The Republican grievance perpetual motion machine

The outrage must flow

Shoveling coal into a head.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

The last few months have been hard sledding for the right-wing misinformation machine. Former President Donald Trump is off Twitter and barely on TV anymore, while Democrats are not providing all that much grist for the culture war mill. Meanwhile, Republicans really, really don't want to talk about what Democrats are actually doing — namely, working up a gigantic coronavirus relief package that is overwhelmingly popular and investigating the Jan. 6 putsch.

But nothing will stop hard-working right-wing media personalities from cooking up some new culture war slop to shovel into the eager mouths of the conservative base. There must always be a new cultural grievance to generate the requisite fits of purple-faced apoplexy, and by God it will proceed based on complete falsehoods if necessary.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.