Villification

A recent FB exchange after I posted the above:

• Jeffrey Craig Simon Almost ALL of the media is owned by a few mega-huge corporations. They of course have a "right" bias. The GOP strategy is to tell a lie, then repeat it over and over and over again, until people begin to think it must be true....but it is still a lie. Tons of research shows the media has a center to right bias.
  

  Monday at 12:10pm ·
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  Cleat Edmonson Yes!! That's it exactly. It just gets harder to talk to the brainwashed bunch when they repeat this particular lie over and over again.
  

  Monday at 4:40pm ·
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  Michael Dodd You guys really think that the GOP is despicable don't you? Does that mean that individual Republicans are despicable or just ignorant fools?
  

  18 hours ago ·
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  Cleat Edmonson It means there is a trade off that we are no longer willing to ignore. Your straw argument is not real... there are always more than two choices. And, yes, for the most part what the "party" has become IS despicable, Mike, since there is no longer a willingness to work with or actually negotiate with others. That's pretty much why I can no longer be a Republican.
  

  17 hours ago ·
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  Michael Dodd
  

  What I am saying is that I am offended by your lumping most Republicans together (and I certainly am a Republican) as a brainwashed bunch (your words). Whatever, to mention a few things that the "liberal media" didn't bother to cover much, was Obama's ties with Ayers and Wright and Alinsky's book. Is that all a bunch of lies? You should be specific when you refer to the lies. Remember what Wittgenstein always said: "examples, we need examples." When you say that the GOP won't negotiate with the Democrat party, you should, if possible, give the point of view of the GOP, as certainly the GOP should do when giving their opponents point of view. I grant you that my argument was a straw man, something Obama uses quite frequently. You may despise George Bush but at least he gave his political opponents credit for honestly disagreeing with him, rather than do as Obama always does, accuse his opponents of playing politics when they don't agree with him, always putting hiimself in the position of the righteous one, the serious one. I believe it can be difficult to talk about politics; passions run high, and there is good reason for that. We disagree about some really important things: what the nature and aims of our country should be, how government should function, whether liberty or security is more important, or how we can balance those two ideas. I don't think Democrats or liberals or progressives are despicable by nature. I've known you for more than 30 years now, and have always esteemed you for quite a few reasons. You surprise me by your political views but I know you can do a lot better than sound so intemperate. 
  15 hours ago ·
  
  
  
  

   

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    Cleat Edmonson
    

    Mike, so much of what you say is untrue!! It is hard to start... especially in this venue. Your take on Obama is seriously flawed. It has consistently been the Repub's who have twisted the who did what to whom in the current wranglings. Obama often cites the differences and acknowledges those differences saying that the Repub's need to offer a solution not simply attack an offered plan or, worse, an offered compromise. GWB and his crowd turned evil... but the worst of the offenders are Tea Party thugs. And, yes, I do say evil. The agenda there is pathetically linked to that of a libertarian (that would be antithetical to traditional republican values) run Koch brothers agenda. The most distorted view of how the country should run is from the likes of the Fox newsers and I have been pummeled into an intolerant view of how much of that sort of nonsense I can listen to. Remember, here we started with Noam Chomsky's exposure of the myth of the liberal media. Really?? It has been demonstrated over and over that the media is not particularly liberal. It is equally demonstrable that the media IS tilted to the right. Republicans aren't despicable individually... but, republican commentators are projecting despicable values and the tea party group are not part of any republican party I can be part of. You are correct that we have known each other for a long time and I am saddened that you are offended by what I think. I will save examples for the blog when I restart it in a bit.
    
    

    So, here is where the rubber meets the road.  Examples: is it examples of right leaning media that is called for?  Is it examples of Republican lies that are in need of examples?

    
    

    From where I sit it is a problem of where to start... there are so many examples of both.  Just yesterday the House Speaker, John Boehner (R), called on the President to solve the dead lock in Congress!!  Can we say, "It is not within the powers of the office of President to do that"??  At every opportunity Senator Mitch McConnell (R) has said that there cannot be a win for anything that the President has asked for from the Legislative branch.  Generally deflecting from their inactivity to pronounce any problem an Obama problem.  This is not just politics.  More later.