“You really become that character when you are in costume.”
October 16, 2022 5:26 AM Subscribe
A profile of Kari Lake (WaPo gift link), who might be the next governor of Arizona
After all that time in media, she's like a weaponized dark-side Max Headroom. The camera is never off, the performance is always on.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:32 AM on October 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 7:32 AM on October 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
Thanks for the article, box. I live in a state adjacent to Arizona and people here haven't really heard of her, but they'll hear of her soon.
Since 2016 we've all been saying DJT is dangerous but imagine how dangerous he would be if he were more calculating, more polished, and had the self control to stop getting in his own way. And here we are.
posted by mochapickle at 7:42 AM on October 16, 2022 [19 favorites]
Since 2016 we've all been saying DJT is dangerous but imagine how dangerous he would be if he were more calculating, more polished, and had the self control to stop getting in his own way. And here we are.
posted by mochapickle at 7:42 AM on October 16, 2022 [19 favorites]
I just can’t see how this timeline gets better without it getting apocalyptically worse first. Time to find a portal out of here.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:48 AM on October 16, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 7:48 AM on October 16, 2022 [10 favorites]
People often would refer to some moron like Tucker Carlson as the Compenent Fascist who would come along and be the nightmare, but Kari Lake is truly terrifying to me.
posted by dis_integration at 7:55 AM on October 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 7:55 AM on October 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
Looks like she pulls bigger crowds than Trump. Wonder what will happen when he finds that out.
posted by flabdablet at 8:12 AM on October 16, 2022
posted by flabdablet at 8:12 AM on October 16, 2022
Trump was a proof of concept. Folks like Lake and DeSantis are the real deal.
posted by Dr. Twist at 8:23 AM on October 16, 2022 [23 favorites]
posted by Dr. Twist at 8:23 AM on October 16, 2022 [23 favorites]
And I bet she's anticipated that by balancing it out with marked deference. "What a big, wonderful crowd! But I know you're all here because of what the Great Man started, making America truly great again, and we're going to keep it going, aren't we, until we get our country back!" And then when it becomes politically expedient to drop that bit, she will.
In a way, it kind of helps that she's a woman. She's always going to be underestimated.
posted by mochapickle at 8:25 AM on October 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
In a way, it kind of helps that she's a woman. She's always going to be underestimated.
posted by mochapickle at 8:25 AM on October 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
Kari Lake appears to be a highly polished, effective politician, Katie Hobbs appears to be an ineffective politician. Hobbs is clearly afraid -- terrified not too strong a word -- to speak publicly when there will be any heat involved, and if Lake is present there will be heat involved, focused, white-hot heat.
Lake is a Trump clone, probably even better at the game. I don't watch any of the debates but my brother told me that Trump just ran over the carefully managed field of pols he was on that stage with, laughed at them, smiled, sliced them to ribbons.
Speaking is the number one job of a campaigning pol whether it "ought to be" or not.
Kari Lake can do the job and do it well. (I'm not saying she would do anything that I like, more that she would do pretty much whatever she wants.) Katie Hobbs cannot do the job; it would eat her alive.
Think: Jimmy Carter in DC. I liked Carter, saw what he was about, trusted him. I loathed Reagan (though less now, as I've learned more about him; he left so much to his staff, knife fighting, stone killers who smile/smiled when they lied and killed.) Carter got eaten alive. Reagan was an absolute natural. I think there are a lot of parallels here.
posted by dancestoblue at 8:36 AM on October 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Lake is a Trump clone, probably even better at the game. I don't watch any of the debates but my brother told me that Trump just ran over the carefully managed field of pols he was on that stage with, laughed at them, smiled, sliced them to ribbons.
Speaking is the number one job of a campaigning pol whether it "ought to be" or not.
Kari Lake can do the job and do it well. (I'm not saying she would do anything that I like, more that she would do pretty much whatever she wants.) Katie Hobbs cannot do the job; it would eat her alive.
