This schism has its roots in Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer backing Trumpy challengers over some of his own party’s incumbents. Kemp as well as the Georgia secretary of state, the state attorney general and other top Republican officials aren't even attending the state GOP convention next month (going would be like the 'SNL' skit where William Shatner appeared at a 'Star Trek' convention). Brian Kemp, who defied Trump’s attempts to destroy him in the primaries, has essentially washed his hands of the state GOP, directing donors to ignore it and give their money to his PAC. Michelle Cottle of the New York Times recently reported from Georgia, where the state party has effectively been taken over by the comments section. al., who think worrying about “electability” is the stuff of losers, cucks, RINOs and globalists. Across the country, state parties are being slowly taken over by Trump worshippers, conspiracy theory enthusiasts, et. “What I see us doing is losing the silent majority of viewers as we chase the nuts off a cliff.” Stirewalt was later fired for his effrontery. Fox’s decision to “respect the audience” amid the postelection tumult - the loudest, most hardcore viewers, before and after the 2020 election - led to huge public relations, legal and financial disasters.Īccording to texts revealed by the Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Chris Stirewalt - then a political editor at Fox and now at the Dispatch - warned that this was folly. And they were the ones dragging us along, no matter how we assured ourselves that we were in control.” And they dragged the right into Trump’s arms.įast forward to today, and you can see how that process never stopped. “It was the commenters,” Miller writes, “the hobbits who had taken charge. But Miller describes how Bannon and other right-wing outlets embraced a strategy of pandering to the comment section warriors to boost traffic and “engagement.” In Tim Miller’s book, “Why We Did It,” the former Republican operative has a chapter titled “Centering the Comments Section.” In it, he explains how as the communications director of Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign, he courted Breitbart News, then run by self-described “Leninist” Steve Bannon. The only remedy for this is comment moderation, where grown-ups in charge try to thwart the trolls lest they lose their more valuable customers. In comments sections - including such mega-versions like Twitter - the nastiest commenters post more, and more obnoxiously, than the decent ones until, eventually, the decent folk just decide not to hang out anymore. In economics, Gresham’s law on currency markets holds that “ bad money drives out good.” That principle also applies to the comment sections on online sites. Is the GOP becoming a dysfunctional chatroom?

Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon embraced a strategy of pandering to comment section warriors to boost traffic and engagement when he led Breitbart News.

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