The Romney campaign is "creating a parallel Republican universe of Orwellian dimension - where anything can be asserted, where pollsters and political advisers are free to create whatever concoction of lies will help elect their candidate."
Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
Romney Is Lying Through His Big White Teeth
29 August 12
e're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers," says Neil Newhouse, a Romney pollster.
A half dozen fact-checking organizations and websites have refuted Romney's claims that Obama removed the work requirement from the welfare law and will cut Medicare benefits by $216 billion.
Last Sunday's New York Times even reported on its front page that Romney has been "falsely charging" President Obama with removing the work requirement. Those are strong words from the venerable Times. Yet Romney is still making the false charge. Ads containing it continue to be aired.
Presumably the Romney campaign continues its false claims because they're effective. But this raises a more basic question: How can they remain effective when they've been so overwhelmingly discredited by the media?
The answer is the Republican Party has developed three means of bypassing the mainstream media and its fact-checkers.
The first is by repeating big lies so often in TV spots - financed by a mountain of campaign money - that the public can no longer recall (if it ever knew) that the mainstream media and its fact-checkers have found them to be lies.
The second is by discrediting the mainstream media - asserting it's run by "liberal elites" that can't be trusted to tell the truth. "I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking Republicans," Newt Gingrich charged at a Republican debate last January, in what's become a standard GOP attack line.
The third is by using its own misinformation outlets - led by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and his yell-radio imitators, book publisher Regnery, and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, along with a right-wing blogosphere - to spread the lies, or at least spread doubt about what's true.
Together, these three mechanisms are creating a parallel Republican universe of Orwellian dimension - where anything can be asserted, where pollsters and political advisers are free to create whatever concoction of lies will help elect their candidate, and where "fact-checkers" are as irrelevant and intrusive as is the truth.
Democracy cannot thrive in such a place. To the contrary, history teaches that this is where demagogues take root.
The Romney campaign has decided it won't be dictated by fact-checkers. But a society without trusted arbiters of what is true and what is false is vulnerable to every lie imaginable.
Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
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Comments
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DO VOTE; vote as if your livelihood depends on it, as it truly does. Don't ever set out another election or let the Rs convince you that your vote doesn't count. IT DOES COUNT.
we have to stop meeting like this.
Fact-checkers results only work if the actual results are understood by the millions of stupid people, and we know that isn’t going to happen. When polls ask questions who do you like better as a person, instead of who do you think really understands the complex issues and how to solve them in a manner that will benefit the average American. They liked Obama better than they liked McCain, issues be damned.
Trust Him???????????? ??
How closely does Romney represent what most Americans are as opposed to what we pretend to be ?
Important and worth doing absolutely. But unfortunately many of his constituents have a DON'T CONFUSE US WITH THE FACTS! attitude.
Typical of any conversation I have attempted to have with low information Righties. You have nothing behind your accusations so you support one accusation with another accusation. I call it a filibuster. I am not even asking for facts, just arguments based on a consistent logic.
So, just for fun. Your opening statement about Obama telling BS? So, big deal. BS is not necessarily a lie so the first statement cannot be used as a building block to support your second. How about an example of transparency or how Obama is destroying the Middle Class. For emphasis, you should contrast that last point with the Republican plan to save the Middle class. Why do you need to see his college records? Just take a breath, and find one area that you can explain your point in such a way that maybe someone will see your point; because from here your only point is that you despise President Obama. And if I was you I would be watching over my shoulder for one of those drones. (sic)
They are both big fat LIARS, no doubt about it. The question is, who is the more destructive? At least Obama doesn't have plans to turn the aged in this country out in the streets so that a few greedy people can wring a few extra dollars out of the government.
The first is a lie unsubstantiated by any fact, the latter is a claim that cannot be proven or disproved since it merely claims that Orange Juice tastes good. A fact that many people would agree with.
Tht Romney guys are engaging in a lie by telling you that Obama causes pimples.
These are not free speech issues.
