Political Irony

7 Comments

1. Daniel Habtemariam wrote:

   This is a recurrent pattern, and it’s troubling.

   Calling a regulatory bill a bailout bill…Calling a healthcare bill a death panels bill…Saying net neutrality is censorship.

   This is more than just irony or hypocrisy; it’s Orwellian newspeak. War is peace. Good is evil.

   It doesn’t matter that the academic community refutes their arguments. Doesn’t seem to matter that a reading of the bills proves they’re wrong. Doesn’t matter that the right-leaning Mark Halperin refuses to defend their position. Doesn’t even matter that Republicans like Sheila Bair (a Bush appointee to chair the FDIC) has unequivocally said they’re wrong. No press corps to fact check them…in the end, it’s all he-said-she-said journalism, and the implications of that are scary.

   Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 2:42 pm | Permalink
2. ebdoug wrote:

   AP news keeps coming out with “surveys”. My feeling is that they have to qualify the “surveys” into those who watch Faux News and those who aren’t being brainwashed. The surveys would then hold more validity. The surveys keep coming out with 70% are against whatever is good for the whole of our country. 70% of the population watch Faux News.

   Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 3:09 pm | Permalink
3. Sammy wrote:

   A liberal Democrat should introduce a one-line bill that proposes to ban all abortions in all cases, just to see what kind of spin the Republicans would put on it just to oppose an evil Marxist lib.

   Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 4:07 pm | Permalink
4. Pat wrote:

   Sammy, I’m sure the Republicans will find a way to turn against it. Just as they have done to enumerable pieces of legislation the Democrats have hailed as bipartisan.

   Oh and ebdoug, I like the “Faux News” quip. I’m going to spread it around. Have you seen the most recent clip of John Stewart destroy Faux’s credibility?

   Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 8:08 pm | Permalink
5. Iron Knee wrote:

   Sammy, how about “It’s a Trap!”

   Oh yeah, they already used that one.

   Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 8:23 pm | Permalink
6. Iron Knee wrote:

   p.s. Here’s the link to the video of Jon Stewart v. Fox News: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-april-20-2010/bernie-goldberg-fires-back

   I decided not to post it to the blog (not really ironic), but it is definitely worth watching.

   Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 9:26 pm | Permalink
7. Daniel Habtemariam wrote:

   Thanks for the link to the video.

   If the last few years are any judge of things to come, it seems we should expect elections to be decided by razor-thin margins from now on, as the reality-based community finds itself further and further distanced from the Faux News community (or, the AP/CNN “survey” community).

   We’re diverging as an electorate. No more landslide elections–and not because there aren’t enough people to support any one politician’s ideas, but because there aren’t enough people who’re working from the same set of facts in deciding what a politician’s ideas are.

   It doesn’t seem to matter what liberals/Democrats do anymore (tax-cuts in the Recovery Act, Romneycare being substituted for single-payer, etc.)–if there’s a D next to their name and it has a chance at passing, it’s socialism; it it doesn’t pass, it’s an inability to govern.

   …On the plus side, should mean that Jon Stewart’s segments just get keep getting better and better for years to come.

   Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 6:12 am | Permalink