re: Lying Liars.....

Okay so I had some dudgeon left over! Leave it to Glenn Greenwald over at Salon to hit the nail on the head again. Hypocrisy, identity, and personality politics are the coin of the the modern day republican party. There should be no doubt that they will do whatever is necessary to secure power. Everything but talk about actual issues.

In his post today Mr. Greenwald, points out the hypocrisy of the right-wing noise machine. The viscous attacks that were leveled against John Kerry during his run for president are just a viable versus McCain, yet that point is never raised. If Kerry was a gigolo, then what is McCain? Considering that their marriage arcs are fairly similar, (both married younger rich women after leaving their first wives) there really is no difference between Kerry and McCain. On this issue they are the same, both are "kept" men. Yet that is not how it is perceived or even reported.

In closing Greenwald hits on a point that I very much struggle with, expanding on some themes that he chronicles in his book Great American Hypocrites, he sums up the problem nicely:

Somehow, the deep stupidity of our political discourse actually manages to escalate during presidential campaigns, becoming even more vapid and idiotic than normal. But, as I argued continuously when I did my book tour in April and May for Great American Hypocrites, this is the kind of campaign the GOP runs every election and in which they specialize, and there are only two options for Democrats in response: (1) purport to "rise above it" and thus ensure that they get slaughtered in a one-sided, one-way War of Personality Demonization which renders issues irrelevant (hence: the all-American Everyman War Hero versus the rich, out-of-touch, effete elitist), or (2) attack the GOP candidate using the same lowly character themes in order to neutralize the attacks and prevent the election from being decided on these grounds. It's good to see the Obama campaign, finally, engaging these issues aggressively.

I am always of mixed feeling on this. I desperately want the American people to be able to distinguish the difference between legitimate policy debates and the sort of personality driven culture war bullshit we have been getting over the last several years. I have just become increasingly convinced of the absolute stupidity of the average person. That these tactics still work, even though those who perpetuate them have shown their cravenness and general mendacity, is just further confirmation of how far we truly need to go.

In my better moments I like to believe that reason and facts, should be enough to sway any argument, but in politics that just isn't the case. Facts are stubborn things and the masses tend to distrust things that don't conform to their beliefs. So if you try to have a solid reasonable debate with your opponent and they return with the tripe we have been subjected to election cycle....well I say have at it then.

That all being said, at this point I am just happy to see the Obama camp fighting back, he is a Chicagoan now, so this seems appropriate.

-Cheers