How the Right Lost Its Mind

by Charles J. Sykes

  * Politico’s Kenneth Vogel did a comprehensive takedown of the Scam PACs in January 2015:

  A POLITICO analysis of reports filed with the Federal Election Commission covering the 2014 cycle found that 33 PACs that court small donors with Tea Party–oriented email and direct-mail appeals raised $43 million—74 percent of which came from small donors. The PACs spent only $3 million on ads and contributions to boost the long-shot candidates often touted in the appeals, compared to $39.5 million on operating expenses, including $6 million to firms owned or managed by the operatives who run the PACs. POLITICO’s list is not all-inclusive, and some conservatives fret that it’s almost impossible to identify all the groups that are out there, let alone to rein them in (Kenneth Vogel, “The rise of ‘scam PACs,’” Politico, January 26, 2015.)

  * “Since its launch, Tea Party Forward has raised $137,477 in contributions (excluding transfers from other organizations) but has only spent $28,365 on election efforts. That means close to 80 cents out of every dollar given by donors is spent on overhead unrelated to actually winning elections for endorsed candidates.…

  “As an older organization, the Tea Party Leadership Fund has raised nearly $1.02 million since January 2015. But only $98,364 of that total has been spent on candidate efforts. Just over 90% of the organization’s donations have gone to fund overhead costs.” —Media Trackers.6

  * The “cromnibus” was a long-term Omnibus spending bill joined to a shorter-term Continuing Resolution (CR). It as a term only Washington insiders could love, and even they hated it.

  * “In his second term, Reagan turned again to Heritage for ideas, and adopted many of them. He recited twenty-two specific proposals from Mandate for Leadership II in his second inaugural address in 1985, prompting the New York Times to state, “‘While the wording of the president’s speech and the foundation’s document were different, many of the proposals were strikingly similar.’” —Andrew Blasko, Reagan and Heritage: A Unique Partnership, June 7, 2004, www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2004/06/reagan-and-heritage-a-unique-partnership.

  * I only spoke to DeMint once, when he called me in 2012 to discuss Wisconsin’s upcoming GOP U.S. Senate primary. He was thinking about endorsing former congressman Mark Neumann in the primary over former governor Tommy Thompson and businessman Eric Hovde. DeMint told me that he only intervened on behalf of candidates who had strong support from “the grassroots and from talk radio,” and wanted to know if that was the case with Neumann. I told him that was not the case in Wisconsin because Neumann had burned too many bridges with his 2010 primary campaign against now governor Scott Walker. DeMint thanked me for the input and the next week endorsed Neumann, who finished third in the primary.

  * At the same time, the poll found that more than 60 percent of poll respondents “supported reducing Social Security and Medicare payments to wealthier Americans. And more than half favored bumping the retirement age to 69 by 2075. The age to receive full benefits is 66 now and is scheduled to rise to 67 in 2027.” (www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704728004576176741120691736.)

  * A study by Washington State University’s Mike Caulfield found that the fake story about the dead FBI agent was shared more widely on Facebook “and thus reached a far greater number of people than some concurrently ‘trending’ articles from respected news sources like the Boston Globe and the Washington Post. Ultimately, the fake article garnered thousands more shares than several of the real news stories he looked at.” (“The scariest part of Facebook’s fake news problem: fake news is more viral than real news,” Vox, November 16, 2016.)

  * My own PolitiFact “file” assigned me two “Pants on Fire” and one “False” rating, suggesting that I have never, on any occasion, said anything that is even remotely true.

  † “The highlight of [PolitiFact’s] 2013 ‘Lie of the Year’ article was that it completely ignored [PolitiFact’s] own ‘True’ rating of the ‘keep your plan’ claim back in 2008,” health care expert Avik Roy noted. “PolitiFact’s pronouncements about Obamacare were widely repeated by pro-Obama reporters and pundits, and had a meaningful impact on the outcome of the election,” he noted. “Indeed, in 2009, PolitiFact won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the 2008 campaign.” Roy’s verdict was harsh, but widely shared among conservatives: “PolitiFact is an embarrassment to the world of fact-checking, let alone to the world of prediction-checking to which it actually belongs. Their 2008 Pulitzer Prize—prominently mentioned on every PolitiFact web page—owes itself in part to the group’s lazy and inaccurate reporting on Obamacare. If PolitiFact were intellectually honest, it would acknowledge that it was undeserving of that prize, reflect on how its work has gone astray, and focus in the future on actual fact-checking instead of prediction-checking.” (Avik Roy, “Pants On Fire: PolitiFact Tries To Hide That It Rated ‘True’ in 2008 Obamacare’s ‘Keep Your Health Plan’ Promise,” Forbes, December 27, 2013.)

  * An academic study by Filippo Menczer and associates at Indiana University “to see whether there are differences in popularity between articles containing ‘misinformation’ and those containing ‘reliable information’” concluded that there is no advantage to being correct or telling truth. (“Yes, I’d Lie to You,” Economist, September 10, 2016.)

