Boehler reports: "Raise your hand if you thought conservatives would respond to President Obama's convincing re-election victory by lashing out at voters and the country as a whole." ]
Sean Hannity on Fox News. (photo: Fox News)
Defeated Right-Wing Media Wage War On Voters
11 November 12
aise your hand if you thought conservatives would respond to President Obama's convincing re-election victory by lashing out at voters and the country as a whole, denouncing the presidential pick as the act of a greedy, lazy nation.
Well, that was part of Sean Hannity's media message yesterday, as the Obama basher tried to make sense of the president's surprisingly easy victory on Tuesday. Having spent the last four years smearing and denouncing the president with every passing breath on the radio and on Fox News, Hannity was faced with the humiliating reality that most voters paid him no mind.
"Americans, you get the government you deserve," the talker told listeners yesterday, his words dripping with contempt. "And it pains me to say this, but America now deserves Barack Obama."
Hannity wasn't alone in lashing out at voters. The disdain has been completely unvarnished. Perhaps it flows from the fact so many people dismissed the far-right warnings about Obama.
And that's the box the GOP Noise Machine built for itself: During Obama's entire first term they depicted him as a business-hating, class warfare socialist who despises the American way of life.
But if that's true, why did Obama just score his second electoral landslide in four years?
Either 60 million voters just rejected the Noise Machine's endless, and often hysterical, claims about Obama, or all of those voters are part of the socialist problem in our "maker vs. taker" society. Faced with that choice, and refusing to admit their messaging futility, the right-wing media have opted for the latter: Americans are the real problem!
Tens of millions of them.
Never hesitating to question whether they were the ones out of step with the mainstream, and if their Doomsday warnings about the center-left president were too extreme to be taken seriously by most voters, far-right talkers and writers set their sights on the populace and berated the nation for picking the wrong candidate, and for being selfish, thoughtless people on the prowl Tuesday for "free stuff" from their "Santa Claus" government, as Rush Limbaugh put it.
"People feel that they are entitled to things," Bill O'Reilly lamented on Election Day, as he launched a pre-emptive attack on voters. Led by Hispanics, blacks and women, O'Reilly claimed there's a whole country filled with moochers who vote Democratic.
"Put bluntly, the takers outnumber the makers," blogged John Hinderaker.
Have we ever heard such a contemptuous, post-election attack on American democracy?
Voters weren't simply misguided in choosing Obama and the Democratic agenda, we're told they revealed themselves as deeply flawed people. And it wasn't just politicians, partisans or minorities (the usual far-right targets) who were the focus of the wrath. It was tens of millions of Americans, half the voting public for this election, who have been denounced. They are the ones who allegedly fell for Obama's "fruitful political strategy" of "offering" voters a "check" in exchange for their support.
Yes, conservatives blamed the media for Mitt Romney's loss. After the votes were tallied they called for impeachment and revolution, while continuing to spew insults at Obama. (National Review Online: "A political narcissistic sociopath"; "a skillful demagogue.") They also blamed the weather and a popular Republican governor, denouncing Chris Christie as "gelatinous clown."
But probably the most startling response was the decision to blame Americans. To blame democratic participants for endorsing Obama's alleged brand of give-away socialism. (i.e Auto bailouts, health insurance, unemployment, etc.)
The lashing out didn't come as a complete surprise given the awkward reckoning that awaited the right-wing media on Election Day: How were they going to explain Obama's re-election if they'd spent the previous four years portraying him a un-American? Why would Obama be able to capture virtually every swing state if, as Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have claimed, the president hates America?
The gulf between the right-wing portrayal of Obama and how he's seen by most Americans has always been enormous. Election Day simply quantified that disconnect and forced his most partisan critics to venture outside their echo chamber and to choose whether they had been wrong about Obama, or if the voters had been.
Verdict: The voters had been wrong. So wrong, in fact, that they'd instantly turned America into "the shallowest country in the history of man."
Limbaugh substitute Mark Steyn complained this week on Fox & Friends that "there's nothing compassionate or humanitarian about saying, as they do in Greece, I got mine and I don't care if it bankrupts the state." He claimed that's what American voters did on Tuesday.
