Digging Themselves Into a Fox Hole

The Evil Fox Network has just announced some terrible ratings news that should make everyone who prizes independent thought cheer in unison - their ratings are down almost a full quarter over the last year. This, frankly, is incredible. Considering the kind of numbers Fox is used to putting up, we're talking about an enormous amount of people. And it's all the more incredible for how unstoppable they seemed as recently as, well, a year ago. Along with the decline of Ann Coulter, it might be the most interesting trend this fall. The thing about the unstoppable right-wing juggernaut of the last decade or so is that it all depended on momentum, like a pyramid scheme.

Fox blames its bad ratings news on the fact that this is a slower news year than 2005, which can't possibly be true. Any year when there is a major, tightly contested election is automatically a big news year. More appropriately, 2006 has been a bad news year for people who watch Fox, in that their entire movement has been collapsing under the weight of its own lies and antipathy. Since, as I've explained, the liberal system is based on being right while the right-wing system is based on maintaining power, the right-wing system has always necessarily functioned as more than the sum of its parts. Things only worked when they worked in synch. Fox was a very influential part of this system, and it is therefore a great case study in how this is going to be a vicious downward spiral for the Repugnicans.

The excellent book Off Center explored an interesting aspect of this system. Right-wingers were able to convince moderate Republicans to go along with their extremist agenda because they could offer moderates something called backlash insurance. Because the right wing was able to control the debate, control what bills came to the floor, control the news cycle, and control what went on behind the scenes in conference committees between the House and Senate, Republicans were able to effectively shield these moderates from being held accountable by voters for going along with the very most conservative parts of the right-wing agenda.

The military was also a key piece of this puzzle. It is an old truism in the military that you can't keep the ranks disciplined if they don't think the leaders can shoot straight. Well, as it turns out, the ranks currently don't think the leaders can shoot straight. The Army Times, the newspaper of record for folks in the Army, has joined with sister newspapers for the other services in calling on Rumsfeld to resign. Again, this is huge. The American military is obviously a proud bunch, and one of the most fundamental things they are proud of is their two centuries of subordination to civilian control. When the lies were only partially obvious, and when the consequences were only partially destructive, the military could be counted on to take its orders. But, like most people, there's only so far it wants to be pushed.

So the house of cards is about to come crashing down on the Republicans. Congressional candidates can't get far enough away from Bush, and Democrats are about to get subpoena power. What will happen to Bush? Everyone knows he lies a lot. And so far he has found it difficult (by his own admission), which is pretty credible since one doubts he has the brain power to pull it off too much longer. Bush was apparently fairly articulate when he was governor of Texas, but lying is stressful, and it may be that the stress of lying all the time is taking its toll. With Republicans in Congress acting as the proverbial rubber stamp, the system has worked together to protect this practice. With the system broken, how will Bush do? How far will the Republicans fall?