Tuesday, May 17, 2022

GOP Approach to Solving Serious Issues: Duck, Dodge, Deflect, Deceive & Deny

Three of many Trump sycophants stuck on stupid
(Rep. Stefanik (R-NY); Tucker Carlson (Fox); 
Matt Gaetz (R-FL) 
Anti-SemitismReplacement TheoryRioters
(Charlottesville, VA: August 11-12, 2017) 

Tucker Carlson, Fox, et al on “Replacement Theory or Great Replacement” suddenly gone silent after so much hype and now following the deadly mass murder in Buffalo.

Background: After Carlson was called out for promoting that theory in April 2021, he said on his show:I mean, everyone wants to make a racial issue out of it. Oh, you know, the white replacement theory? No, no, no. This is a voting right question.”

FYI: Carlson has mentioned variations of the “replacement” idea in more than 400 episodes since 2016 of his (Cite: NY Times analysis).

Other Fox News hosts and Fox guests have picked up the same theme, giving it a veneer of respectability, at least within the conservative media ecosystem – for example:

1. Laura Ingraham, a Fox News host, told her viewers in 2018 Democrats want to replace you, the American voters, with newly amnestied citizens and an ever-increasing number of chain migrants.” 

And on her program last year, Ingraham called immigration an “insurrection that seeks to overthrow everything we love about America by defaming it, silencing it, and even prosecuting it. This is an organized mob funded by billionaires, it’s supported by celebrities.”

2. Jeanine Pirro another Fox News host echoed the tenets of the “replacement theory” idea on a syndicated radio program in 2019 saying: “Liberals and Democrats were pursuing immigration policies that are a plot to remake America, to replace American citizens with illegals who will vote for the Democrats.”

3. Bill O’Reilly, before in Carlson’s spot told Hannity in 2020: “Undocumented immigration would cause traditional America to vanish.”

4. The late Rush Limbaugh in 2018 said: “Immigration from Central America is intended to dilute and eventually eliminate or erase our distinct unique American culture. This is why people call this an invasion.”

5. Ann Coulter wrote about the alleged threat to American culture posed by immigrants in a book in 2015 titled: “Adios, America: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country into aThird World Hellhole.”

6. Charlie Kirk, who leads conservative program “Turning Point USA” and appears on Carlson’s program defended Carlson’s replacement theory last year. After playing a clip of Carlson’s comments on Fox News, Kirk commented: “Nothing he said there is controversial. It’s factual and it’s true.” He later added that he was “so proud” of Carlson for promoting the theory. 

Then last month, Kirk tweeted:There is an undeniable War on White People in The West.”

7. Matt Walsh, contributor to the Daily Wire, tacitly endorsed the idea during a program he hosted last summer saying in a video: “So we’re bringing in a flood of immigrants across the southern border, non-White. We’re putting policies in place with the express purpose of having fewer White people in universities and positions of power. And we’re celebrating the reduction in the White population. I mean, it sounds like liberals want to replace White people. So this is replacement, is it not? And you’re happy about it?”

8. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) via the Orlando Weekly on this same issue congratulated Carlson for his reporting.

Other stories related to this same topic:

1. Newsweek (September 19, 2021.

2. The Daily Beast (September 23, 2021).

3. The Washington Post (May 16, 2022): Carlson now says Buffalo shooting was not political

4. Salon (May 17, 2022).

5. MSNBC (various video clip updates). 

My 2 cents: The above sites speak the facts on this now a very serious issue. 

I will give the GOP credit for one thing, however: They are great conspiracy spreaders but poor leaders and problem solvers.

I have always associated this from the GOP handbook for their ill-informed base. It fits perfectly for the present time today:

Same as Super Glue to hold their base intact

Thanks for stopping by.


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