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Democrats Trapped in Twitter-Fed Echo Chamber
Townhall.com ^ | February 12, 2020 | Bob Barr

Posted on 02/12/2020 7:57:05 AM PST by Kaslin

As Rep. Nancy Pelosi stood behind President Donald Trump at the conclusion of the State of the Union address and childishly ripped his speech in half, it symbolized more than just the Democrats’ contempt for the president. It represented the party’s final break with reality -- its shamelessness exceeded only by its transparent desperation for relevancy.

In the blunt words of long-time Democrat guru James Carville, his party has “tacked off the damn radar.”

The bizarre, leftward course now being charted by America’s oldest major political party did not start with Sen. Bernie Sanders becoming a presidential nominee front-runner, or with Pelosi throwing a series of very public tantrums. In many respects, the answer to the questions of how and why the Democrat Party reached this point starts with Twitter, the social media platform that in many respects now dominates news and politics.

Democrats recognized early on Twitter’s potential for spreading their message, and party adherents quickly latched onto the social media platform as their vehicle of choice. In this, they have been joined by cadres of liberal reporters and journalists in the mainstream media, who similarly have flocked to Twitter to get the scoop on trending topics they then purport to transform into “news” stories.

However, the very platform Democrats believed would amplify their message, has, in reality, become an ideologically incestuous echo chamber for extremist positions in which the party itself has become entrapped, and increasingly deaf to mainstream issues important to moderate voters.

Adding to the danger of this closed feedback system are mainstream media reporters who believe the trending topics they read on Twitter -- elevated by online activists who represent a tiny fraction of Americans overall -- are newsworthy. An isolated topic or issue that otherwise would pass without notice now makes headlines, thus becoming fodder for discussion among Democratic politicians eager to cash in on the latest outrage. As a result, all of the fringe extremism that previously was contained within social media overflows into the public square.

Unable or unwilling to separate the online world from reality, Democrats have come to believe the same behavior and issues that make them “Twitter famous” will also make them popular with voters. Not so.

Rather than making them more connected to their constituents and better attuned to local sentiment, candidates and elected Democrats drift further into the extremes as they seek online glory and their next “viral” moment, paying only nominal lip-service to the issues that once existed at the heart of the Democratic Party and fueled its electoral successes. The downward spiral continues as candidates realize it is not enough to be “woke” on just one or two issues. If they are not 100 percent on all the issues important to progressives, they risk losing their online status should they be “canceled” for failing this absurd, all-or-nothing litmus test.

The result is a Democratic Party that is electable in New York’s Bushwick neighborhood or San Francisco’s Mission District, but utterly unpalatable to voters outside such “progressive” urban areas.

Still, Democrats don’t seem to get it, as evidenced by how poorly the 2020 race has gone for them so far. Rather than crafting a populist message like that which helped elevate Trump to the White House in 2016, Democrats climb over themselves to be seen as the “most progressive” of the bunch.

It did not help that they were thrown into a series of issue-specific town halls by news outlets who calculated this would be great for advertising dollars, but where for hours candidates had to figure out ways to stand out from each other on niche topics such as guns and climate change. This naturally took them to greater and greater extremes through the night, leading to some pretty embarrassing moments, as when all the candidates raised their hand as a vow to provide universal healthcare to illegal immigrants – a position extreme even for traditionally liberal voters.

The cumulative effect of this pandering for notoriety on a platform used by less than 10 percent of the population, of which even less are politically like-minded, has created the state of extreme discord among Democrats we are witnessing today. It is a rift in which candidates look, act, and sound increasingly alien to the mainstream voters to which they need to appeal in order to succeed in the general election.

It remains to be seen whether Carville is to be a prophet or a pariah for speaking this truth.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: twitter

1 posted on 02/12/2020 7:57:05 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Carville is an Enemy of the People and must be dehistorified.


2 posted on 02/12/2020 8:03:35 AM PST by gasport (The dung beetle should be the symbol of the Democrat Party)
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To: gasport
In the blunt words of long-time Democrat guru James Carville, his party has “tacked off the damn radar.”

That's why Carville got paid the big bucks.

3 posted on 02/12/2020 8:06:43 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: Kaslin

Democrats are living in an alternate reality.

They refuse to see FACTS.

Democrats still believe Trump colluded with Russia, Mueller-be-damned.

Democrats think the GOP server was hacked by Russia, allowing them to have dirt on members of Congress, which explains why they support Trump.

Democrats think Biden is totally innocent and never used his position to enrich family members.

Democrats think the economy is horrible.

Democrats think the tax cuts only went to the rich, despite the property tax deduction cap.

Democrats think Trump has hurt foreign relations.

Democrats think Trump is a racist and supported racists in Charlottesville.

