This is nice of them.
Today’s Sunday Times “Review” section, the punditry and analysis collection that once provided diverse political views and included unexpected perspective on modern life (but who cares about diversity and inclusion these days, right?) has two head-explodingly dishonest and diabolically-biased pieces that demonstrate how the paper will do its utmost to boost the Democrats back into the White House for another four years despite their epic incompetence and defiance of Constitutional government during the first three.
The first is epic gaslighting by Times editors and alleged conservative (diversity!) Ross Douthat. Like all conservative columnists that the Times subjects to its Stockholm Syndrome process, Douthat isn’t one anymore, just as the magazine he once edited, The Atlantic, has become a reliable Democratic propaganda mouthpiece (like the Times). He’s religious, believes in the importance of organized religion and opposes abortion, so he makes an effective double agent for the Gray Lady. He has contributed a subversive pro-Biden column with the hilarious headline, “Why is Joe Biden So Unpopular?” It’s a mystery! What could it be?
Referring to the President’s dismal poll numbers, Douthat concludes in part that it must be prejudice against old people. “[A] different leader with the same policies might be more popular. Lacking any way to elevate such a leader, however, all Democrats can do is ask Biden to show more public vigor, with all the risks that may entail,” he writes. Then Douthat explains that the problem may lie in that old Jimmy Carter excuse, “malaise”: “The hardest problem for the incumbent to address may be the pall of private depression and general pessimism hanging over Americans, especially younger Americans, which has been worsened by Covid but seems rooted in deeper social trends.”
Oh. That must be it: deeper social trends. Not an “anti-inflation” law that had nothing to do with addressing inflation, not inflation itself, not the student loan give-away (unmentioned in the essay), not Biden calling approximately half the voting public fascists in a fascist speech (unmentioned), not his administration supporting public school policies encouraging gender confusion and critical race theory concepts while his Justice Department casually threatens dissenting parents (unmentioned), not Biden’s irresponsible embrace of climate change hysteria (unmentioned), not even his race, ethnicity and sexual orientation-based appointments of unqualified hacks like Kamala Harris, multiple department heads (Buttigeig, Mayorkas, etc.) , and my personal favorite, Karine Jean-Pierre (unmentioned), and the prosecutions of his political opposition (incredibly, also unmentioned). The de facto open-border Biden policies are deceitfully subjected to language games, as Douthat writes, as his sole mention of this core issue for Republicans, conservatives, and anyone who cares about laws, sovereignty and common sense, “He’s moved somewhat rightward on issues like immigration, in which progressivism’s policy vision hit the rocks.”
Incredible. Douthat has written some perceptive columns in the past (Compare the Douthat column discussed in this post with the current one), but after today’s disgraceful drivel I wouldn’t trust him to summarize a weather report. Asking why Joe Biden is unpopular, as the headline does, suggests that there are legitimate reasons for him to be popular with those who may not be totalitarian proto-Marxists. It immediately reminded me of one of the funniest improvised fake “celebrity interviews” by Martin Short in his fat-suit-assisted “Jiminy Glick” persona.
Interviewing Mel Brooks, who up to this point had done a masterful job acting as if he was really being interviewed by a typical idiotic “Entertainment Tonight!” talking head, Short as Glick asked Mel, looking serious, “What is it that you have against Hitler?”
Ethics Alarms 
You want Gaslighting?
For the Gaslight Award Of 2023, let’s toss it over to the inimitable Karine Jean-Pierre:
“The president has DONE MORE TO SECURE THE BORDER and to deal with this issue of immigration than anyone else. HE REALLY HAS. (bolds/caps/italics mine)
Amen. When she says things like “…I can’t even keep up with him…” the best spin you can put on it is that she must mean staff has a hard time keeping him from wandering off in a daze, or bumbling around where the public can observe it.
Reminds me of stereotypically Chinese houseboy “Cholly” always hurrying to save “bloss” Quincy Magoo from yet another dangerous bumble, which Magoo had no clue was coming.
The question that seems to be percolating through the minds of our betters these days seems to be: “Why don’t people realize what’s good for them and that they’re getting it, good and hard?”
And by the way, why don’t people realize what a good thing Bidenomics is and just how great the economy is, despite the balance of their retirement accounts? Paul Krugman and Robert Reich are carrying that banner. If we were just as smart as they are we’d be happy.
I don’t know if gaslighting is even the right word for this. This is pro wrestling level propaganda, like when Captain Lou Albano and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan would rant about how the heels (designated bad guys) that they represented hadn’t done anything wrong when everyone could see on the video tape that they had blatantly broken the rules, whether by prohibited tactics, the use of foreign objects, or some other ridiculous stunt. I think it’s also school bully tactics telling the victim that it’s his fault for not fitting in, and abusive spouse tactics telling the woman (usually) that it’s her fault and she doesn’t appreciate what she’s got, and it takes two to make an argument, so next time zip it and give the husband whatever he wants. The Democratic party is banking on the belief that half this country has drunk their Kool-Aid and enough of the other half are idiots or so addled with hatred of Donald Trump to put them over the top this coming time out.
I wish I could say these tactics were idiotic, but I don’t think I can really say that. Idiotic tactics normally don’t work, but they won this past time out in large part because they ginned up so much hatred of Donald Trump that very few of the winnable voters went his way. The thing is, this time out, unless another strain of covid justifies another round of lockdowns and Biden campaigning from his basement again, they’re not going to be able to keep him off the stage, which by the way, is why tomorrow he will not be at any of the 9/11 memorials, because that is too high profile of an event for him to mess up at. So they need to gin up hatred for Trump and the right at fever pitch, while at the same time convincing everyone that if you aren’t feeling this hatred there’s something wrong with you, and if you don’t think Biden is the greatest president ever to occupy the White House except maybe for Obama, there must be something wrong with you. Maybe you dislike old people, so you’re biased against this elder statesman. Maybe you’re depressed and nothing will shake you out of that depression no matter how good things get. If neither of those is the case, then you must be a MAGA racist, and then we don’t want you in this country.
After all, don’t forget, Biden got the most votes of any president to date, 81 million, even more than Obama, and certainly more than any of the last Republican presidents. He should be popular, and if he is not popular, then something must be wrong with the people because he’s doing everything right. He got shots into arms and ended this outbreak. He got us out of Afghanistan, okay, it was a little messy, but we needed to be out of there. He secured the border. He is a one-man force against white supremacy. If we are lucky, he may put that proto dictator behind bars for the rest of his life soon. What’s not to like about that? It’s like the teacher who was a member of antifa said when some people said that that organization’s flag in his classroom made them uncomfortable. Said that that flag was supposed to make fascists uncomfortable, and if it’s making you uncomfortable, he doesn’t know what to tell you, ergo you must be a fascist, end of discussion, your thoughts have no value.
This is the America we are walking towards.