Most of the media long ago stopped practicing real journalism, in which positions, ideas, and policies are critically examined and shown to be either truthful and accurate or false and misleading. Reporters nowadays simply note what people across the political spectrum are saying, as if all viewpoints are equally valid. This phenomenon has worsened over the past decade, and has gotten to the point (as Paul Krugman notes) that journalists will treat someone who claims the Earth is flat as equally deserving of air time as someone who maintains that it’s round.
The Republicans and the rightwing have capitalized on this new dynamic by lying shamelessly and continually, knowing that misinformation will not be challenged and that they stand a good chance of moving opinion in their direction if they simply repeat the lies often enough. If even a tiny fraction of the lies that Republicans spew daily were challenged, and the individuals saying them were publicly shamed, it is likely they would be forced to backtrack.
Following the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords, the media is busy wondering whether the violent rhetoric on the right is at all responsible. It is disgraceful that it took an event of this magnitude to get the media to examine more closely the rhetoric that has emanated from the Right ever since Obama was sworn in; it’s also beside the point to try to link the act of a madman to the cacophony of political rhetoric.
The rhetoric from the Right should’ve been denounced long ago, not just for its potential to incite violence but because it was incoherent, clearly false, and antithetical to constructive political discourse. It can harm people in serious ways; policy decisions that directly affect the lives of America’s 300 million people hang in the balance.
It is long past time to acknowledge that Republicans and the Right have gone off the deep end, and that there is no equivalent amount of hatred, bigotry, and misinformation coming from the Left. Yes, there are individual Democrats who lie, say stupid things, and degrade political discourse, but they’re a tiny minority; on the right, the extremists are essentially in charge and setting the agenda.
Obama and the Democrats in Congress are hardly far-left liberals; in fact, not a single policy achievment of the past two years could truly be described as liberal. Obama and the Democrats represent a centrist or at most a center-left Party. Their domestic achievements rest on conservative ideas; in foreign policy, Obama has largely followed and often expanded on the policies of George W. Bush .
Republicans on the other hand have turned against their own ideas (e.g. the individual health insurance mandate, cap and trade), have become more reactionary on social and immigration policy, and even more regressive on fiscal policy. They have tacked so far right in the past two years that the only choice voters now get is between the hard right and the center. This is clear to anyone who pays a modicum of attention to American politics, yet it’s barely acknowledged by the media.
I want to end with a point about the use of strong rhetoric. Another false equivalency is that the use of condemnatory rhetoric is always bad, no matter whom it’s directed against. From my viewpoint, there are times when the words evil, vile, despicable, and fascist fit the circumstance, and are an appropriate response to outrageous statements or acts. I would use those words, for example, to describe Rush Limbaugh, who makes hundreds of millions of dollars doing nothing more, and nothing less, than spewing lies and stirring up hatred.
To sum up, it’s my belief that context and facts matter deeply. Hating people who deliberately inflict pain and suffering on other people, and often profit from it, is rational; hating gays or illegal immigrants isn’t rational. Only when we disentangle ourselves from the false equivalencies that permeate our culture can we have a truly vigorous and reason-based dialogue.
Jason Scorse