As a regular Fox News viewer, I’ve learned a few things about the coming midterm election. First, I’ve discovered pretty much everything is a “crisis” these days from the border crisis to the energy crisis to the Hunter Biden laptop crisis; that global inflation is solely the fault of Joe Biden; and that women aren’t allowed to appear in front of a camera without an extraordinary amount of eye makeup. I mention this last business mostly because I’d like to see Tucker Carlson with a bit of liner and touch of blue shadow, maybe even a little eyebrow pencil. I think it would really make his eyes pop and it would prove that Fox isn’t some good old boy frat house where female anchors are dolled up while the men merely slap on a jacket and tie. Mostly, I watch because it’s an easy way to get in touch with the Republican Party’s talking points, which range from mainstream media being bad, Donald Trump being good and Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker suffering a lot of concussions while playing football — so please pay no attention to his inconsistent statements about paying for abortions, his children or any combination of those two things.
The strength of Fox is that it’s designed for a short attention span. No subtleties allowed. You just have to listen for the catchphrase: Say “liberal,” and “media” will follow. Offer “tax-and-spend,” and Democrats won’t be far behind. “Immigrants” come with “illegal,” even when they are not. All seem perfectly legitimate if your purpose is to give GOP candidates a boost, which presumably is the point. Fox is their safe space, and I have no problem with that. It probably shouldn’t be packaged as “news” exactly but, hey, it’s a free country — at least until the next Fox-endorsed insurrection comes along.
No, my quarrel is with a specific Republicanism so often used on Fox that I wish I owned the concession. I bet you’ve heard it a million times as well. It’s the description, “Democrat-controlled cities.” First because of the odd way Republicans like to avoid the more appropriate “Democratic” because it sounds too, well, “democratic” with a small-d. But mostly because it makes it sound like the Democratic Party invaded all of the nation’s big cities like they were Kyiv and declared martial law or something to expel all those of differing party affiliation. I must have missed that.