Think: Jimmy Carter in DC. I liked Carter, saw what he was about, trusted him. I loathed Reagan (though less now, as I've learned more about him; he left so much to his staff, knife fighting, stone killers who smile/smiled when they lied and killed.) Carter got eaten alive. Reagan was an absolute natural. I think there are a lot of parallels here.
posted by dancestoblue at 8:36 AM on October 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Carter was a public servant. Reagan was an actor.
posted by mhoye at 8:53 AM on October 16, 2022 [42 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 8:53 AM on October 16, 2022 [42 favorites]
What is Hobbs' problem? Why doesn't she appear to be taking a gubernatorial race where the alternative major party candidate is a crackpot seriously?
posted by Selena777 at 9:38 AM on October 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Selena777 at 9:38 AM on October 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Katie Hobbs is a public servant. Kari Lake is an actor. I think there are lots of parallels here.
Kari Lake is a perfectly focused picture of Phoenix metroplex. Phoenix is polished cars and silicone breasts and capped teeth and manicured eyebrows, lots of pro sports teams with amazing stadiums. The golf courses are manicured and softer grass than a childs plushy. No soul, no heart. 116F an incredibly cold city if you're down on your luck, the sun is up at 4AM and already over 100F, the streets perhaps the hardest I've seen, anywhere, best thing you can do is get onto I-10 East with your thumb out.
posted by dancestoblue at 9:40 AM on October 16, 2022 [25 favorites]
Kari Lake is a perfectly focused picture of Phoenix metroplex. Phoenix is polished cars and silicone breasts and capped teeth and manicured eyebrows, lots of pro sports teams with amazing stadiums. The golf courses are manicured and softer grass than a childs plushy. No soul, no heart. 116F an incredibly cold city if you're down on your luck, the sun is up at 4AM and already over 100F, the streets perhaps the hardest I've seen, anywhere, best thing you can do is get onto I-10 East with your thumb out.
posted by dancestoblue at 9:40 AM on October 16, 2022 [25 favorites]
On Meet The Press today, when asked three times whether she would concede if she lost the election, Lake told Dana Bash, "I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that result." (CNN)
posted by mochapickle at 10:08 AM on October 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 10:08 AM on October 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
Well, I'm suitably terrified that I just donated $50 to Hobbs. Maybe 50 lottery tickets would be a better investment, but dear god, I gotta do something.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:21 AM on October 16, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:21 AM on October 16, 2022 [8 favorites]
Man, that empty, rictus smile. That's a smile that sends people to their deaths without a second thought.
posted by RakDaddy at 10:30 AM on October 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by RakDaddy at 10:30 AM on October 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
He won't listen to a word she says unless it's about him, but he will absolutely watch her.
The other way this sort of misogyny plays out: compare the treatment of 78-year-old Gov. Kay Ivey in Alabama, who Trump treated like complete dirt until she gave in and agreed to become another full-fledged election-denier this spring. Ivey is also someone I'd never vote for, but that whole scene was just a cesspool of despicable subtexts.
(And of course, add a "not just Trump" disclaimer here, too: this sort of behavior has been endemic in Republican circles for a long time. Trump relishes it, but he didn't invent it.)
posted by gimonca at 10:48 AM on October 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
The other way this sort of misogyny plays out: compare the treatment of 78-year-old Gov. Kay Ivey in Alabama, who Trump treated like complete dirt until she gave in and agreed to become another full-fledged election-denier this spring. Ivey is also someone I'd never vote for, but that whole scene was just a cesspool of despicable subtexts.
(And of course, add a "not just Trump" disclaimer here, too: this sort of behavior has been endemic in Republican circles for a long time. Trump relishes it, but he didn't invent it.)
posted by gimonca at 10:48 AM on October 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
(Here's another profile from The Atlantic.)
posted by box at 11:07 AM on October 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by box at 11:07 AM on October 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
Neither of these articles report what AZ's Native Americans think about her...and they were the main reason why the state went for Biden.
posted by brujita at 11:30 AM on October 16, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by brujita at 11:30 AM on October 16, 2022 [11 favorites]
When all you want to do is direct tax payer dollars to the pockets of the wealthy you pay a polished news caster to be the face of your goal.