Deliberate lying in advertising, political or otherwise, should be considered the same kind of crime.
By the way, it was mostly Republican governors who asked for this waiver. The federal government has not "mandated" anything. It has simply allowed the states more flexibility.
Allowing something is not the same as commanding it. And nothing in the directive permits states to waive the work requirements.
You're repeating one of the big lies Reich referred to.
I'll donate $35 because the article points out the verifiable TRUTH.
You may be correct, or I might be, but your comment could have been said it as well without the insult. As it happens, I have a great deal of education, formal and otherwise, and my take on the phrase was as stated. Couldn't reasonable minds differ without resorting to ad hominem attacks? It does seem that various readers understood the nuance differently.
What happened to the gentlemen of the Congress?
-Adolf Hitler
Here's the deal: All these people have going for them is THE BIG LIE. they can't run a campaign based on the merits of their ideas because those ideas suck. What to do? The same thing reactionaries have always done. The same thing Hitler did eighty years ago - conjure up phantoms.
Get used to living in a country in ruins.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
I have been thinking a lot about Hitler, lately, and the human psyche. How could so many follow and nurture his peculiar evil?
What social conditions could have made the Germans and others more ripe for the taking?
I understand what Romney and his ilk are up to... but I cannot understand why.
Why, for some, does the search for power have no reasonable bounds?
We are now living an important and compressed history.... the history of the destruction of our souls, our country, and the planet itself.
And I cannot turn away.
Great points. I think you may have hit on an underlying reason for the selection of Ryan. Paul Ryan has a reputation as a serious policy wonk, that runs the numbers and takes his positions based on the power of math. Which is really ironic considering the Republican general disdain for science. Nevertheless, Ryan, as those of us that follow this crap actually bases his positions on ideology and then cherry picks the numbers to make it all look right. I am fairly certain that Romney does the same, but his only ideology is to win the election that daddy didn't.
So Romney selected Ryan for his ability to cram facts or numbers into making his ideology look legit, and Ryan's ideology is mostly what Romney perceives to be the path to victory. Note that truth is not part of either man's view of the world as being important. And to paraphrase that great American ice cream innovator and shameless corporate shill, Stephen Colbert; Truthiness is what matters.
Now, for the bad news. Mitt Romney and Scott Brown also share some of the same campaign team. In particular, Eric "Etch-A-Sketch" Fernstrom. Underestimate him at your own peril. The practice of creating a false narrative from innocuous and disconnected facts is his forte. The welfare lie is no different than the attack on Warren because the state is trying to register welfare recipients, or that Warren is considered a top flight academic because she made up a story about being part Cherokee. This is representative of Fernstrom's campaign modus operandi. Create the impression that the opponent is not an honorable candidate, after some time the public just remembers that the other guy is dishonorable.
The big question is: What can we, as ordinary citizens (in a blue state like California, for example), do to counteract this alarming threat to our democracy?
He has made a heretofore unknown discovery; hold on...take a deep breath...politi cians lie!
I know this is hard to swallow but we all just need to buck up and live with it. Romney and friends, being politicians of course, can't be trusted to tell the whole truth or, even a little bit of it.
Now it should be noted that more than a few of Bob's friends, think Bill Clinton, even "Hill" and (gasp) Obama, have have had their own problems with veracity from time to time. But then, perhaps Bob is willing to cut a bit of slack for "white lies".
But no matter, Bob, you have brought enlightenment to the masses of uninformed. For that alone we are in your debt. After all, the future of "democracy" (whatever the hell that means) is at stake.
Thanks for your astute observation of the ignorance of the average RSN reader/commenta tor. Yes, I admit politicians lie, its true. But in recent history their lies are about what they accomplished, like Al Gore claiming to invent the internet. Or what they will do once elected like Bill Clinton proclaiming he will cut taxes on the Middle Class!
No, this lie is about an action that an opponent took which cannot be supported by even twisting the facts. This is very different from my examples, which of course were Republican misrepresentati ons of fact, instead of what Romney is doing. Which is misrepresenting facts.
