political environment for women, with abortion rights and female bodily autonomy on the ballot, multiple states have far-right Republican female candidates like Lake in Arizona, Tudor Dixon in Michigan and Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas running for governor as Trump stand-ins, sometimes against female Democratic opponents. These former media personalities have flipped the script on a country full of women desperate for representation by cynically offering themselves as an option, while actively working to diminish women’s rights.

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[FalloutShelter]

1. Rethugs are looking for spokesmodels not statesmen.

[2naSalit]

2. The...

Sarah Palin strategy.