The Republican act of using a news organization, specifically Fox News, to mislead an entire nation is common knowledge; nothing was ever done to correct this. Yes, Fox News is a misnomer, in that they are clearly and unapologetically a Public Relations arm of the Republican Party and, as such, they don’t so much report the news as make it up as they go along. They manage to mislead, slant, and falsely report on national and international events. This is not news; this is propaganda, somewhat like Pravda in the former Soviet Union.
A few years back, I wrote an Op-ed piece, which the people at Op Ed News were kind enough to publish, called "It's The Big Lie, People!"
I am now revisiting this topic with an eye towards the 2016 Presidential Election, and the members of the Republican Clown Car, all of whom hope to be the nominee by the election in November of 2016.
Read on, below the fold ...
As written by this writer, and many others before, the Right-wing Republicans perfected what was begun during WWII: Tell a Lie Big Enough, Loud Enough, Often Enough, and With Authority, and people will believe it. It's how the Republicans spread their own brand of hatred and bigotry. Republicans have perfected Hate-Mongering, Lying to the People, and Misdirection. They seem to have forgotten, there are others living in this country too!
Joining the two major parties a while back was the Tea Party, an even more rabid group of Right-Wing Republicans with hatreds of most everything not Republican and, in many cases, not Christian. See the recent stories of Kim Davis, the County Clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She did so based upon her religion, in complete violation of the United States Constitution. As an elected official, she took an oath which possibly included swearing to protect the Constitution of The United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Having become a domestic enemy through her violation of that oath is more than simple hypocrisy. Combine that with a complete violation of the Constitution itself, with the guarantee of Freedom Of and From Religion, and Separation of Church and State.
As for the Republican Party, the problem is that by their own admission, no one in their party, especially those riding in the Presidential Campaign Clown Car, has a constructive idea. This restricts their plans to: “Stop President Obama from succeeding.” Now that they have a majority in both House and Senate, they continue moving to reverse President Obama's Health Care Reform, and then reverse any Civil Rights that violate their tyrannical ambitions. But their candidates to succeed President Obama only know how to denigrate his successes. They still have not come up with any constructive, detailed concepts for moving forward after the 2016 Presidential Election. Not a single positive suggestion.
But because Donald – what is that thing on his head – Trump has been such a success being absolutely nasty, all the others in the Clown Car are learning how to insult minorities, women, and each other, hoping that if it works for Trump, it might work for them. His glasses notwithstanding, Rick Perry has withdrawn from the race. Apparently when he took off those glasses, he saw just how badly he was doing in his campaign, and gave up.
Returning to the GOP Candidates’ Plans for the future: there are none. In actual fact, moving forward is a concept that baffles the Republicans completely; they prefer to move backwards, by removing all of our Civil Rights, one at a time, until we as a country have reverted to a time before the 1960s!
It occurred to this writer that the Republicans have accused President Obama of many things, not the least of which is being a Socialist. They parrot their predecessors by labelling Democrats "Tax and Spend," although the previous president, the incompetent George W. Bush, spent the country into the largest deficit in the history of the USA. This, after Bill Clinton gave us, upon leaving office, the smallest deficit and the largest peacetime, or any time, surplus. Never forget that prior to Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush had spent the country into the previously largest deficit ever seen in modern times.
As recounted, the Bush ("W") administration got us into illegal wars. And even though his father, George H. W. Bush, advised him not to go back to Iraq, he did anyway. After all, how else could Halliburton (of which V.P. Dick Cheney had been an officer) and other sub-contractors take anything they wanted, financially, from our government? The “W” Bush Administration said the war in Iraq would bring the U. S. oil at lower prices; oil went up. While nobody raised an eyebrow at Dubya being essentially a War Criminal, they wanted to impeach Bill Clinton for a blow Job! Let’s see, which is morally worse? Killing hundreds of thousands of foreigners and losing thousands of American military personnel in a made-up war, or a Blow Job?
We also know about the Alaskan Bimbette, Sarah Palin, who had once said she could beat Obama in a Presidential Election. Recently, although Fox News supposedly sacked Palin, it appears that they cannot help but put her front and center in the news, with a speech that makes Jabberwocky sound like a children’s nursery rhyme.
If you use Google you can find studies which have been done, regarding how much accuracy is presented by Fox News. What is most remarkable, however, is to learn how Big their Lies are, how inaccurate their news articles are, the low percentage of facts in those articles, and learning that Fox knows this, and acknowledges these reports, they have done absolutely nothing about it. If they are to remain the Public Relations arm of the GOP, they must continue to embrace the concept put forth by Mitt Romney’s campaign manager during the last election. That they were not going to allow their campaign to be guided by facts. Similarly, Fox News will not allow accuracy and facts to overcome Lies and Misdirection. In addition, you can find articles about how Fox News is making our population dumber because the so-called “uninformed voters” are the audience to which Fox caters their lack of accuracy, in their effort to keep people voting for the GOP’s candidates. The truth of the matter is that the Fox News Network so routinely lies to the public, that you can't even take their word for it whether it is day time or night time! You have to look out your window to confirm what they said!
Republicans have tried to convince people that the economic problems are the Democrats' fault. Right-Wingers want you to believe Obama caused the depression!
It really is funny how that works.
How is it possible that Obama is the cause of all these economic problems, when they began months before he won the election in 2008, and took office in 2009? So, how could Obama have started the economic problems? Ask any Republican, Tea Party person, or Right-Winger, and they will tell you the Big Lie!
Which brings us back to the beginning of this ‘diary:’ It's the Big Lie, Revisited for 2016. To put this in the proper light, what we are seeing is a modern version of Good versus Evil, with the Republicans, and their tearful Speaker of the House, gleefully taking the role of Evil. Their not-so-secret reasons are simple, as they don't just want to run the country, they want to own it. They want to use the US Treasury as their private checking account, employing the so-called mushroom effect: they want to keep the Public in the Dark and feed us manure all day.
The only conclusion we can come to is to ask you, the "We" in We the People, to be vigilant, to not get caught unawares, to not take the GOP’s candidates' – the Clowns in the Clown Car – pronouncements without thoroughly checking facts for yourselves, for your families, and friends. Check anything told you by any politician, from any party; but especially the Republicans. They usually manage to get what they want, or destroy it if they don't.
Finally, we urge people to get out and vote. Vote as if your life depends upon it, because it does.
As the Boy Scouts say, Be Prepared!