Do you see a consistency in Mitt to classic Republicanism we never realized he had in him? I do.
That is your description so I'll allow you to defend it or revise it at your discretion.
Now, you mention twisting facts which is of course a time honored tradition well known and used by all but the most saintly among us.
That Romney would misrepresent facts or even make up facts out of whole cloth should not surprise one as involved in the system as Bob Reich. Or the rest of us.
What is disingenuous is to suppose that this tactic was invented all of a sudden in 2012 by Republicans.
History is replete with similar examples by politicians of all stripes, parties and special interests. Way back to the days of the founding actually.
Now, I suppose it's true that some lies are worse than others and at it's best our political system forces us to choose which band of liars appeals most to our personal desires.
For my money, Bob Reich is too intelligent and too connected to believe his own hyperbolic drivel about the "...future of democracy being at stake...". But that is another discussion.
Back to your opening line; the average RSN reader/commenta tor is not "ignorant", but rather like Bob Reich; that is, receptive to the polemic they want to hear and reluctant to spend much time digging past the surface of what they want to believe and hear.
This is all nonsense. I have travelled all over the world, spent years in the Middle East and everybody wants peace except those who are making billions creating war. Enough lies and deception. What elite media?? FOX?? If we want the change that Obama talked about WE, the people, have to make that happen. The president alone can't do it. The few who profit from this insanity understandably do not want things to change. So it is up to us.
"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." (9th Commandment)
I guess Mitt doesn't consider President Obama his neighbor ;>}
That's works for now, but what happens if someday a republican tells the truth about something?
I don't think there's any question at all that what you describe is exactly the situation. We DON'T have a real choice. We have an APPARENT choice, but if you look at what's actually happening in this country, versus what the media (any or all of them) SAY is happening, you see that the results are the same no matter who's in office. From Ronnie Raygun through Bill Clinton, from Dubya through Obama, the corporations have become ever more powerful and more money is accruing to the 1%. That's a fact. And it will continue to be a fact no matter who wins in November.
August 2011: Quote:Ronald Reagan: "Facts are stupid things"
George W Bush: "Fool me once, um, err. uh..."
Big Brother (1984): Love is Hate. War is Peace. ['doublespeak']
SCOTUS - dollars are people
Christie - We need "shared sacrifice" (definition please?)
The age of spin, parsing, re-spinning, and recycling the flip-flops. The only constancy: Words as a weapon of mass deception.
"Change we can believe in." - Barack Obama, 2008
Thank you,
LadyDem
It is sickeningly ironic that just after saving the world from facsism in WWII the United States has become the last refuge the fascism, or the "Al-Qaeda" of fascism - that is. the base.
The only way they win is if Americans stop thinking only of themselves and start to think of the country and the world first. All human beings have a right to this planets resources, none of us should be cut off from life so we are forced to sell our lives to someone else.
Does Mr. Reich need "fact checkers" to do his analysis for him?
Apparently so!
Has this been fact checked?
Too transparent and easily seen through.
Obama is a shoe-in for re-election
http://antemedius.com/content/obama-shoe-2012-re-election
The two party con job is the biggest lie there is.
True that he is transparent to us and easily seen through, by us, but not to many and he stirs emotions. (Baby Killers).
I agree that two party is a bad idea. Come up with a better one.
Read some of John Perkins' stuff "The Secret History of the American Empire" for one ... he talks about this happening with the military in Indonesia ....
All I hear from my fellow liberals is whining and complaining about war, but war is what it is going to take to get this country back , and it is a war a lot of people are going to die in if they try it. I doubt liberals/Democr ats have the guts or organization for it.
What do you base your statement that war is going to get this country back on?
WAKE UP..!
