Liars Lie Because It Works

Andrew Sullivan remains a forceful conservative, even as he no longer considers himself a Republican, disavowing the party, he argues (correctly), that long since has abandoned true conservatism. Sullivan is among several conservatives I've praised here, on those rare occasions when their sanity rises above the cold heat of steaming tea. Here's a good example of why:

It seems to me that the last year or so in America's political culture has represented the triumph of untruth. And the untruth was propagated by a deliberate, simple and systemic campaign to kill Obama's presidency in its crib. Emergency measures in a near-unprecedented economic collapse - the bank bailout, the auto-bailout, the stimulus - were described by the right as ideological moves of choice, when they were, in fact, pragmatic moves of necessity. The increasingly effective isolation of Iran's regime - and destruction of its legitimacy from within - was portrayed as a function of Obama's weakness, rather than his strength. The health insurance reform - almost identical to Romney's, to the right of the Clintons in 1993, costed to reduce the deficit, without a public option, and with millions more customers for the insurance and drug companies - was turned into a socialist government take-over.

Every one of these moves could be criticized in many ways. What cannot be done honestly, in my view, is to create a narrative from all of them to describe Obama as an anti-American hyper-leftist, spending the US into oblivion. But since this seems to be the only shred of thinking left on the right (exacerbated by the justified flight of the educated classes from a party that is now openly contemptuous of learning), it became a familiar refrain - pummeled into our heads day and night by talk radio and Fox. If you think I'm exaggerating, try the following thought experiment.

If a black Republican president had come in, helped turn around the banking and auto industries (at a small profit!), insured millions through the private sector while cutting Medicare, overseen a sharp decline in illegal immigration, ramped up the war in Afghanistan, reinstituted pay-as-you go in the Congress, set up a debt commission to offer hard choices for future debt reduction, and seen private sector job growth outstrip the public sector's in a slow but dogged recovery, somehow I don't think that Republican would be regarded as a socialist.

I'm tempted simply to lift the whole article and post it, because what follows is a detailed example of how the RWS™ and Fox "news"purloin phrases out of context and repeat them, distort them, build upon them, believe their own lies. But read the article. It says exactly what I've been saying for years.

When I rail against the deceptions and lies, pleading for reasonable discourse, acknowledging that there are bases for disagreement with Obama's policies while depressing over the fact that it's the untruths and the craziness that convince teabaggers to vote against their own interests; when I argue in this way, the negative comments I get are in keeping with the problem itself. With extremely rare exceptions, Obama haters drop by here not to argue intelligently, but to leave neenering snark, no doubt feeling quite proud of themselves. By the various names they leave they distinguish themselves, but not by ideas. They're superimposable.

It seems so obvious that Andrew is right. And yet the divide widens, as the hackery chips away at our foundation. Now, we've arrived at the point where truth is neither sought nor expected. Nor even missed.