Right-wing elites are worse than their followers - The Washington Post

It is easy to reach the disturbing conclusion that the racism, anti-vaccination delusion and the rationalizations for the Jan. 6 insurrection represent the views of tens of millions of Republican voters. In fact, right-wing elites might be more malicious and more deranged than the audience they try to cultivate.

Certainly, right-wing media has become a factory of disinformation and fantastical negative stories about President Biden. The Post reports, “A longtime New York Post reporter said she has resigned after being ‘ordered’ to write a false story that claimed undocumented minors were being welcomed to the United States with copies of a children’s book written by Vice President Harris.”

The bizarre accusation even made its way into the White House briefing room when Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked press secretary Jen Psaki about it on Monday. Baffled by the inquiry, she said she would check. But of course the story introduced by Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post and fanned by the Fox News reporter was baseless. A single copy of the book was donated to a shelter; no government funds were used. (Disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor.)

This phony story came on the heels of another right-wing media lie, namely that Biden wanted to ban meat as part of his climate change plan based on an unrelated study. Fox News batted that one around for days, only to later confess it was wrong. CNN reporter Daniel Dale explained:

[Fox reporter John] Roberts had falsely claimed on Friday that the study — which is not connected in any way to Biden’s actual policies — found that people need to “say goodbye to your burgers if you want to sign up to the Biden climate agenda.” As Roberts spoke on Friday, Fox aired a graphic that claimed “Biden’s climate requirements” are to “cut 90% of red meat from diet, max 4 lbs per year, one burger per month.”

The graphic went viral online; it was amplified on Twitter by Donald Trump Jr., the Republican governors of Texas and Idaho and others. But it was entirely wrong.

These episodes illustrate that rather than reflect Republican paranoia and resentment, right-wing media outlets remain determined to promote it, even if they must resort to made-up accusations. If some Republican voters irrationally hang onto resentment against “elites,” it might be because right-wing elites have spoon-fed them a steady diet of white grievance and cultural resentment on everything from the flap about Dr. Seuss books to hamburgers.

Then there’s the reaction to the conviction of George Floyd’s murderer, former police officer Derek Chauvin. The most egregious purveyor of racism and right-wing myths, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, responded to the verdict with outrage. State Sen. Amanda F. Chase, a Republican candidate for governor in Virginia, declared that the conviction made her “sick.” It might comfort some to learn that these views are out of step not only with the country as a whole but also the majority of Republicans.

CNN’s recent poll found 77 percent of all respondents were satisfied with the verdict; only 16 percent were dissatisfied. Among Republicans, 53 percent were satisfied and 40 percent were dissatisfied. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said we need minor or major changes in policing, including 62 percent of Republicans (although 45 percent of Republicans said those changes need be only minor). (Another 18 percent of respondents, and 6 percent of Republicans, said policing “needs a complete overhaul.”)

Even the degree of cult worship for the disgraced former president among right-wing media personalities and sycophantic Republicans in Congress seems to outstrip Republican opinion. The latest NBC News poll shows that, for the first time since July 2019, “Trump’s pull within his own party appears to have lessened, with 44 percent of Republicans saying they’re more supporters of Trump than the GOP, versus 50 percent who say they’re more supporters of the GOP than the former president.” One would never guess that from the nonstop cheerleading of the former president in right-wing media or from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago and his attempt to absolve the instigator in chief of his responsibility in the Jan. 6 attack.

Right-wing media and GOP politicians may think they have to descend to new levels of dishonesty, hysteria and racism to attract the MAGA base, but there is at least some evidence that Republican voters are not driving the cycle of radicalization. If right-wing media showed a modicum of integrity and Republican officials a smidgen of courage, they might not lose the support of most Republicans. They might even crawl back into the good graces of some disaffected Republicans.

But that’s not their current modus operandi. For them, the name of the game is to turn up the volume on Republican derangement and pollute our political debate with lies and exacerbated polarization.

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Right-wing elites are worse than their followers - The Washington Post
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