Impeachment, Banking, and Saudi Arabia: What do they Have in Common?

Some of us have strange “hobbies” I admit. In the age of Trump this is an even more important hobby to continue to practice. This is to follow hate sites. Why? Well, in a strange way, some of their talking points are aired in the mainstream. Some, not yet.

We also have synergy and coordination between the Republican elite and those sites. In effect, they are reinforcing each other. Yes, these radical right people have been around us forever. However, their grandparents in the John Birch Society were rejected by a party in a changing country. These days people like Steve King repeat these tropes from Congress.

He is hardly alone.

In the past, the president of the United States did not call Democrats, or the press, the enemy of the people openly. To be clear, Richard Nixon did in private. We know because of the taping system in the White House, but we also understand that Nixon did not hold rallies calling people his enemies. Donald Trump does, often. He points at the press gaggle and calls them this way.

Nixon had an enemies list. It included many members of the working media. But it was hardly a public list. Nor was there an echo machine that functions as state media. As a consequence of Watergate, we have a right-wing echo chamber reinforcing talking points. It is not just Fox News, but a whole ecosystem that repeats these talking points and ignores all else. If the White House were more disciplined, we would see the…