It’s been interesting to watch the Republican pundits move
through the stages of grief since Obama’s overwhelming re-election.
We’ve seen Karl Rove’s utter denial, Ted Nugent’s anger, Victoria Jackson’s depression and Allen West’s bargaining. Each has been its own special type of political schadenfruede.
But today we actually got to laugh out loud as we read of David Frum’s reaction to the slap down of the Party of No and its Tea Party sideshow, because in reading his explanation, we moved from performance art to parody and farce.
Frum, speechwriter for President George W. Bush, states that it’s all so clear to him now – it’s all Fox News’ fault!
“Republicans have been fleeced and exploited, and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex,” he exclaims in his interview. As I read this I immediately harkened to the wonderful scene in Casablanca when Captain Renault announces that he is shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here.
For the second time in less than a year that he has acknowledged the obvious, that Fox News is and has always been nothing more than a propaganda tool for the far right but what makes his book teaser disingenuous is that instead of blaming those who pointed and wielded the tool, he merely continues to blame the tool.
Recognizing that the media has been used to turn countryman against countryman, neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother is only half the battle because this action has cost this country American lives, those who authorized and utilized such propaganda should be brought to justice before their peers for inciting the domestic turmoil for their personal/political gain as they are no different than those foreign adversaries who train and teach others to hate our government and kill our citizens.
While it makes perfect sense to call Fox News on its slanted views, spurious use and editing of fake videos and hate mongering, it is even more legitimate to denounce those who supply them with talking points, those who furnish them with incorrect information, those who profit from the lying and the hate and who daily stand by silently as they have lead the foolish, the ignorant and the bigot towards easy, innocent marks for their frustration.
When moderates on the right are willing to open their eyes to that reality, that’s when they will have reached a level of acceptance.
We’ve seen Karl Rove’s utter denial, Ted Nugent’s anger, Victoria Jackson’s depression and Allen West’s bargaining. Each has been its own special type of political schadenfruede.
But today we actually got to laugh out loud as we read of David Frum’s reaction to the slap down of the Party of No and its Tea Party sideshow, because in reading his explanation, we moved from performance art to parody and farce.
Frum, speechwriter for President George W. Bush, states that it’s all so clear to him now – it’s all Fox News’ fault!
“Republicans have been fleeced and exploited, and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex,” he exclaims in his interview. As I read this I immediately harkened to the wonderful scene in Casablanca when Captain Renault announces that he is shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here.
For the second time in less than a year that he has acknowledged the obvious, that Fox News is and has always been nothing more than a propaganda tool for the far right but what makes his book teaser disingenuous is that instead of blaming those who pointed and wielded the tool, he merely continues to blame the tool.
Recognizing that the media has been used to turn countryman against countryman, neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother is only half the battle because this action has cost this country American lives, those who authorized and utilized such propaganda should be brought to justice before their peers for inciting the domestic turmoil for their personal/political gain as they are no different than those foreign adversaries who train and teach others to hate our government and kill our citizens.
While it makes perfect sense to call Fox News on its slanted views, spurious use and editing of fake videos and hate mongering, it is even more legitimate to denounce those who supply them with talking points, those who furnish them with incorrect information, those who profit from the lying and the hate and who daily stand by silently as they have lead the foolish, the ignorant and the bigot towards easy, innocent marks for their frustration.
When moderates on the right are willing to open their eyes to that reality, that’s when they will have reached a level of acceptance.
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