From The Huffington Post -- April 28, 2011
By Johann Hari:
Since the election of Barack Obama, the Republican Party has proved that one of its central intellectual arguments was right all along. They have long claimed that evolution is a myth believed in only by whiny liberals -- and it turns out they were onto something. Every six months, the Republican Party venerates a new hero, and each time it is somebody further back on the evolutionary scale.
Sarah Palin told cheering rallies that her message to the world was: "We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way!" -- but that wasn't enough. So they found Michele Bachmann, who said darkly it was an "interesting coincidence" that swine flu only breaks out under Democratic presidents, claims the message of The Lion King is "I'm better at what I do because I'm gay," and argues "there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows carbon dioxide is a harmful gas."
That wasn't enough. I half-expected the next contender to be a lung-fish draped in the Stars and Stripes. But it wasn't anything so sophisticated. Enter stage (far) right Donald Trump, the bewigged billionaire who has filled America with phallic symbols and plastered his name across more surfaces than the average Central Asian dictator. A survey suggests he is the most popular candidate among Republican voters. It's not hard to see why.
Trump is every trend in Republican politics over the past thirty-five years taken to its logical conclusion. He is the Republican id, finally entirely unleashed from all restraint and all reality.
The first trend is towards naked imperialism. On Libya, he says: "I would go in and take the oil... I would take the oil and stop this baby stuff." On Iraq, he says: "We stay there, and we take the oil... In the old days, when you have a war and you win, that nation's yours." It is a view that the world is essentially America's property, inconveniently inhabited by foreigners squatting over oil-fields. Trump says America needs to "stop what's going on in the world. The world is just destroying our country. These other countries are sapping our strength." The U.S. must have full spectrum dominance. In this respect, he is simply an honest George W. Bush.
The second trend is towards dog-whistle prejudice -- pitched just high enough for frightened white Republicans to hear it. Trump made it a central issue to suggest Obama wasn't born in America (and therefore was occupying the White House illegally) -- even though this conspiracy theory had long since been proven to be as credible as the people who claim Paul McCartney was killed in 1969 and replaced with an imposter. Trump said nobody "ever comes forward" to say they knew Obama as a child in Hawaii. When lots of people pointed out they knew Obama as a child, Trump ridiculed the idea they could remember that far back. Then he said he'd "heard" the birth certificate said Obama was Muslim. When it was released saying no such thing, Trump said: "I'm very proud of myself."
The Republican primary voters heard the message right -- the black guy is foreign. He's not one of us. Trump responded to these charges by saying: "I've always had a great relationship with the blacks."
The third trend is towards raw worship of wealth as an end in itself -- and exempting them from all social responsibility. Trump is wealthy because his father left him a large business, and since then companies with his name on them have crashed into bankruptcy four times. In 1990, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Clay Johnson studied the Trump accounts and claimed that while Trump claimed to be worth $1.4bn, he was actually worth -$600m. That is, he owed $600m more than he owned. You and I were worth more than him.
Johnson says that in fact most of Trump's apparent fortune comes from "stiffing his creditors" and from government subsidies and favours for his projects -- which followed large donations to the campaigns of both parties, sometimes in the very same contest. Trump denies these charges and presents himself as an entrepreneur "of genius."
Yet for the Republican Party, the accumulation of money is proof in itself of virtue, however it was acquired. The richest 1 percent pay for the party's campaigns, and the party in turn serves their interests entirely. The most glaring example is that they have simply exempted many of the rich from taxes. Johnson studied four of Trump's recent tax returns, and found he legally paid no taxes in two of them. In America today, a janitor can pay more income tax than Donald Trump -- and the Republicans regard that not as a source of shame, but of pride.
How are these tax exemptions for the super-rich paid for? Here's one example. The Republican budget that just passed through the House slashed funding to help premature babies to survive. The rich riot while the poor shrivel. Trump offers the ultimate symbol of this -- he won't even shake hands with any ordinary Americans out on the stump, because "you catch all sorts of things" from them. Yes: the Republican front-runner is a billionaire who literally won't touch the poor or middle class.
