Robert Hubbell is a wonderful, sensible blogger. I enjoy reading his posts. Here is one that ties together our current “gloom and doom” about the politics at home with the defiance and courage of Ukrainians who are standing up to a brutal invasion.
He wrote:
The media doomsday machine is in overdrive.
Readers are again filling my inbox with stories that predict disaster for Democrats in the midterms. All I can say is that we should be thankful that the journalists declaring defeat are not in charge of defending Ukraine. The current narrative is that the only issue that matters to voters is the economy. Of course, except for inflation, the economy is strong—a fact universally ignored by the media. But in the “short-attention-span” media, the criminalization of abortion is a story that has run its course and is baked into the outcome of the midterms. Such a view denigrates the role of voters in the political process and ignores the possibility that the attitudes of voters can change over the course of an election.
So, let’s reset where we are at this moment in time. Most primaries for midterms have not yet occurred, so Democrats don’t know who they will be facing. But we have strong signals that Republican candidates will be more extreme, less qualified, and more vulnerable than the GOP had hoped. The surge of activism that should follow the criminalization of abortion is just getting off the ground. The final opinion was expected in late June; the leak in early May caught many grass-roots groups by surprise. Republicans and the mainstream media want to create a narrative that says, “Nothing to see here, move along. The fight over abortion won’t motivate Democrats or persuadable Independents.”
I believe the above narrative badly mis-reads what is about to happen. We are no longer arguing over abstract legal principles. We are facing a situation in which abortion will be a crime, and teenage girls raped by family members will be ordered by the state to bear children forced on them by violent attackers. The narrative ignores that a strong majority of Americans supported the Roe / Casey paradigm for balancing individual liberty and societal interests. And it ignores the fact abortion is far more common than many believe. Per the NYTimes, “25 percent of women will have an abortion by the end of their childbearing years.” Telling those women, even retroactively, that they are “felons” or “criminals” will surely have some effect on their view of their Republican accusers.
So, what should we do? First, we need an attitude adjustment. If you see a story predicting disaster, you must summon the fighting spirit to say that pundits and “conventional wisdom” do not control your actions or your destiny. The fighting spirit of the Ukrainian people is instructive. The “conventional wisdom” predicted their defeat in two weeks. Our first clue that the Ukrainians would not allow conventional wisdom to determine their destiny was Zelensky’s statement, “I need ammunition, I don’t need a ride.” The second indication came from the defenders of Snake Island who were ordered by a “Russian warship” to “surrender” before being shelled. The reply, “Russian warship, go f**k yourself” will live in legend. [Note: The “warship” in question was later sunk by Ukrainian missiles.]
We all need a bit of the “in-your-face” confidence to tell the doomsayers what they can do with their predictions. In that regard, I recommend the video in a tweet by MeidasTouch, “Hey, Republican Party. Go f—k yourselves.” Fair warning—the video includes about a dozen profanities, which are usually unproductive and distracting. But the sentiment expressed in the video captures the fighting spirit that all Democrats need at this moment. Republicans are busy telling the mainstream media that the 2022 midterms are over and that Democrats should surrender. As the Ukrainian defenders on Snake Island said, “Russian warship, . . . .”
“[P]undits and ‘conventional wisdom’ do not control your actions or your destiny,” just the business model only across all 6 billionaire-owned, multinational media companies.
I prefer two historical quotes in a response to the voices shouting from what’s known as the Media Doomsday Machine
“I have not yet begun to fight,” John Paul Jones.
“Nuts!”
Anthony McAuliffe (2 July 1898 – 11 August 1975) was the United States Army general who was the acting division commander of the 101st Airborne Division troops defending Bastogne, Belgium, during World War II’s Battle of the Bulge, famous for his single-word reply of “Nuts!” in response to a German surrender ultimatum.
Maybe the Media Doomsday Machine should be asking different questions as in what voters think of the GOP. YouGov.com did and reported a 37.9% favorability rating and it’s even worse when voters were asked what party they were planning to vote for in Congress. The GOP dropped almost another percent.
https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/trackers/the-republican-party-favorability
If I may contribute another set of quotes that I feel Democrats must live by, it’s from the film Mississippi Burning:
Anderson (Gene Hackman): “Don’t put me on your perch, Mr. Ward!”
Ward (Willem Dafoe): “Don’t drag me into your gutter, Mr. Anderson!”
Anderson: “THESE PEOPLE CRAWLED OUT OF THE SEWER, MR. WARD! NOW MAYBE THE GUTTER IS WHERE WE SHOULD BE!!!”
Point is: Democrats will not do whatever it takes to win anything of any substance. It’s almost like, as Michael Moore narrated in Fahrenheit 11/9, they’re paid to lose so long as the Establishment Dems keep their positions of power as per Steny Hoyer’s admission on the tapped call with primary challenger Levi Tillemann. I say fight dirty within the bounds of the law, have at it. Remember: the gutter is where they have to meet the sewer creatures.
We’re all getting really bad cases of MINTH —
Media Induced Numbness To Horror …
Biden will be in his 80s for the next election cycle. Although he appears to be in good health and is in control of his faculties, how can he run at that age? Then I assume Kamala Harris will run for the presidency, she gets my vote and, for that matter, so would Biden get my vote, in his 80s or not.
