Originally Posted by
Haghstull
Big, important events taking place at this very moment that will determine the near and middle term future of conservative politics, boys. Let's pay a little attention, shall we?
With Trump’s defeat a mere eventuality at this point, the vanquished right—that is, the “old school” GOP politicians in the mold of Willard Romney and Jeb Bush—appear to be making an attempt to reassert their authority over the soul of the conservative movement.
Submitted for your consideration: a keyed-up, pissed off Sean Michael Hannity giving “populist” ideologue Tucker Carlson an earful for daring to criticize the patron saint of American Capitalism, Jeff Bezos. (Type "Carlson Hannity Handoff) to youtube if you'd like to see the clip.) I think the significance of this change is being REALLY underlooked by the mainstream media. Without being too dramatic, I think this exchange may be remembered as the 21st century GOP's Fort Sumter moment.
Let’s start with the obvious: Carlson’s take would have been jaw-droppingly out of place on Fox News a mere 5 years ago. Heck… it probably would have been out of place on NBC News 5 years ago. If you transcribed these remarks on Bezos and attributed them to AOC or Bernie Sanders, the audience would have to be paying damn close attention to notice. If you told Fox news’ board of directors in 2015 that their network would broadcast this rant, they would have laughed hard enough to break their ribs. Now the guy who writes this shit is their most popular host, has their best time slot, and—for the moment, at least—seems to be the face of the conservative movement in 2020. To say that this represents a dramatic, unexpected shift is a hilarious understatement.
How did we get here so quickly? More importantly, is this really where we’re going to stay?
When Trump seized control of the Republican party on a vaguely right-populist platform in 2016, Fox News’ entire content strategy went out the window almost literally over night. How would the mouthpiece of corporate wealth defend a president who had won the support and admiration of the Republican base by criticizing the trade deals and military conflicts that had so thoroughly enriched their primary constituency (the billionaire/investor class)? What if Trump actually governs the way so many disaffected flyover country voters believe he will—by challenging elite power and going after the crooked banks/corporations? What if he refuses to pursue the assault on all existing forms of wealth redistribution that Republican donors have come to expect from their politicians? In essence, a big, scary question was looming: What will Fox News do if Trump forces it to choose between supporting a Republican President and supporting Republican policies?
As we all know, the scenario played out in a decidedly less interesting way.
Now, in 2020, Trump has
1) Completely abandoned his populist ambitions apart from backing out of one measly trade deal
2) Abandoned his “anti-elite” platform in favor of the one championed by HRC, Willard, Jeb Bush, or other Wall Street politicians, as evidenced by his support for historic corporate tax cuts via the 2017 tax bill (Remember how eager Pelosi and Schumer were to help him get that crap passed? And why wouldn’t they be!? They may as well have wrote that damn bill!)
3) Continued to ably prosecute the GOP’s war on the working class by making it easier for his allies at the state level to cut funding for Medicaid. Before the pandemic, he was even beginning to signal that he was willing to take swings at SS and medicare. Joe Biden, Ted Cruz, and all of the other Wall Street politicians in both parties who have advocated for this for years would have been proud.
4) Generally failed as a leader during the “pandemic” in a profound, public way that transcends class lines and will see him lose by a comfortable margin to a candidate that ought to have been very, very beatable.
For that brief, glorious moment in 2016, Hannity and his team were silenced—repudiated by the moment. The world watched, spellbound, for an answer to perhaps one of the most important questions in our nation’s history: Is Donald Trump the real deal?
Now that we have an answer, the GOP can wipe the sweat off of its brow, heave a sigh of relief, and set about the work of eradicating the strain of populism that managed to gain a foothold in their party and their broadcast networks over the course of Trump. Now that Trump has more-or-less officially been defeated, Hannity’s attack on Carlson will be the first of many instances of the Wall Street Right seeking to clean up whatever traces remain of the authentic, genuine revolution that Trump the Idea so ably sparked... and that Trump the Man so miserably failed. With no sitting president to protect them, the Trump-adjacent, elite-skeptical pundits that have thus far avoided attacks from the right on the basis of the fact that they were affiliated with a Republican president are about to be set upon by the snarling attack dogs of pre-2016 GOP. Put another way, Post-Trump pro-Trumpers are starting to look like 8-year-olds who has been mouthing off to the babysitter all weekend. It was a fun little moment you got to have….
…but if people with Hannity’s values are going to resume talking to people with Tucker values like that on Red State Television, then that can only mean one thing: Daddy’s home.
And his paddle hand is damn well rested.
What do you think?