While it may seem typical for the left to be full of loons serving as writers to publish loony pieces, every now and then there's one piece in particular worth highlighting. Recently, Jason Linkins, who is actually a deputy editor at The New Republic, wrote "Is Criticizing Joe Biden a Danger to Democracy?" It first appeared in Power Mad, a weekly newsletter for the outlet before being published on the site.
Unfortunately, this kind of dangerous and obsessive devotion to a Democrat isn't exactly new. Linkins himself makes reference to Dana Milbank's column for The Washington Post from December 3, which delusionally claimed that "The media treats Biden as badly as — or worse than — Trump. Here’s proof." As I discussed in my VIP piece about it, that "proof" amounted to 200,000 articles from 65 news websites that were too mean to Biden for Milbank's liking.
That this is even a “debate” among members of the press just shows how far the media has fallen and why nobody trusts them anymore. The suggestion that media should “protect democracy” by NOT criticizing the president is absurd & against everything journalists claim to be.
— Christina Pushaw ?? (@ChristinaPushaw) December 13, 2021
The perturbed response is well-deserved, too. This is the kind of conversation in dictatorships, and Linkins knows it, too.
Early on, Linkins writes:
Whether we like it or not, there is reason to be gravely concerned. But against this backdrop, an interesting debate has broken out about the press’s role in protecting our too-fragile institutions and raveled civic fabric from a Trumpian assault—and whether the media, in an effort to support democracy, must unflinchingly support Biden, as well.
At certain points of the article, it seems that Linkins is going to hush Millbank and everyone else in the media who take on such a stance. "Blind fealty to heads of state is the hallmark of dictatorships, not democracies," he appropriately acknowledges.
He also closes his piece by writing:
This nevertheless leaves the original tension between what Milbank saw as poor coverage of the president and the need to help preserve the republic unresolved. Perhaps the answer is one of perspective. No true “partisan for democracy” can simply be a reflexive defender of a politician. No matter how well intended, adopting this tendency will only further undermine the civic edifice—and it plays into the hands of democracy’s would-be gravediggers. But politicians are the servants of democracy; its beneficiaries are ordinary Americans. They are who truly deserve our best effort and our best coverage. It’s possible to achieve everything Milbank wants by putting the American people front of mind.
But, he throws any acknowledgement out the window when he does stick up for the president in such a way:
Still, if Milbank perhaps muddled his point with his long prelude about the quality of Biden’s coverage, by going out on that limb, he successfully brought attention to a more urgent underlying matter: The GOP is the enemy of democracy, full stop. It’s not Democrats who are waging a well-funded war to suppress the vote, reviving Jim Crow–era electoral tactics, installing apparatchiks and gaming the rules to subvert voter intentions, chasing dedicated election officials out of their posts with threats and intimidation, or fomenting political violence. These are the deeds of Republicans alone, and Milbank’s willingness not to subject the matter to the media’s pathological “both-sides” tendencies should be commended.
Yup, it's all the GOP's fault. When it comes to "fomenting political violence," by the way, Linkins is wrong. It is Democrats who are doing so.
There are countless examples, especially when it comes to Rep. Maxine Waters, notably when it comes to encouraging people to intimidate Trump administration officials in 2018 and crossing state lines and breaking a curfew to stir up trouble in Minneapolis in April ahead of the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict. Minnesota National Guardsmen were shot at after her remarks calling for "confrontation."
Even Sen. Chuck Schumer, in March 2020, then the senate minority leader, warned Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch would "pay the price" if they didn't vote a certain way in an abortion case.
Leah compiled a list of many more examples of Democrats in February.
Despite various points that Linkins makes throughout his piece, his one paragraph on the Republican Party says it all. Besides, if he really felt the need to call out Millbank, something tells me he'd go with a different headline entirely.
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