On Friday night, MSNBC’s ReidOut Joy Reid was a host who injected more violence into our bodies politic. Joy declared that parents who spoke out at school board meetings were to be “bankrolled by conservative organizations…controlling the puppet strings”They are viewed as akin to Republicans and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Nazis and Pol Pot because of their opposition to books they consider racial and explicit.
In her opening speech, she also said that the GOP was responsible. “attacks on Asian-Americans and Jewish people” And whenever Americans do not have it. “safe roads and clean drinking water” Many thanks for “selling white grievance rage” and “demoniz[ing] China.”None of these things are true.
Reid started the broadcast by invoking The Catcher and the Rye as “an American classic” whose “themes” have been occasional sources of controversy and opposition to certain classroom materials by the Moral Majority in the 1980s. Then, everything went off the track.
“Coincidentally, book burning and banning happened to be staples of fascism and communism. The Nazis did it, Hitler imposing ridged censorship on newspapers and burning all literature he considered dangerous,”Reid started, and never stopped to consider the consequences of her perilous rhetoric.
Elle continued, citing other oppressive regimes that had censored books or other media:
Books were also banned by the Soviets, as well as the Chinese Communist Party and Pol Pot. Cuba’s communist regime has banned books, newspapers, radio channels, and heavily restricted access to the internet for its citizens. So, hey, Republicans, wokeness is communism but book banning isn’t? This makes it all make sense. You can see that it is another example of “everything old is new again.”[.]
Reid argued that the parents concerned about what’s been going (and not going on, due to COVID-19) are fake: “[T]he great parent revolt is bankrolled by conservative organizations and think tanks and shaped by political operatives, who are controlling the puppet strings so that you think this is just about regular moms and dads advocating for their kids.”
Asking viewers to go deeper, she said the focus on education has been “about…riling up white voters” and “distracting” them because that’s “what modern Republican politics is all about” since it’s not “about governing.”
Instead she stated that it was wrong to attack and condemn Asians, including the Chinese and Jews. “[I]t’s about selling white grievance and rage, the same rage that produces attacks on Asian-Americans and Jewish people and on our Capitol. Rather than fight inflation, let’s howl over critical race theory. Instead COVID relief, let’s demonize China and mask and vaccines.”
“Rather than policy let’s give them anger, racialized anger to distract from the fact that people have hit the pandemic rock bottom, that they can’t afford a hospital visit or don’t have safe roads and clean drinking water or bridges that don’t fall under them,”Elle added.
Moving to her panel, former Obama U.S. Attorney and MSNBC analyst Joyce Vance argued the tens of millions on the right are “appeal[ing] to people’s worst instincts” with a Florida bill looking to, as per Vance, ban teaching of slavery.
Reid questioned Kurt Bardella, a former Republican adviser and member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), if Reid was right. “care[s] that they’re taking their concentrated small electorate and enraging it in ways that become dangerous and drive people toward anti-social behavior, even violent behavior?”
Consider the irony in that statement for a moment. Joy Reid accuses a number of people of incitement.
For his part, Bardella went full Leeroy Jenkins and said the media need to explicitly refer to the GOP as responsible for dirty air and water and high taxes (click “expand”):
[T]This is why the Republican Party will go to great lengths to restrict who can vote in elections. They know this is their way of ensuring that their party never grows. Their party’s going to only get smaller. You and I know when the playing field is equal, there’s more of us than there are of them. That’s what they also know. That’s why they’re doing this whole thing in the first place and the representative was 100 percent right when he pointed out in the amazing speech that they’re doing this because they don’t want to talk about why there is income inequality. They don’t want to talk about why the quality of life isn’t going up for a large amount of people yet, people continue to vote for them. They don’t want to have that conversation. This is all magician, this is all the distraction, smoke and mirrors, so that people don’t realize that the reason why their standard of living isn’t going up, it’s because of Republican policies.
When your taxes are too high and billionaires are getting tax breaks, that’s because of Republicans. When you don’t have clean air, clean water, it’s because Republicans gutted regulations. Republicans are afraid to take part in these substantive issues. It’s why the President the other week in his press conference very pointedly pointed out what are Republicans for? And I’ll tell you, Joy, the media needs to step it up and do a lot better here. That is what they need to grasp. It is the context of race that colors their politics and their opposition to overwhelming popular policies. Not including this context in coverage of infrastructure, build back better, filibuster Supreme Court, voting rights is disservice for millions of Americans.
At the end of the show, The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes denounced these parents as “snowflakes,” which is ironic considering his aversion to criticism and mentions of how he’s thrice married (click “expand”):
[T]His ban is an unusual kind of throwback. It does feel like we’re — we’re back in the 1950s here. And it does reflect the sort of — the contempt that just assumes that — that going after a couple of bad words in a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust is the way to — to really, you know, win support from the base.
I’m really also struck by the — the snowflakery of all of this. You know, the people who said, well, we don’t care about — we shouldn’t care about feelings. Evidently, they were referring to your feelings. But not their feelings. They are extremely tender. And so to — to watch Republicans passing legislation in places like Texas saying, please do not say any words or teach us any facts that make us uncomfortable and they think that other folks are snowflakes? It’s a blizzard down there.
