Monday, September 26, 2022

The Both Siderist Ring Has Awoken. It’s Heard Its Master’s Call.

The oldest and most enduring Big Lie in American politics and media has been the Big Lie of Both Sides Do It.  Entire careers have been built on it.  Entire media corporations have taken it as their guiding principle.  For as long as I can remember it has been the official state religion of the Beltway press and those who strayed from it were caste out as heretics.

The Big Lie of Both Sides Do Ia was the One Lie which made all the other big lies possible.  And for a time -- a very brief time -- during the Trump Administration it was assumed by many political pollyannas and weak-minded persons that this ancient evil had been destroyed.  

But the Big Lie of Both Sides Do It was not destroyed.  It mere laid dormant for a time -- a very brief time -- until various hucksters and con men and demagogies and pundits once again needed the toxic energy the Big Lie offered.  And now the Big Lie of Both Sides Do It is once again on the move and gaining speed.   Reconstituting its old legions and rebuilding its old alliances. 

 In fact, just this week the Chaos Queen of Arizona was seen chanting the ancient conjure words to bind herself to one of the most painstakingly evil men in America in the name of bipartisanship.  

From Business Insider:

Mitch McConnell calls Kyrsten Sinema the 'most effective first-term senator' he's seen and praises her defense of the filibuster

Sinema delivered a speech on "The Future of Political Discourse and the Importance of Bipartisanship" at the University of Louisville's McConnell Center, named after the senior Kentucky senator, who introduced Sinema at the event.

"I've only known Kyrsten for four years, but she is, in my view — and I've told her this — the most effective first-term senator I've seen in my time in the Senate," the Republican leader said. "She is, today, what we have too few of in the Democratic Party: a genuine moderate, and a dealmaker."

McConnell went on to commend Sinema for her opposition to ending the so-called filibuster in the Senate, which requires 60 affirmative votes to advance legislation...

From the C-SPAN transcript, with emphasis added:

Sinema:  In Washington, our politics have become increasingly radicalized, spiraling steadily downward into bitter and tribal extremism.

Also Sinema:  ...some political leaders on both sides of the aisle have let the loudest and more extreme voices in each party dominate the discourse.

And again Sinema:  For too long, political games in Washington — on both sides of the aisle — stopped progress from protecting our communities and keeping families safe and secure. So common sense proposals were tossed to the side by partisan lawmakers who chose politics.

As Wonkette points out, Sinema has alienated pretty much every demographic group imaginable -- 

Sinema consistently demonstrates the moral courage and savvy political instincts that have rendered her radioactive in Arizona. A new poll for AARP Arizona revealed that Sinema has underwater approval among every possible demographic: Democrats, Republicans, independents, women, men, Hispanic voters, white voters, voters under 50, voters over 50 ... geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids ... they all hate her. No one thinks she's a righteous dude.

Just look at these numbers. It's a political flat line.

-- except the worst of the worst.

Which is why, although there are many, many words that would get me banned from Twitter that I could use to describe the monstrous company that Sinema keeps, the most accurate words of all would be "entirely" and "predictable".



Burn The Lifeboats



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

And here we see another aspect of the Big Lie - the media knowingly lets liars lie. Maybe that's not so true at a preplanned speech, which isn't a media event - but they know, certainly, that many if not most of the media-facing words out of Sen. McConnell's mouth are undiluted, maliciously-minded falsehood - yet they nod their heads and hold the microphone a little closer, focus the camera a little more.

They know that Republicans are lying, with intent to secure their power at the direct expense of the average American citizen, and at horrific cost to American democracy - yet they treat every word as good-faith speech from a party of loyal opposition. Which the GOP ceased to be a very long time ago.

And then there's the other insidious lobe of the Big Lie - smearing Democrats through intentional conflation of forgetfulness, speaking errors, or stutters (you know, like Joe Biden has) with the malicious falsehood consistently promulgated by Republicans. The media actively works to drag Democrats down, by holding them to a standard completely unknown to Republicans.

The whole thing, the whole inner circle of Beltway media, is rotten as hell, and that rot has deep roots in larger media circles as well. The complete character of mainstream media reporting and journalism in America has absolutely got to change. At this point, the enterprise with a Constitutional protection to serve the American people humbly and faithfully - and factually - has been largely co-opted by the worst people and influences in America.

Something's got to give. I just hope I live to see it.

Thanks DG.

dervy scram said...

and then there are the VOTES

Lawrence said...

Nice photoshop.

Dave Latchaw said...

I think Mitch meant 'most effective one-term senator.'

Grung_e_Gene said...

Great Alt-Jill Stein photoshop.