And Fox News' Eric Bolling bemoaned America's choice: "I have to sit back and go, Americans -- 50 percent of people who voted, voted for more of that?" Shorter Fox News: What is wrong with these people?
On and on the whining has gone, as conservatives turned their anger on everyday voters and citizens, mocking them as lazy hangers-on.
Writing at Vanity Fair, James Wolcott noted the GOP's jarring about-face:
Used to be, conservatives revered the Average American, that Norman Rockwell oil painting of diner food, humble faith, honest toil, and Capraesque virtue.
The Average American turns out to be a dumb patsy fattened up for the slaughter by too much government cheese and other freebies.
Obama's victory represents a clear rebuttal of the conservative media. Outlets could have marked the occasion with some actual introspection. Instead, its leaders embraced two hallmarks of the movement: personal attacks and a refusal to take responsibility for their actions.
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Comments
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I have travelled the extensively throughout the Middle East, and around the world. As the reporter in Kabul told me, "I work for BBC RADIO we DO tell people the truth. Shut your *!#*#!! television off!"
Thanks to RSN and a number of other organizations for providing us with at least an opportunity to discover the truth. If we choose to look the other way shame on us.
You keep posting the same rant and continually ignore the right's responsibility for millions of lost lives, soldiers losing limbs, brain injuries, record suicides.
Stop lying and ignoring the many failed policies of the right.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/12/1130950/-If-diplomatic-attacks-are-a-sign-of-weakness-Bush-was-the-weakest-of-all
We -you and me , We The People - are the bad guys here! We MUDST BE , because it's either them or us. . , and they have the microphones!
Look at it like this: The 48 % of the vote that went to Romney was split between (God help us) people who actually favored Romney & his non-policies AND people who were voting AGAINST Obama for race, failure to perform miracles, or whatever. I'd say that categorizing 10% of all voters in this group would be a fair estimate.
So subtract that 10% from Romney's vote count and THAT 38% of the total vote , Beloved, is the sum total of We The People's support for the Romney and the GOP's 2012 agenda! Which is about on par with Romney's approval rating going on to the election. That places the ideological split at 50% - 38%, Obama . . . which pretty much squares with Obama's and Romney's approval ratings heading into the election.
How you like them apples, Limp-baugh?
In the reality-based world they would be.
But in the "Bubble", they need to keep on attacking, complaining, manufacturing outrage and creating fear and hatred, or they are completely out of a job, at which point they become more irrelevant than they are at present, which is a very short trip.
It sounds like a good idea, golferdawn, but they never will. Each of these soulless shills have enough money to buy their own private island(s) and never have to deal with looking at people who look different than them, ever again. Their "STUFF" as Bill-O-the-clow n refers to (money, houses, land, fine wines, excellent epicurean cuisine), is who they are and all they will ever have. In their own secluded uni-chromatic society, they would become bored in just a few days. Worse yet, they would start looking at family lines, wealth, and other factors in order to begin the socioeconomic class structure (and warfare) ALL OVER AGAIN!!! They would destroy themselves in just months or even WEEKS!!! They are too cowardly to establish such a community. MANY OF THEM are too afraid of retribution from those they have wronged.
Actually, I came to the same conclusion.
I only wonder how these so called religious fanatics never asked God why he did not create a world with only white people? I guess they figute it had to be God's plan so the SUPRME WHITE POPULATION COULD HAVE THEIR SLAVES TO SERVE THEIR GREED! wELL, WHY THEN DO WE NOT HAVE ONLY ROSES IN THE GARDENS OF NATURE, ONE BREED OF ANIMALS, ETC? OH, THAT MIGHT BE A BIT TOO DEEP A THOUGHT FOR SOME fFOX NEWS-lIMBOUGH INTELLECT TO PROCCESS
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/10/23/poll-finds-20-of-21-countries-strongly-prefer-obama-exception-pakistan/
The WORLD is happy with Obama. Only a small percentage of the WORLD wishes Romney had won.
Hannity and Rush are getting big bucks for keeping the wingnuts afraid and angry...really the sheeple got to get a hold of this eventually, that they are being duped. The GOP is imploding along with Karl Roves brain LOL.