Reid comparing Republicans and school board parents to those that carried out the Great Leap Forward and the Holocaust was made possible thanks to the endorsement of advertisers such as Farmer’s Insurance, Flonase, and Life Alert. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant MSNBC transcript from January 28, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s ReidOut
January 28, 2022
Eastern Time: 7:00 PMJOY RID: Tonight we begin The ReidOut with The Catcher and the Rye (an American classic by the literary recluse J.D.). Salinger. The book was published in 1951 introducing us to the funny yet troubled Holden Caufield, a prep school kid and anti-hero who’s disillusioned with society who has a thing against phonies in the adult world. It is full of themes about angst, alienation and other issues. But at its core, it’s a story about a teenager’s dramatic in difficult struggle with having to grow up. The Catcher and the Rye, one of the most controversial books in American modern history is also a favourite target for the censorship community. One of the main reasons why periodic sturm and drang occurs is the book’s use profanity or sexual references. This has been called anti-white and anti-family values as well as immoral, violent, or even violent. It was first banned in Oklahoma in 1960 and then several more times after that, reaching a fever pitch during the Reagan era when books became a target of the so-called Moral Majority, the religious right’s national movement at the time. Here’s an NBC clip from 1981, the year President Reagan took office.
[NBC CLIP]
REID: Book burning and book banning were both staples of communism and fascism, coincidentally. Hitler put a ridged restriction on the printing press and burned any literature that he considered to be dangerous. This was done by Nazis. Books were also prohibited by the Soviets, as well as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Pol Pot government. Cuba’s communist regime has banned books, newspapers, radio channels, and heavily restricted access to the internet for its citizens. So, hey, Republicans, wokeness is communism but book banning isn’t? Let it all make sense. Because this tactic has taken control of American politics, it is yet another instance where everything is old again. Just like back in the ‘80s, the great parent revolt is bankrolled by conservative organizations and think tanks and shaped by political operatives, who are controlling the puppet strings so that you think this is just about regular moms and dads advocating for their kids. But strip off that veneer and it’s about so much more. It’s about getting up the Republican vote by riling up white voters. But it’s also about distracting those voters because distraction and slieght of hand is basically what modern Republican politics is all about. I mean, it sure ain’t about governing, it’s about selling white grievance and rage, the same rage that produces attacks on Asian-Americans and Jewish people and on our Capitol. Rather than fight inflation, let’s howl over critical race theory. Instead COVID relief, let’s demonize China and mask and vaccines. Rather than policy let’s give them anger, racialized anger to distract from the fact that people have hit the pandemic rock bottom, that they can’t afford a hospital visit or don’t have safe roads and clean drinking water or bridges that don’t fall under them.
(….)
Eastern, 7:08 PM
JOYCE VANCE [T]hey’re willing to appeal to people’s worst instincts in order to lock up the vote and American democracy has to mean more than that. In the language of this Florida bill, which tries to prohibit teachers from teaching and look, let’s — let’s not put too fine of a point on it — the terms of the bill are neutral but this bill is really about teaching slavery. It is evident from the comments of some legislators that this bill attempts to prohibit teachers from teaching slavery.
(….)
Eastern, 7:11 pm
REID: [I]Texas’s attempt to ban 850 books has been criticized by a Texas lawmaker. He said that it could make white students feel uncomfortable. There’s a theme to them. These books are 62.4 percent related to the LGBTQ+ community. 14.1 percent can pertain to sex education —
KURT BARDELLA: Umm hmm.
REID: — 8.3 percent pertain to race. There’s a — there’s a rhyme and a reason to this that is not different from the 1980s when I was in high school and to your thinking, as somebody who was a Republican and was on the strategic side and political side, do Republicans think that by doing this — do they understand they’re not expanding the electorate by doing this, right? My question is, do they care that they’re taking their concentrated small electorate and enraging it in ways that become dangerous and drive people toward anti-social behavior, even violent behavior?
KURT BARDELLA: No, they don’t, Joy and this is also a reason why the Republican Party is bending over backwards to try to limit who can participate in elections because they know that this way, this way ensures that their party will never grow. Their party’s going to only get smaller. You and I know when the playing field is equal, there’s more of us than there are of them. That’s what they also know. That’s why they’re doing this whole thing in the first place and the representative was 100 percent right when he pointed out in the amazing speech that they’re doing this because they don’t want to talk about why there is income inequality. They don’t want to talk about why the quality of life isn’t going up for a large amount of people yet, people continue to vote for them. They don’t want to have that conversation. This is all magician, this is all the distraction, smoke and mirrors, so that people don’t realize that the reason why their standard of living isn’t going up, it’s because of Republican policies. When your taxes are too high and billionaires are getting tax breaks, that’s because of Republicans. When you don’t have clean air, clean water, it’s because Republicans gutted regulations. Republicans are afraid to take part in these substantive issues. It’s why the President the other week in his press conference very pointedly pointed out what are Republicans for? And I’ll tell you, Joy, the media needs to step it up and do a lot better here. That is what they need to grasp. Their opposition to popular policies, their rhetoric and their actions, is colored by race. They must understand that.
REID: Yeah, and — and money.
(….)
Eastern, 7:53 pm
CHARLIE SYKES [T]His ban is an unusual kind of throwback. It does feel like we’re — we’re back in the 1950s here. And it does reflect the sort of — the contempt that just assumes that — that going after a couple of bad words in a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust is the way to — to really, you know, win support from the base. I’m really also —
REID: Yep.
SYKES: — struck by the — the snowflakery of all of this. You know, the people who said, well, we don’t care about — we shouldn’t care about feelings. They meant your feelings. But not their feelings. [LAUGHTER] And so to — to watch Republicans passing legislation in places like Texas saying, please do not say any words or teach us any facts that make us uncomfortable —
REID: Yeah.
SYKES: — and they think that other folks are snowflakes? It’s a blizzard down there.
REID: Yeah, they — I think they should all be in this position here, because I think they want us to all suckle them.
SYKES: Yeah.
REID: They’re just like babies.
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