Welcome to your Monday open thread. Did you get enough rest over the weekend. I did absolutely NOTHING and it was wonderful. I’m ready and raring to go today.
The shove did make the news, and the video of it is lurching toward 300,000 views on YouTube. It confirmed, for conservatives, that union thugs were fighting back over Wisconsin. Every reasonably solid video of a shove or insult made it to Breitbart.tv. They just haven’t broken into the narrative about the protests the way that 2009 videos of rebellion at congressional town halls did, or even Hartsock’s Palm Springs video did. (This week, some congressional Republicans called for an investigation of Common Cause because the group had organized the event where those activists embarrassed themselves on camera.) There hasn’t been any dip in support for unions; there has been a dip in support for Scott Walker.
The videographers have not given up. FreedomWorks activists are on the ground in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah “this weekend through the next two weeks,” according to the group. They want to supplement the FlipCam videos they’ve already been getting. They want documentary evidence of union anger out there so powerful that the media can’t avoid it. But who doesn’t know that he’s venturing into the view of tiny cameras every time he attends a rally? Who trusts the media? Who wants to wind up as the face of Violence Breaking Out and wrecking his cause? The new age of protests is bringing on more self-consciousness and more détente.
Fox News has certainly tried to pretend that the protests are full of angry union thugs. One reporter even falsely reported being hit (until the actual footage was uncovered). The media-savvy of the protests is pretty amazing, really. The protests are on-message and largely free of mixed messages and unnecessary street theater. Good job Wisconsin, thanks for showing us the way.
There is some intense interest among media types about Glenn Beck’s ratings dive. He continues to bleed audience (Rachel Maddow is now beating him in some demographic categories) and he’s lost more than 300 sponsors. Several media commentors think Beck’s increasingly elaborate and ever-widening conspiracy theories may be to blame. Adam Serwer thinks Beck’s rise and fall is related to the rise and fall in intensity among conservatives.
Downie suggests that this is because Beck’s conspiracies have gotten more baroque and apocalyptic. I’m not so sure — but I think the answer may be in this Pew poll Ben Smith flagged yesterday showing that the number of people “angry at the federal government” has declined by 9 percent. According to Pew, “much of the decline” comes from “Republicans and Tea Party supporters.” Republicans have calmed down, and Beck has stayed high-strung.
The whole Republican narrative is based on the idea that conservatives are the “real Americans” and that liberals and Democrats are illegitimate democratic actors who only gain power through illicit means. Beck and his chalkboard met the need conservatives had to persuade themselves of this in the aftermath of political losses in 2006 and particularly 2008. Republicans, having regained control of the House and excised the existential crisis caused by losing the presidential election, feel like things are “getting back to normal.” So they simply don’t have the same appetite for the kind of cathartic insanity Beck provides. It’s not really that Beck has really changed; it’s that Republicans don’t really need him anymore.
I agree with this assessment. There’s a definite loss in GOP intensity since they managed to make major gains in Congress. Also there’s been some improvement in the economy, so that could play a role as well.