Both sides DON’T do it!

December 9, 2015 JanF Motley Megaphone 3

Once again, the Fair and Balanced Media has declared that “Both Sides Do it” as they analyze the Trumpism phenomenon that is degrading American politics.

Margaret Chase Smith: ‘… I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny — Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear’. Sadly, there is no Margaret Chase Smith to bail your bony asses out this time, GOP.
You drove all the Reasonable Republicans away.

At the WaPo, Balzian Bulldung masquerading as reporting saw fit to elevate this quote to prominence:

“This is a new campaign for a new century in which viral populism, most conspicuous on the GOP side, is the engine of our politics,” [said] Ross K. Baker of Rutgers University”

No no no …. a thousand times, no! It is not “most conspicuous on the GOP side”; it is the Republican Party platform and there is exactly nothing like it on the Democratic side. But lest we forget what’s at stake when America is being judged by the headlines screaming about banning Muslims, let’s bury this fact as far down in the story as possible:

“…one that sent shockwaves around the world — in the inflammatory and sometimes demagogic rhetoric of the candidate who continues to lead virtually every national and state poll testing whom Republicans favor for their presidential nomination.”

What’s that? Trump does not speak for all Americans???? Trump only speaks for 30% of a dying political party that has had to increasingly rely on racism, bigotry, and hatred of the other in order to survive???? I think that should be the headline, not buried under a mountain of bs:

“Republican Party Candidate Wants to Ban All Muslims; A Majority of Americans Aghast”

Today the WaPo said “Please, won’t you stop this, Republican Party?” on their editorial page while their Dan Balzes and Chris Cillizzas blather on in the rest of the newspaper.

Hey, destructive media! Both sides don’t do it and when you report that they do you make it seem like it is unfixable: “Oh well, there you have it; American politics is what it is. Nothing we can do! ¯\(ツ)/¯ :::shrug:::”

Nothing could be further from the truth. Truth, you ask? Look it up in the dictionary because there is no evidence that your paper has any understanding of it:

noun: the quality or state of being true.
that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality

In REALITY, the Republicans don’t speak for Americans … and in REALITY there is an alternative to the Republican Party and this next election will lay that out clearly and unequivocally.

Trumpian rhetoric is Republican rhetoric and neither have a place in American politics.

~

About Margaret Chase Smith, from the Party Formerly Known as The Party of Lincoln … she had a conscience:

I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny — Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.

I doubt if the Republican Party could — simply because I don’t believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. Surely we Republicans aren’t that desperate for victory.

I don’t want to see the Republican Party win that way. While it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican Party, it would be a more lasting defeat for the American people. Surely it would ultimately be suicide for the Republican Party and the two-party system that has protected our American liberties from the dictatorship of a one party system.

Sorry, Senator Smith. That party no longer exists … the current Republican Party DOES want to win that way.

3 Comments

  1. Stop wrecking America, lazy media:

    Both sides don’t do it and when you report that they do you make it seem like it is unfixable: “Oh well, there you have it; American politics is what it is. Nothing we can do! ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ ”

    Yes, there is something we can do. Vote.

    Hillary Clinton:

    Our country was founded by people fleeing religious persecution. The notion that here, people are free to practice their faith, whatever it is, is one of America’s most cherished principles. Maybe Mr. Trump should re-read President Washington’s 1790 letter to the Jewish community of Newport, Rhode Island, reassuring them that, in the brand-new nation of the United States, their religious liberty would always be protected. He wrote, “The Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” In other words, you can be you, and still be with us.

    That’s something I’ll bet a lot of Muslim Americans need to hear right now. Imagine hearing political leaders threaten to register and track you, implying that your religion is violent, that you’re violent, that you’re the enemy. Nearly 3 million Americans are Muslims. They’re our family, our friends, our neighbors, and co-workers. They serve in the military, save lives as doctors and nurses, and serve our communities as police officers, firefighters, teachers, and civic leaders. They’re patriots—proud Americans, just like the rest of us. They deserve better than this.

    They do – they deserve to hear this:

    To Muslim Americans: What you’re hearing from Trump and other Republicans is absolutely, unequivocally wrong. It’s inconsistent with our values as a nation—a nation which you are helping to build. This is your country, too. I’m proud to be your fellow American. And many, many other Americans feel the same way.

  2. Very good post and comment, Jan! Like you, I’m so tired of this false equivalence. Both sides bloody well DON’T do it. How can people be so willfully obtuse as not to recognize this?

    Of course, I gave up on The Washington Poop long ago. They shill for the Rethugs, by and large.

    • The Washington Post is only one of the lazy media, willfully transcribing the meanest things and making it sound like it is just “politics as usual”. There is nothing “usual” about the demagoguery currently passing for politics in our country right now.

      The part that bothers me the most (and there is a lot of bothering going on!) is this:

      Both sides don’t do it and when you report that they do you make it seem like it is unfixable: “Oh well, there you have it; American politics is what it is. Nothing we can do! ¯\\(ツ)/¯ ”

      We can raise the level of discourse by pointing out that the things the Republican Party stands for are not what America stands for; that the GOP is cynically using the anger of a minority of Americans to not only embarrass us but to endanger us.

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