Last Tuesday the State of Virginia did what it has done for the last several election cycles and voted in a Governor from the opposite party on the recently elected President. The Washington Press Corp created a tsunami of stories about how this was a referendum on President Biden. It wasn't really. The politics of the race has little to do with the Biden agenda. But the Washington Press Corp sees their jobs as trying to find fault with whoever is in power. Then the House of Representatives passed an historic infrastructure bill that was a huge win for the President and the press corp focused on 6 progressive Democrats who voted against it in protest. That came after they knew enough Republicans had voted for it. But then why would these journalists do any research or deep exploration. They had a story to sell. The Democrats in disarray.
On the same day as the election Republicans from the QAnon/Trump wing of the party gathered on Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Why? They were expecting John F. Kennedy Jr. to show up, declare Donald Trump the real President, and arrest most of the federal government. This group has quite a hold on the GOP and we see it in the way people are campaigning for the next election. But this was blip on the radar. JFK Jr. has been dead for 22 years and yet the GOP is apparently holding out hope he will come back and usher in a new Trump era. This is on top of the nonsense coming out of the mouths of the Pillow Guy and Giuliani and the Fox News, OAN, Newsmax propaganda wing.
While Democrats may be having arguments with each other over how far the government should go to help those suffering and to create a nation that mirrors most Democratic Republics in the world, the GOP is arguing with Big Bird. Sesame Street got back into the vaccine game as they did in the late sixties and early seventies to help children feel at ease with getting the Covid vaccine. A member of the United States Senate, Ted Cruz, tweeted out to Big Bird that the beloved muppet was engaged in propaganda. Meanwhile there are other high ranking elected officials announcing they will be running campaigns to restore masculinity to America. I wish I knew what that meant. Did we lose masculinity? How are we defining it?
Not to be outdone, one Republican member of Congress posted on his personal and government twitter feed of a cartoon video of him killing another Representative. Still others are calling for the release of violent mob members who stormed the Capital in and attempt to overthrow the government.
But still the media is hyperfocused on the Democrats and President Biden, who have done more to rebuild our country and create a pathway out of the pandemic. But instead of looking at the disgusting mess the GOP has or the accomplishments of the Dems there is a steady diet of low approval numbers, distrust among caucus members and of course personal attacks on the President. This is what I call Storm the Castle journalism. It is the lazy nonsense that somehow the media is supposed be the loyal opposition to those in power. They aren't, the media should report facts and do deep analysis of them. Not with the idea of getting at the power but in a way to give the American people the eyes to look into the government they hired. If the media was doing their job they would cover the Dealey Plaza nonsense from the perspective that this kind of ginned up anger coupled with politics has always led to violence. They should be asking Republicans what they are doing about their fellow party leaders fantasizing in public about killing another member or why some members think January 6th never happened and the violent mob members who were arrested should be set free.
Yes it is important to hold the country's leadership's proverbial feet to the fire. But when during a long speech the President closed his eyes of less than 10 seconds you don't have to play the video and asked if he fell asleep. All the while ignoring what is becoming a huge threat to democratic principles with the Trump wing of the GOP. This is serious, and as people fail to get access to quality journalism the very core of who we are as a nation suffers. The Washington Press Corp has to stop seeing themselves as playing characters in a drama about government and start seeing themselves as a megaphone to let the American learn what is going on. January 6th, the Dallas gathering and of course the constant din coming from the former President about all part of a bigger story than if President Biden nodded off during a droning speech or the progressives did exactly what they said they would. We need you more than ever, so start doing your job.