Democrats think many things that are just not true and are not living in the reality the rest of us are living within.


4 posted on 02/12/2020 8:10:43 AM PST by Erik Latranyi (The Democratic Party is communism)
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To: Kaslin
"It remains to be seen whether Carville is to be a prophet or a pariah for speaking this truth."

He could end up being both the way things are going these days in Progressiveland.
5 posted on 02/12/2020 8:11:42 AM PST by chrisser
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To: AndyJackson

Give Carville credit. In his time, he understood that most Americans wanted political moderates in DC. There were a few things he got the bent one and Jezebel to do and not do, just to make certain they could get re-elected in ‘96.


6 posted on 02/12/2020 8:12:26 AM PST by L,TOWM (An upraised middle finger is my virtue signal.)
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To: AndyJackson

Yes, Carville is a bourgeois socialist, a tool of the capitalists. Anything for a buck.

The Two Hour Hate in Denver on 2/16 is an opportunity to denounce him.


7 posted on 02/12/2020 8:14:00 AM PST by gasport (The dung beetle should be the symbol of the Democrat Party)
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To: L,TOWM
Give Carville credit

I am. "Tacked off the damn radar." Brilliant turn of phrase. Hope non-nautical types can understand it.

8 posted on 02/12/2020 8:20:35 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: Kaslin

That is the first sensible thing this guy has said since he fell for the Borat schtick.


9 posted on 02/12/2020 8:22:01 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: AndyJackson

I hope Perez starts flying a spinnaker.


10 posted on 02/12/2020 8:23:01 AM PST by gasport (The dung beetle should be the symbol of the Democrat Party)
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To: L,TOWM

“Give Carville credit. In his time, he understood that most Americans wanted”

He did and the serpent used the knowledge to deceive the nation into voting for mask wearing Marxists who would destroy the country a little at a time until it was gone.


11 posted on 02/12/2020 8:24:37 AM PST by gibsonguy
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To: Kaslin
they have been joined by cadres of liberal reporters and journalists in the mainstream media, who similarly have flocked to Twitter to get the scoop on trending topics they then purport to transform into “news” stories.

Entire news "articles" are created from nothing but regurgiated tweets. It's ridiculous. But actual reporting is too much to ask of these lazy Leftist tools.

12 posted on 02/12/2020 8:26:08 AM PST by workerbee (America finally has an American president again.)
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To: gasport

Smart thing to do when you have run hard aground.


13 posted on 02/12/2020 8:30:58 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: Kaslin

The ratings on CNN and MSNBC would have been a clue if they had not been so clueless...


14 posted on 02/12/2020 8:48:22 AM PST by jimmygrace
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To: AndyJackson

Tom Perez: “I’ll have mine on-the-rocks.”.


15 posted on 02/12/2020 8:59:00 AM PST by gasport (The dung beetle should be the symbol of the Democrat Party)
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To: Kaslin

Rush Limbaugh found that just 10 to 12 activists using robo testers and emailers using sophisticated random letter writing campaigns were enough to inundate sponsors in attempts to boycott his radio program.

The absolute same works much better on Twitter and Facebook with fake progressive accounts, posting, and getting progressive ideas pushed to the top. It doesn’t take many of these paid Astro-turf account managers to gin up an idea and with well crafted fake accounts sent from multiple IP addresses that can spoof even Twitter’s willfully blind account blockers. It’s deliberate.

These same activists can be aimed at getting Conservative accounts shadow banned and deleted by auto-complaining about their content.


16 posted on 02/12/2020 9:11:23 AM PST by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplophobe bigot!)
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To: gibsonguy

No argument here.


17 posted on 02/12/2020 12:23:53 PM PST by L,TOWM (An upraised middle finger is my virtue signal.)
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To: workerbee

Entire news “articles” are created from nothing but regurgiated tweets. It’s ridiculous. But actual reporting is too much to ask of these lazy Leftist tools.
/
/
yep, this has been going on for a several years. You know it too when you see “people are outraged” stories you know it’s lazy ass media just looking through their timeline. Twitter is international and has no age restrictions. Why would this be used as some legit source for the pulse of the American voting public???


18 posted on 02/12/2020 1:57:00 PM PST by snarkytart
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To: Swordmaker

Twitter is perfect for these radical snowflakes. They don’t even have to leave their parent’s home. they can sit and pop their meds, smoke their weed, and sit on their butts online and be important and admired social justice warriors without really lifting a finger. Spoiled,drugged up, lazy, and entitled. Bots or not, social media has given a voice to people who in real life nobody would listen to because they’re too messed up to even hold a job.


19 posted on 02/12/2020 2:02:00 PM PST by snarkytart
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