Ep. 69: The Rise of the Inexplicable Republican Best Friend

It’s a trope that dates back more than a decade, but the rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has seen a recent resurgence in the liberal’s “Inexplicable Republican Best Friend,” a specific genre of concern trolling where a long-time Republican operative, politician or pundit offers supposedly well-intentioned “advice” to Democrats about how they can win elections, which always relies on avoiding veering “too far left.”

These takes––frequently featured as earnest appeals in liberal and centrist outlets––are ostensibly framed as straight-talk advice that should be accepted as objectively in the Democrats’ best interest, and never presented as an ideological argument that would otherwise make sense coming from a right-winger. “Republican hates socialism” isn’t that newsworthy, whereas “GOP operative identifies Democrats’ best interests" somehow is.  As with most ideological scams, it only travels in one direction: leftward. One seldom hears liberals or leftists give “advice” to Republicans about they ought to do to win.

But somehow the inverse isn’t true. Anti-choice, climate change denying, racist, rape apologist, warmongering, overpaid mercenary GOP “strategists” are treated like objective, neutral voices simply looking out for the best interests of the people and institutions they’ve spent their entire careers trying to destroy.

We are joined by Huffington Post senior reporter Ashley Feinberg.

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Guest

Ashley Feinberg is a Senior Reporter at HuffPost. Previously, she was on Gizmodo Media Group’s investigative team, and before that she was at Gawker. Her writing has appeared in Wired and Deadspin and she was named to the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media list. Follow her on Twitter @ashleyfeinberg.

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Show Notes

The Return of the Inexplicable Republican Best Friend

James Graham and Adam Johnson | February 26, 2019 | FAIR

Leak: How NYT Editor James Bennet Justifies The Op-Ed Page To His Colleagues

Ashley Feinberg | February 27, 2018 | Huffington Post

On Running Against Trump

Seth Masket | August 1, 2018 |  Pacific Standard

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Bad Faith Republican Handwringing Advice for Democrats

How the Democrats Went Nuts in Three Months

Michael Brendan Dougherty | February 15, 2019 | National Review

Democrats need to beware their loony left

Max Boot | February 13, 2019 | The Washington Post

Michael Bennet could be the answer to the question every Democrat is asking

Joe Scarborough | February 11, 2019 | The Washington Post

Kamala Harris, Call-Out Star

David Brooks | January 31, 2019 | The New York Times

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shouldn’t approach her facts the way Trump does

Max Boot | January 8, 2019 | The Washington Post

Dear Democrats, please forgo progressive payback in 2020. We just need to land the plane.

Chris Truax | December 31, 2018 | USA Today

Biden Should Run on a Unity Ticket With Romney

Juleanna Glover | December 11, 2018 | Politico

GOP pollster warns progressives could inflict long-term damage to Dems

What America's Thinking | December 3, 2018 | Hill.TV

Trump Should Fear Uncle Joe

Rich Lowry | November 20, 2018 | National Review

The Midterm Results Are a Warning to the Democrats

Bret Stephens | November 8, 2018 | The New York Times

Democrats Are Blowing It, Again

Bret Stephens | October 12, 2018 | The New York Times

The Rules for Beating Donald Trump

Bret Stephens | July 27, 2018 | The New York Times

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Transcript

For a full transcript of this episode, go here.

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