The Republican Party's race is their circus, not the media’s.
Last Wednesday’s CNBC debate illustrated the insanity that is the 2016 Republican primary season. Rather than acknowledge the dogfight nature of the campaign, the candidates instead blamed their infighting on the national media. The truth is that the republicans have turned this primary season into a circus – the media is simply doing its job by reporting on it. Yet the Republican straw-man argument (creating a false enemy in the national media) has done well for some candidates in the polls.
When asked about his stance on the new budget bill about to be passed by Congress, Sen. Ted Cruz felt it was an appropriate time to criticize the line of questioning.
“This is not a cage match ...The questions that are being asked shouldn’t be getting people to tear into one another," Cruz said. "It should be, ‘what are your substantive solutions?’”
While going on a two-minute rant about the unfair line of questioning, Cruz failed to answer the question about his stance on the budget deal. So who kept us from getting a substantive answer, the media or Ted Cruz?
Personally, I feel that it is important to know why Cruz thinks it would be a better idea to shut down the government entirely rather than passing a workable budget. A good answer may have remedied my concerns about his candidacy. Rather, he piled on a worn-out GOP attack on the media.
This isn’t to let the mainstream national media totally off the hook. The CNBC moderators on Wednesday night seemed unprepared and uncertain in their questioning and fact checking of the candidates. But this doesn’t mean that the entirety of the media is in the wrong. The function of the media is to ask tough questions, and it is the responsibility of the politicians to provide answers — even if they don’t love the question.
Would debates be better if the moderators lobbed softballs at the candidates about their standard position points? I sincerely doubt it. Debates are supposed to provide the voters with insight about the candidates in areas that would otherwise be neglected. While this doesn’t always necessarily happen, this should be what the debates strive for. This goal is impossible unless moderators ask candidates questions that may be uncomfortable to answer.
The criticism of the national media has served both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio well in the polls. Truthfully, that campaign strategy will likely continue to work well for them. But it is scary to me that two men running for the most powerful office in the world cower at the thought of answering tough policy questions. Republicans, don’t blame the media for your fragmented party. It has much more to do with internal factors rather than the national media.
Voters, don’t fall for the straw-man argument — the media is not the root of all evil for the Republicans, it is the party division itself.