Thursday, Jan 28, 2016 01:35 PM PST
(Credit: AP/Reuters/Fred Prouser/John Locher/Frank Franklin II/Photo montage by Salon)
Donald Trump exposes the Big Lie at Fox News: It’s hate and resentment the network’s shilling, not conservatism
Trump’s pulling out of the debate spotlights how Fox News only cares about baiting viewers with hateful rhetoric
Topics:
Donald T,
Donald Trump,
Fox News,
fox news debate,
Megyn Kelly,
Roger Ailes,
2016 GOP primary,
aol_on, Elections News, News, Politics News
(Credit: AP/Reuters/Fred Prouser/John Locher/Frank Franklin II/Photo montage by Salon)
One of the most intensely felt and least articulated pleasures of
Donald Trump’s bizarre political ascent is the manner in which it has
exposed the “modern conservative movement” as an utter sham.
After all, if you listen to the giant, for-profit conservative media
machine, what GOP voters want is ideological purity: candidates who toe
the line drawn by Fox News, the RNC, and their various corporate
minders.
Trump, as a reminder,
is a candidate who once declared himself “very pro-choice,” who
supported taxing the wealthy and legalizing drugs and universal health
care and an assault weapons ban, who was a registered Democrat for years
and contributed millions to liberal candidates, who blasts special interests and Super PACs . How could such a flaming lefty ever win over conservatives, especially the hyper-partisan folks who vote in the primaries?
The
answer, of course, is that most “conservatives” don’t really care much
about ideology. What they care about is the joyous experience of their
own forbidden feelings. That’s what Trump’s unexpected and enduring
popularity proves—whether or not it results in his being the Republican
nominee.
Ever since Richard Nixon devised his Southern Strategy,
the GOP has charted a course in which the assumption of power has been
predicated an appeal to primal emotions: hate, fear, grievance.
Sure,
the party establishment has particular policy goals (lower taxes,
deregulate, etc.) but they garner support from the “base” only by riling
them up. Anyone who has attended a Tea Party rally, or a Sarah Palin
rally, or a Trump rally can tell you that the folks who show up are
there to feel, not to think.
Which is why the Great Debate Debacle now playing out before our eyes is so illuminating.
Trump does scare the hell out of Fox News, as my colleague Heather Digby has pointed out.
But
Trump’s decision to pull out the debate does far more than just
demonstrate his ability to alpha male Fox News. It exposes the Big Lie
at the very heart of the network.
Because
it turns out that Fox News, like the party whose bidding it does, has
never been about conservatism. Not deep down. What the network does is
use ideology as a Trojan horse. The real product, all along (and as with
the GOP) has been emotion. They retail hate and resentment and
grievance.
Every day, they
tell mostly older, white, culturally dislocated Americans who they
should be angry at, and who they should fear. And because they do it so
well, they make hundreds of millions of dollars.
Up until Trump came along, they were the best in the business. There was no politician who could stand up to them.
end quote from:
http://www.salon.com/2016/01/28/donald_trump_exposes_the_big_lie_at_fox_news_its_hate_and_resentment_the_networks_shilling_not_conservatism/
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