THE RADIO CHATTERERS ON THE RIGHT...
CONTINUE TO RELEASE THEIR FEROCIOUS BARRAGES, attacking the President for everything he does and every word he speaks and where it was that he was actually born, in spite of certifiable evidence to the contrary. The Republicans, who cheered the "Affordable Care Act" when Governor Romney enacted it in Massachusetts, have suddenly developed wings of opposition and attack, dismissing the newest version as "Obama Care," and calling the President anti-American Marxist nut job; while journalists and reporters tend to dance around the fact that many folks on the Right are plain-ol'-racists, not facing the verifiable truth or implications of disaster with the venomous tone of those on the Right. The Washington press corps are not cheerleaders, of course; they must maintain a certain objectivity. Few of them, however, like to face the question, "Why can't you tell it like it actually is?"
The slashing, lacerating use of language came into the discourse with The Tea Party, in a tone which is sometimes apocalyptic and always judgmental, and its essential component is always an insult. They deride women. They detest Muslims. They disdain labor. They despise anyone with another viewpoint.
These days, the Washington press corps seem to wear a self-absorbed sneer themselves, as they have slowly morphed into becoming pundits, leaving journalism somewhere back there in the dust. They guffaw at any expression of idealism. They look for gaffes, mistakes, idiosyncrasies. They doubt the veracity of National Security and question the IRS and at others for not being transparent enough. They fill columns with the assumption being that everyone has a dirty little secret, with the exception of themselves, of course; and one's duty is to pretend to make sad sounds and sniff it out, then do nothing at all about it, other than to masquerade as objective journalists, that is...
...And lost in this malignant process is the art of attempting to understand the viewpoint of the opposition and the practice of art of give-and-take. Give us the whole loaf or nothing is now the way we govern. God is on our side They are always wrong. We are always right. We can make you feel better. We can make you happy. We promise not to tell you that the world is complicated. If it weren't for them, your life would be perfect. So allow us to do all of the thinking for you.
Thus, we have now become a nation which indicts the other side for being too liberal or too conservative, too soft or too callous, too indifferent to public opinion or too afraid of consensus and too dim-witted to know the difference...
How sad for us all.
The slashing, lacerating use of language came into the discourse with The Tea Party, in a tone which is sometimes apocalyptic and always judgmental, and its essential component is always an insult. They deride women. They detest Muslims. They disdain labor. They despise anyone with another viewpoint.
These days, the Washington press corps seem to wear a self-absorbed sneer themselves, as they have slowly morphed into becoming pundits, leaving journalism somewhere back there in the dust. They guffaw at any expression of idealism. They look for gaffes, mistakes, idiosyncrasies. They doubt the veracity of National Security and question the IRS and at others for not being transparent enough. They fill columns with the assumption being that everyone has a dirty little secret, with the exception of themselves, of course; and one's duty is to pretend to make sad sounds and sniff it out, then do nothing at all about it, other than to masquerade as objective journalists, that is...
...And lost in this malignant process is the art of attempting to understand the viewpoint of the opposition and the practice of art of give-and-take. Give us the whole loaf or nothing is now the way we govern. God is on our side They are always wrong. We are always right. We can make you feel better. We can make you happy. We promise not to tell you that the world is complicated. If it weren't for them, your life would be perfect. So allow us to do all of the thinking for you.
Thus, we have now become a nation which indicts the other side for being too liberal or too conservative, too soft or too callous, too indifferent to public opinion or too afraid of consensus and too dim-witted to know the difference...
How sad for us all.
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