Rich writes: "For all the hand-wringing about Washington's chronic dysfunction and lack of bipartisanship, it may be the wholesale denial of reality by the opposition and its fellow travelers that is the biggest obstacle to our country moving forward under a much-empowered Barack Obama in his second term. If truth can't command a mandate, no one can."
Frank Rich. (photo: NYT)
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You're right, right now Dems are gloating and Repubs are grousing and who cares? The real deal is we're still being dealt out. We're still looking at forced austerity and a police state because the Pentagon and intelligence community is a big black hole and a very big buyer of MI complex toys for Wall Street profiteers who don't care how much of other people's blood they spill or how many old people starve.
We should be demanding public servants instead of bought and paid for politicians. We should be holding up our Constitution and Bill of Rights and yelling at our public employes that the document is their job description.
We're tired of politicians telling us Washington is broken. They're almost as proud of it as your new puppy crapping on the carpet.
We need to get the private and corporate money out of politics and federally fund elections so YOU can run for office and have a chance. The old-line political families (read dynasties) need to go (read Bush).
Rocky Anderson in '16. It we can't break em' we can at least bend em' a bunch.
JH Gordon
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/146139
Standing on the outside looking in will never win elections or help fix the problem. It's like screaming at an auto mechanic. Not gonna fix the car.
Right now with how Boner is talking, I would suggest Independent and third party get off their butts now start getting candidates out in the field....That is if they are serious. Too many I met were elitists, cocktail party talking of their Agendas. But push came to shove, never out in Public shaking hands, getting involved.
People should get to know the Candidates, see them with their sleeves up. Otherwise they are just another Politician
None of our 3rd parties will be able to compete against the big money until we create vibrant social movements. A new labor movement to match the '30's CIO, co-ops, radical neighborhood and student movements are just a few examples.
Very few people LIVE in political parties. We live in neighborhoods, jobs, schools and churches etc. If we can organize people to co-operate where they live - and improve lives, THEN we might be able to create a mass political party.
Republicans raised 3 times the amount of Democratic money because all the anti-democracy corrupt scum are Republican donors.
In 2010 the RNCC raised 32 million to defeat Alan Grayson who had the unfortunate task of telling the hard truth about the Republicans. They dropped tons of money against him again, but after 2 years of scumpublican antics in the House, Grayson, with far less cash, beat the bejabbers out of the twit they stupidly put in office in 2010.
Most of our goods and produce comes from other countries. We are "buying" ourselves right out of our jobs.
Our immigration policies, or lack of them, probably are a factor as well.
We have a lot of work to do.
Step two through one hundred are the steps not being taken to actually do something about it. Politicians do what they're told. ALL OF THEM DO. What we need to do is make our voice be as bold and consequential as rush limpo and the Kock brothers.
Time to get creative.
Time to get involved.
This can't be done on the internet alone.
When was the last time people demanded American Made? I do all the time. I was affected in my business. I used to buy China made crafts not for cheap but they made them well, Now their flowers, crafts have hit rock bottom, not to mention what is in those flowers etc, toys. They have taken over making our products but they do not make them well, we buy crap from China...I do not see anyone stopping.
I saw mention of Walmart Workers here...I see Walmart Parking lots filled. Why?
You have choice in your elections, there was plenty of choices. I had at least 4 choices in Senators, Treasurer, etc. I had choice in Pres or the Right to write one in. No one forces anyone to just vote D or R...
I don't think that our last choice was "Twedle-dee or Tweedle-Dumber" it was the smartest choice.
Perfect the Dems are not, but to compare them in the same breath to the GOP is a huge exaggeration. What is needed is to give the Dems more of a mandate to change the electoral process (e.g Citizens United), and to defend progressive policy in the meantime.
But it's not really that simple. There are differences. The Repubs have a theocratic agenda; the Dems do not. The Repubs reject climate science; the Dems do not. The Repubs are anti-choice; the Dems are pro-choice. The Repubs consistently nominate reactionaries to the judicial bench; the Dems do not. Obama's drone attacks are appalling, but he's reduced our military activity in Iraq, and resisted pressure to attack Iran (so far, at least). Romney would have been far worse.
The Dems betray their populist image all too often, but the Repubs are a religio-fascist nightmare, for the most part. Until preference voting and/or proportional representation replace(s) our winner-take-all elections, we'll be stuck with the lesser of two evils. That's currently the Dems. Sad, but true.
Truly cannot wait for the temporarily silent crazies to renew their fantasy efforts to smear the POTUS. 2014 is the time to rid this country of the last vestige of elected officials that rode the crazy wave & are still busy trying to undermine this country. Give em hell Mr. President & do not back down, we have your back.
