Fox News built a f**ked-up Frankenstein, dumb, angry and divorced from facts. Now Donald Trump will

[DonViejo]

Fox News built a f**ked-up Frankenstein, dumb, angry and divorced from facts. Now Donald Trump will devour them

Conservative media destroyed conservative politics. The right's impossible to take seriously. Then came Trump!

SEAN ILLING

Fox News –and the conservative media-industrial complex – have created a Frankenstein. His name is Donald Trump, and his political success is now a huge problem for the Republican Party. In so many ways, Trump’s political existence was inevitable. For years, Fox News and the conservative talk radio machine have played to the populist Tea Party id: fomenting fear, demonizing immigrants, and enabling every nativist anxiety imaginable. Now they’re paying the price.

Donald Trump is practically a mirror image of the Fox News psyche. Most of his speeches consist of repackaged stupidities plucked right out of the conservative mediascape. It’s kind of brilliant, really. Trump knows his audience, and he beams back at them every idiotic thing they want to hear. Which, of course, is exactly what Fox News does.

The wonderful irony of all this is that the conservative media have ruined conservative politics, far more than liberals ever did. And the results speak for themselves. It’s true that Fox News has promoted the conservative brand and very likely energized grass-roots conservatism in some sense, but at what cost? The GOP, increasingly, is no longer a national party – it’s confined more and more to the South and to pockets of rural America.

The Republicans have had their share of electoral successes in recent years, and Fox News surely aided in that, but if you look closely you’ll see that the political success of conservatives have not led to policy successes. On the contrary, liberalism is winning. Obama, for instance, has been one of the most consequential presidents in modern American history. Both politically and culturally, the country is more liberal today than it was a decade ago. And this has happened in spite of the triumph of Fox News and conservative media.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/08/fox_news_built_a_fked_up_frankenstein_dumb_angry_and_divorced_from_facts_now_donald_trump_will_devour_them/

[underpants]

1. Completely agree. The GOP was dead in 2006

W
W's war of lies
Endless scandals
Etc.

Devastating political defeats in 2006 (a woman speaker?) and in 2008 (a black President?).

The only thing that kept the GOP alive was Fox News (and the MSM followed) and gerrymandering.

[Botany]

2. Yup

If it wasn't for the money, power, gerrymandering, electronic voting, and
a dirty media the republicans would be dead in many parts of America* because
@ their heart the GOP is against what is good for the American people.

In 2012 Obama and Sen. Brown won Ohio by good margins but 11 of the 15
house districts went republican depite there being more Ds then Rs in voting
in this state.


* Oklahoma, Utah, Idaho, and parts of Texas and other states might be lost
causes ...... Fox News viewers too.

[Cosmocat]

9. The thing keeping the GOP alive is the stupid

The rest of what you note is the not the cause, it is symptoms.

They stir the pot to generate the anger,maximize the stupidity.

But, the stupid is the problem, and sorry to say, it isn't going anywhere, it has only gotten worse and more pronounced since the early 90s when I a young adult.

The only time the GOP takes a hit is when it is really, REALLY bad, as you noted, in 06 ...

But, by 2010 the country gleefully let that go and gave them the power back.

The only time this country got past the stupid was BHO getting reelected.

Other than that, we have been relishing in the stupid since he first got elected.

[calimary]

16. Not dead enough to suit me.

So I guess the "Frankenstein" meme works well. They are the undead. Still able to rise from the grave anyway and wreak havoc.

[Javaman]

3. I heard and interesting take on the trump...

trump's ranting is part of a larger prearranged plan by the GOP to see how far they can go with the racist bigoted rhetoric.

Why?

Any time he spews his level of rehearsed insanity, it makes the other repubs look sane in comparison.

This is being done on purpose.

[tavernier]

4. I have several friends

who post endless sunshine and flower sayings on facebook regarding the importance of equality for all, respect for the planet, love of fellow man. Then shortly after, they reaffirm their conservatism in case anyone should misunderstand their party leanings.

My daughter and I are taking bets as to when they will finally realize that they are democrats.

[Stellar]

5. Too funny!

I'd love to know what they've decided.

[Victor_c3]

31. That's how I started off

I grew up in a center right household and adopted the politics of my parents as my own. Words like "democrat" and "liberal" were bad words in my house. I considered myself a republican until 2004 - when I found myself reading a number of books talking about how bad corporations were and the plight of the working class when I wasn't on patrol and I started to think of myself more as an independent. It wasn't until after Obama was done with the primaries that I began to consider myself a democrat.

