Right Wing Ruination              

By Callum A.

 

The fight for our nation is raging on. Lately, the ideologically extreme Republican Party is standing in front of progress.  Whether it’s their conspiracy ridden rhetoric or their lack of cooperation with their opposition, the Republican Party is a huge problem for our country.

            The Republican Party was not always like this. While not everyone agreed with them, they were less radical and were willing to cooperate with other parties. Richard Nixon, a Republican, created the Environmental Protection Agency. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. But today’s Republican Party has become radical and is causing lots of problems for our country.

 America has seen what blind ignorance encouraged by a major political institution can do in the last four years. When the Covid pandemic began to wreak havoc in our country, the Republican President, Donald Trump, was quoted saying, “I intended to always play it down.” This virus later went on to kill 500,000 Americans and counting. He played a major part in this when he said, “The C.D.C. is advising the use of nonmedical cloth face covering as an additional voluntary public health measure. So it’s voluntary. You don’t have to do it. They suggested for a period of time, but this is voluntary. I don’t think I’m going to be doing it.”       

This uniquely Republican trend of ignoring science and spouting nonsense to supporters continues with the issue of climate change. According to Forbes, only 22 percent of Republicans believe humans are causing climate change, despite 97 percent of scientists saying the opposite. The Trump administration pulled out of the Paris agreement, an agreement which had a main goal of lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

            One of the causes of Republican brand blind ignorance is their media echo chamber. The right wing media echo chamber is the perfect misinformation spreader. Studies show Republicans cluster around hard right wing media sources.  A study from Harvard Law School showed that Trump voters stuck to Breitbart, Fox News and the regularly conspiracy ridden show InfoWars.  The authors of the study, Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, Hal Roberts of Berkman and Ethan Zuckerman of MIT, write, “It is a mistake to dismiss these stories as ‘fake news;’ their power stems from a potent mix of verifiable facts (the leaked Podesta emails), familiar repeated falsehoods, paranoid logic, and consistent political orientation within a mutually-reinforcing network of like-minded sites.”  This is most likely why you heard a mix and match of conspiracy theories when you talked to a Trump supporter.

One of the biggest conspiracy theories that was spread and promoted by Republican media is the election fraud theories from the latest election. The voter fraud conspiracy theories originated from social media groups on Facebook and other social media sites, but what drew many to the conspiracy promoting social media groups was the constant barrage of attacks on the election process by conservative outlets like NewsMax, OAN, and various conservative radio shows.

            Another disturbing trend in the Republican Party is rising anti-democratic sentiment among their voters and government officials. In a survey conducted by The Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 50.7 percent of Republican respondents agreed that the traditional way of life is dying, and that force must be used to save it. Another 36 percent agreed a military coup was justified if there was corruption. This is disturbing because 41 percent of Republicans and Republican leaners agreed Qanon was good or very good for the country.  For those who don’t know, Qanon is a now infamous collection of online conspiracy theories posted by a user named Q; these conspiracy theories often claim Democrats are devil worshipping pedophiles.  These conspiracy theories and a copious amount of misinformation culminated in the January 6th insurrection.  Trump supporters stormed the capital, killing and injuring police and breaking into government buildings. The reason the pro Trump supporters attacked the capital was because they thought that the election had been stolen and that there was rampant voter fraud. Most of the Trump supporters were members of social media groups where Quanon theories were constantly regurgitated. This took advantage of the doubt newer members had about the election and radicalized them.           

             This all happened due to misinformation, proving, once again, words can be weaponized.   Poisonous and deceitful words have caused this party and their supporters to go from a respected political institution to a ticking time bomb, which if not defused will destroy America. For the sake of American democracy, the Republican Party must become more cooperative and less radical so everyone can work together for a better future.