If he actually wanted real democracy he'd be a Democrat. Republicans want tyranny, or at least oligarchy.
Alternative media support, campaign finance reform, (ending Citizens United,) voter accessibility reform, and a number of other issues will promote democracy.
There's lack of media consideration for 'dialectics' or 'facts / perspectives from both or all sides evenly', a crucial minimum standard, which barely 1% of journalists live up to. Its frightening to witness how whole populations rely on corporate media & don't check facts. Why aren't all of us 'vetting' information with alternative perspectives?
With both sides being indoctrinated by media monologues for war, the only revolution which we can start from is local mutual-aid. We all need a foundation from which to rebuild. Humanity's worldwide 'Indigenous' (Latin = 'self-generatin g') ancestors & First Nations here understood the importance of mutual-aid, embedding: 1) multihome living for female/male intergeneration al collaboration & 2) welcoming inclusive participation with universal progressive ownership in specialized Production Societies. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/relational-economy/8-economic-democracy
We (AND I MYSELF) willfully handed the GOP the House in 2010 to punish the Democrats for inaction. The stupidity of my logic was that I failed to take into account the 2010 census.
Now, the republicans have an inordinate amount of power due to gerrymandering. More people voted for the Democratic Party than the republican party in the House. But due to gerrymandering, the republican party still have a lot more seats. This is unlikely to change within the next 10 years or so.
I'm sorry, but the fact is that the House is equal to the Senate and the White House in this process. We can't fix that by just bitching.
Additionally, the legislature legislates. Presidents don't. The veto pen is all they have. That pen hasn't been used enough by Obama. Then again, vetoing legislation that includes provision HE NEEDS would be political suicide - UNLESS you're a republican President.
If you want to place the blame on people, place it on Senate and House Democrats AND, on the conservative media, and on all of us.
President Obama isn't better than we are. He's also not worse.
We have fended off the Gorgons by reelecting Obama. but it remains to be seen how much progress we will get from it. Six billion in election expenditures may leave us right where we were-- though thankfully not worse off.
On every single issue he's facing, the majority of voters are on his side. SS & Medicare, the environment, the middle class, the tax code, you name it. A majority may hate Obamacare but that's because it's too conservative, a solid majority wants some sort of solution from the government and they spoke loud and clear in this election.
may summarize the situation.... "They have learned nothing and they have forgotten nothing."
Excuses? Fantasy thinking?
Republicans will note that most of the Tea Party representatives in the House were reelected... Obama's support declined in some places, including among the African-America n voters.... Beyond that, it will be said that Hurricane Sandy gave Obama an advantage. And Romney was a Mormon and a Massachusetts liberal who failed as a candidate for the Tea Party. Blah, blah, blah.
Brace yourself for four difficult years.
The conservatives are still as wild and crazy as they were six months ago.
A Black Republican is basically still a slave yes man. or woman which is worse.
"This was the election in which even George Will (who predicted a 321 Electoral College win for Romney) surrendered to the cult of the talk-radio base and drank the Kool-Aid without realizing it had been laced with political cyanide."
And what price will Will have to pay for his gross cluelessness? Nothing. He'll continue to be paid for spreading his pseudo-intellec tual inanity on national television.
With respect to mandates, Frank cites 2001's very close results but should also have mentioned Obama's besting of W. Bush's 2004 win (SOURCE: GOOGLE):
W. Bush: 62,028,285 votes — 50.7%
Kerry: 59,028,109 votes 48.3%
Electoral College :286 to 251
Obama : 61,673,819 votes — 51%
Romney: 58,482,030 votes —48%
Electoral College: 303 to 206
In 2004, the rightwing said W. Bush had a mandate, and Bush said he "had political capital and he was going to use it."
So why is the right now saying Obama has no mandate? Because, as the article's examples repeatedly indicate, they invent their own reality to fit their ideology — a very childlike refusal to perceive the real world and even more evidence they are unfit to lead.
Easy prediction: All the rightwing nuts mentioned in the article will retain their writing desks and salaries and continue to spew garbage as if nothing had happened.
Thanks Florida You are getting smarter.
Is it possible that the reason truth has been so destabilized since 9/11 is that we've collectively bought into a false reality? Given the evolution from truthiness from the late 90s ("Depends on what the meaning of "is" is") to the utter disregard for facts displayed in this election, how can we afford not to question whether we've been living under a false reality since 9/11/01?
