2022 Midterm Election Thoughts – # 5
--Where is the Outrage?--
I am so tired of watching the slow-motion train wreck that is Democrat governance and campaigning. We have a major party promoting scores of candidates who have promised to undo elections if the results are not to their liking. If anyone paid attention in history class, the one thing that even those narrow, slanted agendas taught us, it was that America was a democracy. We heard Lincoln’s words, “Of the People, By the People and For the People.”
How many of the GOP supporters understand that when elections are hijacked, we are not a democracy anymore. Where is the outrage?
I blame Democrats for allowing Republicans to normalize all manner of despicable behaviors and for not highlighting the party’s rampant hypocrisy. Republicans have based their entire careers and election campaigns on demonizing Democrats and preventing them from accomplishing anything.
By Kevin Kallaugher (Baltimore Sun & The Economist)
6/18/22
Today’s Post reports that Pride month has brought out Republican politicians and preachers from their beloved base who are openly advocating the execution of gay people. Can we find ONE chicken-shit Democrat who will confront Ted Cruz or Josh Hawley or the two whack-job Confederate governors who want to be president and ask them if they support that initiative?
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Drew Sheneman (Newark Star-Ledger)
YES, Black Lives protests did damage. YES, it was a lefty who shot Steve Scalise. YES, Democrat-run cities have crime problems…but don’t anyone suggest for a minute that intimidation and anonymous death threats come equally from both sides.
· People who believe gay people don’t deserve equal rights or should be executed vote Republican.
· People who deny the Holocaust happened and blame Jews for every problem we’ve faced for the last 1000 years vote Republican.
· People who want to ban books from public libraries vote Republican.
· White supremacists vote Republican.
· People who harass patients and threaten workers at women’s health care clinics vote Republican.
· People who threaten poll workers and school administrators vote Republican.
· People who believe we are in (or should be in) a civil war vote Republican.
· People who attacked Capitol police, caused millions in property damage, pooped on the floors and walls, and called for the hanging of the vice president and speaker of the House absolutely voted Republican.
posted by Ted Ringger @ 4:48 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
It's not just that the Democrats are failing to loudly call out the Repugnicans for masking themselves as the "conservative-patriots" they hypocritically pretend to be, the folks with the blue ties have for too long tried to be all things to all people. And they've left their blue collar base behind.
It's time to put some of our rainbow coalition issues on the back burner and focus more narrowly on some ideas that can begin to win back so many of the good people that used to be the base of the Democratic Party. Simple, straight-forward messaging (and action) on fundamental pocketbook issues bringing hope for a living (not minimum) wage, Medicare for children, and rural broadband internet access would go a long way toward turning the heads (and hearts) of hard-working Americans away from the demonizing Repugnican politics that only prey on their fears.
Additionally, it is well past time for Congress and the FCC to bring back the "fairness doctrine". The FCC's fairness doctrine, introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints. In 1987, the FCC abolished the fairness doctrine, unleashing the explosive growth of radio and TV stations that quickly learned that the fastest way to profits was to present a singularly narrow viewpoint that served to first make their listeners afraid and then angry. That corporate self-serving greed has for years now spread to the internet and is further polarizing the electorate in ways that are seriously threatening the health of our democracy.
Don't for a minute try to tell me it's both sides that are responsible for voters huddling in our respective news silos. That would be "false equivalency". I make it a point to troll Fox News on a daily basis before turning to CNN and the New York Times. Try it yourself and you'll see a daily fear-mongering reportage of crime against individuals, election denial, and xenophobia. Fox News is the "most watched" news network, crushing MSNBC and CNN's viewship totals. Posts from Newsmax, One America Network, and Breitbart are the most widely shared political content on Facebook. And I double-dog-dare-you to find anything that is left of center on the AM radio spectrum apart from NPR.
You wanted outrage, Ted? You got it. I just hope it doesn't sink into despair.
Right on, jack!
First time I got a comment longer than the post itself...all good solid points. Good luck restoring the 'Fairness Doctrine.' We have entire networks devoted to right wing, Christian propaganda.
Thanks for weighing in. My reply is late but it appears the election outcome was not as bad as it could have been. Let's see how each party's post-mortem decides why the voters did what they did. In the meantime, I'm happy to get back to safer, more pleasant topics.
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