Who’s to blame for Donald Trump’s rise? Conservatives use revisionist history to claim liberals are

[DonViejo]

Who’s to blame for Donald Trump’s rise? Conservatives use revisionist history to claim liberals are responsible

The very people who enabled Trump and nurtured his base are now blaming liberals and liberal media for his ascent

GARY LEGUM

As a Hillary Clinton victory in the presidential election has come to seem more and more likely, one of the big questions in political circles is what the Republican Party will do starting on November 9. Will the GOP as an institution admit it has spent decades incubating the ethno-nationalism and white supremacy that Trump exploited to grab the loyalty of the party base and the presidential nomination? Will the party conduct an appropriate housecleaning, expelling the poison of the alt-right and moderating its conservatism to appeal to a wider range of the electorate?

Or will the GOP go in another direction by blaming Democrats and the mainstream media for somehow duping Republican voters into falling under the spell of this tangelo-shaded demagogue in ill-fitting suits?

Conservatives are beginning what will probably be a years-long argument over the answer to these questions. And wouldn’t you know it, some of them are going with the latter option.

For example, here is an anonymous writer at the Federalist chastising progressives for, early in the election cycle, softening Trump by noting that in terms of policy, candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were so much farther to the right that the prospect of their winning the presidency should have scared liberals much more than Trump’s possible election.

Here is Mollie Hemingway, another Federalist writer, complaining that media outlets abetted Trump’s meltdown over the Alicia Machado story by covering a story that the Clinton campaign fed to them.

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2016/10/25/whos-to-blame-for-donald-trumps-rise-conservatives-use-revisionist-history-to-claim-liberals-are-responsible/

[duffyduff]

1. The media, especially CNN, are solely to blame

They pushed the Trump narrative from the time he announced. There was no great groundswell until Trump's buddy at CNN starting pushing his candidacy.

I watched that network during the primary season. It was 24/7 Trump, with almost daily interviews given to him by CNN flunkies. No other GOP candidate could get a word in edgewise. It was all free publicity.

It wasn't just that he was good for ratings. These media clowns WANTED Trump to be president until all of the embarrassing and dangerous aspects of his personality inevitably came to the fore.

It was clear from the GOP debates, and I watched every single one of them, that Trump was woefully unqualified and was unable to talk policy at all. Yet the media, especially CNN, kept pushing him.

[Mika]

8. ALL of them. They showed tRump's empty podiums for hours while Dems made victory speeches.

Our alphabet soup of corporate media have poisoned the jury pool.

[JHB]

2. Always blame liberals & Democrats for everything?

Never blame the person looking back in the mirror?

Proof enough that Trump is a True Conservative!

[Thinkingabout]

3. It's Obama and Hillary's fault, those nasty girls but he will file suit as soon as he loses.

[meadowlark5]

4. Definitely the GOP over the last few decades, that last 8yrs for sure

And this election season? The media played a huge roll in creating Trump. They gave him billions in free campaign advertising. And they worked really hard at making him appear relevant and a legitimate candidate.

All of the crap we've seen in the past month couldn't have been found out even last year? Doesn't seem like it was too hard to find out he was using his charitable foundation to pay for personal things. Also seems like you couldn't swing a dead cat without finding a woman groped or sexually harassed by Trump.

The media had a big part in propelling this beast that the GOP created.

[anoNY42]

5. Oh man I hope it was liberals,

if only we had that kind of power...

[NewJeffCT]

9. yeah, if the liberals were so powerful

why do Republicans control the House & Senate? Not to mention most governorships and state legislatures?

[workinclasszero]

6. Wingnuts placing blame for Drumpf's upcoming ass whipping by Hillary already? :D

[-Steph-]

7. Imo, the largest portion of blame belongs to the right-wing media.

For decades they have fear-mongered, brainwashed, and misinformed their viewers/readers/listeners. They have created a class of voters that know less than those who don't pay attention to any news at all. Donald Trump is one of their viewers. A lot of the falsehoods he spouts comes directly from right-wing media.

I also place blame on MSM for their favorable and never-ending coverage of him during the primaries, when it was apparent to anyone with half of a brain that he didn't have any of the qualities needed to lead our nation. In a way, they legitimized his candidacy.

[Lucinda]

11. You said what I just did, only much better!

[Lucinda]

10. It was Rush, Beck and all the other hate and fear mongers. They convinced

a section of normally "sane" GOPers that the government was out of control. Then the tea party idiots got elected and people became angry at nothing getting done. So they were primed for someone like Trump. And the media hopped on the train wreck for ratings.