Truth be told, as I watched last night’s Jan. 6 hearing, I felt like a porn addict waiting for some tidbit of information or video clip to come along and arouse my interest. It never came. Hell, even that “damning exchange” between Liz Cheney and Ivanka Trump didn’t get a rise out of me…
This is hardly surprising of course. After all, for the past 11 months, I’d been getting off on nightly scoops on cable news shows and revelations in texts, books, and audiotapes.
The effect of all that was to sap the Jan. 6 committee of any chance of exciting me anew. And, trust me, there are millions of news junkies like me who were affected the same way.
Even worse, though, the Jan. 6 committee and Democrats made a patented mistake, which they do with all political fights (like the debate on gun-control), of framing these hearings on Republican terms. In a misguided attempt to overcome Republican lies and denials, the committee and Democrats overhyped this prime-time hearing.
Unfortunately, their hype promoted the belief that, unless this and the remainder of their hearings entertain like ‘House of Cards’, ‘Designated Survivor’, or some other thrilling series on Netflix, there would be no point in prosecuting Donald Trump and his co-conspirators. And nothing is more troubling for the fate of American democracy than that.
Meanwhile, in furtherance of the open and notorious conspiracy among Republicans to help Trump destroy American democracy, Fox News boycotted this prime-time hearing. Which is why the impact will be tantamount to the committee as the preacher preaching to already converted Democrats as the proverbial choir.
Of course, the reason for this boycott is that, like Republican leaders, Fox News hosts have all become so vested in Trump’s “Big Lies,” they can’t afford to ever let their viewers see or hear the truth. But I’m always mindful of the foolish pride with which their supporters and viewers allow themselves to be treated like self-abnegating, gullible fools, respectively.
Indeed, it might seem like, for Fox-viewing Republicans, it’s all about defending Trump and the party, democracy and the country be damned. But I’ve been warning for years that Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch seems as hell-bent on destroying America from the inside as Vladimir Putin is on doing so from the outside.
I’ve also been warning that Republicans have struck a Faustian bargain with Trump to ride his coattails to congressional power because they don’t care if he turns America into a dystopian banana republic, so long as they’re the monkeys ruling it.
God help America…
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