They're All Liars, Cheats and Thieves. Right?



"So what?" you say? "All politicians are the same..."

LOL! Ok. Okay... In some ways, for sure. And if you've depended upon the MSM (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, etc...) exclusively for your knowledge of American political happenings over the last 20 years, then I don't suppose there is much chance you know how woefully inadequate has been your source.

Driftglass provides a highly charged, but equally accurate (read: in all the essentials) look at what actually constitutes some chief differences between Republicans and Democrats these days.
From Driftglass - "The Big Lie"

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Rush Limbaugh “returned to radio as a talk show host at KFBK in Sacramento, California” in 1984.

That was 22 years ago.

Al Franken began firing back in the same medium as Limbaugh when he began anchoring a show on Air America, which did not even exist until 2004.

That was two years ago.

So Rush had a twenty-year head start. And in that time his imitators created an entire, integrated radio/teevee/print/cable media Universe based almost entirely on egging the pig people on to mindlessly hate Liberals and blame queers and “feminazis” for every evil on Earth, real or imagined.

For twenty years a polyglot witchbag of sociopaths, Christopaths, Neocons, drunks, demagogues and whores have gotten rich and re-elected by banding together to demonize Liberals and tell the scum of the nation over and over and over again that being the scum of the nation is a noble calling. Or, to misquote H.L Menkin, “No Fox executive ever went broke overestimating the hateful stupidity of the pig people.”

And for twenty years – while the mass purveyors of carefully calibrated hate and rage and xenophobia on the Right gathered more and more power and got more and more vulgar and vicious in their rhetoric – what did the Left try to do?

We tried to find common ground. To meet our opponents half-way.

To compromise…with people who sneered at the very idea of working together and said quite openly that compromise was “political date rape”.

While the Emperor of Weaponized Bile, Newt Gingrich, took over the House with a campaign explicitly based on calling Democrats “traitors” at every opportunity, and Limbaugh was being honored as the “Majority Maker” by those House Republicans, we on the Left were still trying to do and be all the nicey-nicey things that Alan Simpson is now all weepy and wistful for.

And it didn’t work. And while we played by Marquis of Queensbury, the orcs laughed in our faces, overran the joint, and bequeathed to us as its apotheosis the worst, most despicable, most incompetent, most Constitution-loathing Administration in American history.

Al Franken and Air America did not arise in a vacuum. The came into being as a desperate, eleventh-hour attempt to fight back against a twenty year multimedia blitz of unremitting, unrebutted Conservative lies and bigotry.

They arose because no one in the Mainstream Media had the guts to take on the GOP Propaganda Machine head-on. Instead, the MSM collaborated, because collaborating in the Big Lie was a much better, safer career move.
[Read the whole Rant. Is well worth it!]


Obviously the vast majority (if not All) of the folks who read here are under no illusions about our ability to "trust" the MSM, or the reasons our reticence to do so are endemic to the News Industry. None the less, I needed a lead-in to prop Driftglass's excellent essay and, as is so often the case, it's kinda hard to develop an appropriate introduction whilst on my company's dime.

So, like, go read it already! You'll be glad you did.

Me.. I gotta get my arse back to work!

{-;

Comments

  1. Thanks for th link. I don't know why people keep calling the last congress a do nothing congress. They did a lot of damage by ignoring the people and dumping gifts on the super rich. Thankfully we have the Frankens and the Stewarts and Colbert to go after the hate mob and it is proving to be an effective tactic. The fastest way to bring down the Bushites is with humor and they make it easy. Take care.

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  2. merci, Mary. I'm feelin' a wee bit better today. 'Ve been working at it, to be sure.

    You're absolutely right on the "not a do nothing" bunch, as well. The Damage they've done, and the Dems do have a not minuscule particle of culpability there, has been tremendous. There's a lot of remediation going forward, and those first 100 hours had better be duplicated indefinitely if we hope to regain sanity in our Democracy.

    Thanks again, Lady. Your voice here is always quitely Appreciated!

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  3. Great link thanks for the hookup

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  4. There's a lot of remediation going forward, and those first 100 hours had better be duplicated indefinitely if we hope to regain sanity in our Democracy.

    We could start with rolling the clock back in my opinion. What is the taboo against simply revoking...whatever? The Military Commissions Act...GONE! The Sept., 14th 2001 War Powers Resolution...history! Literally. [kvatch,kvatch]

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  5. Actually Mary, I think the fastest way to take down the Bushites would be for the American people to not pay their tax bills this year until 16 April 2007. It would shut down the entire gov't because they "bank" on the monies coming in over the next few months not just on one day. That would really say something and show people they actually do have the power to make collective change.

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  6. It is nice of them to write the punchlines ahead of time.

    The sad thing is, it's going to take a long time to realize the negative effects of the last six years, and an even longer time to clean it up. Sometimes I think I make fun of this stuff because thinking about it seriously would drive me insane.

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  7. Thanks for the link...interesting as usual. And yes...I was glad I did!

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  8. [kvatch] away, frogmigo!

    I like it, AG. But this year we'd have to wait until the 18th. Can't find the link right now (the search took me off on a tangent resulting with the post following this one) but the IRS moved the deadline to the 17th for this year. The 15th is a Sunday and 16th is some holiday. (???)

    I'm with ya, Brando. We can either ignore it, like the bulk of the sheople do, or laugh and rant and write our Congress Critters. I'll generally opt for at least one of those latter 3 m'self.

    Glad you like, Sumo. He's a wild one, is Driftglass!

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  9. i love franken. he makes me hopeful

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