Az can choose.
posted by Max Power at 11:31 AM on October 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
Az can choose.
posted by Max Power at 11:31 AM on October 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
Everyone in a tizzy about why Hobbs won't debate Lake when it's so easy to understand: Of course Lake would spout lies and yell and interrupt and refuse to abide by the rules and be generally disagreeable and disrespectful, but more than that she would surgically eviscerate Katie Hobbs in real time on live TV, leaving nothing but a quivering cadaver and a glistening pile of disemboweled intestines at the podium. And that would be before the 3rd round. Watched the two with Dana Bash this morning and it became perfectly clear why Hobbs isn't getting in that ring, because she fears she isn't coming out. Lake is scary because she's become a practiced automaton and it's all but impossible to knock her off her icy, soulless game.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 11:33 AM on October 16, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by thecincinnatikid at 11:33 AM on October 16, 2022 [9 favorites]
(One more link (AZCentral), about a Trump rally in Mesa last week, in which Marjorie Taylor Greene says she doesn't think abortion will be a factor in the elections and Blake Masters's walkout music is 'Danger Zone.')
posted by box at 11:43 AM on October 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by box at 11:43 AM on October 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Don't confuse polemics and demagoguery with actual debating skill. She can't win an argument because she doesn't have one. If I - me personally - wanted to fight her game, I'd beat her soundly. I'd put on my white middle aged man with zero respect outfit and run circles around her. She'd be the one left crying. It would be more WWE than actual policy debate, and that is the problem.
And I don't want to be that guy anyway.
posted by adept256 at 11:44 AM on October 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
And I don't want to be that guy anyway.
posted by adept256 at 11:44 AM on October 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
Lake doesn't have to win the debate. All she has to do is win the optics.
posted by mochapickle at 11:46 AM on October 16, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 11:46 AM on October 16, 2022 [10 favorites]
The way horse-race mainstream media generally covers things, Republican candidates generally 'win' debates when they manage to not shit their pants on stage (for a recent example, see Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock).
posted by box at 11:50 AM on October 16, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by box at 11:50 AM on October 16, 2022 [11 favorites]
Okay I'm gonna go barf now, thanks.
posted by mochapickle at 11:58 AM on October 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 11:58 AM on October 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Lake doesn't have to win the debate. All she has to do is win the optics.
Which she's already a pro at. Plus debates don't provide any way of getting at the truth. You spout a bunch of lies. Your opponent calls you out. You simply repeat what you said the first time. The person with the most poise and confidence "wins."
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 12:00 PM on October 16, 2022 [14 favorites]
Which she's already a pro at. Plus debates don't provide any way of getting at the truth. You spout a bunch of lies. Your opponent calls you out. You simply repeat what you said the first time. The person with the most poise and confidence "wins."
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 12:00 PM on October 16, 2022 [14 favorites]
Is this a winning strategy for a candidate from the party that has not primed their base to disdain media scrutiny?
posted by Selena777 at 12:12 PM on October 16, 2022
posted by Selena777 at 12:12 PM on October 16, 2022
Google search: Does Trump sell his political endorsements?
Relevant result: Trump-Endorsed Candidates Have Funneled At Least $1.4 Million Into His Businesses, Zach Everson, Forbes, Jun 23, 2022:
posted by cenoxo at 12:21 PM on October 16, 2022 [7 favorites]
Relevant result: Trump-Endorsed Candidates Have Funneled At Least $1.4 Million Into His Businesses, Zach Everson, Forbes, Jun 23, 2022:
He endorses, they pay: Donald Trump has figured out a way to collect campaign-donor money from politicians seeking his blessing.More in the article. The Sharp Dealer Donald is always quid pro quo: no money for him, no endorsement deal for you.