The fourth trend is to insist that any fact inconvenient to your world-view either doesn't exist, or can be overcome by pure willpower. Soon, the U.S. will have to extend its debt ceiling -- the amount of money the government is allowed to borrow - or it will default on its debt. Virtually every economist in the world says this would cause another global economic crash. Trump snaps back: "What do economists know? Most of them aren't very smart."
Confront the Republicans with any long-term social or economic problem, and they have one response: it would go away if only we insisted on our assumptions more aggressively. So Trump says "it's so easy" to deal with rising oil prices. He says he would call in OPEC, the cartel of oil-producing nations, as if they were contestants on his show 'The Apprentice', and declare: "I'm going to look them in the eye and say 'Fellows, you've had your fun. Your fun is over.'... It's so easy. It's all about the messenger." It's the same, he says, with China. He will order them to stop manipulating their currency. When he was told they have some leverage over the US, he snapped: "They have some of our debt. Big deal. It's a very small number relative to the world, OK?"
This is what the Republican core vote wants to be told. The writer Matthew Yglesias calls it "the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics." It's named after the Marvel comics superhero the Green Lantern, who can only use his superpowers when he "overcomes fear" and shows confidence -- and then he can do anything. This is Trump's view. The whiny world simply needs to be bullied into submission by a more assertive America -- or the world can be fired and he'll find a better one.
Trump probably won't become the Republican nominee, but it won't be because most Republicans reject his premises. No: it will be because he states these arguments too crudely for mass public consumption. He takes the underlying whispered dogmas of the Reagan, Bush and Tea Party years and shrieks them through a megaphone. The nominee will share similar ideas, but express them more subtly.
In case you think these ideas are marginal to the party, remember -- it has united behind the budget plan of Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan. It's simple: it halves taxes on the richest 1 percent and ends all taxes on corporate income, dividends and inheritance. It pays for it by slashing spending on food stamps, healthcare for the poor and the elderly, and basic services. It aims to return the US to the spending levels of the 1920s -- and while Ryan frames it as a response to the deficit, it would actually increase it according to the independent Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Ryan says "the reason I got involved in public service" was because he read the writings of Ayn Rand, which describe the poor as "parasites" who must "perish", and are best summarized by the title of one of her books: 'The Virtue of Selfishness.'
The tragedy is that Obama needs serious opposition -- but not from this direction. In reality, he is funded by similar destructive corporate interests, and has only been a few notches closer to sanity than these people. But faced with such overt lunacy, he seems like he is serving the bottom 99 percent of Americans much more than he really is.
The Republican Party today isn't even dominated by market fundamentalism. This is a crude Nietzsheanism, dedicating to exalting the rich as an overclass and dismissing the rest. So who should be the Republican nominee? I hear the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were considering running -- but they are facing primary challenges from the Tea Party for being way too mild-mannered.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Right-Wing Media Eat Crow on "Birther" Mythology -- Obama Scores a Knockout
From Media Matters for America -- April 29, 2011:
About-Face: Conservative Media Start Downplaying Their Birther Credentials
In the wake of President Obama's release of his long-form birth certificate, which further debunks the claims of those who have been saying Obama was not born in Hawaii, some in the conservative media are now trying to pretend they never questioned Obama's citizenship in the first place.
