I was trying to embed a video, but it just didn't want to work, so click here to watch Jon Stewart describe the mountain upon which too many in our country live.
So I was checking out my posts from four years ago. Four years ago today was an interesting moment in the Obama-McCain campaign.
Because, you see, even before Pres. Obama was elected, there was this mythology building up around him thanks to the right. He was a socialist, a foreign born Muslim, a buddy with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers. Obama was going to make us all socialist, set up re-education camps, even (if you watched the video you'll get the reference) outlaw cars. The dedication to absolute nonsense and Pure Grade "A" bullshit among the right in this country runs so deep and wide, extracting even "Moderate Mitt" from it would be well-nigh impossible.
That campaign manager John Sununu made clear they weren't interested in allowing "fact-checkers" run their campaign made clear the on-going belief that facts are irrelevant, reality is pliable, and it may yet be possible to carry along enough people who accept an alternate Universe where Pres. Obama is a clear and present danger to all things American. It won't end with the President's re-election, anymore than it ended with his election four years ago. In fact, it will probably intensify.
At some point, we are going to have to awake from our fever-dream and face the real consequences of allowing this to go on for so long. The Affordable Care Act didn't "take over" health insurance, let alone health care. The President respects the military. The President is a non-practicing Christian. Had he lived forty years ago, Pres. Obama would have been considered a moderate Republican for his policies. These things just are, whether anyone believes them or not. They aren't claims that are debatable, or things I'm saying without any substance. Denying them, the way both campaigns have denied global warming, won't make them any less real.
We need to come down off that mountain and face some reality, folks. The results of doing otherwise will be far more harsh than any of the paranoid fantasies the right continually spews.
So I was checking out my posts from four years ago. Four years ago today was an interesting moment in the Obama-McCain campaign.
If you aren't old enough to know the name, click here. She managed to sucker not only the Rev. Al Sharpton, but Bill Cosby as well as other famous names, black and white. Unfortunately, like her body, her story was covered in feces from the very beginning. And, like her body, she did it to herself. Well, it seems that a young, white volunteer in Pittsburgh for the McCain campaign is skipping over the whole "tragedy" thing that happens when history repeats itself, and is going straight to farce. Unlike Duncan, I will admit that I thought the story a crock from the very beginning. The friggin' "B" was backwards, which told me she did it to herself in a friggin' mirror! C'mon people. . .Four years ago yesterday, we had the drunken matron of Madison backtracking on her claim that, during a debate with McCain, candidate Obama was wearing an earpiece through which he was receiving information. When it became clear she was as wrong as she always is, she tried to salvage something for the sake of her poor, tattered ego:
You know, just because the thing I saw wasn't there doesn't mean there wasn't something there that I didn't see.That's the nice thing about blog archives. It's so easy to go back and realize that the faces and names have changed, but not the style. No one should be surprised that Mitt Romney would run a campaign in which truth and reality were optional. No one should be surprised that Romney came out in the second debate and claimed the President never did something that he actually did. No one should be surprised that Mitt Romney insists Pres. Obama "apologized for America", then insisted his Administration would be different from the President, listing a series of actions and policies already implemented by Pres. Obama.
Because, you see, even before Pres. Obama was elected, there was this mythology building up around him thanks to the right. He was a socialist, a foreign born Muslim, a buddy with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers. Obama was going to make us all socialist, set up re-education camps, even (if you watched the video you'll get the reference) outlaw cars. The dedication to absolute nonsense and Pure Grade "A" bullshit among the right in this country runs so deep and wide, extracting even "Moderate Mitt" from it would be well-nigh impossible.
That campaign manager John Sununu made clear they weren't interested in allowing "fact-checkers" run their campaign made clear the on-going belief that facts are irrelevant, reality is pliable, and it may yet be possible to carry along enough people who accept an alternate Universe where Pres. Obama is a clear and present danger to all things American. It won't end with the President's re-election, anymore than it ended with his election four years ago. In fact, it will probably intensify.
At some point, we are going to have to awake from our fever-dream and face the real consequences of allowing this to go on for so long. The Affordable Care Act didn't "take over" health insurance, let alone health care. The President respects the military. The President is a non-practicing Christian. Had he lived forty years ago, Pres. Obama would have been considered a moderate Republican for his policies. These things just are, whether anyone believes them or not. They aren't claims that are debatable, or things I'm saying without any substance. Denying them, the way both campaigns have denied global warming, won't make them any less real.
We need to come down off that mountain and face some reality, folks. The results of doing otherwise will be far more harsh than any of the paranoid fantasies the right continually spews.
