This intransigent, “do nothing” Congress is new to the modern American political scene. Never has the electorate nor the elected representatives been so polarized along party lines, except perhaps during Civil War times…. [T]his is NOT a matter of equal blame…. Norm Ornstein, a Congressional historian who’s always been bipartisan, finally had to admit, “It’s the Republicans who are ruining our nation” from their rejection of science to their obstructionism in terms of preventing needed laws from passing. But why is this? A strong case can be made for the rise and integration of Fox News into the fabric of American society, and the legion of followers who live and die on every piece of misinformation FOX propagates…. The death of the Fairness Doctrine and the rise of private cable news subscription services made this possible, along with plutocratic money and influence…. Jefferson would shake his head in shame at what has become of the nation he and the other Framers helped to create, a society in which truth is relative to its telling and its financial and ideological sponsorship.
- Tracy Knauss
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been witness to the bad kabuki theater that was the “fiscal cliff” drama. If so much hadn’t been at stake, the high-stakes charade might have been amusing. What it underscores is that there’s a political party so hyper-partisan, so devoted to ideology over truth, that they’ll do almost anything to carry the day. There’s one political party in this country that’s completely and undeniably insane…and there’s no doubt which one that is. The GOP- which used to be the party of practical, pragmatic Conservatism is now home to a small but vocal minority of “kill-‘em-all-let-God-sort-‘em-out” reactionary Right-wingers who’d rather take the country down with them than give an inch. When you consider compromise to be the moral equivalent of treason, what hope do the rest of us have that Congress can and/or will assume their rightful role in moving this country forward?
Unless something changes to introduce a degree of reason and sanity to our political culture, America is well and truly…uh, hosed (this is still a family show).
The Tea Party revolt from the town hall season of summer, 2010, marked the rapid ascent of a class of people and politicians so thoroughly devoted to their anti-intellectual, Far Right agenda that their only real tactic was rage. The summer of 2010, characterized as it was by screaming, and vein-popping, rage-filled personal insults made for good television. Because of that, the Mainstream Media gave far too much coverage to those incapable of having a reasoned, rational discussion with those who think differently. Combine that with a disturbingly powerful undercurrent of racist hatred directed at President Obama, and what you had was a political class focused solely on destruction. Ask the members of the Tea Party what they wanted, what their platform was, and most of what you would have heard had to do with tearing things down. The same is true today. They weren’t- and aren’t- concerned with creating a new political system. What they want is to destroy the system currently in place without having a clear blueprint for what they’d to replace it with.
The Tea Party’s demand for “small government” has been exposed as a hypocritical, cynical sham. Their idea of “small government” is one that stays out of their lives and allows them to do what they want…while using the power of government to enforce their pet agenda. The Tea Party has no problem with the idea of inserting government in our bedrooms, but under NO circumstances should government be allowed to mess with the absolute and inalienable rights to amass as much firepower as they see fit.
The Teapublican wing of the GOP has bought into the ignorance and conspiracy theories that continue to drive the movement. They reject science and demand that America be turned into a Dominionist theocracy. They legitimize loony, uninformed Far Right conspiracy theories. They’ve helped to turn the GOP and Congress into the political equivalent of a clown car…and there are millions of Fox News Channel addicts convinced that the Tea Party is doing the Lord’s work.
How did this happen? Well, the advent of Fox News Channel helped to snare those on the Right who prefer reaction and rage to thinking. By becoming the de facto propaganda arm of the GOP, Fox News has used their position to trade in disinformation and dishonest journalism. Canada won’t even allow Fox News to be broadcast on Canadian television networks because the Radio Act states that “a licenser may not broadcast….any false or misleading news.” Unfortunatly, the 1st Amendment means that lies and propaganda are no impediment to calling oneself a “news channel.” Don’tcha just LOVE America??
Quibble as one might with Canada’s dance with (what some undoubtedly view as) “censorship,” at least one government officially recognizes that Fox News is about “news” in the same way Jeffrey Dahmer was about vegetarianism.
That truth counts for nothing in America, though, as millions have so completely bought into Fox News’ brand of lies and propaganda that it’s become our #1 cable news network. That represents why America is well down the road to becoming an idiocracy. When a large segment of the population willfully swallows Right-wing propaganda camouflaged as “news,” one could indeed argue that America is well and truly screwed.
It’s been demonstrated that Americans who watch no news at all are better informed than those who get their “news” from Fox News Channel. That should tell you everything you need to know about why we are where we are. When the evil and venal lead the blind, and the callow and crude consider their ignorance to be superior to an informed person’s knowledge, we’re left with a country on the verge of paralysis.
How’s that for American Exceptionalism?