Here's my own personal experience on this topic. The morning of 9/11/01 I was on a subway in Chicago. I overheard two women talking about the attack and then heard one of them say the towers had collapsed. I immediately interjected to inform them that skyscrapers are built to withstand massive impacts and do just collapse. In my mind the reality that was just presented to me was not logical. Despite this, I allowed myself to buy into the narrative and decided it was better to just move on with life. In the last couple of years I have reconsidered this line of thinking. I believe my gut reaction, which was and is shared by millions of others, was correct.
We cannot expect to recover from a mass psychosis if we do not confront the cause.
I think you make an excellent point, SwanSong. 9/11 has never made sense to me, either, and although I'm not a wild-eyed conspiracy nut, I do not for one minute believe we have been told anything approximating the truth about it. But the whole country was paralyzed with shock and fear in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Seems to me that made us ripe for brain-washing, and that's exactly what we got from bushco. Mass psychosis indeed.
I suspect it would open many, many eyes if the REAL truth of 9/11 came out. Where oh where are the investigative reporters who could uncover it?
But reporters are on the forefront, too. This very readersupported news, or its earlier parallel truthout.org were responses to turn the desperation of post-911 into action. I guess that Romney also lost because of grassroots acts like informing fast and wide via new media, judicial groups on the alert and voter rights initiatives who would immediately jump on any irregularities. There were numerous attempts to steal the election again, but this time they could be nipped in the bud.
Most of them wouldn't have made it past the bye-election phase in most "civilized" nations.
The Owner-media are doing their jobs well.
Also it points out how right-wing our media has become. To depict the prez race as being super close does serve the interests of theatre, but it is wasting time we need to deal with REAL problems.
Canada would not allow Murdock into their market because they have a law that the media cannot lie.
Why not us?
Journalism...I do not know it they teach this anymore... I see it in Liberal, Freedom Presses, Occassional Foreign but over all it is opinions or buy out/black out news
Look...the conserves will meet in their enclave on “C” Street , hold hands, utter a fanatical religious mantra or two and thereafter claim they are doing God’s work. If God was a hedge fund manager or a corporatist, or another species of Milton Friedman sociopath they would be correct. Alas, that isn’t the way it works. But hey! Not to worry. All will be forgotten and forgiven. As John Steinbeck once said, "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." They will be forgotten because too many American’s have bought into the notion that by scapegoating those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder their lot in life will improve. Believe me, some chump driving a dusty, rickety, broken down 1956 pick-up with a George Wallace bumper sticker is repeating the right-wing nonsense that we’re a nation of “makers and takers”. (In a perverse manner that is true. Corporate chieftains, investors, pundits and politicians produce zilch. It is the working class that produces all wealth.)
Who gets hurt in a recession? Only working class folks. The wealthy entered the current connived slump rich and they will emerge rich. Only working class people will have suffered. But then what happens? Well, true to our battered person syndrome persona we blame the disadvantaged for our problems. We call them takers. We pretend we’re not being exploited...hec k, we’re just temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Someday our ship will come in providing we remain true to the richest 2% who have so deftly honed the skill of divide and conquer corporate governance.
Frederick Douglas wrote, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never”. Understanding that simple reality will free us from the bondage of delusion and the prison of division and give us the strength to demand justice.
We must organize! We must organize into unions. We must organize ourselves and become neighborhood activists. We must recognize that it is us versus the richest 2%. We must recognize they do not follow the laws of charity and brotherhood. The dollar, mark, rupee, peso, euro, pound, yaun, and yen are their gods and the source of the unconscionable power they use to retain their authoritarian dominance. They are exploiters because the god they worship on “C” Street says its ok.
We must show them that it is not ok with us.
These are NOT "conservatives" (what exactly are they really 'conserving'?) Rather, they are right wing RADICAL [as in tearing up by the ROOTS] extremists and fanatics.
A wholesale denial of reality. I'm reminded of Bill O'Reily sadly opining, post-election, that it's "not a traditional America anymore." Such a palpable and painful sense of loss for an America that they like to believe used to be.
After following this (capitalist) paradigm for a long time, the handlers and praetorians of the oligarchs-- such as the Republican party and FOX news-- personally invalidate what does not fit, not simply to promote the model. This is not so impossible, because they are selected (in part) by their sympathy for this model.
Next question: how will the oligarchical paradigm be tweaked so that it maintains support for the ascendency of the rich, but is more acceptable to everyone else? Or will they simply double down and attempt to ensnare even more people in the same delusions?
I wonder if we will see a huge reframing of social issues, along with a refusal to acknowledge that the Right ever saw them differently? Possibly a Randian/liberta rian emphasis?
