Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:08 pm
Marco Rubio was supposed to be the Republican “Golden Boy” but reactions just aren’t living up to predictions. Fox News courageously set out to find an answer to that conundrum, marshaling for its white audience a panel of white folks:
Andrea Tantaros:
Well look, I like Marco Rubio a lot…I think he’s a rising star. However, he’s missed some really important opportunities as immigration has been thrust to the forefront. Now he has a bit of a vulnerable record, because of his support of the Gang of Eight bill, which I think has made him a bit apprehensive to get out there and talk about an issue, because he knows primary voters are upset for what he did, but I think he’s missed a real opportunity.
Because Hillary called Republicans hostile to immigrants, Tantaros expected Rubio, as a first-generation American and “lambaste that woman.” But he didn’t, and “he’s missed a huge opportunity.”
Andrew Napolitano says he knows Trump “professionally and personally.” He even pointed out that he “disagrees with him on many issues, but I am thrilled he is in the race. I love the way he is stirring the pot. I love the way he challenges the establishment” (According to the panel, folks like Mitch McConnell and Jeb Bush for the Republicans, and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats).
Napolitano is not known for his sober reflections, but sometimes he hits the nail on the head. Like telling the Outnumbered audience that, “I love the way [Trump] says exactly what he thinks, if Marco Rubio had said exactly what he thought … he’d be higher in the polls. They can take a lesson from The Donald.”
It is difficult to contemplate the idea, outrageous as they are, that Republicans are holding back. That said, it seems to be true, as Trump vocalizes many of the things Republicans believe but don’t always openly say – and they say plenty of appalling things.
And yes, it seems to be working.
Then again, Fox News’ white audience feels it is a persecuted “outnumbered” minority (unless its convenient to be a majority, in which case they’re a majority and dammit why don’t they get their way?), and the specter of an eroding white privilege haunts their every waking moment.
Trump speaks those fears to the Fox-cultivated audience, conditioned to receive such manufactured “truths” from on high. And they have responded accordingly, with a rapture reserved for only a few (probably excluding Jesus if he came back).
None of this is unexpected. We would be surprised if it played out differently than 2012, which was a group of Republican candidates each trying to be more outrageous than the other.
What is funny is that anyone could think Trump could “stick it to the man” since Donald IS the man. He’s a rich white guy and uses his rich white privilege to say whatever he wants to say, and get away with it, even attacking Republican icons like John McCain and watching his approval numbers rise.
If there is anyone in this election who represents the white establishment, if not the Republican (however that is defined), it is Donald Trump, the corporatist among corporatists around which the Republican Party has been constructed.
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