 by Paul Waldman |
COMMENTARY
When your side loses an election, you can interpret the results in a number of ways. You can decide that the public was fooled, or made their choice on the basis of poorly chosen criteria, like which candidate was better looking. Or you can decide that your side didn't actually lose the election at all, but that the whole thing was rigged. The victory was yours, but a conspiracy kept the truth from being known.
This view is more common than you might think, and it isn't always completely unreasonable, given what an abominable mess we know our elections to be. But sometimes it strains credulity: A poll taken in 2009 showed that an astonishing 52 percent of Republicans believed that Barack Obama's 7-point win over John McCain was actually a McCain victory, but ACORN stole the election for Obama.
And of late, Republicans are exploring new realms of denial. When President Obama opened up a lead in the polls after the party conventions, conservatives began claiming that there must be something wrong with the polls. The conspiracy theory was kicked off by a site called unskwewedpolls.com, which alleges that every public poll, including those of organizations like Fox News, is "skewed" by pollsters intentionally trying to make their results look better for Barack Obama. So the site "unskews" them by recalculating their figures to make them more Romney-friendly.
Then when a positive jobs report for the month of September was released, conservatives simply refused to believe it. It just couldn't be that the economy was improving; instead, there had to be a conspiracy within the Obama administration to fudge the jobs numbers. Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, in an apparent attempt to demonstrate that you can run one of America's largest corporations and still be an idiot, tweeted, "Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change numbers."
Fox News quickly picked up the charge, alleging that the White House must have pressured the Bureau of Labor Statistics to make up good numbers to help the president's campaign. Welch went on Fox News to elaborate, saying "These numbers don't smell right when you think about where the economy is right now." Rush Limbaugh told his listeners that the figures couldn't possibly be true. "There's no evidence of any job creation. You'd sense it. You would know it. You would feel it." Sure, you can have your "data" and your "facts," but Jack Welch knows what he smells, and Rush Limbaugh knows what he feels. "I don’'t believe the number and neither do any of the other people that have intelligence," came the verdict from well-known smart person Donald Trump.
Faced with the cognitive dissonance created by their need to believe that everything Barack Obama touches must necessarily turn to crap, many conservatives simply cannot fathom that voters might re-elect Obama, or that the economy might actually be improving. It simply cannot be true. Perhaps the new "jobs trutherism" and "poll trutherism" were enabled by the fact that so many conservatives embraced climate change trutherism. Incredible as it is, many Republicans believe that literally thousands of scientists all over the world are engaged in a massive conspiracy to fool us all into thinking the planet is warming. And why wouldn't they, when their trusted media figures like Limbaugh and Sean Hannity tell them that over and over again? As Stephen Colbert said, reality has a well known liberal bias.
Like so many examples of conservative craziness, this does not have an analogue on the left. I'm not saying you can't find conspiracy theories among liberals, but to find them you have to look pretty far down the food chain. You have to go deep into the comments on liberal web sites or find an obscure blogger who will tell you that reality isn't as it seems. On the conservative side, on the other hand, you can find the insanity among writers at well-funded magazines, employees of established think tanks, and even members of Congress. And the conservative media from which these people get their news are more than happy to propagate any insane theory so long as it seems to make things look better for the right.
It may be fun to laugh at the conspiracy theories on jobs numbers, like those on polls and climate change, but we shouldn't let the rampaging stupidity blind us to the damage they can do. The truth is that this stuff is poison. It makes it infinitely more difficult to have anything resembling an informed debate about important issues. If we can't agree on what the facts are, then we can't have a real discussion about which course we should take, and that hurts us all.
Paul Waldman is a Contributing Editor with The American Prospect magazine and the author or co-author of a number of books about media and politics, including The Press Effect: Politicians, Journalists, and the Stories That Shape the Political World. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and many other newspapers and magazines
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An Open Letter to the American Middle Class
(Sooknarine, Teekuck, AddictingInfo.org, October 9, 2012) “One thing that is overlooked in this Presidential race is the lack of Mitt’s character and honesty… a telling sign of what a person is really made of. It is no secret that Mitt Romney has been caught telling lies about everything under the sun: he is called out on his changing opinions and ‘flip flops’ from sun up to sun down.”
The stakes in this election are very high for the American Middle Class, even higher for those in need, the poor, disabled and disenfranchised. But for the American Middle Class in particular, we have been under siege for the last 30 years. Incomes have been stagnant, our jobs outsourced overseas, higher education becoming out of reach for our children and the high cost of healthcare bankrupting our financial status.
The very fabric of the social compact is in jeopardy and yet we have a close election. This seems to make no common sense to me. The Republican Party has not done “ONE” thing to help the American Middle Class, they have removed and want to remove regulation in the banking and financial industry that has already sent us into the Great Recession. They promise to impose a so-called “Christian” Theocracy on all Americans, void of science and fact; increasingly interested in our reproductive rights and our personal freedoms and privacy. The GOP has exhibited a lack of “COMPASSION” for the poor and the sick that is clearly anything by Christ-like.
