Facts can be such messy, inconvenient things

Tucked away in the Right-wing Sturm ind Drang following The Black Guy in the White House’s © State of the Union Address was the usual bleating about imperial government, King Obama, Big Government, and Barack Obama’s alleged misappropriation and misuse of the Executive Order. If you’re someone who generally doesn’t pay attention to politics, you might find yourself wondering how we could have elected such an imperious tyrant. How could a democratically elected President act in such an anti-democratic manner?

Except that’s not at all what’s happening. The epic, visceral, highly personalized hatred of The Black Guy in the White House © may be based on many things, but facts aren’t among them. There are those on the Far Right who, if Barack Obama ordered a Coke, would wax indignant wondering why he hates Pepsi. It’s as silly and juvenile as it is offensive and intellectually insulting, but there you have it. Such is the stuff demands to impeach The Black Guy in the White House © are made of, no?

Remember when Congressional Republicans got together when the President was inaugurated in 2009 and pledged to oppose him at every turn? They weren’t kidding, and they’ve demonstrated a willingness to use every tool available to them to deny the President anything even faintly resembling a victory. That their toolbox has been shown time and again to be heavy on lies, innuendo, and propaganda and light on facts and integrity is no surprise. The Far Right has excoriated Obama for things they had no problem with when George W. Bush was behind the big desk in the Oval Office. They see nothing wrong with blaming The Black Guy in the White House © for programs initiated before he even took office (Remember “Fast and Furious?” The Wall Street bailout?). Their lack of commitment to an honest and reasonable debate is exceeded only by their disdain for the facts, because the Far Right don’t need no stinkin’ facts to make their arguments stick.

The truly sad aspect of this is that a large segment of the American Sheeple listen to what Fox News tells them and accept it as Gospel. They then rage against the illegitimate, Muslim, America-hating, socialist President who they’re convinced is about to force Sharia law upon good, God-fearing American patriots. It’s like America has been transformed into the set from “Idiocracy,” where facts count for nothing and the truth for even less. All that matters is what those who hate The Black Guy in the White House © can convince the American Sheeple is the truth. I watch Fox News from time to time (usually only when I’m a captive audience, like in a waiting room), and I always come away stunned at the lies and propaganda a(n) (alleged) news channel is capable of producing…and it happens 24/7/365 with no consequences.

Of course, the lies and propaganda wouldn’t be employed if they weren’t effective. Far too many of us can’t be bothered to pay attention to what’s happening and what’s being (allegedly) done in our name. We stand for nothing…and so we’ll fall for anything, no matter how outrageous, false, or scandalously inaccurate it might be.

Man, we sure can be an astonishingly ignorant, sheep-like lot, can’t we??