Donald Trump, a man known for torching norms, has developed a novel business model. From his perch at Mar-a-Lago or summer residence at one of his New Jersey golf courses, the former president doles out endorsements to longtime elected officials and wannabe Republican nominees, influencing primaries across the country. Meanwhile, those candidates, who come from all over to visit him, pour money from campaign donors into Trump’s properties, paying for food, lodging and conference space. So far, he has collected at least $1.4 million from the candidates he’s endorsed in 2022, according to a Forbes analysis of campaign disclosures.
It’s a small amount of money for Trump, who is worth an estimated $3 billion. But given that it costs the former president nothing to make an endorsement, he gets a nice return on his investment. About one-third of the 224 candidates the former president has endorsed in the 2022 midterms have reported making payments to his businesses via their political committees. About 70% of these customers reported paying a Trump business before picking up his support, while the rest became patrons afterwards.
…
[After Kevin McCarthy and Herschel Walker,] Rounding out the top five spenders is a trio of other first-time candidates. John Gibbs, who served as assistant Housing and Urban Development secretary under Trump and is now running for Congress in Michigan, has spent $98,000. Former Trump Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now contending for governor in Arkansas, dropped $90,000.
And Kari Lake, a one-time news anchor at a Fox affiliate in Phoenix, has shelled out $70,000 amid her bid to become governor of Arizona.…
posted by cenoxo at 12:21 PM on October 16, 2022 [7 favorites]
Lake doesn't have to win the debate. All she has to do is win the optics.
I believe this is largely true and is at the core of Lake's craft, but Hobbs also seems an unusually poor communicator - she exudes a lack of confidence and has a hard time striving together any succinct, forceful messaging. It's like she's the worst possible opponent for Lake's style of combat.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 12:33 PM on October 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
I believe this is largely true and is at the core of Lake's craft, but Hobbs also seems an unusually poor communicator - she exudes a lack of confidence and has a hard time striving together any succinct, forceful messaging. It's like she's the worst possible opponent for Lake's style of combat.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 12:33 PM on October 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Neither of these articles report what AZ's Native Americans think about her...and they were the main reason why the state went for Biden.
Since that election AZ has made it more difficult for the state's Native Americans to vote, and for their votes to be as effective. This has been accomplished largely via gerrymandering and increasingly restrictive voting procedures.
posted by fuse theorem at 12:47 PM on October 16, 2022 [11 favorites]
Since that election AZ has made it more difficult for the state's Native Americans to vote, and for their votes to be as effective. This has been accomplished largely via gerrymandering and increasingly restrictive voting procedures.
posted by fuse theorem at 12:47 PM on October 16, 2022 [11 favorites]
The Az Supreme Court also recently killed a voter initiative to improve voting rights in the state. Gerrymandering doesn’t affect the governor election, but these other voting rights issues sure do.
posted by nat at 2:55 PM on October 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by nat at 2:55 PM on October 16, 2022 [6 favorites]
Among Donald Trump’s endorsements, one holds a special place in his heart: Kari Lake — With her obsessive insistence on unproven election fraud, the Arizona GOP nominee holds a special place in Trump’s eye., Meridith McGraw, Politico, 08/07/2022:
posted by cenoxo at 3:32 AM on October 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Donald Trump loves all the candidates he endorses, so long as they win. But at Mar-a-Lago fundraisers and rallies for Republican candidates, one beneficiary of his political largesse is more likely to come up than others — Kari Lake.Rule #1 for potential Trump running mates (especially women): be ____________ ?
Trump, aides say, has delighted in watching Lake’s rise, seeing echoes of his own. A former TV news anchor-turned-right-wing gubernatorial candidate in Arizona, she, like him, has delighted in sparring with the media and made repeated falsehoods about the 2020 election the centerpiece of her campaign. Her monomaniacal focus on that topic, in fact, has made even Trump himself blush.
