We are not off to a good start in the coverage of the Republican Party in the post-Trump era. Political pundits and reporters, especially those in the permanently aggrieved
right-wing media, have seen fit to discuss at length Jill Biden’s use of her earned doctorate in her title. As is often the case, all they have done is give oxygen to a baseless spasm of misogyny.
Social media spent all of Thursday dwelling on Sen. Marco Rubio’s
whining about a single expletive. The Florida Republican, who made penis size
an issue during the 2016 campaign, and has virtually never taken issue with his party leader’s racist, misogynistic and insulting language, feigned upset about the use of the f-word by Jen O’Malley Dillon, whom President-elect Joe Biden has said will be his deputy chief of staff, in a
Glamour magazine interview. Adding more fuel to the nonstory,
Axios breathlessly reported that an unnamed Biden donor criticized her under a click-inducing headline that she was “under fire.”
Then, Politico’s Blake Hounshell
falsely tweeted that Dillon had apologized, citing his own publication’s story that quoted her as merely stating she could have “chosen better” in her use of language. Not a single Biden staffer whom I have spoken with thinks this is anything but excessive media indulgence of Republican hypocrisy. (The feigned outrage is about as ludicrous as Republicans complaining about a nominee’s partisan tweets; yet that, too,
was reported as a legitimate objection.)
It is time to stop giving air to Republicans’ phony outrage and to hold them accountable for their own language and conduct on race and gender.
First, as a general rule, when Republicans say they are upset or outraged, they almost never are. They do not care about foul language (after four years of President Trump), or about deficits (after four years of Republican government), or comity in the Senate (after more than four years being led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky). The media should stop taking seriously politicians’ harping, especially from those who have lied about the election, about Trump’s record, about Trump’s own words and about their knowledge of Trump’s words.
Second, it is no coincidence that the Republican or right-wing columnists who complain about Democratic women are almost always men. No one could have watched four years of Trump’s attacks on women’s intelligence and appearance — or his demeaning language (eg., “
suburban housewives,” “
nasty,” "
monster”) — without understanding that the strain of misogyny runs a mile wide in the GOP. (And, no, electing some women to the House does not absolve Republicans. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is
the prime example illustrating that one can be solicitous toward some women and still be abusive toward others.) Before running to the keyboard with a complaint about a woman in the Biden administration, critics should consider whether doing so would further confirm the double standard against women in politics that Republicans have so willingly deployed.
Third, throughout the last four years, the media seemed to gloss over the appalling lack of diversity in Republican ranks. It would behoove reporters to start asking Republicans why they overwhelmingly favor White men in key roles. Not a single African American was appointed to a federal court of appeals under Trump. There was only one African American Cabinet secretary in the four years of the administration — none as secretary of state, defense secretary, treasury secretary or attorney general. There were virtually no African Americans in senior White House staff positions (unless you count Omarosa Manigault Newman as “senior”). No woman held any of the top four Cabinet posts in the current administration.
The media have sadly come to expect an utter lack of diversity in Republican administrations. They, therefore, rarely if ever confront them about their party’s horrid record on diversity. It might be time to hold Republicans accountable for their staffing of the executive branch. (Congress is no better: There is no Republican woman of color in the Senate.
There is no Black Republican woman in the House.)
In short, the media routinely give far too much credence to Republicans’ complaints and far too much latitude in their rhetoric about race and gender. Rather than taking faux complaints seriously, the media would do well to start holding Republicans’ feet to the fire on the appalling lack of diversity and the toleration of the racism and misogyny that is endemic in their party.
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