The Rise of Trump and Right Wing Hate

Of course the far-right conservative media bubble is primarily responsible for the nomination of a candidate as delusional as Trump. It's not just the delegitimization of 'mainstream' sources, though of course Sykes has a point that, if you discount the sources of opposing views as a whole, then you've effectively poisoned the well.

But it goes farther than a 'critique of liberal bias' with unintended consequences. The responsibility is also in the content. For decades now there has been an alliance between serious, intellectual conservatives, the right-leaning business and professional classes, and a long list of populist demagogues who enjoy mass audiences and are able to say outrageous, false and incendiary claptrap without censure. The right only curbs these fanatics and fomenters when they go 'off-message', but no attack or prevarication is too far if they remain loyal. (Remember Sandra Fluke?[1])

Of the top five radio shows in the US, three are 'conservative' demagogues, all of whom support Trump. Limbaugh and Michael Savage have 13 million listeners; Hannity has 12.

They are all, each of them, iniquitous liars, despicable hate-mongers, and dissembling sophists. They are never rebuked by the 'serious' wing of the party. They are too useful. Limbaugh reacted just the other day to Trump's insane comment that Obama founded ISIS by saying, on his show, that

"The truth appears to be so outrageous because we've had so many years of BS sufficing as the truth that when somebody actually utters the truth, 'It's just unacceptable; it's outrageous. How dare you!' but I'm not backing off of it," he says, "and I'm gonna continue to do it. That's what I'm here to do. It did me pretty well in the primaries, and I'm gonna keep doing it." He will not walk back the fact that Obama founded ISIS. Now, we all know... Those of us and you in the audience, of course, we know exactly what he's talking about. And he's right. Now, Obama didn't go over there and convene a meeting and have negotiations with the ISIS leaders. His name's not on any of the founding documents or any of that. But Trump is saying what he's saying, hoping to shock people into realizing just who Obama is, because the point is, since Obama became president, terrorism is expanding around the world.: "http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/08/11/trump_just_won_t_stop_telling_the_truth_obama_and_hillary_co_founded_isis

I urge you to listen to the segment, since it is both perfectly clear what the audience is supposed to feel, it is perfectly conveyed in Limbaugh's tone and delivery, while the content is--well, what is the content except weasel words and implications and tone and insinuation and dog whistles?

Later, Trump claimed his comment was sarcastic, admitting that he liked the attention provocative phrasing garners him, as if a right-wing Marilyn Manson was running for president to sell CDs. That didn't stop Limbaugh from being a loyal tribalist and taking the airwaves to imply the 44th President of the United States is, in fact, a foreign-born terrorist leader, a conceit so idiotic it would barely serve as the premise for a Tom Clancy novel.

But that's how unhinged things have gotten. The lunacy of a Trump candidacy where climate change is a 'Chinese hoax' and the host of the country's most-listened to radio program says "there have been some very crazy, cozy decisions made by this administration that have led to the rather sudden blooming of this terrorist group."

In a saner world, such intimations would draw condemnation and ostracization. Instead they are the bread and butter of American mass conservative politics: a pungent mix of dark conspiracy, religious fanaticism, and ugly xenophobia, occasionally punctuated by a Washington think-tank issuing a report claiming top-bracket tax cuts will lead to increased government revenue.[2]

If there is an intellectual conservative movement left at the end of this--any honest people who work at these think tanks, or edit at the National Review--the first thing they will have to do is destroy the Limbaughs and Hannitys. Trump is their monster, a shambling delusional fever-dream creation genetically grown from their angry spittle and the scapegoats offered as sacrifice for the real, and imagined, grievances of their audience.[3]

[1] http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/george-will-republican-leaders-are-afraid-of-rush-limbaugh/

[2] Speaking of, guess who is on Trump's board of economic advisers? Arthur Laffer! That's right, the guy who sketched a napkin doodle in 1974 to Rumsfeld and Cheney (yes, those same Iraq War assholes) claiming that tax cuts would mean more tax revenue, a claim divorced enough from reality that even Greg Mankiw, patron saint of Serious Conservative Economists, felt compelled to warn against the view in his classic textbook. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Laffer#Laffer_curve)

[3] There are real grievances, and the Democrats (and the left generally, in the US) has done a terrible job at articulating a progressive vision that captures the political attention of Trump's core demographics. Instead the left has been high-handed and contemptuous. We are very lucky that this demographic cannot carry the election. Can you fucking imagine.

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