Misleading, Misinforming and Just Plain Lying

It's probably too much to hope that political pundits and major media types would begin to delve beneath the surface of events that could change the course of history and spin the universe off its axis. There are moments during our daily discourse when it seems as if everything we ever knew had become a giant question mark. Just when we think we've gotten a handle on some important issue, an agent of deceit comes along to tell us we've got it all wrong.

Here we are, for instance, after eight years of a desultory but nonetheless destructive presidency being assured by the perpetrators of failed policies that they had the right answers all along, but, apparently, just didn't want the rest of us to know what they were. There's Dick Cheney acting as if he is one of our great patriots although self-serving political dogma and the policies he set in motion could hardly be defined as patriotic endeavors; nor is it clear that deception shrouded in secrecy served the country well.

And when former President George Bush appeared in Oklahoma recently his remarks were said to have been greeted by numerous standing ovations. What mental perversity allows people to dismiss obvious failure and credit Bush with having addressed national priorities adequately regardless of how far astray his convictions led him, and to insist that his was an unimpeachable record? Clearly, a leader needn't indulge in weird sexual behavior in the oval office to be guilty of demeaning the office and sullying the nation's good name. Disastrous foreign-policy decisions based on faulty intelligence and inattention to urgent domestic concerns can accomplish that quite nicely.

Perhaps some of the euphoria on the part of supporters is a self-protective device to keep from having to admit they put their trust in a weak, ill-prepared leader. There are those, of course, whose interests were well-served by the Bush administration in terms of tax considerations and relaxed regulations, the consequences of which policies left the country close to economic collapse. Naturally, those who fared well, however, don't want change that would threaten "market forces" or create financial diversification. After all it isn't just about dollars per se; it is, more importantly, about control of capital. That's the 'market force' that shapes the lives of ordinary Americans and keeps wealth and power in fewer and greedier hands.

Unfortunately political bias often replaces informed analysis. On Sunday's McLaughlin Report Rich Lowry of The National Review said President Obama hadn't voiced concern about Iran's election for a week, an assertion that was both untrue and ignored the opinion of leading experts who found the president's restrained remarks appropriate. On the same program Monica Crowley of The Washington Times criticized Obama for 'apologizing' to the world for presumed misdeeds. She also made the outrageously false statement that we invaded Iraq to free a tyrannized population. It usually takes some time before history gets rewritten; these folks manage to do it in a nanosecond.

Ubiquitous misinformers have the ear of scantily-informed but willing advocates as calls to various media outlets parroting the day's ferocious talking points indicate. Demonizing Acorn, George Soros, the 'racist' Sotomayor, unions, and progressive policies defined as Socialism are some of the more popular gambits. They are matched by the lionizing of Ronald Reagan who is credited with having, single-handedly 'brought down' the Soviet Union. It should be understood that Reagan was interacting with the closest thing to a reformer Russia had to offer in the person of Gorbachev. The arms race Reagan undertook created enormous debt for us but it was a financial juggernaut for Russia. It wasn't just strong words and ideology that helped Reagan win that East-West struggle.

The iteration of what passes for political thought these days fails to advance rational debate as politicians indulge in name-calling and wallow in ignorance. Oklahoma's Senator Inhofe calls Al Franken "the clown?" But Franken has a Harvard degree, hosted a nationally syndicated program on Air America, has written numerous books and is a savvy, liberal voice. Inhofe, on the other hand, exemplifies the narrow vision and superficial approach to the nation's problems of far too many legislators. Paraphrasing the song, no need to call in the clowns, plenty of them are already in Congress.