Well for starters, he doesn’t feed on the blood of republicans. That’s a weird way to talk about the unhoused whose blood he regularly consumes. I usually don’t assume the political affiliations of someone who struggles to afford shelter.
Running a campaign based on moderate republican voters in a general election against a populist republican that already won a republican primary against moderate republicans is not a solid strategy for winning said general election.
Its never changed from the right wing populist roots its had since the inception of right wing talk radio. Difference now is that same populist sentiment has captured the GOP, who no longer keep the fundamentalists or the libertarians at arms length but instead embrace them
The most important thing I think to immediately grasp though about the state of the right wing media landscape though is that while its prominence within the political apparatus of the republican party might be new (since around 2016) 1/2
Christian broadcasting has always been along for the ride as well. Offering near identical ideological programming but with more overt christian tones. Focus in the Family founded by James Dobson was a big part of the media diet I was allowed as a child.
Hannity stands on shoulders of the likes of Rush Limbaugh, who for all of my childhood into young adulthood was the exclusive voice coming from my father’s radio from noon to 3 PM EST. Hannity himself often was in the afternoon slot directly after Limbaugh.
The reason shows like JRE, The Daily Wire, etc can exist today is due in no small part I believe to a tradition that can be traced back to the early days of talk radio. Back then it was only preachers or militia types speaking to like minded individuals through AM radio waves.
You can trace some of these rather directly. @knowledge_fight has done an excellent job of examining Jones and his Infowar media operation, one of the things they’ve covered is the similarities it had to predecessors like Bill Cooper.
Its a fundamental misunderstanding of the decades long, tireless effort of conservative and christian nationalist movements to reach out to every single American who for a while now have felt ignored by their representatives. before the net it was tv, and before that the radio.
they sent Liz Cheney on a 3 state tour. they sent Kathy Hochul to PA! THEY SENT RITCHIE TORRES TO MICHIGAN TO START FLOSSING IN FRONT OF PEOPLE WHO HAD LOST HALF THEIR FAMILIES!
Inside all of us is a being that recognizes when we commit wrongs against others. Call it whatever you like but we all reckon with it and when we do the intolerable to others it becomes intolerable to ourselves.
Feeling great about our chances considering the vote pitch for anyone left of Dick Cheney is just the speech Skarsgard’s character gave to the reactor workers being asked to volunteer to go back into the flooded reactor from the Chernobyl miniseries
I cannot conceive of a greater evil than that which we are subjecting the people of Palestine to. It’s too late to absolve ourselves of the inhumanity on display, but it is never too late to change course and save those still left. If not for us than those who come after
Imagine having such an intimidating aura in the boxing ring that you cause your opponent to give up in such a way that JK Rowling tries to take away your womanhood. Incredible stuff, hope we find a way to stop being weird about strong women doing cool things.
Joining me in the chamber today is Hani Almadhoun, who has lost over 150 members of his extended family in Netanyahu’s genocide. After witnessing his sister forced to eat animal feed, he and his family were determined to start a soup kitchen to feed their starving neighbors.