My thoughts as well. Although Bush II was never really elected the first or second time, I thought in a sane country he should have been repudiated the second time by such a margin that no Ohio electronic voting fix could have made a difference.
If we can swing the mid-term elections in the same direction as 2012, maybe we can say we have begun to take the nation back from the neanderthals.
It's all about Congress in 2014!
Now Obama wins by more electoral and popular votes than Bush and they say he squeaked in.
But the bigger truth in what you're bringing to us, jaimot, is that we're a deeply conflicted nation. Half of us, fed the propaganda/brai nwashing of the FAUX/Limbag/Bec chk lies -- coupled with the mainstream media not being willing to call a liar a liar, our nation is divided and in trouble.
But...but... isn't that what Ayn Rand said we should all say?
aS DID rOMNEY????
The very same people who contributed to Romney's campaign, who helped bundle money and donated anonomously to the Super PACs were these people. Maybe some of them had friends who made the commercials. Does anyone remember the ad for Romney--well technically it wasn't for him as much as it was against the president--that stated, it was alright that we had tried Obama in 2008...anybody can make a mistake...but, now it's time to get rid of Obama, blah, blah blah.
It was the same principle. First chiding us but gently guiding us about our first mistake, then like an upset parent who's instructions haven't been followed to the "T", telling us we deserve no better than what we get...even if it IS destruction.
Too much of it foists itself as 'News' but in actuality, makes its income from vitriolic rants and deliberate efforts to label everyone in America either a Liberal or a Conservative, then seriously divide Americans along fault lines both real and completely made up, then pit us against each other in between commercial breaks for the sake of ratings, profit and 'lobby' for the kind of votes they hope will make Government fit their agenda.
Who disputes the basic reality of this?
So much of Our so-called 'Free Press is so narrowly owned and exploited now thanks to rampant deregulation schemes, I will ask you if you feel America still has much of a Free Press?
Is News Media almost all now more like tabloid/propaga nda entities which view any and all information in the world, real AND made up as a commodity to manipulate and exploit how they see fit for their interests?
Look at the current situation in Argentina. The President of Argentina has had enough of a similar situation. She has boldly taken on the task of breaking up Corporate Media Monopolies in the name of Democracy.
Who will do that here for us?
Yet, the existence of BOTH represent a real and broad 'news and information' vacuum for America.
Again, FAR too much of American Media Enterprises are in the hands and control of FAR too few Corporate Entities. In and of itself, this is divisive and extremely mind narrowing. And, because there is no Fairness Doctrine compelling equal or reasonable time for independent alternative views and opinions, Americans are more able to tune exclusively into what validates their views and live in a bubble which for many becomes-- 'out there, is a nation filled with others!!.. oh my God!'
(get my drift?)
Historically, it is normal for media owners to express their views, but currently a disaster for America when there is such narrow and broad control over so much media by so few with 'agendas.'
If you look at news operations like Al Jazeera, BBC, Australia Channel and others around the globe, you would quickly see that Americans are far less exposed to not only a broad range of world realities, but even domestic ones. America no longer has much of a broad and diverse 'free' Press with wide ranging investigative journalism. We have a lot of rant, tabloid-samenes s and competing same issue speculation machines.
Al Jazeera was the ONLY Broadcaster in the world to show the American Third Parties Debate hosted by Larry King!
I must point out that you are mistaken.
Amy Goodman and DemocracyNOW!'s program, "Expanding the Debate" gave the other canidates an oportunity to express their views. See
http://www.democracynow.org/
and search "Expanding the Debate"
Rachel Anne Maddow should replace Deborah Wasserman Schultz as the Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
After I wrote that comment, and added a note to the site, someone at RSN changed the spelling to add the "t" at the end of Boehlert's name.
Indeed, politics have become a distraction. Isn't there still water in the New York tunnels?
So much is being said about what ratio of different demographics/or races voted for whom, but not enough about the issues each candidate represented that people voted for or against. Considering the horrific policies of the GOP regarding women's issues, their war-mongering, their threats to dismantle social services that people paid for and depend on, their alignment with Christian religious fundamentalists , threats to basic human rights, the margin of victory for President Obama should have been even wider.