“It doesn’t matter what you ask Kari Lake about – ‘How’s your family?’ And she’s like, ‘The family’s fine but they’re never going to be great until we have free and fair elections,’” the former president has frequently recounted to donors, according to a source close to Trump’s political operation. “He was like, ‘You could ask her, how’s the weather?’ And she’ll turn it into the election. ‘Oh, the weather in Phoenix is OK, but you can never have great weather unless the election is fair.’”
Over the past year Lake has appeared with Trump at rallies and spotted at Mar-a-lago events. She is a favorite guest on conservative shows, although she appeared on Fox News only once during primetime hours. There has been so much buzz around Lake that it has led to speculation in her circles and among her right-wing fans that she could be on Trump’s short list for a potential running mate, should she ultimately become governor and he run again for president. Those familiar with Trump’s thinking say they’re unfamiliar with any such talk and speculation is painfully premature…
posted by cenoxo at 3:32 AM on October 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
"obsequious toward Trump in every single sentence"
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 3:38 AM on October 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 3:38 AM on October 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
The Az Supreme Court also recently killed a voter initiative to improve voting rights in the state. Gerrymandering doesn’t affect the governor election, but these other voting rights issues sure do.
there are also a full three propositions on the ballot designed to hamstring the process of putting voter initiatives on the ballot, including one that lets the AZ or US Supreme Court just throw an initiative out if they decide it's "unconstitutional"
between that & the battle for reproductive freedom (which Kris Mayes has a twelve-point plan to protect) it's a super important year to go vote in Arizona
posted by taquito sunrise at 5:22 AM on October 17, 2022
there are also a full three propositions on the ballot designed to hamstring the process of putting voter initiatives on the ballot, including one that lets the AZ or US Supreme Court just throw an initiative out if they decide it's "unconstitutional"
between that & the battle for reproductive freedom (which Kris Mayes has a twelve-point plan to protect) it's a super important year to go vote in Arizona
posted by taquito sunrise at 5:22 AM on October 17, 2022
Maybe 50 lottery tickets would be a better investment, but dear god, I gotta do something.
A third option: try to find someone who may have cameraphone video from one of her Jamaica vacations or her house parties or nights on the town, to see if there are any uncensored moments.
It's dirty pool, and I am conflicted about trying to give another woman the "Girls Gone Wild" treatment. But....desperate times.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:35 AM on October 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
A third option: try to find someone who may have cameraphone video from one of her Jamaica vacations or her house parties or nights on the town, to see if there are any uncensored moments.
It's dirty pool, and I am conflicted about trying to give another woman the "Girls Gone Wild" treatment. But....desperate times.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:35 AM on October 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
I often wonder whether certain individuals truly believe in their hardline rhetoric, or if they have simply identified a base ripe for fleecing and write and speak and act directly to whatever will siphon away their money and backing most efficiently.
Arizona is a hothouse where the most extreme right-wing nonsense loves to grow. If I was media-savvy and feeling hungry for money and power, and I decided that Trump's example of "promise the knuckledraggers anything they want and they'll adore you" was the path to play-act and follow, Arizona would be one of the first places that I would do it.
(Whether she truly believes what she espouses, or whether she's play-acting, or whether she's mentally ill ala her colleague Paul Gosar is somewhat irrelevant, though. She's enabling that rhetoric and hatred on a massive scale, and that's what matters.)
posted by delfin at 9:52 AM on October 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
Arizona is a hothouse where the most extreme right-wing nonsense loves to grow. If I was media-savvy and feeling hungry for money and power, and I decided that Trump's example of "promise the knuckledraggers anything they want and they'll adore you" was the path to play-act and follow, Arizona would be one of the first places that I would do it.
