It has now become quite popular to call the Republican Party a “clown car,” but in a piece in Politico, Glenn Thrush and Alex Isenstadt report that some GOPers say that misses the point of what’s occurring in today’s Republican Party. The Republicans they interivew note something I’ve pointed to now for several years: the virtual take-over of the party by the conservative entertainment media, which has a $$$$$ vested interest in keeping the GOP pot stirred up with anger and dreams of a candidate who above all can shove it in the face (or up somewhere else) of those painted-as-perpetually-evil Democrats (and those weak, traitorous or dumb moderates):
Democrats, enjoying the spectacle are pushing the idea that the overcrowded GOP field has become a “clown car” with Trump at the wheel. The 40-odd Republican operatives, donors and campaign officials we interviewed for this assessment of where the race stands at this official kickoff point disagreed—but mostly about the metaphor, characterizing the contest instead as more of a runaway train, with a crowd of wannabes wrestling for control.
“The media narrative you guys are spinning isn’t specific enough—we have exactly one clown in the car,” says a top Republican official, referring to Trump. “So why did it explode?” the official added. “Because we have something in the Republican Party that the Democrats don’t have to deal with: a multibillion-dollar business in TV, political punditry and books and talk radio—we built up a ton of personalities, people that you guys in the media think are off the radar have been quietly gaining power. A whole slew of folks think they can, and should, run the party.”
It’s an important point that came through in nearly all our interviews: 2016 isn’t so much about Trump or Bush as it is about a crisis in the Republican Party, which hasn’t had powerful political leadership since the George W. Bush-Karl Rove machine crashed after dispatching John Kerry in 2004. Even Republican control of both houses of Congress since last year’s midterm elections hasn’t tamed the party’s internal feuding—Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker John Boehner can hardly control their own caucuses never mind impose a code of conduct on unruly presidential hopefuls.
Behind the scenes Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, a canny operative from Wisconsin, and party elders like his predecessor Haley Barbour have tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to keep the crowded field from turning into a Trump-incited mob. After Trump’s people leaked news of the chairman’s gentle request that the “Apprentice” star play nicer with fellow Republicans, Priebus tried another tack, advising several other campaigns to ignore Trump’s more outrageous statements and to “not engage him” insult-for-insult, according to a Republican operative close to several campaigns.
This ” multibillion-dollar business in TV, political punditry and books and talk radio” has served several functions. It has reaffirmed, validated, reinforced the existing view of those who continue to be influenced by it; more than with the Democrats, has served as the party’s real “Town Hall of Ideas”; it has proven to be an ideological and partisan dissemination points where talking points by individual members of this well-paid elite can create slogans and statements of fact which often prove to be things stated with certitude that are not fact that are picked up by activists who later vomit them up almost verbatim in internet comments, emails or blog posts. It’s easy to tell when someone has listened or Bill O or read certain blogs.
There’s nothing illegal or unethical about this ideological and partisan media giant operation. But it has influenced and will continue to influence American politics.
The biggest casualties: the concepts of the value of reaching across the aisle and viewing someone from another party as simply another well-intentioned human being who could be a friend who merely has a different world view; the long cherished American concept of compromise; and the idea that American democracy works best when leaders try to build broad coalitions to win elections and then a consensus to convince and persuade those who will be governed after the elections, rather than viewing it all as a power politics number game where we have the votes and you don’t nyeah nyeah.
It’s all in-you-face time now.
May the best political street foter with utter contempt and disdain for political foes win.
But hopefully not the Oval Office.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.