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Truth and slander
By Rrrandy Wurst | November 6, 2008
Barack Obama, last night, said a great deal in his victory speech as President Elect of the United States, all of it good to the minds of Americans who believe in the original national dream. I believe that the heart of his message is in two statements: “It’s been a long time coming,” and in the mantra of his campaign, “Yes we can.” The former sentence reflects on the past, while the latter looks to the future. The space between them is immense, and that is the space he and we need to focus on and begin to work in. To say that it’s a big job grossly understates the task. Barack Obama, himself, pointed out that we should not expect the needed changes to happen in the span of a single presidential term.
Today I sit back on my haunch, look up at the blue autumn sky, and wonder why it should take so long. Why can’t good stuff be accomplished quickly in an America that has promised for 240 years such good stuff as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all citizens? In an America that was founded on such ideals and principles that, though we are not a “Christian nation,” were espoused by Christ and adopted into our Constitution. (Someday I’ll get my choppers into the topic of the chasm between Christ’s words and the beliefs of many of today’s Christian fundamentalists. But not today.)
Actually, there is a solid, if not good, reason why we can’t expect America to become America within four years, much less on this glorious and promising day, or even next January 21 when Barack Obama settles into the Oval Office. Things are not going to just get better. That’s because a lot of people in America, some of them exceedingly powerful, do not want America to become America. As Right Wing guru Paul Weyrich said (I may be paraphrasing), “Government is too important to be left to ordinary Americans.”
Echoing this are the Rush Limbaugh’s and Bill O’Reilly’s, and Michael Savage’s, and the less vocal but infinitely more dangerous Neocons who can be found at the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Project for the New American Century ( the infamous PNAC), the American Enterprise Institute, and other Right Wing think tanks, big money pits, and enclaves. They remain populated by people who hate giving up power, the likes of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, John Yoo, John Bolton, Richard Armitage, Elliott Abrams, John Poindexter, “Scooter” Libby, William Kristol, Daniel Pipes, Bill Bennett Norman Podhoretz, Charles Krauthammer, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Midge Decter, and even that fount of deep wisdom, J. Danforth Quayle, former Vice-President of these United States, upon whose narrow shoulders Sarah Palin would have stood had she somehow jived her way into the Veepency. And this is only a short-list of the architects of the last eight years, during which the ideals of America were hijacked, with the world to follow.
Do not expect these people to give up their hold on power lightly from a mere landslide election against them. Expect a four-year blizzard of the following, all in the service of keeping the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress from doing business efficiently…or at all:
Besides that old quasi-legal stand-by, Senatorial Filibuster, you will see a Right Wing-generated rash of
- Fear-mongering
- Smearing
- Spreading of lies and innuendo
- Hindering legitimate change irrespective of its reasonableness or benefits
- Threats of impeachment and other forestalling tactics
Why? Because [repeat] “government is too important to be left to ordinary Americans.”
Who then should government be left to, according to these folks? To the large stake-holders, of course… To the “insiders.” Those with the “long-term view.” Those who “understand” the critical importance of American Empire. That America is meant (by God) to rule the world… That the “white race” was meant to dominate people of color (all the more galling that these ordinary Americans elected a person of color)… That men were meant to dominate women… That Christians (and a few like-minded and malleable Jews) were meant to dominate the false religions… And (most galling to yours truly, Rrrandy Wurst) their fundamental belief that “Two legs good; four legs bad.”
[Okay, I go too far here in reversing George Orwell’s eternal verity (from Animal Farm), but it is true that the Right Wing Fundamentalist Christian doctrine of Dominionism holds mankind dominant over “lower” animals, which is rather conveniently self-serving.]
Fear-mongering. Smearing. Lies and innuendo, etc. Why do Right Wingers use these emotion-laden tactics? Because they work. Because emotion can be appealed to among those who don’t have knowledge, those who distrust knowledge because it comes from smart people, intellectuals, college professors, and “such like. ” Truth as seen through the eyes of manipulative politics is far less effective, and thus infinitely less important, than negatively-charged psych-tactics. Hell, truth is not important at all, because most people not only don’t know what’s true, they distrust those who try to tell them. (Unless, of course, it comes from the mouth of Rush Limbaugh, who, when faced with his lies, weasels into his standard defense that, Hey, I’m just an entertainer.) Most people don’t have the tools even to question the “truth” that is shoved at them. So why even bother, because if you do engage in the battle of “my truth” versus “your truth,” “the people” won’t believe either. Much better, the Right Wing has learned, to slander the other side, because people are very willing to believe their “gut,” their feelings.
Having figured this out, and using it as their primary weapon against anyone who believes differently than they do, is the “genius” of the Right Wing, as perpetrated by Karl Rove, including media hit-men like Steve Schmidt, Scott Howell, and Dan Bartlett. Some of them go all the way back to Nixon’s prime henchman, Lee Atwater. (Who died at the age of 40 regretful of the Pandora’s Box of personal propaganda that he had opened.) For these operatives, sowing fear and doubt is their modus operandi. Truth does not even enter the conversation.
Problem is, these truth-defying tactics work because people don’t know what truth to believe. So they resort to believing what they feel. Our nation’s leadership has changed, but that hasn’t changed. The Right Wing will continue to use their tactics, maybe even ramp them up now that they’re out of power, especially to tap into whatever residual racism Americans may harbor. Rattle the little corner of the brain that might think, “I wonder whether a black man is smart enough for the job.” While ignoring, forgetting, or ever caring to know the things that Barack Obama has accomplished, which prove his over-whelming brain-power. (Harvard Law Review, graduating at the top of his class, ….Oh, forget it! That stuff is mere truth, which to the average Joe or Jane gets swamped in the tide of slander.)
Which, ironically, lends some truth to those Right Wing Neocons’ belief that government is too important to be left to ordinary Americans. If voters can be fooled by personal attack so easily, why even let them vote for their leaders? That’s a hard one to deal with if you believe in democracy. I guess the answer is to fall back on the “truth” that you can’t fool all the people all the time, and hope that that’s enough to keep the self-serving corporatists and militarists and religionists and smiling fascists in check. Smack down their fear-mongering slander tactics. Figure them out for what they are: Domestic and Foreign Imperialists. Hope that an election such as we made happen yesterday is enough to keep The Good Ship Democracy afloat and aimed in the right direction.
Forewarned is fore-armed. (Or maybe that should be four-armed.)
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Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
November 30th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Democrats value economic equality. Republicans value economic freedom. That is the main difference between the two parties. Republicans have history and economics on their side, Democrats have feelings and lazy people on their side.
I do like your little list…
Fear-mongering
Smearing
Spreading of lies and innuendo
Hindering legitimate change irrespective of its reasonableness or benefits
Threats of impeachment and other forestalling tactics
Is that a list of what Democrats have done for the last eight years? Or is this a list of what is to come? Or are you fair-minded and independent enough to admit that both parties use these tactics.