"Blow-hards and Buffoons: Their senseless rantings are poisoning
political debate"
One of Reader’s Digest’s more
popular features is “That’s Outrageous!” by Michael Crowley.
Robert
P. Murphy writes,
When the
feature spotlights government pork-barrel projects, absurd zoning
restrictions on homeowners, or illogical regulations on small business,
libertarians can applaud. (Retrieved September 30, 2009)
This following article contains a quote from Larry Sabato, co-author
of our text book American
Government: Roots and Reform.
Thomas Jefferson must be
apoplectic in the Great Beyond. He warned that only people who are
"well-informed can be trusted with their own government." Well, look
what's become of us.
I met up recently with two
old friends in California, Jeff and Mary, who told me they are worried
about terrorism. But it's not Osama bin Laden they fear — it's George
W. Bush. These are otherwise sensible people: He's a doctor; she owns
an antiques store. Which is why I was stunned to hear them predict that
Bush will stage a terrorist attack this fall to ensure his reelection.
"Seriously?" I asked.
Seriously, they said.
Maybe I shouldn't be
surprised, not after seeing an "ad" on the website of the liberal
advocacy group Moveon.org, that compared Bush to Adolf
Hitler. That's the sort of vitriol that's "informing" the public today.
And it's hardly confined to the Left.
During the Iraq war last
spring, some conservatives said that liberals were secretly hoping
Saddam Hussein would teach President Bush a lesson in humility. Fox
News host Bill O'Reilly growled that "some Americans were rooting
against their own country — that their ideology was so ingrained it was
better for them if things went badly in Iraq, even though that would
have caused more American casualties."
Welcome to the politics of
America, 2004. Thoughtful debate has given way to angry, polarized
arguments in which there is no compromise and no middle ground. Shades
of gray, you ask? Stop being so wishy-washy! When it comes to abortion,
you're either a baby-killer or a religious nut. Try to explain that
women should have some abortion rights, but that a fetus is also more
than just body tissue, and you're likely to get shouted down in
midsentence. And good luck talking about affirmative action — whether
you're pro or con — without being called a racist.
Politics have become a
year-round blood sport — both for the partisan gladiators and for the
media that cheers them on. For evidence, just scan the bestseller
lists. There you'll find liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, whose book Dude, Where's My Country? hit No. 1 by taking aim at
"screaming, foaming-at-the-mouth right-wingers."
Moore also calls George Bush
"an appointed President [who] uses the dead of 9/11 as a convenient
cover, a justification for permanently altering our American way of
life."
From the other side comes
conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who sold a half-million copies of
her book Treason, arguing that liberals are "either
traitors or idiots" who routinely "side with the enemy" and "aim to
destroy America ... with their relentless attacks on morality and the
truth."
Flip on the TV or radio and
you'll find dozens of partisan talking heads in a nonstop shouting
match of escalating nastiness. "The only thing that sells is the
screamers," laments Larry
Sabato, director of the
Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "Twenty years ago,
there were a lot more shows with reasonable discussions. Today people
just yell sound bites at one another. And if you don't, you're not used
again."
Monopolizing the Truth
Communication might be
easier if people at least believed one another. But in today's debate,
everyone assumes their enemy fights with weapons of mass deception.
Comedian Al Franken's hit
book purports to chronicle the Right's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell
Them, while another recent
book explains The Lies of
George W. Bush.
Conservatives, meanwhile,
are convinced that a left-leaning media establishment deliberately
misinforms the public. Former CBS News producer Bernard Goldberg topped
the bestseller list last year with Bias, a book that charges liberal
journalists with distorting the news. Ann Coulter was in the thick of
the fight again with her book bluntly titled Slander: Liberal Lies About the
American Right. It's
awfully hard to have a constructive debate when everyone thinks they
have a monopoly on the truth.
And it's not just
journalists and pundits who are stoking all this rage. It's the
politicians themselves. Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy has flatly
declared the case for war against Iraq "a fraud," while a fellow
Democrat, Rep. Jim McDermott, suggested that the capture of Saddam
Hussein was timed for maximum political benefit.
In response, House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay, a Republican, called these remarks "moronic" and said
that Democrats have "nothing to offer the public debate but rage,
resentment and quackery." Even the business of government is being
paralyzed. One Congressional committee meeting broke up last summer
when an angry Democrat called a Republican "a little fruitcake" and
challenged him to a fight; the committee chairman eventually summoned
the Capitol Police.
Expect things to only get
worse as election day approaches. After all, the media and politicians
know that people love to watch a good tussle. But all this debate, with
so little intelligence, comes at a steep price. Consider this: Some
experts are expecting a big surge in new, young voters that could
account for 10 percent of the electorate — and perhaps decide the
Presidential contest. Hardcore liberal and conservative groups are
spending big money to help bring out the youth vote.
But if young Americans do unplug
their iPods and tune into politics, what will they make of a poisonous
discourse that insults more than it informs? Some may just pop their
headphones back on in disgust. The rest will go to the polls on
election day, where they'll join the long lines of uninformed citizens.
From Reader's
Digest - March 2004
(Retrieved September 30, 2009)
Comment by Nate Segal:
I recently heard the verb 'bloviate' to describe the speech of
"blow-hards who opinionate."
