This is not going to be a post about the genius’s tone deaf but honest reaction to the killings in New Zealand. That’s been massively covered elsewhere, but I’ll note, as it is somewhat germane to this post, that his racist reaction is eliciting, at least here in the U.S., the now familiar “Trump being Trump” reaction. The rules are different for Trump individually, and Republicans in general.
Which brings me to the main point, something I’ve sort of been mulling over for several days. Recently the New London Day ran an editorialendorsing the idea of tolls here in Connecticut. In the course of that editorial it dismissed the Republican alternative of borrowing money to fix the roads, while reducing bonding authority for non essential things like education. All fine, as far as it goes, but this bit of prose really rankled:
Lamont is expending substantial political capital in pushing for tolls. They are unpopular. No one wants them. But Connecticut needs them.
This will fall to Democratic lawmakers holding ranks. Republicans appear lockstep in opposition. That is the politically expedient course. We urge local Republican lawmakers to break from the pack, yet we understand the political calculus to let Democrats own this. (Emphasis added)
I can tell you that without doubt if the situation were reversed the Day would not be so understanding, and it would call out local Democratic legislators by name. But when it comes to Republicans, the Day explicitly gives them a pass. “Sure”, it says “it would be nice if you did the right thing, but we totally understand if you want to play a cynical game”. Why does the Day in particular, and most of our media in general, give this sort of pass to Republicans? My own belief is that it’s because this has been the Republicans’ game plan for so long that the media has now been trained to perceive this behavior as normal, when Republicans engage in it. It’s a different story entirely when Democrats do it, of course, because they are expected to be responsible. After all, in the quote above the Day tells us that it is up to the Democrats to hold ranks to give Connecticut what it “needs”. If they don’t, they will have done the irresponsible thing, something only Republicans are allowed to do.
I will hazard a prediction. Local Senator Heather Somers (R) will engage in this cynical behavior until the very end. But the Day loves them some Heather. She can do no wrong. The Day will endorse her in 2020 without so much as mentioning her cynical failure to support giving Connecticut what it “needs”.
End of rant.
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