The GOP’s problem isn’t populism. It’s social media and Fox News’ grip on their voters | Opinion

Jack Danforth doesn’t recognize his own Republican Party anymore. On Jan. 6, 2021, he watched his former protege Josh Hawley raise a fist in salute to the massing crowds that would soon drive him scurrying away from the U.S. Capitol — only to return to the Senate floor later that day after rioters were cleared out to object to certifying an election he surely can’t believe was stolen.

Backing Hawley was “the worst mistake I ever made in my life,” the Missouri Republican stalwart said the next day. In an attempt to wrong that right, last week Danforth joined fellow former GOP Sens. William Cohen of Maine and Alan Simpson of Wyoming to write a joint op-ed in The Washington Post to announce Our Republican Legacy, “an information hub” they intend to become “a catalyst for a movement to reassert traditional Republicanism against the populist version it has become under Donald Trump.”

It’s a wonderful thing to see once-prominent Republicans so clear-eyed about how antithetical the New York City carnival barker’s cruel mayhem is to GOP ideals of the past. They see just how sick the party has grown. But they got the diagnosis wrong.

Because Trump isn’t a populist at all. Sure, he campaigned in 2016 on a few notions with broad support from the American public: banning lobbyists from government, bringing manufacturing back to the United States, guaranteeing six paid weeks of leave per year, fixing our broken health care system with “so many plans” for people to choose from — all cheaper than the Affordable Care Act.

Problem is, he didn’t do any of those things. But days after he was elected, he made a promise he would keep to applauding diners at Manhattan’s Club 21 near Trump Tower: “We’ll get your taxes down — don’t worry about it.”

The restaurant is closed now, but its hamburger cost $36 then. I don’t know whether it came with fries.

Jobs, tax cuts, COVID loans for the wealthy

In office, Trump went to bat time and again for the big boss, not the little guy. He vowed to bring back “beautiful clean coal” jobs, but the sector’s employment fell by almost a quarter by the end of his term. He weakened rules that kept employers from abusing overtime and stealing workers’ tips. He installed the notoriously anti-union Neil Gorsuch in the Supreme Court seat Senate Republicans stole from President Barack Obama.

And, of course, Trump and his GOP allies in Congress slashed taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans — with the richest 5% getting a cut worth more than three times the combined savings of the bottom 60%. And middle-class earners got the least out of the deal.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. households received stimulus checks that went to groceries and rent payments. But prosperous owners of businesses large and small got Paycheck Protection Program loans to keep them afloat while the world was turned upside down — and 10.5 million of those loans, worth more than $750 billion, were forgiven.

This time ‘round, Trump’s barely concealing whom he’d be working for if he gets back to the White House. He hosted a fundraiser in Florida last month — no press allowed — where he told elite donors his priority was keeping their taxes low. He raised a record $50.5 million that night.

Meanwhile, Americans are getting their news from social media instead of from traditional, professional news outlets, with 68% of adults still using Facebook. And despite the platform’s vows to combat misinformation, timelines are still full of fake stories and images posing as news.

The truth is that the social networks haven’t begun to get a handle on the reckless mis- and disinformation they spread, generated by bad actors and shared by innocent consumers. Emerging artificial intelligence is only revving the falsehood engine. If you’ve trained the algorithms not to show you bad news about Trump — aka a whole lot of the news about him — it will stay out of your timeline.

And while those on the right tend to fall for and reshare misinformation more than others, it’s not a conservative-only phenomenon. A phony quotation from Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, supposedly doubling down on his recent controversial commencement speech at a Kansas Catholic university, was shared countless times over the past few days. He never said it, but that didn’t stop self-righteous keyboard warriors from circulating it.

‘Fair and balanced’ Fox News is history

To Trump’s loyal minions at Fox News, it’s full speed ahead. Hosts such as Laura Ingraham and Greg Gutfeld are 100% all-in on the man we saw in real time trying to overthrow democracy after he lost an election fair and square. And hoard classified government documents he’d been asked to return next to a toilet in a bathroom at his resort. And get found liable for sexual abuse and fined hundreds of millions for real estate fraud.

I was The Star’s ombudsman for 12 years, starting shortly before President George W. Bush’s reelection in 2004, when Fox News was less than a decade old. I talked to hundreds, probably thousands of Republicans during that time and got quite familiar with the Fox “fair and balanced” approach to the news that was, of course, coming from the right. A lot of the time, those readers had a point when they detected a leftward tilt to news coverage. But back then, Fox — especially its commentators — simply used to be more honest, more tethered to reality.

In the time since, Fox News has merged far more with Team Trump than ever with the Bush White House. Its willingness to mislead its viewers shocks my conscience today. Last year, it agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems almost $800 million for airing innumerable false claims that the company helped rig the 2020 election against Trump. I don’t understand why people continue to watch when it’s crystal clear Fox is soft-pedaling his increasingly clear authoritarian and pro-elite intentions.

So to all the folks at home who are Donald Trump supporters who are furious with Washington, I get that. But Donald has been funding and supporting everything you’re furious about. Donald is going to cut a deal that favors Wall Street and big business, and leaves the working man out in the cold.

Oops, sorry — those three sentences weren’t mine. I “accidentally” plagiarized the early-2016 version of GOP Sen. Ted Cruz. And if Trump wins in November, he’s going to do everything he can to demolish policies that have actual popular support: Affordable health care. Making the rich pay their fair share. Letting women make their own personal reproductive health choices.

Sen. Danforth, trust me when I tell you that voters from both parties who have a conscience are grateful that you recognize how far off the rails the GOP train has gone. But your new push for “traditional Republicanism” has to come to terms with reality: You aren’t fighting a populist. You’re fighting a dishonest demagogue with an army of billionaires and a sophisticated propaganda machine concealing his true motivations. Being forcefully honest about those facts — and convincing your fellow Republicans they’ve been deceived — is your only hope.