{"id":52475,"date":"2012-01-28T07:43:59","date_gmt":"2012-01-28T12:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=52475"},"modified":"2012-01-29T10:17:13","modified_gmt":"2012-01-29T15:17:13","slug":"contrast-and-compare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/contrast-and-compare\/","title":{"rendered":"Contrast and Compare"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The late, great Democratic Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, said it in 2003, and it bears repeating: “You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.”<\/p>\n

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There was a reason he said it. By 2003 the nation had been gripped by viral Neoconitis, our Dubby questing for the imaginary WMD like Jason after the golden fleece. Essentially, George and his hawkish handlers destabilized the most dangerous region on the planet for ego satisfaction and material gain and needed a good cover story. Unfortunately for George, he picked one that was sheer fantasy and took the whole world on a joyride that would turn into an epic failure, leaving a legacy of belligerence, torture and excess behind. But never was heard a discouraging word from our Dubby during those years when nationalism held us hostage.<\/p>\n

I think George really thought he’d find enough remnants of those pesky weapons to justify every dark projection he held about the man who tried to kill his daddy. Once you make a decision about what something means — and in this case, put the full weight of the United States of America behind it — you’re stuck with it, and Dubby wasn’t a man to overthink things. Those were the days when flag pins were a requirement, when patriots would never question the motives of our military, when ‘freedom fries’ turned snack food into a political statement. Moynahan was, at that point, crying in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

By the time it became apparent that Saddam’s weaponry was a figment of everyone’s imagination — even his own — Iraq had become a quagmire. Because it’s not in the Republican playbook to admit a mistake, it only took a nanosecond for the Dubby to shift his talking points so that occupying Iraq had always been about promoting democracy in the heathen outback. Once that historical rewrite was in place, Bush seemed to lose interest in the wars; perhaps financial issues were already nipping at his heels, complicating his reality, but that’s another post.<\/p>\n

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Bush needed that war — that enemy — to give him international lift and public license, and when he got the chance, he ran with the ball. As we well remember, the Bushies were experts at embellishing facts and spinning the truth, hence Stephen Colbert’s coining of the word “truthiness.”<\/p>\n

But if the constant barrage of gung-ho happy-talk and delusional grandeur available at FOX News in bygone years was truthiness, then what might we call the complete lapse of factual information we’re seeing today? “Bullshit,” while eminently accurate, just doesn’t have a legitimate ring to it. What can be said of the complete disconnect with reality we’re seeing within the political world? It’s one thing to spin your own point of view. It’s quite another to put complete lies out into the cyberstream and ignore the protests of those who yell, “PANTS ON FIRE!”<\/p>\n

Gingrich comes to mind, because of all the bellicose contestants in this political game, he blows the hardest. No, Newt, Obama is not the man who has handed out the most food stamps; that would be George W., beating Obama’s numbers by a half-million. Newt surely knows that, but he won’t stop beating the drum. It suits him to keep that distortion alive because he’s running as the anti-establishment Republican, looking to save the nation from the great unwashed who are gobbling up the money of “real” Americans with their immoral entitlements. Newt never mentions that the largest number of food stamp recipients — over 30% — are white, nor should we hold our breath that he ever will. Inconvenient facts have never been part of his narrative.<\/p>\n

Right behind Newt is Rick Santorum, accusing the president of saying, “in his own words,” that premature babies can be killed. The Catholics and Evangelicals, at war with each other for decades, have found a common denominator in Rick, who denounces sex for pleasure and birth control for anyone, and no doubt supports Mississippi’s attempt to define a fertilized egg as a person with full legal rights. Rick is the “values” candidate, giving us a heads-up on what Gawd expects from us. And I’m thinking that’s the same misogynistic Gawd of Deuteronomy who had no objection to throwing virgin daughters to the sexually-rampaging Sodomites rather than give them access to an angel (that could very likely protect itself, seems to me.)<\/p>\n

As you may know, the Santorums lost a fetus after intrauterine surgery. They took the fetus home to introduce it to their three children, feeling that the kids needed to have an experience of their little brother. OK, I’m sucking my breath in as I write this, but this is not unknown in religious camps. Barbara Bush infamously kept her miscarried fetus in a jar, which seems an odd tribute to the unborn when she was reportedly cool about the loss of her daughter, Robin, at an early age.<\/p>\n

I suppose it’s the strange, seemingly-schizophrenic split between idealizing the unborn while undervaluing the born that mystifies me so. I’d really appreciate an explanation, if they have one, but mostly we get “bootstrap” lectures, and people like Gingrich who, insanely, think underprivileged children should learn a good work ethic by being indentured. Next he’ll want to repeal the Emancipation Proclamation.<\/p>\n

Rick is respectful of his elders<\/a>, if not his president, as this YouTube asserts. He also insisted that he doesn’t want to make “blah” people’s lives better with welfare; the NAACP was not amused. As for Santorum’s attack against women’s rights, he has a fanatical base that will fight to the death (or ours) to protect a zygote. I suggest that there’s a very good reason why the nation has never ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, and more’s the pity. Women must continue to fight against their loss of liberties without a codifying law more compelling than Roe<\/em>. We seldom talk about the ERA. We’d have more muscle if we did.<\/p>\n

