These are incredibly stupid times. That should be the whole column right there, leaving it up to you to apply that unquestionably true statement to whatever it is you’d apply it to. But it doesn’t apply to one or two things or people, it applies to everything and everyone.
You’re going to find something you agree with and to hate in this column, and that’s fine. Actually, it’s good. If you can’t get pissed off at someone you largely agree with every once in a while, well, you might as well be a Democrat. But these things need to be said, if only to let people who also think them know they aren’t alone.
First, Democrats are truly awful people. Nancy Pelosi delays aid for small businesses forced closed by the government, blames Republicans for it, and a compliant media lets it slide. The two Morning Joe hosts, with 5 marriages between them (and they totally weren’t sleeping together for the years before they got their latest divorces, they were just good friends who cuddled), sat silently, like a junkie who just spiked a vein. No mention of Pelosi’s own bragging a week earlier of having blocked it, just a level of compliance that would embarrass a sex slave at an S&M convention.
Not only are these people lazy, they are incredibly corrupt. The conga line of liberals calling for the head of Brett Kavanaugh with zero evidence of any wrongdoing on his part 35 years prior fell silent when the accused was their presumptive nominee. Eventually, if begrudgingly, they acknowledged that Tara Reade exists and she said something about Joe Biden, but that was it. With the emergence of video of Reade’s mother calling into Larry King back in 1993 alluding to the assault, their silence becomes retroactive permission for Joe, whether he did it or not. Either way, they’re fine with it. You can almost hear them say, “If she didn’t want to be digitally invaded she shouldn’t have worked for him,” but it’s drowned out by the laughter they share over the thought that some people believed they weren’t raging hypocrites.
Biden, meanwhile, continues to perform well in polls. The thing about Joe is he’s the perfect candidate in the abstract – experience, personable, etc. But he’s got a problem: he’s only people’s choice when they don’t see or hear him, which suits a campaign where he’s hiding in a basement with a webcam and a teleprompter. But sooner or later he will have to leave his bunker, and a certain percentage of the country will realize they aren’t watching a presidential campaign, they’re bearing witness to senior abuse. Not only can’t Joe string together a coherent sentence, he can’t read one written for him.
But it’s not all Democrats. No matter how many lies they tell – like that the Trump administration hired a dog breeder to run the Coronavirus response when a simple Google search would have exposed that as a lie, or they removed the world’s greatest expert on vaccines because he disagreed with the president on chloroquine, when the move had been underway long before the outbreak – Republicans still have no idea how to behave or message to the American public.
After four years, you’d think President Trump would be better at avoiding stepping in steaming piles of media, but he’s not.
There was never a reason for a daily coronavirus press briefing, there are simply many days when there’s nothing new to report except numbers, which had only changed slightly from the day before.
The president clearly wanted to play a role in the news cycle, which had gone 24/7 negative against him, so it’s understandable. But the repetition was only arming the left. Even if the live broadcast was a net positive for him, the parts of it that weren’t were the only parts that got replayed, thereby wiping out the only benefit he saw. When you’re in a war with the press, no matter how profitable it’s been for you, you don’t keep selling them ammunition because sooner or later you’ll start to take losses yourself.
Part of what made President Trump so different from other politicians, and so likable to so many, is that he isn’t a typical politician – if you want to know what he’s thinking, ask him and he’ll tell you. That’s very refreshing and entertaining under normal circumstances, but these aren’t normal circumstances. People aren’t tuning in to be entertained. They want to know if everything is going to be OK; they want to know when they can get their lives back, when they can visit their parents without worry over inadvertently getting them sick.
Watching Trump bash whichever of their White House morons CNN sent made for great social media clips, but who honestly cares about their ratings compared to the ratings for the briefings? People already hated the press, so it became a bit like beating a dead horse after a while.
Part of being a great showman is knowing when the show is over; when to leave the stage and get ready for the next show or record a new album. Two-plus hours of questions is like a band that keeps playing as everyone heads to their cars – the audience is there for the hits, not the rare b-sides and covers.
President Trump needs to learn that he doesn’t have to answer every question. His week would have been significantly better if he’d learn to keep his inner-monologues “inner” and simply say, “We don’t know yet” or “I’m not going to answer that question, we have more important things to discuss” and move on. Better yet, if he’d just not take questions at all on days there is nothing new to report.
All of President Trump’s problems are of his own making. Democrats haven’t laid a glove on him. But even great fighters can punch themselves out by the late rounds and lose. Reporters will be just as awful one or two days per week as they are seven, but the contrast between them and the president will be greater when there is something important to be said than simply something said.
In the meantime, everyone should turn off cable news. All of it. At least a few days per week. If the shows were reruns, most people wouldn’t notice. With rare exception, they’re recycled monologues, repetitive questions posed to the same guests; you’ll actually come away dumber. Honestly, have you seen a show in the last month where you didn’t know exactly what was going to be said, no matter which cast member they turned to “for reaction”?
Hate me if you want to, but I really want Democrats to lose in November, and I see a lot of things happening right now that are counterproductive toward that goal. Yes, the election is still more than half a year away – a couple dozen lifetimes in political terms – but impressions are being formed, and impressions can last.
You can continue to swim in your own pool, read and listen to people reassuring you of everything you want to be reassured about; that and $3.50 will get you a cup of coffee. But Democrats are terrible, and they still have a chance of winning in the fall if Republicans don’t get their act together.
The economy is gone, and Democrats are promising a new, better one. Republicans need to articulate for the American people what they see through the windshield, not the rearview mirror. Anticipate their moves and preemptively strike against the left. Winston Churchill led the UK valiantly through its darkest time, and shockingly lost reelection in the immediate aftermath of WWII, before the war in the Pacific was even over. Take nothing for granted, always play like you’re behind, and a major part of that is to not give your enemy anything to use against you.
I told you there’d be something for everyone to hate in this one…
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!), host of a daily radio show on WCBM in Maryland, and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter