Jon Ward, political reporter for Yahoo News, joined The Federalist Radio Hour to discuss masculinity, the influence of cable news, the altering of political parties, and other themes of 2016.
Historically, Americans have chosen quieter, stronger leaders, rather than the outspoken, machismo personalities. “I do think people see in [Trump] someone who has a knack for action, an instinct for action,” Ward said. “I don’t feel like it’s the kind of manliness that comes from reflection and an inner life that leads you to principles.”
Many have tried assign blame for the rise of Trump to Fox News. “It’s easy to get distracted by the shiny object that ‘this is the one conservative channel,'” Domenech said. “The bigger issue is less what Eric Bolling was saying, or what Bill O’Reilly was saying, than it is the whole thing, the whole of the conservative media space.”
What are the lessons to be learned from 2016? For the Republican leaders? For the donor class? For the voters? “One of the things you need to do to fix some of this, is you need good leaders and you need good ideas, and I do think part of the solution here might be that parties need to retrench and circle the wagons a bit to regain some control,” Ward said.
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