And Romney? Mitt lies by omission*, he lies by justification, he lies by promoting confusion and shifting opinion. When he’s angry, he looks piqued and sullen, as if he’s seldom been confronted. I suppose few people confront you when you have a quarter of a BILLION dollars. This guy is in the top 1% of the ruling 1% ,and he acts like it. Letting his team of lawyers handle the questions, Mitt’s the king of loopholes, stiff and unlikeable and thoroughly establishment. My bet? The Pub elders will work like the furies to get him nominated and slap Newt back into obscurity.<\/p>\n

I’m not going to include Dr. Paul on this list because, as popular as his foreign policy suggestions have been to a war-weary populous, he is not really a contender. But I’ll give credit where it’s due, he’s something of a truth-teller. In fact, Paul falls on his own sword every time he opens his mouth. To take pride in insisting each man is an island unto himself is a cold bed to sleep in, but many Randians join him there. Consider what Ron named his son, consider his plan to gut the government and let the commonwealth shift for itself, then factor in this prophetic quote, from Gore Vidal, in 1961:<\/p>\n

“Ayn Rand\u2019s \u201cphilosophy\u201d is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society….To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, that describes a good many of our fellow citizens today. The GOP, as well as the nation, would be much better off if Ayn Rand hadn’t tickled their fancy so many years ago.<\/p>\n

The other side of the fence has only one candidate to speak of, Barack Obama, although there are three contenders — John Wolfe, Darcy Richardson and Randall Terry — which will require a primary vote in advance of a state caucus here in Southern Missouri. If nothing else impresses you about this president, you should welcome his apparent normalcy. His State of the Union address this year hit a pitch-perfect populist tone. It wasn’t liberal so much as progressive, wasn’t aggressive so much as assertive, and Obama rallied the base with truth of his own, like the obstruction that leaves so many judicial appointments and departments leaderless. Try as they might, the fact-checking agencies couldn’t find enough to fight over, so they made a mountain from a mole hill<\/a>, which has since flattened completely.<\/p>\n

Granted, there were some uncomfortable moments of compromise — on energy, for instance — but there was no long litany of lies, no matter what Rush Limbaugh predicted. Those who embrace the 99% should be heartened that Obama is finally willing to hold banksters accountable on some level. Breaking through that wall of non-accountability is a big damn deal. Bill Maher was interviewed by Anderson Cooper and mentioned that the State of the Union address was like fresh air compared to (too) many Republican debates. According to an article at Huffington, “Maher also predicted that Mitt Romney would win the nomination. He admitted that President Obama has disappointed him at times, but said that the idea of the Republicans ‘makes me run back into [Obama’s] arms screaming.'”<\/p>\n

Well, that’s a big 10-4. And there’s the truth about this moment in time. When this president speaks, he’s calm, he’s respectful, and he tells the truth. Even if you don’t agree with his policy choices, or his appointments or his attempts to work across the aisle, you get the sense that he has successfully filled the shoes of an American president in his aspirations for the good of everyone. I never get the sense that Obama is coming down some narrow ideological path, shoving people out of his way as he pursues his objectives. This guy felt he was elected as president of ALL the people and — whether we accept his establishment standards or not — is working within those accepted perimeters for the good of the nation and a more peaceful, cooperative world.<\/p>\n

I can’t say the same for Gingrich or Romney or Santorum or Paul. I can’t say the same for any Republican who denies climate change or sex education or the right of choice or fair economic principles. I can’t say the same for many fair-weather Democrats who do their best to tread water without making waves. It’s the difference between how these people come across to us that is going to call this election.<\/p>\n

While the racists and the Dixiecrats and the Wall Street wannabes won’t change their minds about how the world works or who the liberals are, the sharper the contrast between the crazies and the stable guy, the better. The world is about to get crazier and it’s good to remember that we’re all entitled to our own opinion, but not our own facts. And the fact is, we’ve been better off under Obama for the last four years than we were for eight under his predecessor. Compare where we’ve been with where we hope to go. Keep your heart and your options open, your head and your vision clear, your opinion aligned with your facts. We’ve got a long way to go, but things are looking up.<\/p>\n

*Romney’s discomfort with actual facts was evident in his recent skirmish with Gingrich over immigration. This brought up his father’s having been born in Mexico. In an effort to keep polygamy alive, Mitt’s grandfather was directed — reportedly by no less than Brigham Young himself — to cross the border into Mexico before Utah was declared a state and polygamy banned. Mitt does NOT want that national conversation pointing up his “cult” status and you can clearly see his nervousness over border issues. If it looks like he’s tip-toeing through (cultural) land mines, that’s because he is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves The late, great Democratic Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, said it in 2003, and it bears repeating: “You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.” There was a reason he said it. By 2003 the nation had been gripped by viral Neoconitis, our … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}