(Whether she truly believes what she espouses, or whether she's play-acting, or whether she's mentally ill ala her colleague Paul Gosar is somewhat irrelevant, though. She's enabling that rhetoric and hatred on a massive scale, and that's what matters.)
posted by delfin at 9:52 AM on October 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
A third option: try to find someone who may have cameraphone video from one of her Jamaica vacations or her house parties or nights on the town, to see if there are any uncensored moments.
That was back when she was a democrat. The GOP initially shrugged over a lot of DJT's foibles because they'd happened before he joined the party.
Kari Lake is now a strong, unfaltering woman of god who receives direct, divine guidance about her campaign and regularly consults with a gaggle of church ladies over bottles of wine (so relatable!). Her CPAC speech this fall (CSPAN link) was all about that, her mission, and that she's humbly but devotedly following divine plans that are simply beyond her control. Also: Her deep reverence for the former president, how more journalists need to abandon the field, and how she is focusing her efforts to protect the centuries of hard work of our american ancestors.
There's a transcript below the video for any viewers who have enjoyed their lunch and would prefer keeping it.
posted by mochapickle at 10:17 AM on October 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
That was back when she was a democrat. The GOP initially shrugged over a lot of DJT's foibles because they'd happened before he joined the party.
Kari Lake is now a strong, unfaltering woman of god who receives direct, divine guidance about her campaign and regularly consults with a gaggle of church ladies over bottles of wine (so relatable!). Her CPAC speech this fall (CSPAN link) was all about that, her mission, and that she's humbly but devotedly following divine plans that are simply beyond her control. Also: Her deep reverence for the former president, how more journalists need to abandon the field, and how she is focusing her efforts to protect the centuries of hard work of our american ancestors.
There's a transcript below the video for any viewers who have enjoyed their lunch and would prefer keeping it.
posted by mochapickle at 10:17 AM on October 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
I think the best thing that can be said about Arizona (or Phoenix anyway) is that it's going to be uninhabitable, probably in Kari Lake's lifetime.
posted by Naberius at 12:17 PM on October 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Naberius at 12:17 PM on October 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Are there any AZ GOPs/McCain cronies who are saying that what happened on 1-6 isn't them and haven't forgotten what cheeto said about him?
Googling says that AZ is about 1/3 Latinx and 1/4 POC. What percentage of those eligible to vote are GOP?
posted by brujita at 6:11 PM on October 17, 2022
Googling says that AZ is about 1/3 Latinx and 1/4 POC. What percentage of those eligible to vote are GOP?
posted by brujita at 6:11 PM on October 17, 2022
Her CPAC speech this fall (CSPAN link) was all about that, her mission, and that she's humbly but devotedly following divine plans that are simply beyond her control.
May God spare us from all self-proclaimed prophets and religious zealots.
posted by cenoxo at 7:48 PM on October 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
May God spare us from all self-proclaimed prophets and religious zealots.
posted by cenoxo at 7:48 PM on October 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
None of those people have a shadow of a clue about the nature of God. That's pretty much the entire point of the First Commandment. Any person who takes it upon themselves to tell another what God wants is an idolater.
posted by flabdablet at 8:11 PM on October 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 8:11 PM on October 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.
-- Susan B. Anthony
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 5:20 AM on October 18, 2022 [8 favorites]
-- Susan B. Anthony
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 5:20 AM on October 18, 2022 [8 favorites]
In Kari Lake and Tudor Dixon, the GOP offers a cynical alternative to Trump — Being a woman isn’t enough, but Republicans want you to think it is., Marisa Kabas, MSNBC Opinion, Oct 18, 2022:
posted by cenoxo at 7:09 AM on October 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Arizona Republican nominee for governor Kari Lake declared in a Sunday interview on CNN that she will accept the results of her state election in November — if she wins.More in the article. Political campaigns are coming down to the wire, and candidates frequently say anything to gather ears, eyes, and hopefully votes. Speaking like Trump’s mouthpiece only proves that every ventriloquist needs a dummy.