Really hope, in those circumstances, someone challenges and beats Harris in the primaries.
Esper stood by and merely observed an unhinged Trump. Now he wants to make money from his complicity. I hope his book is a flop.
Others have noted the number of Trump officials who stayed silent about how dangerous he was until they could publish a book and profit by their silence. Why didn’t they speak up in October 2020?
To their credit, Esper and Milley refused to let the military be used against BLM protestors. That was HUGE, and in the Trump maladministration, heresy.
And Esper refused to bomb Mexico, as Trump wanted. Trump thought no one would know that the US did it.
The majority of our fellow citizens probably are only vaguely aware of R v W, and very aware of gasoline prices, inflation, mortgage rates, the lack of affordable housing and will vote their pocketbooks. The “fault” does not ly with Democrats, COVID has impacted the worldwide economy and the Ukraine exacerbated … polling is a photograph of the electorate today …. my advice: reach into your pocket and donate to the candidate of your choice, pick key elections, Diane has thousands of readers, if each contributed $25 the donations could turnaround elections.
“Russian warship. . . .”
ROFL! So funny, Diane! Thanks.
I so hope that I am wrong and that this guy is right!
Talk to everyone you know. Make sure they are going to get out and vote this November. This one really, really, really, really, really matters.
pardon the agreement error. lol
So back in September the BLS released the monthly Jobs number. A terribly disappointing 234,000 Jobs +- . It was disappointing because the same economic analysts who could not see a Housing Bubble bigger than the Stay Puff Marshmallow man had predicted 300,000 + . The fact that it was as high or higher than all but a handful of the previous 120 months never seemed to dawn on the talking heads. In October there were 677,000 Jobs added. And at the same time the number for October was adjusted 200,000 higher. It took the media all of 10 seconds to shift the narrative to “oh but inflation”
As stated by some CNBC talking head that day, inflation is an expectations game. If workers expect inflation they will ask for higher wages. If employers expect inflation they will charge more for goods and services. Inflation in September was all of 4.4 ,% high but not earth shaking. Then the (respectable )media ran stories of almost $6 dollar a gallon gas as if that was the norm. Of a Tex-ass couple who goes through 9 gallons of milk a week and was bankrupted by the cost(don’t ask about birth control). Of a Station owner in NJ who spends 1000s a week on gas for his 1970 muscle car and his 2000 Escalade.
Well the message was received the expectation of inflation was created. Wages now contribute 8.5% of the inflationary spike. Raw materials and supply chain issues 27% of the inflation we see. And excess profits contribute 53% of the price hikes we are seeing. (EPI). It would seem the right people got the right message but it was not the American worker who in spite of all the hype does not have the power to demand wage increases on a broad based scale as they did in the past. In previous inflationary spikes inflation was driven 70% by wage increases . The media hype on inflation prior to the Ukraine war enabled corporations to profit vastly. The expectation was there. Corporate America hopped right on the band wagon. Don’t expect the corporate media to hop on board calling for an excess profits tax, or even to harp on those excess profits. Instead we will hear nonsense about low wage workers holding out for a living wage.
Was it a conscious conspiracy ? Probably not . Is it a combination of of group think and inferior reporting (IMHO) absolutely.
Moving on to Crime in NYC . In a nut shell if NYC was the safest big city in America in 2010 (according to Bloomberg) than how did it get unsafe in 2021 when every Crime Stat released by the NYPD is lower than 2010, when people felt the City was safe.
My favorite NYC crime category is rape. In 2021 there were 1491 reported rapes in NYC up from 1427 in 2020. Women be afraid be very afraid!!!. But wait there were 1755 in 2019 and 1791 rapes in 2018, when everyone thought the City was very safe.
The Right wing media generates a narrative and instead of countering it, the supposedly Liberal MSM run with the story. . Cowardly Democratic politicians who call themselves moderates hop right on board not wanting to seem like they are ignoring an issue.
If Trump was President every Republican would be calling inflation fake news and their Ivermectin downing base would be swallowing it hook line and sinker.
Joel this is so spot on.
The NYT ran a story today — interviews with the supposedly “ignored” Americans — a group of 10 Republican voters, mostly pro-life, whose views are DISPROPORTIONATELY heard and who are constantly profiled in the media!
And amplified all the right wing talking points without once discrediting them. What matters is that people believe them, not whether they are true.
I’m with him. I keep remembering how the pundits all predicted HRC would win in a landslide in 2016. Wrong! Then they said the Dems would get hammered in the 2018 election, but they took back the House. Yes, we have had setbacks, but damn, the Reeps have set a pretty low bar. If the current SCOTUS doesn’t motivate our side to vote, nothing will.
There needs to be a very targeted propaganda campaign – directed specifically and exclusively to less motivated Republican voters – repeating the “doomsday media narrative” (except it’s called the “celebration” media narrative) and reinforcing to them that there is absolutely no need for them to get out and vote because the election is in the bag.
A different campaign with the theme of “let’s show those media idiots that they are wrong and save democracy” should be targeted at the less motivated Democratic voters. Or maybe the call should be “Remember 2018 when we took back the House! Let’s show them what we can do.” Bernie and AOC should be out campaigning all over the country pushing the message to progressives to “vote and show Joe Manchin he can leave our party because we have enough Senators and don’t need him”.