Why are the Republicans unlikely to win back the White House back from the Democrats? It’s because of their role in the 2007-08 financial crisis and their racist policies against immigrants and African-Americans, a political commentator and social activist says.
Joe Iosbaker, a leader of the United National Antiwar Coalition, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday, a day after the top 10 leading GOP candidates debated for more than two hours.
Some 14 million viewers tuned in for the third GOP debate on CNBC on Wednesday night, but criticism of the moderators left CNBC with a mixed victory.
During and after the debate, many politicians and commentators criticized moderators for being biased with their questions. Candidate Ted Cruz said the event showed "why the American people don't trust the media."
“The Republican presidential candidates are angry especially at the CNBC for making the debate last night more about the horse race than about issues,” Iosbaker said.
“What is the role of the media in this country? Well, it is entertainment first, but more fundamentally it is to reinforce the existing social order. To foster support for the political system that is in place,” he stated.
“When it comes to elections in the US, the media is all about the horse race,” he observed.
“Mainstream media have allowed the lies and bluster of Donald Trump to go unchallenged for [the past several] months, fixating on his place in the polls,” the analyst added.
“Now the serious candidates are trying to wrest control away from the extreme right wing that makes up the activist base of the party,” he continued.
Iosbaker said that “Ted Cruz demanded that the press focus on the substantive issues. What he really means is to focus on the Republicans case against Hillary Clinton. This is the essence of the campaign message of Cruz, Rubio, and Jeb Bush. ‘We’re the serious contenders, who can beat her,’ that’s what they’re saying.”
“But the Republicans are unlikely to take the White House back, because 1) the economic crisis is still largely blamed on them by most working people; and 2) they can’t erase the stigma of the hateful racism against immigrants and Blacks that their party has been known for,” he noted.
“Of course, the Democrats are no friends of the working people or the oppressed. Obama has deported almost 400,000 immigrants annually; the prisons are filled with 2.2 million inmates, more than the rest of the countries of the world combined, and the inmate population is mainly Black, and Latino and exclusively poor,” he pointed out.
“The policies that resulted in this came from Democratic administrations, particularly Bill Clinton. And the cities where most oppressed people live, where the Black Lives Matter movement has emerged in response to the murder of mainly Black youth, are the cities ruled by Democrats,” he revealed.
“Those of us who want real change are focused not on the presidential campaign, but on the protest movements – to stop police crimes, and to win community control of the police – as the most important struggle today,” the activist concluded.
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website