Right-Wing Media Distance Themselves From Birther Conspiracies They Promoted
Limbaugh Now Claims: "I Warned People This Is A Dead End." Citing emails he had received from listeners telling him "not to be fooled by the White House" following the release of Obama's long-form birth certificate, Limbaugh stated that birther conspiracies are "fun" but that he is "not going to be distracted" by the claims. He said:
LIMBAUGH: It's fun. I make no apology or excuse for enjoying the show this morning that this was. Yeah, while we're gonna have our fun with it, we are not going to be distracted. Because as I have warned, I -- you know, you ought to replay sound bite 2. When we come back from the break, I will, 'cause back on April 7th, I warned people this is a dead end -- dead-end street to start driving down or walking down. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/28/11]
Hannity: "This Was Never A Defining Issue For Me, But I Found It Odd." Discussing Obama's release of his long-form birth certificate on the April 27 edition of his show, Sean Hannity tried to downplay his role in promoting the birther myth, saying: "We've got this big issue involving the birth certificate and I was never -- this was never a defining issue for me, but I found it odd. All the president had to do was what he did today: release it, move on, and we're out of the way." [Fox News, Hannity, 4/27/11]
Fox News Tries To Distance Itself From Its Promotion Of Birther Conspiracy. Fox News' website Fox Nation pointed to a recent study by Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism in trying to downplay Fox News' role in promoting the birther conspiracy. The post republished part of the study finding that, among the three cable networks, Fox devoted the "least" amount of coverage to the birther claims and boasted of Fox's apparent low amount of coverage to the birther issue during the week of April 11-17. But while the study included Fox evening shows Special Report, The O'Reilly Factor, and Hannity, it did not include other Fox News opinion shows that also contributed air time to the controversy, including Fox & Friends and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. The study also did not examine Fox Nation itself. [Fox Nation, 4/28/11]
NewsBusters Also Highlighted Pew Research To Absolve Fox Of Pushing Birther Conspiracy. NewsBusters' Lachlan Markey wrote: "Unfortunately, simply by giving a megaphone to Donald Trump -- the personality who undergirded much of the birther coverage of late -- news networks implicitly gave voice to the conspiracy theory. Simply ignoring the theory is generally the best way to combat it, and Fox led the field in that regard (on cable news, anyway)." [NewsBusters, 4/29/11]
In Fact, Limbaugh And Fox News Have Repeatedly Promoted The Birther Myth
Limbaugh Has Constantly Stoked The Flames Of The Birther Movement. While Limbaugh is now stressing his prior statement that the issue was a "dead end," Limbaugh has consistently engaged in promoting the birther myth:
Limbaugh made the false claim that Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie "can't find" Obama's birth certificate. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/4/11]
Limbaugh also recently said, "We've got somebody about whom there are legitimate citizenship questions here, serving as president." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/11/11]
Limbaugh said to a birther that he "would love nothing more than for this guy to be proven a fraud," adding, "that would be fun." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/7/11]
Limbaugh speculated that, in October 2008, when Obama made a quick trip to Hawaii to visit his ailing grandmother, he might actually be there to deal with "this birth certificate business." Obama's grandmother subsequently passed away two days before the election. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 10/23/08]
Limbaugh has also attacked the press for not asking Obama "why won't you show the birth certificate." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/26/11]
Limbaugh has repeatedly touted Donald Trump's birther theories. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 3/28/11]
Hannity Spent Weeks Demanding Obama Release Long-Form Birth Certificate. Despite his claim that the birther myth "was never a defining issue for me," Hannity repeatedly used his show to demand that Obama release his long-form birth certificate (all the while maintaining that it wasn't his "main issue" and professing a desire to "move on"):
On March 24, Hannity asked: "What's the deal? Produce the birth certificate, it's over, done with." During the segment, he also said that Obama "did talk in his book about how he went and prayers and he went to a Muslim school, and he did talk about all this. And he studied the Quran, and prayers at sunset were some of the most beautiful things he saw in life. So he spent a lot of years of his youth in Indonesia ... And show the birth certificate." [Fox News, Hannity, 3/24/11]