The experience of being in a war did a lot in itself to further my push to the left. Remarkably, combat made me a more understanding and living person. I adopted a very "live-and-let-live" attitude when it came to dealing with people who would rather see me dead. I came to understand that if our positions were swapped I'd be fighting just like they were. Most of the guys over there were suckered into believing that people like me were bad people and that they must fight me in a hope to protect their communities and their children. They were very illiterate and learned everything they knew about the world from their local religious leaders. I found it increasingly hard to shoot people that I found myself identifying with.

[tavernier]

32. We aren't leopards

We can change our spots.

Thanks for sharing your story.

[oldandhappy]

6. Does FN understand consequences??!!

Have often wondered if FN knows or understands that if you do this, then others do that. They always seem so surprised that there are those of us in the world who do not agree with them. Interested in #3 post. That would mean FN has to be smart, hmmm. I will ponder the idea, smile.

[JHB]

17. Don't wonder if "FN" understands, wonder if RA does...

Roger Ailes, that is. FOX News is his Nixon-era vision of GOP TV brought to fruition.

[sarge43]

7. Fox News is Frankenstein

It created the Monster Trump

(Lit major nitpick)

[lovemydog]

10. Mary Shelley and I

thank you.

Wait.

What's Mary Shelley doing ...

alive ...

in ...

my ...

houseeeeaaaarrrrarrrraggggggghhhhhh!

[awoke_in_2003]

18. Zombie Frankenstein

There's a scary thought

[malthaussen]

15. Ha, beat me to it.

Only my degrees are in computers and history.

-- Mal

[Orsino]

23. Yep. And incapable of creating anything else.

They are like a modern Prometheus whose raw materials are money, raw sewage and lies.

[malthaussen]

30. Maybe more like his brother Epimetheus

Although I know of no myth that attributes malice to Epimetheus's blundering.

-- Mal

[Fred Sanders]

8. "Obama, for instance, has been one of the most consequential Presidents in modern American history".

Indeed. If only amnesia were not so viral among the 78% of Americans who can not remember their most basic history lesson of "What nation did America declare Independence from in 1776?"

I think most folks know, they were all surely taught, or seen a movie, but they just can not remember.

Amnesia, not learning the lessons of history, can lead to all kinds of repeated bad consequences, but the media long ago abandoned its's constitutional duty to make Americans remember.

I would have roped off the media, too.

[blm]

11. On Facebook there are groups pushing Dictatortot Bush as the greatest living president.

Seriously - the cognitive dissonance runs deep in dumbed down GOP voters.

FOX actually came AFTER RevMoon's Washington Times propaganda - in fact, FOX was the vehicle used to BROADCAST the propaganda that was already established by the Korean cult leader, including Moonie Times, Human Events, Insight, Front Page, etc…..

[packman]

12. Somthing in the Bible

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.

Like to think that the "strangers" are the minorities, the poor, the women, the gays and the progressives that the conservative movement has alienated over the last few decades.

[Cosmocat]

13. Horse hockey

Another the GOP is in trouble fantasy ...

I know countless "conservatives" or republicans, countless non-liberals and progressives, and Trump's stupidity won't change their view on things on bit.

What they WANT to believe trumps reality, facts or the massive disconnect between these things and the vitriol spewed by the clown car running for POTUS, in congress, conservative media complex.

They are right, so flat lies, being wrong, complete lunacy means nothing to them.

[awoke_in_2003]

19. The GOP has been dying

longer than Paul Rubens in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie.

[Cosmocat]

25. Got that ...

Nm

[CatWoman]

27. BWAH!!

[malthaussen]

14. Didn't know Trump was a doctor.

Perhaps Mr Illing meant "Frankenstein's Monster?"

-- Mal

[Skittles]

28. I noticed that too

yup

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

20. The nearly 20 GOP candidates running for president are another symptom

Rightwing media has created a griftersphere, where folks who know damn well that they have no chance go ahead and run, knowing it will get them TV time and help them amass books sales and SuperPAC donations to live off of.

Hell, they don't even need to actually run. Look at Palin and her PAC-paid vacation bus.

[Buns_of_Fire]

21. T-Rump! Mightier than Rodan! Handsomer than Godzilla!

Tastier than Gamera! And with a bigger mouth than T-Rex!

[Buns_of_Fire]

22. Or maybe "The Amazing Colossal Jerk". There's got to be a movie in here somewhere. nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

24. K&R

[Contrary1]

26. Now all he needs is a running mate who has an IQ in his range, and can spout made up "facts":

Ms. Palin...are you free?

[corkhead]

29. This is an insult

to the Frankenstein monster.

Violent as he was, at least he showed a bit of humanity. I have not seen that demonstrated by of the current passengers of the clown car, in fact displaying any humanity is a good way to get yourself thrown out of the Republicon party.