The Present Day Big Lie Approach To Political Debate
If people are told a lie over and over and over again by supposed experts — say that the sky is red — they begin to think: “Well, maybe it is.”
They hear it repeated endlessly on TV debates that almost always give equal credence to both blue sky and red sky arguments. One expert says that the sky is red. The other expert says “For heavens sake — look out the window. The sky is blue.”
A sky-is-blue, sky-is-red-like debate can happen these days because so many of us have no time to look out that particular window. We are run off our feet just trying to keep up with the increasing pressures of ordinary living. So there’s a strong tendency to think if there’s a red/blue debate, it must be important, must have real substance, since really important people are spending so much time on it.
And sometimes when people get up at dawn to start another overly busy day, the sky is kind of pink. And kind of blue. So it’s easy to just accept either the red or the blue view of things — which ever you’re most comfortable with that day. Who has time to personally research the issue anyway?
And that, folks, is how it works. With sky color. And with political issues.
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Maybe it is time for Romney to call a spade a spade and say “Obama is a liar”.
Every politician beats around the bush and makes comments about “misspeaks, misrepresents, doesn’t tell the truth, shame on you” and any other phrase or word that means “liar”.
Maybe its time for some Truman honesty. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Stop pussy footing around the fact.
Well I think in the grand scheme of things Obama painting Romney as a vulture capitalist is pretty small potatoes. I’m more concerned with the larger narratives that are being pushed, largely by the GOP:
1) Taxes need to stay low, raising taxes kills jobs. Making life easier for top earners will fix things for the middle class.
2) Climate changes is BS
3) Regulations are killing businesses. Not lack of demand, not repercussions to the economy of lack of regulations, not the fact that wages for the vast majority of households have stayed stagnant for over a decade. No, its regulations that are killing business start ups.
4) Oil companies still need tax breaks
5) Green energy investment is a waste of time and we should be veering away from it
6) That healthcare will fix itself if we leave it to the free market. That the ACA is a masterpiece of socialism designed to extend govt reach instead of a conservative middle ground solution.
7) Obama is the “most divisive” president ever, when in fact it is clearly the GOP who have made it their mission to grind this nation to a halt and not let anything pass that the president could conceivably hang his hat on.
The list goes on and on, but the right seems to be the ones mass producing misinformation and using it to fire up voters into making decisions against their own best interest.
I have to go with slamfu on this. Republicans have made the use of the big lie into an art form. Heck they created Fox News to foist this stuff on the body politic, just like Roger Ailes said he wanted – “Republican News” – I believe he called it in a memo when he was as media advisor for the Nixon campaign in 1968.
Republicans embraced big lie tactics back when democrats were still naive enough to imagine bipartisanship was more than just a word. It’s hardly any wonder there is so little trust and so much contempt in politics these days. As for the big lie as applied to the voting populace? Yup, the sky is red allright. Global warming is a religion. The rich pay too many taxes. Healthcare reform is a communist plot. Environmentalists are the enemy. War is peace, etc.
In the end, the two party system will never give us more than more of the same. It will always be about half-truths, almost lies rather than being about issues. After all, neither side is interested in anything but manipulating the voters. After all, if you don’t to that, then how can you make sure they with the ideology _you_ know they should want.
Even leaving aside the dubiousness of the prior purity of the Democrats (for example, http://www.factcheck.org/2008/08/distorting-the-dhl-deal/), the bottom line is that dismissing Democratic big like tactics by citing Republican big lie tactics is little more than telling voters not be upset because “they lied to you, so now we get to lie to you”.
Each party uses the others to justify their misbehavior. It is time we realize the battle isn’t over who is good and who is bad, it is over which “bad” side gets to “win”.
“the two party system will never give us more than more of the same”
Not necessarily. The two party system seemed to work pretty well (with a few exceptions) for most of the 20th century. Of course that was before the two-pronged attack on our way of govt. by A.) money becoming the god of all standards in DC, and B.) the great dumbing down of the citizenry.
I think the main causes are combination of technology and reforms from decades ago…
-Increased democracy; This one is ironic. In the past the party leaders (who often had more in common with the leader from the other side rather than their own rank and file) would “manage” the system (the “smoke filled room”). When it was made more democratic, in the ’60s and ’70s, the nomination process became more and more controlled by the base which is more ideologically driven.
-Modern demographics and political theory have allowed the political system to use tools like gerrymandering allowing the increasingly ideological pure to freeze out alternatives. This has gotten to the point where, here in CA, both parties cooperate in gerrymandering. The Democrats get a bigger majority and the Republicans, while fewer, have safer districts (and so both sides are safer from any backlash over not being willing to compromise).
-Modern Communications; New technology has just kicked everything into a new gear. “Debates” increasingly follow the path of “flame wars” on the internet.
Good points David. Maybe the system of governing that allowed America to once be a truly great country is long gone. If I wasn’t near retirement age I’d be more inclined to become angry and energized about this, but I’m getting pretty burned out on the whole rotten bizz.
Meanwhile, democrats are still playing catch-up when it comes to big lie tactics.
Even if we assume the Democrats are really “behind” on big lies, I’m not willing to say “sure, if the GOP lied to me I don’t mind if you do it so you can ‘catch-up’”. A party that lies to the voters is a party that lies to the voters.
True dat.