What? The acidification is happening -NOW- as a result of dissolving CO2 in the water. IT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT WILL HAPPEN related to corrective actions!
They've proven themselves to be the biggest whiners we know.
Beginning with such statements.made by Romney at $10,000-a-plate dinners.
Bill
Sanity, responsibility, and truth needs to trump sensationalism, lies, and anger. Fox news needs to be responsible for what they are creating. Rupert, Cheney, Rove, and Rush have created a cult of right wing nut jobs that think they are informed when infact they are less informed then people who dont watch any news. I know a lady who spouts Hannity like its a fact, the nonsense she spews is amazingly uninformed and sometimes bordering on ridiculous and most times crosses the line into lunacy. Most times Im so flabber ghasted at the amount of nonsense, I just cant see any sane type of debate or verbal exchange happening between us. Its amazing the lies being reported as news. Fox news will go down in history, after it is disbanded, as the worst propaganda machine in America. Im hoping on some level so called news media will be held accountable for what they report, that its fact based and not fairy tales of the deluded. They are making up their own reality, and bringing unsuspecting victims into a bubble of disinformation. This stuff needs to be illegal.
This puts one thing into play. Racism is a CHOICE. We are also sapient, sagacious persons with the ability to learn about those things that we fear. When someone say they don't like Iranians or moslems, I ask if they met one or if they can tell me why. Most have no reason. If you want to know the reason for our destruction, it our own willingness to be ignorant. It is a choice. With computers and, yes they still exist, libraries, there is really no excuse for it. Perhaps, in a way, if we had elected Romney those pundits would have been right and we would have gotten what we deserved because we chose not to see what was in front of our eyes. How does one force a country's eyes open? If Romney had won, perhaps we should have asked that just as Germany should have asked it in 1932 before the fire in the Reichstag.
Then there are the takers who sit behind their desks dressed in their Brooks Brothers suits and Armani shoes paying themselves far beyond anything that they're worth with money that was earned by the makers and should have gone to them instead.
But Sean Hannity knows better. He has a uniquely accurate frame of reference from which to lecture us from his memory-foam swivel chair on who's getting exactly what done in this country. Nothing like the down-home wisdom of a coiffed & manicured, milk-fed right wing pundit to put it all in perspective for us.
I wonder if he knows how clearly he's made his point?
Hannity and Co. seem to be of the same mindset -as well as those blinkered reactionaries infesting RSN betimes, who can't see through the red mist of their hatred for a President who, shall we say, "Doesn't look like them", is multicultural in origin and at least a little progressive, lumps, failings and all who will do his best for you within the limits allowed him by the military-indust rial and banking complexes.
Again, may I suggest Paraguay (I've often been told to move back to Europe by at least one of these predictable, antediluvian bores). It is tropical, corrupt, landlocked, back in the shadow of the medievalist right and more and more isolated by it's more progressive neighbors. You'd be right at home there but might actually have to work until too old then drop dead; and the people may get pissed off enough again to take back the government.
The world is shrinking for the hard Right hate-mongers, which is possibly why the Bush Die-nasty have bought a large swathe of land in Paraguay, long a last resort of Nazi war-criminals.
I would consider what is happening right now in Ohio (state level) to be violence against women, and thank you RSN for the warning. Pro-choice e-mails and cards to the Ohio statehouse would be appreciated.
I just sent a contribution to the Ohio Democratic Party for a recount of two people who ran for the state house; if the provisional and mail-in ballots are counted, the Democrats probably won. If funds are not raised for this recount, then the Republicans will have a super-majority, and they can push through the worst abortion rule in the country. I feel like pirates have already stolen our state; this is the capper. Lots of state Democratic Parties need recount funds right now in important votes.
While I feel that the right-wing is shrinking, there are plenty of white families with 5 kids and extremist values; this will still be an issue down the road, even if they are the minority. And if everybody in America is reproducing like this, we will be more populated than China in 50 years.
Seventy percent of counties with the fastest-growth in food-stamp aid during the last four years voted for the Republican pre sidential candidate in 2008, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data .
So who are the so-called "moochers" the ReFlublicans keep whining about?.......TH EMSELVES
Stop whining and let's get on with fixing damage done by the right.
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