This depravity was on display at the end of the week as Al Gore, along with UN Climate Change Panel shared the Nobel Peace Prize. It seems that any recognition of non-Bush reality by the rest of the world is a sign of anti-Americanism, the worthlessness of the Peace Prize, and on and on. Again, is seems as if some folks just can't help themselves. My own hope was that, with Gore now the target of the right's venom, at least the Frosts would get a reprieve. I underestimated the ability of these people to multi-task.
In this vein I found this post by Eli at Fire Dog Lake not just apropos but wonderfully clear and succinct.
Before the Frosts were accused of faking their middle class status, we had Algore the fibber in thrall to his image consultants… now Algore the hypocritical energy hog. John Kerry the effete, out-of-touch, phony war hero. Paul Hackett the resume-padding “staff puke” and all the other “phony” anti-war soldiers. John Edwards, whose money and haircuts make it impossible for him to care about poverty. Hillary Clinton’s calculated “cackle.” And so on, and so on.
Meanwhile, Republicans and conservatives (with the possible exception of Mitt Romney, a non-Christian Mormon with shaky conservative credentials) never have to deal with accusations of phoniness, despite far more abundant evidence to the contrary. Fred Thompson’s folksy down-home persona is accepted at face value, with nary a mention of his lobbying career or his phony red truck. Likewise for Dubya, the decisive straight-shootin’ Texas cowboy whose entire identity is a lie. Likewise for Rudy, the Hero Of 9/11 who has thoroughly pissed off the firefighters’ union. Not to mention all the Republican politicians and preachers and boosters who wind up in corruption and/or sex scandals, or Bill Bennett’s gambling addiction, or Rush Limbaugh’s love of Oxycontin and Viagra. This is supposed to be the party of “moral values,” yet they make us godless hippies look like Dudley Do-Right.
In the topsy-turvy world of the Republican-led media assault upon our sense of reality, the immoral and amoral right-wing are defenders of all that is good, true, and beautiful, while the sensible, moderate, steady Democrats are transmogrified into Devil-worshiping, America-hating "leftists". It would be hysterically funny if it weren't for the horrible effect upon our public discourse.
With the display this week of the depths to which the right will sink - and the almost inevitable nature of such sinking, on any issue one can name - we may have arrived at a watershed moment. While the Frosts continue to twist in the wind blown from the mouth of hell that is the right wing of America, I think they and we can be consoled that, in the long run, they may have done themselves far more damage than any they imagine they have inflicted upon either the Frosts or the imaginary liberals they are attacking by proxy.
UPDATE: Jamison Foser's weekly Media Matters column says much the same thing as Eli's piece at FDL. And much of what I have been saying. Every accusation, every imputation of evil, bad faith, and scandalous behavior. Every. Single. One. Is a reflection of the reality of the American right, not some hypothetical "left".
Let me say that again. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. It's really that simple. When you read or hear someone on the right say something horrid about "the left" or hear, for example, John Gibson call himself "the black man's best friend" - we are hearing the exact opposite of the truth. That is to say - the scandalous are those among the right currently under indictment or convicted of crimes; the immoral are those on the right who have acted immorally; "the black man's best friend" is most likely a racist demagogue. This is key to parsing every word that flows out of the noise machine.