  * I had Rob, and dozens of others like him, in mind when I spoke with Oliver Darcy in August 2016:

  Let’s say that Donald Trump basically makes whatever you want to say, whatever claim he wants to make. And everybody knows it’s a falsehood. The big question of my audience, it is impossible for me to say that, “By the way, you know it’s false.” And they’ll say, “Why? I saw it on Allen B. West.” Or they’ll say, “I saw it on a Facebook page.” And I’ll say, “The New York Times did a fact check.” And they’ll say, “Oh, that’s the New York Times. That’s bulls—.” There’s nobody—you can’t go to anybody and say, “Look, here are the facts.” (Oliver Darcy, “Donald Trump Broke the Conservative Media,” Business Insider, August 26, 2016.)

  * The “Susan Rice story,” referred to a report that the former national security adviser to President Obama had been involved in the surveillance of members of the Trump transition team and had asked for some of the names to be “unmasked.” The story was touted by Trump, who had accused Obama of “wiretapping” Trump Tower, a claim for which he offered no proof and that was denied by law enforcement and intelligence officials.

  * In a 2005 film, Martial Law 9-11: Rise of the Police State, Jones laid out his theory of what happened on September 11, 2001:

  Once the decoys, known as hijackers, were on board the planes, a gas was released knocking out the occupants of the aircraft. Then a small criminal group in control of remote control systems patented for over 20 years took control of the aircraft and flew them into the World Trade Centers and Pentagon. The CIA controlled drills that morning, confused NORAD for over an hour until it was almost too late for them to shoot down the hijacked planes. I said almost too late. When they did find out, Dick Cheney wouldn’t let the planes fly over 350 miles an hour so three of the aircraft were able to hit their targets. The fourth wasn’t able to because our sources in the Pentagon have told us generals didn’t follow their orders and had Flight 93 shot down. If it would have hit its target, the Capitol, the government would have been completely decapitated and the president could have declared total martial law.

  * “An autopsy said her cause of death was ‘acute cardiac arrhythmia due to hyperventilation.’” —“Hawaii Health Director Killed after Plane Crash Had Infant Life Vest,” Hawaii News Now, March 5, 2016.

  * Trump’s rhetoric inspired comparisons between the language he was deploying and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous forgery has long been a staple of anti-Semitism—and an early example of the sort of fake news that would plague the campaign. Writer Ron Kampeas called attention to the parallel themes:

  TRUMP: Our great civilization here in America and across the civilized world has come across a moment of reckoning. We’v
e seen it in the United Kingdom, where they voted to liberate themselves from global government and global trade deals and global immigration deals that have destroyed their sovereignty and have destroyed many of those nations. The central base of world political power is right here in America, our corrupt political establishment that is the greatest power behind the efforts at radical globalization and the disenfranchisement of working people.

  PROTOCOLS (from the introduction, written in the voice of a “scholar” who purports to be revealing a secret Jewish document): The nations of the West are being brought under international control at political, military and economic levels. They are rapidly in process of becoming controlled also on the social level. All alike are being told that their only hope lies in the surrender of national sovereignty.

  TRUMP: The corporate media in our country is no longer involved in journalism, they are a political special interest, no different than any other … with an agenda, and the agenda is not for you, it’s for themselves.… The establishment and their media enablers wield control over this nation through means that are very well known.

  PROTOCOLS (in the voice of its fabricated Jewish “conspirators”): Through the Press, we have gained the power to influence while remaining ourselves in the shade: thanks to the Press we have got the gold in our hands, notwithstanding that we have had to gather it out of the oceans of blood and tears. (Ron Kampeas, “Donald Trump’s ‘International Bankers’ Speech Leaves Some Uneasy,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 14, 2016.)

  * Attributed to Alexandre Ledru-Rollin, one of the leaders of the revolution of 1848 in France. Alvin R. Calman, Ledru-Rollin and the Second French Republic. Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, vol. 103, no. 2), 374 (1922), says Ledru-Rollin’s use of “I am their chief; I must follow them” is probably apocryphal.

  * After the election, President George H. W. Bush penned the following note to Limbaugh: “Now that I’m retired from active politics, I don’t mind that you’ve become the number one voice for conservatism in our country.” (Nicole Hemmer, Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), 270.)

  * In her testimony, Fluke described a friend who had polycystic ovary syndrome, which was treated with contraceptive hormones that cost more than $100 a month. “She has to take prescription birth control to stop cysts from growing on her ovaries,” Fluke said. “Her prescription is technically covered by Georgetown insurance because it’s not intended to prevent pregnancy.” But, Fluke said her claim “was denied repeatedly on the assumption that she really wanted the birth control to prevent pregnancy. She’s gay, so clearly polycystic ovarian syndrome was a much more urgent concern than accidental pregnancy. After months of paying over $100 out of pocket, she just couldn’t afford her medication anymore and had to stop taking it.” (Sandra Fluke. Statement to Congress (PDF) (speech). Washington, DC.)