In that declaration, and in her refusal to say if she will accept election results if she loses the Arizona gubernatorial election, the former local TV news anchor was merely doing an impression of a previous candidate for office who ascended an escalator more than seven years ago, ushering in a new brand of made-for-TV politics. “I’m a reporter, I’ve been sitting on your side of the desk for a long time,” Lake told CNN’s Dana Bash, while casting skepticism on the U.S. electoral system.
As we enter the final stretch of the midterm election season, we’re seeing the party of Donald Trump forced to perform on the national stage without its notorious leader on the ballot to juice turnout. And the MAGA movement seems to have identified a new type of candidate to hold the front lines and fill the Trump-shaped hole: the hardline female media personality.
In a seemingly hostile political environment for women, with abortion rights and female bodily autonomy on the ballot, multiple states have far-right Republican female candidates like Lake in Arizona, Tudor Dixon in Michigan and Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas running for governor as Trump stand-ins, sometimes against female Democratic opponents. These former media personalities have flipped the script on a country full of women desperate for representation by cynically offering themselves as an option, while actively working to diminish women’s rights….
posted by cenoxo at 7:09 AM on October 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
cynically offering themselves as an option, while actively working to diminish women’s rights
The Schlafly Maneuver would make a splendid Robert Ludlum book title.
posted by flabdablet at 8:39 AM on October 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
The Schlafly Maneuver would make a splendid Robert Ludlum book title.
posted by flabdablet at 8:39 AM on October 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Worth another read — How The Republican Party Uses Donald Trump, Steve Denning, Forbes, Sep 8, 2018:
However, anyone without previous political experience has no business applying for a top'o'the state job as a newbie governor. It's one thing to shrewdly observe politics, but it's a far different thing to jump into the trenches and start giving orders. It's a battlefield out there.
posted by cenoxo at 12:34 PM on October 19, 2022
While much of the discussion in Washington, D.C. is about how Donald Trump has taken over the Republican Party, what’s more striking is how effectively the leadership of the Republican Party has used Donald Trump to enact its own long-held agenda.The GOP leadership may be evil, but they're not idiots. They knew a useful idiot/lightning rod/scapegoat like the Donald when they saw him, and boy, howdy, how they've used him. Likewise, an allegedly media-savvy reporter like Kari Lake should immediately see right through an egomaniac like Trump, and play to his weaknesses for her own purposes (imitation being the sincerest form of flattery).
The structural gains made in implementing the Republican agenda over the past twenty months, with the help of Donald Trump, will endure for decades. The Supreme Court appointments are for life. The public sector deficit caused by the massive tax cut, combined with the military expenditure increases, will enable the Republican Party to suddenly rediscover their commitment to fiscal discipline and push for “necessary cutbacks in social programs.” Moreover, if Republicans manage to maintain control of at least the Senate in the mid-term elections, the Republican Party will be able to elude any significant undoing of what they have accomplished.
To be sure, the extraordinary accomplishments to date necessitated extraordinary patience and focus on the part of the Republican Party leadership. They have had to deal with a president, whom even his own appointees call “an idiot,” “a moron” and “someone with the understanding of a fifth or sixth grader.” They have had to tolerate presidential behavior that is “unhinged” and “narcissistic,” with lengthy rages, tirades and vicious insults. They have had to close their eyes to daily disregard of facts and accuracy, multiple racist statements, repeated attacks on free trade, democracy and the rule of law, ongoing interference in judicial processes, the demonization of the free press, and blatant disregard of the very premises of the U.S. Constitution. They have had to set aside the growing evidence of electoral and financial malpractice in the President’s background. They have had to tolerate the President’s friendships with dictators, his abasement before foreign adversaries, his insulting of allies and the attempted trashing of international agreements and institutions.
[...more in the article.]
However, anyone without previous political experience has no business applying for a top'o'the state job as a newbie governor. It's one thing to shrewdly observe politics, but it's a far different thing to jump into the trenches and start giving orders. It's a battlefield out there.
posted by cenoxo at 12:34 PM on October 19, 2022
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