Conservatives: Heroes in crises they create
In the latest version of manufactured moral outrage, an anti-choice activist pretended to go to a Planned Parenthood clinic to get an abortion if and only if the baby turned out to be a girl. It’s an incredibly disturbing premise. Thank goodness it’s completely untrue.
There is really no sex-selective abortion crisis in the United States, period. But the illusion of a crisis is enough to whip up the conservative base, captivate cable talkers and put pro-choice activists on the defensive. And apparently, a false crisis is even enough to get legislation proposed in Congress — legislation to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. Talk about wasting taxpayer dollars!
This tactic has become one of the more effective and frequent weapons in the Right wing arsenal. Conservatives, who have all but given up on actually being part of the solution for the real disasters America faces, are resorting to a sort of virtual reality game of politics wherein they manufacture disasters designed to cast themselves as the saviors.
I don’t have enough space to list all the examples. Voter fraud. Inflation. Public employee pensions. The fact that unemployment is still far too high in part because of layoffs of public sector workers that conservatives have pushed. Or the idea that marriage equality will lead to marrying goats. Conservatives literally make up these problems or, in the case of public sector unemployment, actively work to make them come true. Mounting government debt? A crisis Republicans obviously played a massive role in creating when George W. Bush was president, only to turn around and paint themselves as the solution to the crisis now that Barack Obama holds the office.
What conservatives understand is that in our 24/7 hyped up, reality TV-like media culture, facts are far less important than fanfare. Voters remember the beginning of the story and lose track by the end, when the crisis is proven utterly false. After all, we’re still talking about Barack Obama’s birth certificate long after the sitting President of the United States of America was embarrassingly forced to produce it. But no matter. Even after that, almost one in three Republican voters still believe that President Obama was born outside of the United States.
It’s very hard to combat such narratives when conservatives render facts irrelevant.
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5 Responses to Conservatives: Heroes in crises they create
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Dear Sally,
A nice, concise piece about the made-up controversies that seem pervasive these days. But, why do members of the media like David Gregory allow these so-called conservatives on his show and allow them to not only promulgate these falsehoods, but also to lie? Gregory just sort of half-smiles and never calls these people on their lies. Why? Why won’t NBC, ABC, CBS or even PBS point out the mistruths, falsehoods and outright lies being told by both politicians and conservative talking heads alike?
I feel like we are again in the roll-up to going to war with Iraq when the media stood by and refused to refute any of the lies being told about the so-called weapons of mass destruction. When a simple phone call, some history work would have shown positively that the yellow cake deal never happened, the names and dates on the papers didn’t match and so on. Is the media afraid of something if it reports on the truth and call out the liars?
Keep fighting the good fight, keep opening the eyes of the sedated and keep telling the truth!
Thank you,
George F Kremer
I hate to say it, George, but I think the media is afraid. Afraid the conservatives will attack them with made-up stories in the same way they attack Obama and others. And the fact that, even after their stories are proved to be lies, they still use them in their attacks could very well prove disastrous to the careers of many journalists and TV reporters and such.
Christine is exactly right. Even after the stories are proven to be lies, the neocons or tea partiers or whatever they call themselves this week keep using them. Why? It is like Trump and the birther issue, which he refuses to let go: all that baloney is raw meat for the base, half of whom still believe in their heart of hearts that Obama is a muslim. Let them live in their delusions. It’s where they are happiest.
It IS a shame that the national press cannot find it in themselves to point these little facts out, when, as she suggests, folks like David Gregory smile, knowing full well the falsehoods that are being pervaded. And they let them pass without a word. Shameless.
Dear All,
Genius piece by Sally. In my opinion, that is exactly what the republicans did. They manufactured a crisis off of a “hit and run” story to turn it into a national problem.
How similar to it I seem to recall with George Stephenopolis asked Mitt Romney what he would do if states tried to limit birth control, when Mitt Romney honestly, and truthfully replied, that no states were trying to do such. And the very next day a birth control bill is rolled out forcing churches and other organizations to go against their core beliefs. What a spectical the president and the democratic party made of it! They spun it as if conservatives hated women and were actively working against them, when in reality, conservatives had not tried to change a single law. Democrats had set the same ploy.
But wait, I forget that you don’t care about that as long as it furthers what you want.
Nice example of what psychiatrists call projection.
Any law restricting abortion on demand will result in the coat hangers coming out of retirement.
Any restriction on public employee pensions will result in autistic kids taking care of themselves.
Any limits on the EPA (Sackett v. EPA) will result in dirty air and undrinkable water.
Any reduction in the Education Department will result in colleges closing.
Any attempt to reform Medicare will result in grandmothers in wheelchairs being pushed under the bus.
Any attempt to reform Social Security will result in the elderly starving.