  * On March 3, 2016, Limbaugh issued a formal apology. It reads in full: (David Jackson, “Limbaugh Apologizes to Sandra Fluke,” USA Today, March 3, 2012.) For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke. I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit? In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone’s bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level. My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.

  * “For every story that’s critical of an Obama policy or decision, these media outlets run 10 more suggesting he’s a Kenyan Muslim with terrorist sympathies. They don’t criticize Hillary Clinton as someone with questionable judgment who’s made some bad decisions; they tell you she’s a criminal who left Americans to die in Benghazi, and probably killed a few others along the way. Immigration isn’t a debate about border security or legal status, it’s an excuse to talk about the dark hordes of criminals and rapists pouring into our country. Inner-city violence is reduced to stories about black kids in hoodies who hate cops, hate white people, and light cities on fire. Terrorism is an imaginary tale about Muslims dancing on rooftops after 9/11, or the lie that the Muslim neighbors of the San Bernardino shooters saw bombs next door and chose to say nothing.” —Jon Favreau, “Longtime Listener, First-Time Candidate,” Ringer, September 6, 2016.

  * Shortly before the Wisconsin primary, the New York Times captured the media/political environment in the state:

  Later in the week, as Mr. Trump crossed the state, he seemed to acknowledge the power of Wisconsin’s talk radio culture, which has been an anti-Trump force, by railing aloud against it for deceiving voters. “In certain areas—the city areas—I’m not doing well,” Mr. Trump told voters in Racine, bemoaning his lack of support on talk radio. “I’m not doing well because nobody knows my message. They were given misinformation.” Mr. Sykes, along with a handful of other local radio hosts, has spent his mornings criticizing and castigating Mr. Trump over the airwaves. And if Mr. Trump loses the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, he will have Mr. Sykes and his merry band of talkers partly to blame.

  In a nominating contest that has exposed fissures in the Republican Party, Wisconsin’s conservative talk radio apparatus remains remarkably united on at least one point: its deep dislike of Mr. Trump, who for months has been the focus of its fiery attacks.

  The Wisconsin talk radio conglomerate, which rallied conservative voters to help Gov. Scott Walker win three elections in four years, has now set its sights on stopping Mr. Trump by deprecating the delegate leader and elevating Senator Ted Cruz. (Ashley Parker and Nick Corasaniti, “6 Talk Radio Hosts, on a Mission to Stop Donald Trump in Wisconsin,” New York Times, April 4, 2016.)

  * Many of those conservatives would later come to see the election as a “binary choice,” and decide to support Trump over Hillary Clinton in November. But Trump still significantly underperformed Mitt Romney in southeastern Wisconsin.

  * Afterward, Jonah Goldberg explained what happened: “In the wake of her invade-and-Christianize-them column, Coulter wrote a long, rambling rant of a response to her critics that was barely coherent. She’s a smart and funny person, but this was Ann at her worst—emoting rather than thinking, and badly needing editing and some self-censorship, or what is commonly referred to as ‘judgment.’ Running this ‘piece’ would have been an embarrassment to Ann, and to NRO.” (Jonah Goldberg, “L’Affaire Coulter,” National Review, October 2, 2001.)

  † Throughout the 2016 campaign, Coulter and I butted heads, appearing together on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews on several occasions; she appeared on my radio show before the primary and then again at the Republican National Convention in July. During the latter interview, she bet me $100 that Trump would get a larger percentage of the African American vote than any GOP nominee since Richard Nixon. I never collected.

  * Coulter’s adulation of Trump even eclipsed the fan boy enthusiasm of Sean Hannity. In the fall of 2016, she released her latest (quickly written) book: In Trump We Trust, with Trump’s name notably used in place of the more traditional “God.”

  * As writer Michael Knowles explained:

  The echoes repeat the sad tale as they communicate the emotional lessons of our great white sins, imploring us to Never Forget the 6 GoRillion [sic]. An anonymous Alt Right developer even uploaded a Google Chrome extension called “The Coincidence D
etector” to automatically insert the parentheses around Jewish-sounding names and thereby highlight the “coincidence” that so many Jews occupy positions among the global elite, which illustrates another aspect of the movement.…” (Michael Knowles, “An Actual Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right: 8 Things You Need to Know,” Daily Wire, September 26, 2016.)

  * Writer Michael Knowles noted that virtually all of the thinkers Milo Yiannopoulos had cited here were white nationalists:

  Richard Spencer, president of the white nationalist National Policy Institute, former editor of Taki’s, and founder of Radix Journal/AlternativeRight.com

  Kevin MacDonald, who as editor of the Occidental Observer promises to “present original content touching on the themes of white identity, white interests, and the culture of the West

  Sam Francis, the late syndicated columnist who famously called for a “white racial consciousness

  Theodore Robert Beale, the white nationalist blogger better known by his pen name Vox Day, who counts as a central tenet of the Alt-Right that “we must secure the existence of white people and a future for white children,” which represents one half of the white nationalist, neo-Nazi numerical symbol 1488.