Robert Hubbell: Ignore the Media Doomsday Machine

Robert Hubbell is a amazing, wise blogger. I enjoy examining his posts. Listed here is just one that ties together our latest “gloom and doom” about the politics at household with the defiance and braveness of Ukrainians who are standing up to a brutal invasion.

He wrote:

The media doomsday device is in overdrive.

Viewers are yet again filling my inbox with stories that predict disaster for Democrats in the midterms. All I can say is that we ought to be grateful that the journalists declaring defeat are not in demand of defending Ukraine. The latest narrative is that the only concern that matters to voters is the financial state. Of training course, apart from for inflation, the economic climate is strong—a actuality universally ignored by the media. But in the “short-notice-span” media, the criminalization of abortion is a tale that has operate its study course and is baked into the final result of the midterms. Such a see denigrates the purpose of voters in the political process and ignores the likelihood that the attitudes of voters can improve in excess of the training course of an election.

So, let’s reset exactly where we are at this instant in time. Most primaries for midterms have not still transpired, so Democrats really don’t know who they will be dealing with. But we have robust signals that Republican candidates will be additional intense, considerably less competent, and much more susceptible than the GOP had hoped. The surge of activism that really should follow the criminalization of abortion is just obtaining off the ground. The remaining viewpoint was predicted in late June the leak in early May perhaps caught quite a few grass-roots teams by shock. Republicans and the mainstream media want to develop a narrative that states, “Nothing to see listed here, move together. The combat above abortion will not encourage Democrats or persuadable Independents.”

I believe the previously mentioned narrative terribly mis-reads what is about to occur. We are no extended arguing more than abstract authorized rules. We are facing a circumstance in which abortion will be a crime, and teenage girls raped by family customers will be purchased by the state to bear youngsters pressured on them by violent attackers. The narrative ignores that a strong majority of Us citizens supported the Roe / Casey paradigm for balancing particular person liberty and societal interests. And it ignores the reality abortion is much more widespread than numerous consider. For each the NYTimes, “25 p.c of women will have an abortion by the conclusion of their childbearing decades.” Telling all those gals, even retroactively, that they are “felons” or “criminals” will absolutely have some influence on their view of their Republican accusers.

So, what should really we do? Initially, we require an angle adjustment. If you see a story predicting catastrophe, you ought to summon the battling spirit to say that pundits and “conventional wisdom” do not control your actions or your future. The battling spirit of the Ukrainian folks is instructive. The “conventional wisdom” predicted their defeat in two months. Our initially clue that the Ukrainians would not allow conventional knowledge to identify their future was Zelensky’s statement, “I want ammunition, I really do not need to have a journey.” The second indicator arrived from the defenders of Snake Island who had been ordered by a “Russian warship” to “surrender” just before getting shelled. The reply, “Russian warship, go f**k yourself” will reside in legend. [Note: The “warship” in question was later sunk by Ukrainian missiles.]

We all have to have a bit of the “in-your-face” confidence to tell the doomsayers what they can do with their predictions. In that regard, I advocate the video in a tweet by MeidasTouch, “Hey, Republican Occasion. Go f—k yourselves.” Truthful warning—the online video contains about a dozen profanities, which are typically unproductive and distracting. But the sentiment expressed in the movie captures the fighting spirit that all Democrats have to have at this second. Republicans are fast paced telling the mainstream media that the 2022 midterms are more than and that Democrats really should surrender. As the Ukrainian defenders on Snake Island mentioned, “Russian warship, . . . .”