If there’s one thing you can count on in politics it’s the Republican Party doing stupid things when the non-stupid things are staring them right in the face. It could be a charming quirk in a person or an amusing trait in some character on a television show, but as the defining characteristic of a political party it’s pretty damn annoying.
Ronna Romney McDaniel has been a disaster at Republican Party Chair, overseeing the loss of control of the House, the Senate and the White House during her tenure. She shouldn’t have survived her first reelection attempt in 2020, and had Hillary Clinton not been such a uniquely horrible person and candidate who lost Michigan in 2016, she never would’ve been elected in the first place.
After that Michigan win in 2016, former President Donald Trump supported McDaniel and has kept the establishment darling in power ever since. But she sucks at the job.
What can you point to that the GOP has done well since 2017? I’ll wait.
A lot of elections they should have won they managed to lose. Rather than recruit good candidates, they’ve been overtaken by bad ones who can get on Fox or curry favor with the former President. Forget whether or not you thought he could win, did anyone really think Dr. Oz was a good candidate? Herschel Walker? The guy couldn’t speak knowledgeably on a single topic. But they kissed the right butt and got the nominations…and now Raphael Warnock and Frankenstein Fetterman sit in a Senate Democrats controlled by that many seats.
They sit there with other Democrats who should have lost had the Republican Party had a clue about how to run a get out the vote effort. Had the GOP any common sense and embraced the laws of the time when it comes to early voting and voting by mail. Ballot harvesting should be illegal, but as long as it’s not you damn well better do it with more vigor than Democrats do. Early voting is a horrible idea, but get everyone you can in line on every single day until you’re able to restore sanity to the laws.
The GOP under McDaniel did none of that.
Sure, now they’re embracing the concept – like a farmer who firmly comes out against open barn doors after all the horses got out. Republican leadership is very good at doing the right thing after every other option has been exercised.
Now comes the debates.
The GOP is already too close to Fox News – they pick the pundits, they pick many of the candidates, and they drive the conversation and issues through who they book. When one host isn’t interviewing another host (which happens with alarming regularity), they’re talking to other employees of either the company or a subsidiary of it. That’s a profitable way to run a TV network, but it’s not how to win elections. Someone in the GOP should recognize this.
In a nod to the outsized influence of Fox on the GOP, Fox and Fox Business got the first two Republican primary debates. It’s unclear if anyone else wanted them, so that Fox has them doesn’t really matter as much as what Fox is doing with them. Or, more to the point, what the GOP is allowing Fox to do with them.
Fox won’t let any other network use more than 3 minutes from the debate, but only for seven days and then that’s it. The network wants to control the debate. That’s not really very surprising, corporations want control over everything they can get. What’s shocking is how the GOP, under McDaniel’s leadership, would cede so much power to anyone.
It’s a Republican Party event. If Fox wants to moderate and broadcast it, great. But they shouldn’t own it. They signed another “exclusive deal” with a second-tier streaming service as well. Why? Does the GOP want as many Americans to see their candidates discuss the party’s principles as possible or do they not?
What kind of idiot would sign away the ability for as many people as possible to see their candidates in exchange for streaming, which is something they could have set up themselves for free? Shouldn’t the party want every debate to be available everywhere? Streaming isn’t complicated, random viewers could have set up streams on every platform. Instead, the RNC gave it a site with streaming numbers that make it the equivalent of CNN’s ratings on their best day.
I get that these companies want exclusive rights, I don’t understand what kind of moron at the RNC would give it to them, any of them. Let them sponsor and moderate, give them signage around the event, but never give up control.
If a leader gives up control – be it to a cable network, a video website, Fauci, anyone – maybe they aren’t the leader they are presenting themselves to be. Ronna Romney McDaniel has really dropped the ball with the debates here. Her record as the leader of the RNC makes you wonder if she’s ever really had a firm grip on the ball in the first place.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.
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