How The Media(Esp. Republicans) Invalidates Biden (PART II)

Ever since Joe Biden won the US Presidency fair and square in the 2020 election, the GOP and their media cohorts have been slowly chipping away in plain sight at his credibility, reliability, and integrity.

Thank the Republicans for this incessant smearing of POTUS 46. Even now, the GOP machine shows no qualms about depicting Biden as pathetic old geezer who keeps getting lost and confused in the West Wing(both literally and figuratively). To be sure, these character attacks aren’t coming from the “liberal media.” They’re coming from media that’s almost always owned and operated by Republicans — not Democrats. Forget about Trump’s false claims of “election rigging” in 2020. It’s 2022 and Trumpers and so-called respectable Republicans alike are continuing their M.O. of smearing, invalidating, and negating (A.K.A. Operation SIN) of President Biden.

What they’re doing to him isn’t that complicated. Their tactics are so underhanded and so passive-aggressive, however, that most Americans don’t even realize how deftly they’ve managed to undermine President Biden and his policies. So let’s analyze their strategy.

The GOP machine is using the power — and positioning — of words. They’re reframing news about him. They’re putting opinions and fake news together so that their information appears to be truth — and not their biased opinions. They’re using propaganda in a refreshingly friendly way so that it doesn’t seem like propaganda. They’re misusing logic and communication, in general, to convince voters that Joe Biden is to blame for everything bad that’s been happening to America since he got inaugurated as President.

It’s a bona fide hatchet job wrapped up in The American Flag, dear readers.

Now that the upcoming mid-term elections are fast approaching, Republicans are resorting to their time-honored tactic of guilt by association. They know that if they simply include any Democrat’s name or photo by something bad, voters will associate that person with the bad thing. No, it’s not an outright accusation of wrongdoing, it’s just a sneaky savvy way of implicating and blaming so that the associated one will look guilty when there never was a logical or literal connection for guilt in the first place.

Here’s a perfect example of how an illogical conclusion can connect President Biden with a problem:

Joe Biden is President of The United States.

Gas prices dramatically increased after he took office.

Therefore, it’s President Biden’s fault that Americans are now paying more for gas at the pump.

That conclusion is about as ludicrous as this false syllogism:

I married a woman named Christine.

Right after we got married, a tornado destroyed our house.

So, if you marry a woman named Christine, she’ll attract a tornado that will make you homeless.

Really? Married woman named Christine = Homelessness? Like, if you would have married a woman named Ethel, she would have repelled storm cells? Such conclusions don’t make sense. They’re illogical.

No doubt gas prices did increase during President Biden’s term of office. But a lot of other things that caused and/or affected higher oil prices also happened after he became President. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the global economy suffered. COVID, climate change, supply chain issues, and price gouging also contributed to higher oil prices. These things, in turn, all led to increased costs at the pump.

In other words, these contributing factors were NOT exclusively Biden’s fault. But by tying Biden’s name to these things, his association with them is clearly established. So without any tangible evidence, Biden has become our national scapegoat — The Bad News Bear for all Americans. Then too, there’s the constant, relentless media barrage to keep letting us know how really, really BAD the economy has gotten…That’s how GOP propaganda works. It’s not just on the national level, either. Because local affiliates of network news and Fox favor the Republican Party, they too have gotten involved in this underhanded smear campaign.

Here’s how reporting from local media operates. Despite the lack of actual connection between cost increases and The Executive Branch, their newscasts were able to implicate President Biden as root cause or inept reactor when it came to rising gas prices. Their reports simply began with breaking news of high gas prices, then included Biden’s name in a sly editorial opinion about his ineffectiveness on the matter. (And note: the following on-air reports are similar — if not verbatim, in part — to actual newscasts from local stations.)

*As prices at the pump continue to rise, President Biden has released oil reserves in attempts to lower costs(dramatic pause)…but it is doubtful that his action will do anything to lower gas prices.

*Gas prices remain at an all-time high with no end in sight(dramatic pause)…No word from the White House, though, if the President will take any further action on the matter.

*Gas prices have steadily decreased for the past 3 months, and now are at their lowest since last March(dramatic pause)…but prices at the grocery store are the highest they’ve been in 40 years! President Biden had no comment on the matter.

So if there’s a problem, it’s Biden’s fault. He’s to blame. But even when he tries to fix it, or actually accomplish anything, he gets more flak.

Either he’s rebuked with, “Yes, he finally did it, but why did it take him so long? He should have done it sooner.”

Or else, he gets a snide rebuff: “ He might have fulfilled his campaign promise, but some are asking why is he doing it now — so close to the mid-term election.”

There’s no end in sight to this GOP propaganda, either. Why? BECAUSE IT WORKS. In fact, it works so well that now average citizens who’ve gulped down the KOOL-AID are getting into the Republican Blame Game. The most ludicrous example I found came from a letter-to-the-editor about the baby formula shortage with the heading, “An alarmingly sluggish response.”

…”I am appalled at the response of the current administration concerning the formula shortage,” writes the grrrrandma of a bottle-fed baby. Then she levels scathing disdain against Biden, personally, for both his administration’s slow response to this crisis and what she calls his “sarcastic answer” about it.

Of course, grrrrandma has a right to be concerned and share her concerns in writing. But how much blame can you realistically and logistically level against one man before it becomes an inane sketch on SNL? I’m sorry this lady’s grand-baby couldn’t get the Similac, but I’m even sorrier that everything and anything possible is all Biden’s fault.