The only winning move is not to play
Joshua: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
Joahua, the artificial intelligence defense computer in War Games (1983), almost launches World War III while playing “Global Thermonuclear War” with itself. A young computer enthusiast played by Matthew Broderick thought it was just a cool game he’d found on a military supercomputer he’d hacked. He invites Joshua to play. Joshua was actually in control of missile launch commands.
The presumptive Republican candidate for president in 2024, the imbecile Donald “91 Counts” Trump is no computer, and seems to lack intelligence, artificial or otherwise. But he did have an uncle who taught at MIT, so same difference. Trump last night publicly entertained inviting global thermonuclear war.
In the Broderick role in this year’s War Games reboot, we have the mainstream press. Reporters are busily pecking away at their keyboards trying to coax the American electorate into playing “but her emails” once again … because it was so much fun (and good for clicks and ratings) in 2016. For those with short memories, the press helped Republicans hack the 2016 election by promoting “but her emails.”
In the COVID-19 pandemic response that “but her emails” helped put “I have an uncle who taught at MIT” in charge of, over 1.1 million Americans died. No one died in the Broderick movie.
The New York Times is just one news outlet eagerly stoking this election season’s “but her emails.” Joe Biden is three years older than Trump, have you heard?
Mr. Biden’s voice has grown softer and raspier, his hair thinner and whiter. He is tall and trim but moves more tentatively than he did as a candidate in 2019 and 2020, often holding his upper body stiff, adding to an impression of frailty. And he has had spills in the public eye: falling off a bicycle, tripping over a sandbag.
Mr. Trump, by contrast, does not appear to be suffering the effects of time in such visible ways. Mr. Trump often dyes his hair and appears unnaturally tan. He is heavyset and tall, and he uses his physicality to project strength in front of crowds. When he takes the stage at rallies, he basks in adulation for several minutes, dancing to an opening song, and then holds forth in speeches replete with macho rhetoric and bombast that typically last well over an hour, a display of stamina.
Washington Post conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin is aghast.
Post by @jenrubin9View on Threads
Lord love a duck. Joshua at least had the capacity to learn. Not so the press corps.
A demagogue with dictatorial aspirations
Jason Statler (LOLGOP on your favorite social media platform) asks if the press is trying to reelect Trump with “Biden’s too old.” His conclusion, like Joshua’s is not to play:
You don’t have to pretend that the press actually believes that Biden’s age, memory or trustworthiness with classified documents are actual issues — especially compared to Trump, who is basically the same age, whose speech is so littered with lies and errors you can’t even parse which is which, and who stole a trove national secrets, some of which he probably still hasn’t returned.
You don’t even need to pretend these two men are comparable in any way. Biden is a standard 20th century American public servant imbued with all the imperfections that come with that. Trump is the worst president in American history. A demagogue with dictatorial aspirations. A fraud whose greatest accomplishment in life was avoiding any indictments for his first 76 years.
Politics is moral warfare.
You cannot engage the frames the press traffics in because it knows the best way to reach the maximum audience is to give Republicans what they want and drive liberals to hate reading, hate sharing, and even hate subscribing. Because even by rebutting them, you spread and strengthen them. That’s just how brains work.
Instead, Democrats need to push their own frames. The story here could easily be “Trump loses again, as Biden is cleared.” Democrats could then jump on TV and insist that this is an excellent time for Trump to return any classified documents that he still has at his fraudulent businesses and end this betrayal of America of national security.
These angles are journalistically valid as the story we’re being sold. And they’re far more moral than pandering to narratives Republicans feed, knowing the New York Times and others will play along.
November is still decades away in political years. Every flare up or stumble feels permanent and unfixable. But the truth is the news moves so fast that nothing stays present in the discourse unless there is a concerted effort to keep it there.
Republicans use the press to launder baseless accusations the way Dick Cheney used it to promote invading Iraq.
“We know [Republicans] play pious and law-abiding as their presidents have committed some of the worst crimes in the history of the Republic,” Statler adds. “We know that Republican leadership continually makes America weaker, poorer, and more aligned with the worst authoritarians on earth.”
Where Statler falls short here is that not playing is not enough. The press still wants and needs to be loved to stay afloat financially. It’s not enough to unsubscribe either. Republicans may not be past shaming, but the press is not. Shame away. And shame LOUDLY.
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