How Fox News Unwittingly Destroyed the Republican Party

This is a GREAT article, that even the sheep can understand, unless they choose to remain willfully ignorant, as they usually do, for good reason(s).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cody-cain/how-fox-news-destroyed-republican-party_b_9644594.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

The Republican Party is in a pickle.

The Party itself despises its own two leading presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. This is a remarkable oddity just in itself. But there is good reason for it. Both of these candidates are so extreme and disastrous that they will almost certainly never be able to win a national election for the Republican Party.

This could devastate the Party for years or even decades to come. So the Republican Party now finds itself teetering on the precipice of disintegration.

The Republicans, however, have no one to blame but themselves. This is a crisis of their own creation. And it didn’t just happen overnight. The Republican Party has been fomenting anger and discontent in the base of its own Party for years.

Just think of all the right-wing “superstars” who spew messages of anger and hate every single day throughout the land over this enormous megaphone. Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Ben Shapiro, Dana Loesch, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, to name a few. And make no mistake, spewing hate has a significant impact upon society. It is the equivalent of modern-day propaganda.

Propaganda is powerful stuff. Many people are susceptible to it and can be swayed by it, especially the less educated. In America today, the right-wing media network is engaged in this very same activity through Fox News and extremist talk radio. This network is constantly barraging its audience, day-in and day-out, over and over again, with a stream of consistent messaging. And this messaging is overwhelmingly negative and destructive.

It is really quite remarkable that a major political party could get away with so shamelessly trashing our very own government and our very own nation. But yet, there it is. They rant and rave about how our nation is a disaster, out of control, a huge mess. The government is so far off the rails that it no longer even follows the Constitution of the United States! Absurd, of course. But wildly popular. Another big theme is fear and victimization. THEY are going to 'Take Your Guns', and Your Freedom, and 'There's a War on Christianity!' All total bullshit, but a staple of FOXNews. Now the sheep are scared and afraid, SO, they choose Trump and Cruz to Save Them, neither of whom have a chance to actually win the presidency.

Why would FOX do it? The profit motive. It is a business. Pure and simple. And, as it turns out, the business of peddling hate and anger is a fantastically profitable one at that.

Rush Limbaugh raked-in $80 million for himself in 2015 alone. Sean Hannity was paid $30 million. Glenn Beck is personally worth over $100 million. Bill O’Reilly’s television show, “The O’Reilly Factor,” generates over $100 million per year in advertising revenue. FOX is doing very well, but the Repubs and the sheep? Not so much...

Interestingly, the Fox media empire that is dominated by the tycoon Rupert Murdoch is shockingly reminiscent of the media empire from around 1900 that was dominated by the tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Mr. Hearst was notorious for printing false information in his media network of newspapers in order to influence public opinion and politics, much like Murdoch/Ailes. Even though the extremist media network was fomenting anger and hatred that is disastrous for society overall, the network could also be used to deliver political votes to Republican politicians.

And there it was. The Republican Party had made a deal with the devil. An unholy alliance was formed. And they voted Republican.

And then, predictably, it backfired.

The base of the Republican Party became a Frankenstein. It became radicalized into an extreme movement that turned against the established order, including the leadership of the Republican Party itself. It has become a monster of its own that is now roaming the countryside and terrorizing the very political party that created it, in the form of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz supporters. The Republican Party has enjoyed its dance with the devil. Now it must pay the piper.