On March 23, Hannity asked, "What do you think about this birth certificate issue? I mean, it has not been my main issue, but it kind of does get a little odd here after a while. Can't they just produce it and we move on?" [Fox News, Hannity, 3/23/11]
On March 25, Hannity stated, "Donald Trump brought up the issue of the birth certificate, and it's getting huge buzz around the country," and later asked, "Why can't they just release the birth certificate, you know, and just move on?" [Fox News, Hannity, 3/25/11]
Later on the March 25 show, Hannity stated: "Do I think he was [born in America]? Yes. Do I think this is odd that they won't produce the birth certificate? It's beginning to get odd to me." Hannity later stated that it's "not true" that Obama has shown his birth certificate. [Fox News, Hannity, 3/25/11]
On April 5, Hannity said that Obama was born in the United States but demanded that he "show the stupid birth certificate and move on." [Fox News, Hannity, 4/5/11]
Fox Promotes Birther Myth In At Least 52 Segments. A Media Matters review of Fox News' opinion programs found that over a recent two-month period, the network devoted nearly two hours and 20 minutes to the birther issue, and in the vast majority of the cases, the hosts either espoused birther conspiracies or did not challenge or correct false claims about Obama's birth that aired on their shows. [Media Matters, 4/27/11]
Fox Nation Has Repeatedly Hyped Trump's Birtherism. Fox Nation repeatedly promoted Donald Trump's birther claims, including Trump's claim he had investigators in Hawaii who could not believe what they were finding and his claim that Obama may be a Muslim. [Media Matters, 4/7/11]
Other Fox News Figures Embraced Aspects Of Birther Conspiracy. Aside from Hannity, following Donald Trump's lead, other Fox News figures -- including Sarah Palin, Steve Doocy, Bill O'Reilly, Dick Morris, and Monica Crowley -- have embraced or promoted aspects of the birther conspiracy theory by falsely claiming that Obama has not produced his birth certificate, by hosting birthers to hype their discredited theories unchallenged, and/or by calling on Obama to release the long-form birth certificate. [Media Matters, 4/20/11]
About-Face: Conservative Media Start Downplaying Their Birther Credentials
In the wake of President Obama's release of his long-form birth certificate, which further debunks the claims of those who have been saying Obama was not born in Hawaii, some in the conservative media are now trying to pretend they never questioned Obama's citizenship in the first place.
Right-Wing Media Distance Themselves From Birther Conspiracies They Promoted
Limbaugh Now Claims: "I Warned People This Is A Dead End." Citing emails he had received from listeners telling him "not to be fooled by the White House" following the release of Obama's long-form birth certificate, Limbaugh stated that birther conspiracies are "fun" but that he is "not going to be distracted" by the claims. He said:
LIMBAUGH: It's fun. I make no apology or excuse for enjoying the show this morning that this was. Yeah, while we're gonna have our fun with it, we are not going to be distracted. Because as I have warned, I -- you know, you ought to replay sound bite 2. When we come back from the break, I will, 'cause back on April 7th, I warned people this is a dead end -- dead-end street to start driving down or walking down. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/28/11]
Hannity: "This Was Never A Defining Issue For Me, But I Found It Odd." Discussing Obama's release of his long-form birth certificate on the April 27 edition of his show, Sean Hannity tried to downplay his role in promoting the birther myth, saying: "We've got this big issue involving the birth certificate and I was never -- this was never a defining issue for me, but I found it odd. All the president had to do was what he did today: release it, move on, and we're out of the way." [Fox News, Hannity, 4/27/11]
Fox News Tries To Distance Itself From Its Promotion Of Birther Conspiracy. Fox News' website Fox Nation pointed to a recent study by Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism in trying to downplay Fox News' role in promoting the birther conspiracy. The post republished part of the study finding that, among the three cable networks, Fox devoted the "least" amount of coverage to the birther claims and boasted of Fox's apparent low amount of coverage to the birther issue during the week of April 11-17. But while the study included Fox evening shows Special Report, The O'Reilly Factor, and Hannity, it did not include other Fox News opinion shows that also contributed air time to the controversy, including Fox & Friends and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. The study also did not examine Fox Nation itself. [Fox Nation, 4/28/11]
