NPR does this all the time. Ailsa Chang is interviewing a guy, I don’t know who, who was talking about some of the things for which the current administration should be investigated about (and punished for, maybe, as soon as pigs fly). He was making a great case. We can all remember the things he talked about: Trump enriching himself off the office, Jared Kushner enriching himself even with no office. He wasn’t some firebrand, he was just listing crimes.
The interviewer’s follow-up (paraphrased, like all these quotes)? “We all know that affordability is the real, tangible issue that affected voters. Aren’t you afraid that this concentration on (the past administration’s crimes (not exact words, but that’s what she meant)) will be seen as a desire for retribution?”
The guy answered: “Totally!” But why shouldn’t it be about a desire for retribution? Why do we accept the reasoning, framed by the right, and the news, that affordability is the main thing people care about? Couldn’t it be that some of those voters actually cared a lot about corruption? Or that they cared about an authoritarian president trying to make himself a dictator, with the help of the Supreme Court?
Why are they (NPR, at least) framing this vote as being just about affordability? I’m concerned about how much gas costs. But even if the economy were good (which it really can’t be when you have crooks like DOGE eliminating good government jobs and unemploying thousands) and gas were cheap, wouldn’t some people be worried about tyranny and corruption? I know I would.
So why does NPR frame the question this way? They want you to believe that affordability is all people care about. (And “they” isn’t just NPR, that’s just who I’m talking about today.) They want you to ignore the crimes (even though another Watergate or Nuremburg hearing would get great ratings). But what’s wrong with wanting retribution? Can we get at least a little accountability and put some of or all of these criminals in jail? Also, can we maybe get a peek at how our neighbors are doing in the concentration camps we silently assented to send them to? Or do we just have be happy if the price of a gallon of gas goes down?
Affordability is a decoy. We need a correction. We need to cancel these criminals and their elected enablers, and undo the damage they’ve done. Take down the gold junk in the Oval Office, yeah, sure; but also disband the secret police goon squads who kill with impunity. Is that too much to ask?
