What began as anger and outrage at the excesses of radicals in government and right-wing media has become something more deeply distressing. It isn’t just that mean-spirited, low-minded rubbish is so widely disseminated. More disturbing is the ignorance that infuses so much of the rhetoric and the degree of public acceptance that attaches to it.
Despite real issues, real problems and their impact on real people, the noise from the opposition crowds out rational discourse. It’s like trying to listen for discernible speech in a windstorm. If it’s health care, abortion is wedged into the debate and “abstinence only” programs in school are promoted by conservatives who want something to write home about. In foreign affairs the party of no wants the president to be a yes-man for generals in the field, placing the conduct of foreign policy in military rather than civilian hands. But there’s a reason, after all, why the president holds the title of Commander in Chief. While the input of military advisors is vital to the decision-making process, the founders were at pains to ensure it wasn’t the only determinant in setting policy.
But no matter what course he pursues Republicans in Congress and their party in general make a point of attacking anything he undertakes. Sarah Palin was off in Hong Kong criticizing the president’s agenda and touting the benefits of lower taxes and less government spending. The astonishing thing about this wasn’t just the insult to a sitting president of bad-mouthing him in a foreign land. It was rather that a person of so little intellect and so little experience in governing or developing economic policy could find an audience willing to attend her speech and pay a substantial fee to do so.
Equally silly, Eric Cantor, House Republican whip from Virginia, feels compelled to comment on any move the president makes, most recently condemning him for leaving the country to promote holding the 2016 Olympics in Chicago. ‘He should be here where many important matters are yet to be settled,’ Cantor ponderously declared, despite the reality that Republicans are not inclined to approve any version of health-reform legislation, for example, no matter how many concessions are made. Besides, serious work is actually known to have been conducted on Air Force One.
Sillier and far more alarming are the adoring viewers of the folks at Fox News whose coverage is so ridiculously partisan as to render it all but irrelevant. Entranced audiences buy their books and swallow whole their fantastical vision of the world. In a recent e-mail from “NewsMax” the following: “Fox News host Glenn Beck’s TV Show has been breaking records - - attracting more than 3 million viewers a night - - since it burst on the scene in January. He’s the only author ever to have a No. 1 New York Times best-seller in the fiction, nonfiction and paperback fiction categories. His syndicated radio show airs on more than 400 stations, his Web site and Web casts are thriving and his live comedy performances are jam-packed.” Sad isn’t a big enough word to describe this phenomenon.
But my most dispiriting moment was a recent encounter with a group of Lyndon LaRouche followers who had set up a table on a corner near the post office right in my hometown. What caught my eye were placards that showed President Obama with a Hitler mustache. I had never seen one up close before. When I stopped and asked the two young men, “What’s with the Hitler mustache” I was directed to the Newsweek article on “The Case for Killing Grandma” which I had in fact read. I told them their poster was disgraceful and they replied “Not if that’s the way the president is acting.” I said they had no understanding of history, and drove home cranky and depressed.
In the 1950s movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, townspeople are overtaken by giant seed pods and transformed into plant life. Often thought to be an allegory about the effect of political propaganda on society, the film’s chilling premise is that ordinary people can devolve into an uncomprehending non-human condition. Today’s radical flame throwers keep devotees in a persistent intellectually vegetative state that must be challenged at every opportunity so that intelligent life can be preserved, no matter how intractable that task may seem.
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You Weren't Ignored Ann...
... because there weren't any comments prior to mine. I honestly think that you said everything that needs to be said. I'm sure that others who have read this post would agree.