Whenever I stumble across moronic stories like this one, the first thing I do is see if I can find any information on the author.  In this case, the author is Ms. Nicole Via y Rada, and she just happens to have her own website.

So I went there.

second try pic.twitter.com/dY4zuA9elQ

— shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) January 3, 2021

Ms. Via y Rada is a 2017 graduate of ….. Coral Glades High School in Coral Gables, Florida where she received her “Diploma”.   Eight months ago she was still a student at American University.

This story runs under the banner of NBC F******g News.  Then again, six years ago Katie Tur was doing weather for a local station in Santa Barbara (if my memory is correct).

The most recent employment entry for Ms. Via la Rada in her posted resume’ is for “2019-Present”, where she lists herself as “Field Production and Reporting Intern” for CNBC and NBCUniversal.

An intern is writing news stories that are getting posted on NBC News’ website.

An intern is offering commentary to the country as a representative of NBC News about what “Generation Z” — born after 1996 — believes the GOP must do as a party after Pres. Trump leaves office.

I know it’s a holiday weekend, but what would Chet Huntley think about this?  (Brian Williams probably thinks it’s ok, and Matt Lauer only wants to know if she’s hot).

I started this effort with the idea of challenging the author’s viewpoint as expressed through her reporting.  But I can’t get past the idea that she’s likely better suited to making my Double Toasted Caramel Brulee’ Cold Brew at Starbucks than offering anything meaningful or insightful on the ways in which the GOP might consider evolving over the next decade.

So, rather than engage her on the ideas, I’m just going to mock the crap out of the manner in which she has crafted her story — and by implication the moron editors working over the holiday weekend for NBC who allowed this piece of drivel to be posted under the banner they are responsible for.

Let’s start with the premise she sets forth as the foundation for her story:

For many young Republicans, Trump’s loss signals an opening for new directions within the party. Several said in interviews that they want the party to become more tolerant and inclusive while staying true to conservative values.

Well, “how many” young Republicans constitute the “several” that she “interviewed” in order to discern the “pulse” of the young Republicans that she’s opining about?

If we simply count the number that she refers to within the text of the article as having been interviewed, the answer to my question is 4.

One College GOP representative from Columbia, Arizona State, Oregon, and the University of Tampa.

Shockingly, each of the four GOP College representatives wants some aspect of the Democrat/Socialist/Antifa/BLM “Critical Race Studies” agenda to be advanced by the Post-Trump GOP.

“The GOP has a lot of really good policy, a lot of winning policies, but it does seem like often we can get caught up on the losing ones and fight like hell for them,” said Cameron Adkins, a sophomore who is vice president of College Republicans at Columbia University. “When in reality, they’re losing issues with the American people.”

Adkins, 19, said he hopes the party can expand its reach by … embracing a rapidly diversifying electorate by toning down its rhetoric around racial injustice, which research shows young people tend to be more tapped into.

“We should be attempting to expand our reaches, even if it does cost us” some of the more traditional Republican voters, he said. “I guess I’m willing to lose as long as we’re doing the right thing.”

THAT is a brilliant political strategy.  Not surprising since Columbia turns out some top-notch conservative political strategists — like Rick Wilson and Steve Schmidt and Jonah Goldberg.

But, just to zing us with the dynamism of her reporting, Ms. Via y Loca takes us clear across the country to show had geographically broad the spread of such conservative college values are:

Clay Robinson, a leader with College Republicans at Arizona State University, also said he wants the party to focus more on inclusivity.

“Our generation is much more concerned with social issues than, let’s say, economic issues or something different. I think it’s a sign that we really care about communities and the well-being of our people, not just their pocketbooks,” said Robinson, 19. “That’s a more holistic approach of what constitutes the health of every individual in the nation.”

Bottom line, according to the College Republicans with whom the NBC New intern could get in contact within her extensive reporting, the key to the post-Trump GOP is that it becomes a “woke” post-Trump GOP.

Several young Republicans specifically highlighted LGBTQ rights and climate change as essential to tapping into the Gen Z bloc, because Gen Zers are familiar with those issues.

That’s why Isaiah De Alba, 19, said the Republican Party needs diverse and young perspectives like his. De Alba, who grew up in Los Angeles in a Mexican Cuban household, is the political director of the University of Oregon’s College Republicans. He voted for Trump but hopes someone who recognizes that the country “isn’t the same place it was 30, 40, 50 years ago” leads the party next.

“I think the term ‘conservatism’ has been given this really bad rep for so long,” he said, predicting that the ethos of the party will evolve to become, for example, less religious and more forward-thinking.

“I feel like that should change in a way, so that people can understand it a lot more than just ‘a bunch of old racist white people’ as they like to see it, you know, but in reality, it’s a lot more than that.”

Here’s the thing Isaiah — anyone paying attention to the reality of the world around them, and not just their college social group and the SJWs teaching “Critical Race Theory” on college campuses, knows the GOP isn’t “just a bunch of old racist white people.”   Your comments expose your ignorance of reality, and your acceptance of a narrative construct that has been fed to you like gruel in a bowl.

The fact that intern Ms. La Vida Loca thinks it is somehow enlightening to her readers for her to quote ignorant 19-year-olds with zero self-awareness that he’s aping a mischaracterization the political opposition wants him to believe — that only “old racist white people” are part of the GOP — is exactly the reason why I’ve opted to mock her story rather than engage it.

The fourth contestant in her “Dumbass College GOP Spokespersons” is from her own backyard — probably a high school student friend or neighbor.  Before you start — I know Coral Springs and Tampa aren’t close to each other — I’m being sarcastic and insulting.  It was a pledge I made for 2021 to keep it up for the numb-nuts who write stories about dumb-asses on the internet.

Not all the young conservatives hope for a sea change, however. While most see a future for the party beyond the Trump presidency, Sydney Salatto expressed frustration with lawmakers who she said turned their backs on Trump after his loss….

“I want to see a lot of people primaried and rooted out,” said Salatto, 22, the president of a conservative women’s organization at the University of Tampa. “I think that they’re just as bad as the Democrats.”

Salatto said that the party is no longer “one coherent group” and that lawmakers who are distancing themselves from Trump are “not serving” their constituents.

Still, despite the dissonance, all of the young voters said Trumpism is here to stay.

Robinson said that while he supports Trump’s “America First” policies, they might not be best championed by Trump himself. He said the party needs someone who “doesn’t necessarily turn people off like Trump does.”

They’re holding out for new faces to lead the country.

Ok — that one wasn’t so bad.

But that’s it.  That is the sum total of the entirety of her reporting to support her original point that “For many young Republicans, Trump’s loss signals an opening for new directions within the party.”

She wrote that I didn’t.  She didn’t offer any insight or analysis of her own — she gave us a couple of quoted sentences from each of four people she spoke to.

In 45 minutes of writing this story, I’ve written 3x more words than she wrote (just a guess, I didn’t count them).

I wonder if she makes more money than me?

I need to see if NBC is hiring any “old racist white people.”

PS — I thought for about 90 seconds if I’m being too mean on young Nicole.  Probably. I’m sure she’s very bright, and if she wants to pursue a career in journalism she may one day find herself to be an excellent reporter.

This fault here lies with the NBC News Editors who thought this was a story that could be reported on the way young Nicole went about it, and then didn’t have the good sense to help her rewrite the text to be more suitable to the point she was trying to make — and didn’t insist on more research on her facts, and more thought behind her original content.

Please don’t be offended Ms. Via y Rada.  Keep working, keep writing, keep researching, and keep reading.  The answers reveal themselves over time — a lifetime.