One reason (there are several) the media is mostly unwilling to treat the clown car members as clowns (and not nice funny clowns, the sad scary ones) is that Republicans are supposed to be the Responsible Daddy Party. Democrats are the wild crazy hippie mommies who spend all of Dad's money on crazy schemes, and then the sober, serious, responsible Republican Daddies clean up the mess. That this has nothing to do with reality and is, actually, the exact opposite of what has generally happened over the last several decades, doesn't matter. We all have our assigned roles in these stories, and that's the assigned role of the Republicans.