NewsBusters Also Highlighted Pew Research To Absolve Fox Of Pushing Birther Conspiracy. NewsBusters' Lachlan Markey wrote: "Unfortunately, simply by giving a megaphone to Donald Trump -- the personality who undergirded much of the birther coverage of late -- news networks implicitly gave voice to the conspiracy theory. Simply ignoring the theory is generally the best way to combat it, and Fox led the field in that regard (on cable news, anyway)." [NewsBusters, 4/29/11]
In Fact, Limbaugh And Fox News Have Repeatedly Promoted The Birther Myth
Limbaugh Has Constantly Stoked The Flames Of The Birther Movement. While Limbaugh is now stressing his prior statement that the issue was a "dead end," Limbaugh has consistently engaged in promoting the birther myth:
Limbaugh made the false claim that Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie "can't find" Obama's birth certificate. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/4/11]
Limbaugh also recently said, "We've got somebody about whom there are legitimate citizenship questions here, serving as president." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/11/11]
Limbaugh said to a birther that he "would love nothing more than for this guy to be proven a fraud," adding, "that would be fun." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/7/11]
Limbaugh speculated that, in October 2008, when Obama made a quick trip to Hawaii to visit his ailing grandmother, he might actually be there to deal with "this birth certificate business." Obama's grandmother subsequently passed away two days before the election. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 10/23/08]
Limbaugh has also attacked the press for not asking Obama "why won't you show the birth certificate." [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/26/11]
Limbaugh has repeatedly touted Donald Trump's birther theories. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 3/28/11]
Hannity Spent Weeks Demanding Obama Release Long-Form Birth Certificate. Despite his claim that the birther myth "was never a defining issue for me," Hannity repeatedly used his show to demand that Obama release his long-form birth certificate (all the while maintaining that it wasn't his "main issue" and professing a desire to "move on"):
On March 24, Hannity asked: "What's the deal? Produce the birth certificate, it's over, done with." During the segment, he also said that Obama "did talk in his book about how he went and prayers and he went to a Muslim school, and he did talk about all this. And he studied the Quran, and prayers at sunset were some of the most beautiful things he saw in life. So he spent a lot of years of his youth in Indonesia ... And show the birth certificate." [Fox News, Hannity, 3/24/11]
On March 23, Hannity asked, "What do you think about this birth certificate issue? I mean, it has not been my main issue, but it kind of does get a little odd here after a while. Can't they just produce it and we move on?" [Fox News, Hannity, 3/23/11]
On March 25, Hannity stated, "Donald Trump brought up the issue of the birth certificate, and it's getting huge buzz around the country," and later asked, "Why can't they just release the birth certificate, you know, and just move on?" [Fox News, Hannity, 3/25/11]
Later on the March 25 show, Hannity stated: "Do I think he was [born in America]? Yes. Do I think this is odd that they won't produce the birth certificate? It's beginning to get odd to me." Hannity later stated that it's "not true" that Obama has shown his birth certificate. [Fox News, Hannity, 3/25/11]
On April 5, Hannity said that Obama was born in the United States but demanded that he "show the stupid birth certificate and move on." [Fox News, Hannity, 4/5/11]
Fox Promotes Birther Myth In At Least 52 Segments. A Media Matters review of Fox News' opinion programs found that over a recent two-month period, the network devoted nearly two hours and 20 minutes to the birther issue, and in the vast majority of the cases, the hosts either espoused birther conspiracies or did not challenge or correct false claims about Obama's birth that aired on their shows. [Media Matters, 4/27/11]
Fox Nation Has Repeatedly Hyped Trump's Birtherism. Fox Nation repeatedly promoted Donald Trump's birther claims, including Trump's claim he had investigators in Hawaii who could not believe what they were finding and his claim that Obama may be a Muslim. [Media Matters, 4/7/11]
Other Fox News Figures Embraced Aspects Of Birther Conspiracy. Aside from Hannity, following Donald Trump's lead, other Fox News figures -- including Sarah Palin, Steve Doocy, Bill O'Reilly, Dick Morris, and Monica Crowley -- have embraced or promoted aspects of the birther conspiracy theory by falsely claiming that Obama has not produced his birth certificate, by hosting birthers to hype their discredited theories unchallenged, and/or by calling on Obama to release the long-form birth certificate. [Media Matters, 4/20/11]
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