Under our current tax system, a parent can leave up to five million dollars to their children, but Romney wants to do away with that limit, obviously to leave his hundreds of millions to his children without paying any taxes at all. This may seem fair in a first glance, but originally the five million limits were set so that the family home could be passed on within the family. Mitt Romney also wants to cut taxes by another 20% on the wealthiest 1% of this Country. All of this has to be paid for, and how do the Republicans want to pay for this? With the social compact, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Benefits, VA Hospitals, Food Stamps, Affordable Care Act, Education Grants and Loans, with the entire social safety net.
But in the debate Mitt Romney lied to us, softened his words like the serpent to Jesus he promised us the world for our Middle Class souls. Whispering to us, I am a good guy, I have “ALL” of your interests at heart; despite the fact that in a secret video he had disdain for 47% of Americans, our seniors, our veterans and our fighting warriors in harm way. He tells you with such concern and empathy as if he were “SELLING” funeral insurance that his healthcare plan will “ALSO” cover pre-existing conditions, we want to believe his Pepsodent smile and sympathetic head tilt. But the serpent is a liar, as his staff comes behind him to uncover his lies, no Mitt Romney has NO PLAN to cover those with pre-existing conditions. The serpent tells us to our face, with shock and hurt in his eyes, “I have no plans to give the wealthiest among you a tax cut, where did you hear such a thing” without missing a beat, the lies go on and we want to believe. But what is at risk in those beliefs are Medicaid for those in convalescent homes, the Mortgage Interest Exemption for those of us in the suburbs that own homes and the Charitable Deduction which will decimate the Red Cross, Easter Seals, March of Dimes and Catholic Charities. Cuts aimed directly at the America Middle Class….yet we want to believe…
America “WE” must be ever vigilant this election, it CANNOT BE ABOUT STYLE, the serpent is all about style. The serpent has told us the truth, but we must read between the lines. They have told you they want to convert Medicare in to a voucher system; they have told you that they want to shred the Safety Net, and they want to remove regulations so that they can use every last resource in this Country, pollute our air, water and coastlines. If you listen they are telling you what they are going to do. They are going to outlaw a woman’s freedom over her body, they are going to impose their beliefs on gay Americans, and they are going to impose “THEIR” form of Christianity of all Christians and non-Christians alike.
Remember the serpent looks for your prejudices the weaknesses in your humanity and that is where he weaves his web of deceit. Mitt Romney is not TRUSTWORTHY he will betray the American Middle Class; he will make it harder for you and your family to live free, to pursuit happiness. Some in the Press have great intentions, “WE” as American must be vigilant, and character and honesty do matter.
A warning to all, if the Republican Party is able to win this election by cheating (voter suppression) and lying….Democracy is dead, because both Parties will take that as a signal that the TRUTH is dead and that “WE” would prefer corruption and lies to civility and trust. The Press has a responsibility to CHAMPION the TRUTH; they are already on the precipice of irrelevance. So goes the Truth, so goes the Press and so goes DEMOCRACY…
Most hospitals still accept mentally ill patients, however, you may be required to take, as a minimum, a shower, or preferably a bath.
Based upon conversations that I hear around these parts, FOX News rules their minds and Limbaugh speaks gospel. If I mention a small fact, a rather common one for anywone who watches MSNBC, CNN, PBS, or reads newspapers, I receive that "deer in headlights" look. Why should I expect anything other than suspicion from these individuals? Mistrust is simply built into their, well trained, minds and, regardless of any evidence, they will, first and foremost, reject the proof, especially if their minister, or some other favored source, tells them not to listen to little things, like facts.
Ok full disclosure I am a sociology geek. I love trying to understand why people do what they do on a broad cultural scale.
If I had to make a guess I think that this pattern of thinking and behavior is an outward representation of an inward fear. The American racial demographic makeup is changing and there are a lot of people who aren't ok with that not that they could say so publicly without being openly rebuked. So they find other ways that they can justify those feelings that aren't "quite" so loaded that might get them ridiculed but that they can at least claim openly, and when those ideas are ridiculed it only serves to strengthen their resolve because it's just more evidence of the conspiracy that they have already seen.
The problem with paranoid circular logic is that it makes everyone else dizzy
let's just call him out: media, newspapers, dems, analysts, magazines, etc...he is a PATHOLOGICAL LIAR!!! no one wants to say the TRUTH, this is what ROMNEY & RYAN ARE BOTH OF THEM...LETS STOP BEING PASSIVE ABOUT THIS, THIS IS WAY TO SERIOUS TO LET THEM GET AWAY EVERYDAY OF THE WEEK WITH THIS CRAP...OVER & OVER AGAIN, STOP THIS SHT!!! Not 1-day has gone by in over a year when Romney has told the truth expect his 47% tape, all the other words out of his mouth are lies...don't we call people out for just blantantly just lying everyday all day, no matter who they are?? who lies like this?? wht kind of person wakes up everyday and starts lying to millions & millions of people on a daily basis??wht kind of people support people like this that lie every single day??
It's sad with all the sources of information available people refuse to use it, they'll keep up with statistics for sports, or tell you the storyline of some useless TV show , but when it comes to something that destroy or enhance their life they're to lazy to take time to get facts, and that's why we find ourselves out of our homes, have our rights abused on jobs, pensions and profit sharing stolen, I just hope people will take the time to educate themselves before it's too late.