For some reason, even after “binders,” “birth control,” and Big Bird actually did help Obama win a second term, the Republican Party is apparently still under the illusion that, just because the Left and the media launch a Narrative that’s objectively false and nonsensical, we don’t have to push back against it. But if those exit polls taught us anything, it’s that we do. And a lack of pushback is why we’re currently losing the Susan Rice debate.
While Republicans are off licking their wounds or just taking a break after an exhausting campaign, the Left and the media are not. And as a result, the GOP is currently getting its butt kicked all over the place.
Everywhere now, online, print media, and on cable nets like CNN and MSNBC, the false Narrative is flourishing that Republicans oppose Rice because she’s black and a woman. The media doesn’t care one whit that Republicans wholeheartedly backed Condi Rice (who is black and a woman) for Secretary of State, because this is about politics, not truth.
At his post-election news conference last week, Barack Obama vigorously defended Susan Rice, and now the media is following suit, because the media sees its job as to never-ever-ever allow this president to fail. The media also learned that false accusations of racism and sexism against Republicans helped win Obama a second term, so why not use that winning tactic to help Obama win everything?
Where are you, Republicans?
Where?
Are?
You?
If we’ve learned nothing from the beating we just took, it’s that, regardless of how dishonest or outrageous, media Narratives that go unanswered stick to us. Moreover, anyone familiar with Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking” knows that no one is going to remember that one Secretary of State under the last Republican president was black, and the other a black woman.
This is a fight we picked. Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte held a news conference making very clear they would filibusters any nomination of Susan Rice … and now we’ve abandoned the field to the other side.
At the risk of being obvious, here’s a handy guide of what we need to start doing on the Rice debate and pretty much everything else:
1. The GOP needs to get organized so they’re ready for the media’s talking points. What happened this morning on Soledad O’Brien can’t keep happening.
2. Once organized, the GOP needs to flood the media with happy warrior Republicans who are prepared to push back and get our message out there.
3. Oh, and when it comes to anything the media deems racialist or genderific, can we find someone other than old white guys to lay out our case? Why isn’t Condi Rice making the case against Susan Rice? Where’s Susana Martinez? The GOP is flush with women and minorities. Let’s get them prepped for battle and get them out there. We can kill these racist/sexist memes simply by showing up. Optics do matter.
The GOP must stop letting us down like this. We can’t change the media; we can’t make the media do their jobs honestly, and we certainly can’t assume that the media’s ever going to do the right thing.
We can’t lose the Susan Rice debate on the facts. The facts are on our side. The same goes for Libya. But unless and until we’re fully prepared on the facts and willing to then take the debate directly to the media, we’ll keep losing the game, because we drop too many easy pop-ups.
Wake up, GOP.
You are letting us down. Again.
The Democrats overcame this problem, and they’re wrong about absolutely everything.
But as my grandmother used to say, Yougottawanna.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC