Republicans: The Mushroom Party

In a recent Hoffpo column, Journalist Nicolas Kristof puts forward the novel notion that the lies and distortions of right-wing media outlets such as Fox News are actually more harmful to Republicans than they are to Democrats.

When I was covering the war in Iraq, we reporters would sometimes tune to Fox News and watch, mystified, as it purported to describe how Iraqis loved Americans. Such coverage (backed by delusional Journal editorials baffling to anyone who was actually in Iraq) misled conservatives about Iraq from the beginning. In retrospect, the real victims of Fox News weren't the liberals it attacked but the conservatives who believed it.

Historically, we in the press have done more damage to our nation by withholding secret information than by publishing it. One example was this newspaper's withholding details of the plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion. President Kennedy himself suggested that the U.S. would have been better served if The Times had published the full story and derailed the invasion.

Then there were the C.I.A. abuses that journalists kept mum about until they spilled over and prompted the Church Committee investigation in the 1970's. And there are secrets we should have found, but didn't: in the run-up to the Iraq war, the press -- particularly this newspaper -- was too credulous about claims that Iraq possessed large amounts of W.M.D.

In each of these cases, we were too compliant. We failed in our watchdog role, and we failed our country.

I would strongly concur.

I recently discovered via Technorati that a blog post of mine on "Hating the enemy, Y'know Us." had received some commentary on Myspace by a 45-year-old Conservative Mother from Pennsylvania.

After recovering from the shock that there are 45-year-old people on Myspace, I read what she had to say.

If you want more young people to join the Rep. Party then...

the Liberal bashing has to end. Its my opinion that bashing in any form, whether it is towards a certain nationality eg, is a form of hate.

How can we gain the respect of the younger generation if they are hearing ultra conservative points of views on a continual basis? Our younger generation is very impressionable, and we have to remember many of them are still very liberal in their own way of thinking due to lack of maturation. (No offense to those of you that have matured at a much faster pace), but most 18-20 yr olds are still a bit rebellious, so it is my belief that if they are hearing constant liberal bashing, we (The GOP) is actually swaying them in the wrong direction.

I am not saying forget the values of the Republican party. What I am saying is that things need to tone down quite a bit, because it is pushing others towards the democratic party, they don't even want to hear what the Republican party stands for, nor do they care. I have heard this first hand by many younger people, so that is what I am basing this on, along with intuition. I always try to put the shoe on the other foot, and when I am able to really stand back and listen objectively, I can see why others turn to the Dem's. We may even be able to gain more Democrats on our side if the liberal bashing stopped.

Now, she seems to feel that it's the level of vitriol from the right that is driving younger people away from the GOP. I tend to disagree, I think the high vitriol is more attractive to the young who are still feisty and rebellious. There isn't anything more rebellious then saying something outrageous and politically incorrect.

It's why the right-wing attracts so many skinheads and other hate groups.

But what she's ignoring, are the lies. The constant denial of facts and reality that is driving a wedge between what may be genuinely held values by those on the right - and most people with any common sense left. According to the right - Global Warming still needs more "Study". There really were WMD's in Iraq. Joe Wilson is a Liar. There isn't any proof of torture going on a Gitmo. There's "War on Christmas and Easter". Not knowing how to use Condoms and being denied access to medicines which can prevent Cercival Cancer ia a "Good thing". Revealing the identify of a undercover CIA operative working on Nuclear proliferation in Iran (Valerie Plame-Wilson) is no big deal - but the talking about the Bank Data program actually hurt National Security, even though the details had already been revealed by the Bush Admin itself. Voting irregularities are just the cost of doing business. America shot down those North Korean Test Missles.

The vitriol on the right is simply a tool to "kill the messenger" of those who would expose these lies and failures of logic, thereby shutting down legitimate debate.

Yes, there is vitriol on the left. But I would argue that when we see people on the right argue for example that the New York times tried to setup a "hit" on Donald Rumsfled and Dick Cheney by revealing details about their homes. They refuse to correct their error, while when someone on the left such as Jason Leopold makes an outrageous and unsubstaniated claim - the left itself crushes him into powder. (A reaction I still feel was far over-the-top in it's own way)

Both may be angry at times, but it is the right - thanks to the constant Provda-like bleatings of Faux News, The Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page - that remains grossly fact-challenged.

Yes, I think that in the long run the right has been hurt far more seriously by this brain-washing, they've been turned into the Mushroom Party - kept in the dark and fed nothing but crap.

But since the right is still a part of our nation -- ultimately we've all been hurt. It's going to take a long time, and a lot of deprograming before we begin to heal as a nation, and can start having honest open debates once again.

Vyan