Wednesday, September 14, 2022

🦤

The average age for viewers of FoxNews primetime shows is 68. And honestly, if it wasn't for Twitter, I wouldn't know who Tucker Carlson is or that Glenn Greenwald was still appearing in front of any TV camera not connected directly to a podcast. So, any TV camera.

Yes, Carlson and Greenwald are repulsive toads who couldn't formulate a rational argument for why they should be on TeeVee, much less about the state of American politics.  The following actually bothers me more because Ted Cruz is a U.S. Senator who can put his money where his mouth is and make it mean something:
Yes, we do have real democratic risks in America; but we've had them since the Constitution was ratified. The battle between Jefferson and Adams was downright brutal, and a great deal of it so demagogic as to be anti-democratic. The fight over who could make government appointments was the issue of Marbury v Madison. There were whole reform movements in the 19th century aimed at ending corruption in government; "lobbyists" were people looking to collect on their support of a successful candidate. The civil servant system was implemented to root out the corruption of a patronage system that would have made the Roman Empire's system look fair and just. A fight over who was really the President led to the Electoral Count Act of 1887. The Civil War and Jim Crow that followed were blatant and legalized (until 1964) attempts to literally deny democracy to non-whites, a denial only rooted out of the Constitution itself with the 13th Amendment.  And to this day the Supreme Court is denying Congress the power to democratically do its Constitutional duty and implement the 15th Amendment.

Democracy has always been a risky business. Carlson and Tucker aren't even fleas on that dog; they are mites on the fleas, at best.  And by the way, Biden's approval rating is up to 47%; which either means nothing (I still think that's correct), or it means nobody cares about the opinions of Carlson and Greenwald.

Except Twitterati, that is.

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