It is imperative that the media raise the alarm about the actions of Republican politicians throughout the country as they try to hang on to power. Democrats won by substantial numbers throughout the country, yet several Republicans have undemocratically maneuvered, read gerrymandered their cabal into power in many states.
Republican politicians are not even hiding what they are doing. They learned from Trump that deceit in the open makes Americans catatonic. They do not react with the urgency commensurate with the danger ahead.
The mainstream media are reporting these events in a matter of fact manner that presents a danger. The country has a president elected by a minority of Americans. A minority of the American population is controlling many state legislatures across the country. In Wisconsin, Democrats won 54 percent of the statewide vote while controlling just 36% of their state government. This is a failure of our constitutions, national and state. It is undemocratic. And the mainstream media is failing miserably in explaining to the American people the danger of this reality.
Media Matters report on this is spot on as usual.
A December 3 New York Times article on the Wisconsin power grab that ran under the headline “Stung by Election Losses, Republicans in the States Seek a Way to Neutralize Democrats” is being criticized on social media for normalizing the Wisconsin GOP’s actions. Critics say it frames the issue as a typical partisan dispute between two opposing political parties. Some excerpts (emphasis added):
- “When Democrats won the governor’s office in Wisconsin, it was one of the party’s most celebrated midterm successes in regaining power in the states. Now Republicans are striking back, moving to slash the power of the new governor even before he takes the oath of office.”
- “Democrats reacted with fury, crowding the halls of the State Capitol in Madison on Monday and accusing the Republicans of trying to undo an election they had lost.”
- “For Wisconsin, a state that both parties will urgently vie to win in 2020 elections, it was one more sign of the ferocious partisan split that has rippled through the state in recent years.”
Apparently out of reluctance to be seen as taking a side, the Times was unable to describe what is happening in Wisconsin as the extraordinary affront to democratic norms that it is.
Meanwhile, major network news shows haven’t discussed the unusual power grabs unfolding in either state. Between Election Day on November 6 and December 4, CBS Evening News, CBS This Morning, NBC’s Nightly News with Lester Holt, NBC’s Today, ABC’s World News Tonight With David Muir, and ABC’s Good Morning America failed to cover either story.
Americans need to rise politically and hold these politicians accountable. I discussed this at length on two consecutive days on Politics Done Right. Watch the episodes here and here.