The 30 year long Corporate-Repub lican flim flam of relentless schemes and outcomes brought about under Umbrella Talking Points like 'Smaller Government'-'Le ss Government'-'Pr ivatization of Government'-'Ge tting Government Off Our Backs'--Take your pick from the the now taken-as-gospel , knee jerk, off the cuff, unquestioned and most politically successful Republican eternal demand to 'Get BIG(?) Government Out of the Way' is aBIG FAT LIE and a cultural iconic shift downwards to NOWHERE..!
A major casualty of it all and now turned motivator of more catastrophe, is 'MEDIA' and the fact that decades of deregulation schemes allowed for almost all Media Enterprises in America to be owned and exploited by just 5-6 Global Corporate Conglomerates beholden exclusively to their Global Shareholders-- NOT the American People.
What is the LEGAL MANDATE of ALL Corporations?
TO INCREASE SHAREHOLDER WEALTH!
So, even putting the The Fux Propaganda Platform aside, in today's America with today's regulatory regime (or lack thereof) and the Lobby access available in Washington, and without a Fairness Doctrine in Media, and where the several Aggregates of Media in existence now are tantamount to all-pervasive Media Empires in POWERFUL control of Information flow---How can Our Republic survive just the current American Media situation, let alone ALL the many rivers of cash-corruption drowning OUR democracy?
However--- It is the Money Interests Behind The Republican-Neo- Corporate-Conse rvatives who make up the engines and force behind the drive towards what can be best described as the END OF THE REPUBLIC FOR DOLLARS..!
But I'll just give you a hint just this one time as to how I am voting seeing as how you took the time to announce how I intend to vote and all.
ok..?
So here you go----> YOU'RE WRONG. :)
I can believe (and do) that the Republicans are walking, pathologically greedy-blind Republic Killers.
I can also believe that the Democrats have become a rather spineless, go-along to get-along Party which really does stand UP for very little against the very aggressive Rightwing Tide. And so, as there are fundamentally TWO PARTIES Dominating almost the entirety of the American Political scene, I can (and do) also believe that what has become so matte-of-fact referred to as 'Our Two Party System' as if it is set in Constitutional Stone instead of being the Machine-System it is that efforts constantly to keep all other Parties off the Political Stage and out of the Political Conversations-- is now so corrupted and dysfunctional, that I think unless the Democrats suddenly wake from whatever it is they're drinking themselves into a largely passive stupor with these past several decades- We are screwed, plain and simple.. Unless of course, about 30-50 million Americans have finally had a enough and feel they have nothing to lose in taking to the streets for a BIG WAKE-UP CALL.
I do not expect either party to change much for the 'Good' of what was once upon a time America.
Reminds me of that moronic yet classic line from Earl Landgrebe (Repub. of IN): "Don't confuse me with the facts."
The truth about 9/11 could bring down the national security state. The facts are becoming better known all the time, especially thanks to Richard Gage AIA, a man of utmost integrity who has built an organization (Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth) and a website (ae911truth.org ) that is a monument to the truth. After all, 9/11 is the psychological foundation for the whole War on Terror - the Patriot Act, the NDAA, Homeland Security, the TSA, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria - next Iran, then mushroom kaboom - none of this is possible without 9/11, and 9/11 was in fact a fraud, a crime perpetrated by the National Security State. Expose this in the "mainstream media", in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN Fox and MSNBC, and the National Security State is toast. These are conditions of national emergency. Someone must have the patriotism and the courage to do this. Where is that person?
But warning that pain killers can be dangerous won't do. We need real reasons to be proud of ourselves and the society we live in see,
The Republican High like pure Meth climaxing with Romney’s pep talk high
Which I submitted to this blog,
Don't vote for either party. It is time to begin the process of de-legitimizing both political parties. They are both controlled by the same oligarchs. There may be some better people in the Dem party. Obama is a much better human being than Romney or Ryan, but he is still evil.
The lesser of two evils is still evil. If no one votes for the two dominant parties, we can begin the process of dismantling their power. It will take several election cycles to do it, but it has to start some time.
Don't vote.
If the Republicans take over again, I will.
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