Politics - News Analysis

‘The View’ Can’t Find a Replacement for Meghan McCain Because They Can’t Find a Decent Republican

We understand the struggle, guys.

When Meghan McCain left ABC’s The View, there was a bit of a chasm in the show’s standard format. Regular viewers had gotten used to seeing the hosts operate in a relatively balanced way when it comes to politics — balanced, of course, meaning that conservative viewpoints were given equal consideration with liberal ones.

But as watchers of the show came to find out, it was often the case that the liberal co-hosts were able to conduct themselves in a civilized manner while the conservative co-hosts would lash out. Reality, after all, has a liberal bias, and conservatives frequently struggle with debates that they can’t win without lying.

After McCain’s exit, which she attributed to “toxic, direct, and purposeful hostility” at the show, there has been a revolving cast of conservatives who have guest-hosted with the regular panel: Condoleezza Rice, Carly Fiorina, Gretchen Carlson, S.E. Cupp, Alyssa Farah, and Morgan Ortagus. But Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Whoopi Goldberg have apparently repeatedly asked producers to find someone more permanent.

The problem, as it turns out, is the same as the problem within the Republican Party itself. There are plenty of reasonable conservatives, but those that are do not like Donald Trump, and thus are not actually representative of conservative viewers of the show. Hostin said it plainly:

Right now, we still do need a really conservative voice. I also believe it’s really important to not have someone on the panel who spreads misinformation, who adheres to the big lies, who is an anti-vaxxer, because I think that’s dangerous.

That kind of search led another staffer on the show to characterize the issue as a search for a “unicorn.” Speaking to Politico, the unnamed staffer said that producers “want someone who is going to fight — but not too hard, because they don’t want it to be ugly and bickering.”

Finding a replacement for McCain who has credibility with Republicans but doesn’t believe the election was rigged or that mask mandates are destroying freedom as we know it could prove a lot harder than the show expected.

meet the author

Andrew is a dark blue speck in deep red Central Washington, writing with the conviction of 18 years at the keyboard and too much politics to even stand. When not furiously stabbing the keys on breaking news stories, he writes poetry, prose, essays, haiku, lectures, stories for grief therapy, wedding ceremonies, detailed instructions on making doughnuts from canned biscuit dough (more sugar than cinnamon — duh), and equations to determine the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow. A girlfriend, a dog, two cats, and two birds round out the equation, and in his spare time, Drewbear likes to imagine what it must be like to have spare time.

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