I personally would award you, without qualm, the Pulitzer Prize for journalism based on this one piece alone.
One could only hope that you are in good health and are able to continue writing in like manner for many years to come.
Bravo!!
2012 6 5 ZOC Job Pyramid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6qjvLSCtpc
Watch it, share it, and join the fight against those who want to kill all of us with destructive social policies.
There was a time when the news was a filter. It took its job seriously and took people (even the electorate) to task for b.s. It challenged us. It told us things we didn't want to hear and we had no choice but to listen because we had no place to hide from it on the internet where we could be comforted by people of like minds.
That's all gone now, due in part to cable, due to a general lack of integrity in current living generations (of people below 80 years old), due to marketing and micro-targeting , due to mental laziness, due to an overworked (even though intellectually lazy) populace, due to an overriding shallowness and superficiality of anything presented by the mass media - AND BY THE INTERNET.
BUT, the also internet represents the potential undoing of some of this. YouTube is the enemy of the conservative right. If you want to know what Mitt thought two weeks ago - YouTube will remind you. If you wanted older proof of his inconsistency - YouTube. It's hard to argue with old film footage. YouTube also haunted McCain and Palin in '08.
It really was a sweet thing to watch the utter implosion of the right wing this week. The GOP can no longer count upon the votes of old and bitter, sexually frustrated white men to put them over the top.
MESSAGE TO MY FELLOW WHITE PEOPLE: Someday in the not-too-distant future, we won't be in the majority anymore. In fact that day will come within the lifespan of most of you who are now reading this. I know this must be a bitter pill for some of you to swallow - but that's the way it is and there's nothing we can do to alter the unalterable . There has been such an insane, mass hissy-fit over the fact that, for the first time in history, a black family is living in the family quarters (as opposed to the servants quarters) of the White House. Honestly, we really need to get a grip here, folks.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
If people are that desperate to vote for such a blatantly obvious demagogue really means that their ripe for manipulation on a grand scale if the effort is marketed well enough.
"In the end times people would rather believe a lie than to believe the truth: we're in seriously deep trouble folks!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY0M7IdNl7U&sns=em
One is Mary Matalan’s description of Obama as a “a political narcissistic sociopath.” This is exactly how I would describe the 'evolution' (devolution) of the Republican Party over the last 3 decades. The GOP has morphed into a party of political narcissistic sociopaths who parrot lies, ignore facts and reinvent reality. How Republicans are consciously choosing to reinvent the message sent by the majority of voters on November 6th AGAINST Republican 'policies'.
I agree with Frank. The right has no intention of changing Republican policies or reinventing itself with the truth. Their astounding level of mendacity (the new norm for the right), and unabashedly unashamed efforts to steal and buy the election will continue.
Romney was clumsy, obvious and decidedly unlikable. He let the cat out of the bag so many times. Given Republican's response to O's re-election, the right is continuing down the same path. What it will do is find candidates who can lull people into thinking they truly have something new to offer.
The right will take their hate, rage and bitterness underground. They’ll work to develop ways to refine and finesse their message. They’ll reinvent themselves by lacing its bitter venom with a delicate filigree of sugar coating to make it an easier pill for the public to swallow.
As much as anything else, this election was about actual facts and data (Nate Silver) vs. "feelings" and "gut sense" (Noonan and Scarborough and the rest). Guess what: science won.
This is of course profoundly threatening to the pundits, who fear losing what little relevancy they still have.
A challenge to the Villagers: how about justifying your existence by taking a stand for truth, and swearing off your bad habits of false balance ("Views differ on shape of planet.") and false equivalence ("Both sides are equally guilty.").
Are you up to it? Nah, I didn't think so.
Now. Time to roll up our sleeves and see what we can do about campaign finance reform. All the conversation revolves around the $$ spent, not the suffering tv and radio listners who were inundated. It's time to poll all those poor voters in swing states and environs: 'So, how'd you like all those negative ads?' If they knew there were a way to eliminate them, wouldn't they? Send out petitions, call representatives , contact the local tv and radio stations. If Montana can do it why can't everyone else?
They have no other strategy, they've been pushing this same trickle down/Ayn Rand economics for the last 30 years since Reagan. They used to be able to point to the economic bubble to justify it all, when it all collapsed they have desperately tried to re-write history to blame it all on the progressive accomplishments of the last century, they even labeled Bush a progressive. They're desperate and don't know what else to do. Clinging to Reaganomics like they cling to their fundamentalist Christianity. No evidence to back any of it up.
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