...was not kneecapping the American economy with Reaganomics, sacking the American treasury or fucking up American foreign policy almost beyond repair.
America has recovered from worse problems than those before.
From Moyers and Company (emphasis added):
...Just four-and-a-half years ago, Washington mainstays Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein shocked the inside-the-Beltway establishment (especially the press, with its silent pact to speak no evil of wrongdoers lest they deny you an interview) when they published their book, It’s Even Worse than It Looks. The two esteemed political scientists wrote, “The Republican Party has become an insurgent outlier – ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise; unpersuaded by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”In the years since, an ugly situation has only gotten increasingly dire, with right-wing radicals whipped into a frenzy by a Republican establishment that thought it could use their rage, only to find it running amok and beyond their control. In a recent interview with Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg View, Norman Ornstein said, “The future still looks pretty grim.” And Thomas Mann noted, “The burden is on the GOP because they are currently the major source of our political dysfunction. No happy talk about bipartisanship can obscure that reality. Unless other voices and movements arise within the Republican Party to changes its character and course, our dysfunctional politics will continue.”...
I would just add that, in the years since, neither Mr. Mann nor Mr. Ornstein nor anyone capable of carrying their message has been able to threaten, cajole, bribe or pry their way into the Sunday show circuit with the Jaws of Life.
Because the greatest feat Conservatism ever accomplished was relentlessly bludgeoning and buffaloing the profession of journalism to the point where it's main national purveyors are forbidden on pain of professional exile to talk about the plainly observable, incontrovertible and disastrous reality which is happening right in their own back yard.
10 comments:
And it is not only journalism that conservatism has turned to a heap of steaming shit.
That last paragraph stabs at the very heart of the real problem we face. The Republicans can bleat and twitch all they like as long as we have a functioning Fourth Estate to point out to the rest of the country that Republicans are bleating and twitching. No, we have a media that will show a dem/liberal scratching it's nose and call it the same, They'll spend days covering it with Heritage and CATO talking point generators with co-hosts from the Blaze. E son of E will be asked on to discuss why Dems wont stop bleating and twitching and get alone with RWs and do what they're told.
And there's Chuck the Todd sitting in the middle of it all with that '8 year old watching two ants fighting' smile.
@Jerry B A bit OT, but while reading the online shyte storm about MSNBC and CNN invading the alleged shooters' condo I thought to myself, "Yes. MSNBC. The same wonderful folks that bring us Chuck Todd 5 days a week".
Republicans are Fascists and "Both Sides" is Appeasement. It is time to stop them now (1968 would have been a good time too, but hey ..., I wouldn't kill Baby Nixon, Baby Reagan, ... but I would get them much better parenting and early intervention.)
@John MacCuish @Jerry B
For all of its grevous faults throughout the years, I must say that in the early and mid 60's the mainstream media held these fascists at bay and kept them in fringe territory. The book Dallas 1963 cites several anecdotes. Even Democratic politicians called them out.
Looking for a silver lining here.
Oh yes, there it is. The first against the wall turns out not to be Liberals, but fellow Republicans. Sort of like when "the base" turned on the Dixie Chicks for a minor slight, but Neil Young, Bruce Springstein, etc., still get to piss on Republicans day and night.
So just maybe ye olde survival instinct will kick in, and the so-called journos and print babblers realize that they're second in line for the wall. Because before the Teahadists come gunning for us hippies, they first have to purify the movement.
Then, too, don't no one hold their breath waiting for a Both Sides meth-head to have a moment of clarity.
Well, as the brother of two Pullitzer Prize winning print journalists can I just say we need to differentiate between the print media (big newspapers and news agencies and investigative media) and partisan print media and most of the TV (network and cable) and radio "journalists" who are mosty no such thing? Fortunately, an ever-smaller audience share watches the Sunday shows but an ever smaller share also reads the legit media too. So, I see a lot of frantic and ever outrageous posturing by the RW and Both Siderist TV/radio media but I don't know how much it is changing opinions. Overall, net ignorance is increasing for sure.
"No happy talk about bipartisanship can obscure that reality."
I read this over at Moyers' site and figured you'd see it. A thousand times yes.
@Jimbo
I will agree that the primary offenders are broadcast media (radio and TV).
Does it ever occur to you Two Party devotees that the GOP is just doing a very good job of playing its role of providing cover for a corporate indentured party of Dems taking the nation further and further to the Right, while still calling it the Center?
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