Tag Archive: Los Angeles Times

The great Republican translator machine

We’ve got your Republican Translator right here

We have been talking since Day One about the Republican Party’s vast messaging machine, which encompasses everything from Fox “News” to the Wall Street Journal, NewsMax, and more. Before and during the 2024 elections, we learned that this great propaganda apparatus also includes online platform Twitter (now X), popular podcasts like the Joe Rogan Experience, and sadly, once-respected newspapers like the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, now owned by billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. When Republican politicians including Donald Trump speak, they often merely parrot what the Republican Messaging Machine wants them to say, and vice versa.

Now, however, Democrats can point to a machine of our own. Here at Messaging Matters, we have developed the Great Republican Translator Machine. Whenever a Republican talks, we run what they say through the machine, and out comes the truth of what they really mean. Let’s try some examples:

“We believe in freedom” = “We believe in the heavy hand of government”

“Egg prices are too high” = “I’m a racist”

I’ve never heard of ___” = “I’m heavily involved with ____”

“We’re okay with the rape allegations against Pete Hegseth” = “Those allegations are a feature, not a bug”

“Those immigrants/trans people/blacks/etc. are causing all the problems in this country” = “Look at that shiny object over there while we pick your pockets and harm your health”

“We want judges who will interpret the Constitution” = “We want activist judges who will legislate from the bench”

Government should be run like a business” = “Let’s remove important health, safety and environmental regulations on Big Business”

“We’re pro-life” = “Kids killed in school shootings and women dead from untreated miscarriages are fine with us”

Party of smaller government” = “We want government to invade your bedrooms, your bathrooms and your wombs”

“Rule of Law” = “Republicans are above the law”

“Party of family values” = “Elect a serial liar/cheater/philanderer/felon/rapist”

Do you have any other Republican statements that need translating? Please send them in your comments, and we will add them to the list.

Photo by Jim Linwood, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/CaDwHd

 

 

 

The Democrats lost the election to the Republicans — what’s next?

Kamala Harris did her best

On Tuesday night, Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. Republicans also won back a narrow majority in the U.S. Senate. U.S. House results are still coming in, and Republicans hold a small lead over the Democrats. Many people are in shock about the results, and are asking what went wrong for the Democrats, as well as how the party can do better going forward. There are so many possible answers, and it will take some time to sort through them and come up with new ideas. But we want to focus on one area that reflects the mission of Messaging Matters.

That area is communications and media. Specifically, we need to look at what the big corporate “mainstream media” did in this election, and how badly they served us. One obvious place to point to is the number of major newspapers, including ones that traditionally have a Democratic editorial viewpoint, that failed to endorse any candidate this time. Axios has a dramatic chart here, with an accompanying article, demonstrating how the number of such endorsements has plummeted by about 80 percent just since 2004.