it’s a circular firing problem, because the dems described here — probably not the majority of electeds, but definitely not a small group — are the ones who live and die by the latest elite media column.
I see this problem with some rank and file Dems too. It's like they conflate Trump loyalists with undecideds and think the undecideds can't be moved by reminding them how awful Trump is. Which is why many of these Dems are so obsessed with replacing Biden with a magical Johnny Unbeatable now.
1. elite media finds a herd issue
2. elected dems (usually backbenchers) read the columns about it
3. columnists know electeds are reading, write more columns
4. panic sets in
5. columnists want to keep the panic going
>>> you are here
6. electeds do something fatally stupid
fwiw, i don’t know if biden stepping down from the nomination is fatally stupid but stepping down from the presidency, now, would be, and while pissing in the punch of elite columnists probably hasn’t been his smartest decision, at least he’s unlikely to capitulate to them on this
like the governors decidedly did not do the stupid thing. that was a big deal in my mind that seemed to tamp down things a bit. Jack Russel Terriers in the media however need a few more frantic hours before they pass out.
I don't know what Biden is going to do, but I believe a bunch of Congresspeople are going to stampede into immolating their careers by stabbing the sitting Democratic president in the back.
Yeah, this is the thing. Cable news especially has an audience of elected officials and their big donors. The NYT has a slightly broader audience, but on this stuff, it's treated as gold by electeds and donors
This is why the NYT's endorsements don't change any actual votes, but can do things like get a university president fired, or force a resignation, etc.
Elected Dems trust elite media because they don't have their own left-of-center media universe to look at, like Republicans do, which is a big problem here.
I never cease to be amazed that political parties, at least in the Anglophone world, are stuffed full of people who style themselves as hard-headed reality merchants but who, in reality, repeatedly show themselves up as pathetically easy to beat in a game of chicken.
