The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
My colleague Nicole Russell recently wrote that Republicans turned hard-core MAGA Trump voters are to blame for the persistence of the former president’s poll numbers.
Like true fanatics, they have proven themselves incapable of accepting even valid criticisms of the once and former president, all in service to their bizarre addiction. They have been “conned by one of the best,” she explained, acting “more like a committed cult” than a political party.
She isn’t wrong.
The lengths to which some members of the political right have gone to justify the misdeeds of their leader is mindboggling, even sad at times. But the slavish devotion to Trump by the right is only half the reason the now thrice-indicted former president still has a significant chance of being the GOP nominee in 2024.
Because if the hard-right is set on Trump winning the primary, then the left is, too. Consider how left-leaning mainstream media sources have worked to keep Trump a perpetual feature of the daily news.
One can hardly turn on cable news (not just Fox) without frequent and disdainful mention of the former president’s name. Daily newspapers and online news sources are regularly splashed with photos and headlines about Trump, always associated with contempt and scandal, of course.
It was the same phenomenon that occurred in 2016, when Trump, the unlikely Republican frontrunner, was practically the only GOP candidate receiving regular news coverage. Much of it was negative. But that didn’t seem to matter.
Whether for ratings or sheer entertainment value, Trump’s constant presence on television was mesmerizing; it was the greatest in-kind contribution to his campaign. It helped build his cult of personality and almost certainly contributed to his election.
Today’s incessant coverage also serves to feed this beast. And while the frequent stories follow the news, the coverage is unbalanced and excessive.
This is especially true since Democrats have their own White House scandals with which to contend. Indeed, the recent allegations that President Joe Biden may have been more involved in his son’s influence-peddling operation involving foreign nationals than we were previously led to believe should be news of the same caliber as a Trump indictment.
It’s not.
As Becket Adams explained in a recent piece for the National Review, Biden is a Democrat, therefore any suggestion that “the president himself coordinated quid pro quos with well-heeled foreign interests,” isn’t just “old news” to news sources like the New York Times, “it’s also none of your damn business.”
The serious nature of Trump’s alleged crimes notwithstanding does not justify the apparent total disregard by many mainstream news sources of the alleged crimes of his political opponent.
The double standard is annoying and unfair, yes, but it also reinforces the notion that Trump loves to peddle: that he has been singled out and even targeted for destruction by cultural elites.
It’s hard to argue with that. And it has undoubtedly hardened support for Trump, even among reluctant Republicans who might otherwise wish to elevate a different candidate.
The series of indictments — which vary in seriousness and potential for conviction — has also elevated the former president’s victim status.
Whatever the allegation — mishandling of classified documents or efforts to overturn election results — the unrelenting stream of legal actions against him fulfills the narrative that Trump and his followers are under attack.
The left knows that Trump is using and will continue to use his victimhood to fundraise and to build his support. Still they double down, not out of a sense of justice, but one of spite, and dare I say, because they believe, as they did in 2016, that Trump is unelectable and securing the nomination will all but ensure Biden’s reelection.
They may be right. But they’ve been wrong before.
And in the meantime, they’ve made strange bedfellows of their arch political opponents.
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