GOP: Just drink the Kool-Aid
Welcome to the Brave New World where author Aldous Huxley imagined in his 1932 satire that society would prefer to be kept uninformed and live lock-step in a soma-induced blissful oblivion. Well, close enough. The world is the political orbit of the Republican Party in which no one is allowed to speak critically of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and the media, in particular, is not to pursue questions that seek to flesh out her positions or leadership style were she to be catapulted into the nation’s highest office.
Facts in this Republican dystopia (a negative utopia) don’t matter; what matters is that supporters swallow the party script. So, if Gov. Palin wants to keep repeating the lie that she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere and rejects federal earmarks to states, then the party faithful should excuse the falsehood and just drink the soma-laced Kool-Aid.
John Feehery, a Republican strategist, captured the mood perfectly in a Washington Post story on Tuesday when he told a Post reporter that the campaign was entering a period in which the dominant themes established in the campaign were more important than skirmishes over the facts.
“The more The New York Times and The Washington Post go after Sarah Palin, the better off she is, because there’s a bigger truth out there and the bigger truths are she’s new, she’s popular in Alaska and she is an insurgent,” Feehery said. “As long as those are out there, these little facts don’t really matter.”
Wow. Let’s think about that.
It doesn’t matter that a person who wants to be vice-president and is a heartbeat away from the presidency is lying about one of her defining characteristics as a candidate: that she rejects federal pork. (The truth: she was initially a big supporter of the Bridge to Nowhere and the federal funding that would build it. Once Congress turned against the project and it was dead, she flip-flopped and announced she was against it, but the state still took the $223 million in federal aid; currently $73 million of that money is reportedly in a state account just waiting for the kind of pork-barrel project she’s supposed to be against.)
It doesn’t matter that in a campaign touting its ‘straight-talk’ and willingness to reform Washington’s corrupt ways, Gov. Palin billed Alaska’s taxpayers for 312 nights of “per diem” expenses (meant to cover expenses when she is not at home) these first 19 months, even though she spent those nights at home.
It doesn’t matter that she thinks women should be forced to have a child in cases of rape or incest (she opposes abortion in all cases); that she thinks the Iraq war is “God’s task” for Americans; that she thinks creationism should be taught in public schools; that human actions are not a cause of global warming; or that her actions as mayor and governor have shown an intense penchant for secrecy within government and gagging a free press — shades of Bush-Cheney, but maybe to an even greater degree.
John McCain’s staff has kept her on a narrow message during the few campaign outings, thus far, and have kept her off the Sunday morning news shows where candidates are routinely grilled on issues and news of the week. Sens. McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were all there this past week, but Palin was muzzled — lest she say something that’s not presidential.
None of this matters because what’s important, according to the GOP’s Feehery, is that’s she “popular,” she’s “new” and she’s an “insurgent” — well, let’s at least call her a wannabe reformist in that conservative sense of toeing the line for God and country without question.
None of this says much about whether Mrs. Palin has any qualifications to lead the free world, but at least now we know what they’re putting in the Kool-Aid.
Angelo S. Lynn
The Addison Independent
58 Maple Street
P.O. Box 31
Middlebury, VT 05753
802-388-4944
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Okay, Mr. Editor... The
Okay, Mr. Editor...
The poison spewing from your pen is quite impressive. When you first got into journalism, did you hope to someday become a partisan hack? Did you think that you would be so venomous in your personal beliefs that you would write, week after week, editorials that leave nothing to the imagination. You are unable to see anything positive about the first woman in the VP slot in this race. And even more telling, you have no commentary on any possible fault of the democratic nominees.
Your intent is not to educate or inform, but rather to twist fact and demean. You should be writing commercials for either campaign. You would fit right in with the mud slingers and manipulators... You speak of drinking Kool Aid.... You ARE the Kool Aid now so common in American journalism. And if you dont believe me, read any poll on the subject. The American public has lost faith in their reporters. Some even go so far as to say that journalism is dead!
I would be wasting my time in trying to convince you to be fair with your commentary as I do not think you have that level of professionalism in you.
Shock me (and many others) and write something that is at least 50% balanced.
You want to tear down a candidate? GREAT but show us that you can be honest and point out defect on both sides!
Regards,
Sal Morana (former subscriber to the Addison Independent)
Salisbury, VT
NIce editorial where's the other side?
Mr Lynn, what is your blood pressure ? Must be pretty high about now from the tone of your editorial. On the plus side it was fairly easy to get the point of your piece. Republicans are ALL two faced, bigoted, war mongering (for profit), fascist, liars out to gain as much power as they can with a slash and burn mentality. It is people like you who are fighting the good fight, recycling, buying carbon offsets, shopping at local businesses that only deal in fair trade goods, driving hybrid vehicles(and not idling even on cold mornings). Your local /global thinking will no doubt preserve this country for generations to come. Vermont is well on its way to achieving the same Economic Utopia for the middle class as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. As soon as we get rid of Vt Yankee and IBM then only the Beautiful people who can afford the taxes will live in VT and the riff raff will have to move into trailers across the lake in NY. Of course we'll still need them to hold day jobs as servants and lackeys, but that's the price of perfection. Keep up the good work and try to relax some you sound too stressed!
Steve Cooper, Jerusalem VT.
If facts are no longer
If facts are no longer important, how can anyone, Republican or Democrat, be expected to make a reasoned decision? Seems pretty simple to me.
response to Kool-aid editorial
In reguards to Sarah and the teaching of creation osm here is the truth:
Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. She has said that students should be allowed to "debate both sides" of the evolution question, but she also said creationism "doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."
48. yes, she apparently believes in some variant of Intelligent Design
49 no, she didn’t try to force the schools to teach it; she said if someone brought it up, it was an appropriate subject for debate.
Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. She has said that students should be allowed to "debate both sides" of the evolution question, but she also said creationism "doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."
A few of these claims were included in a chain e-mail by a woman named Anne Kilkenny. We'll be looking into other charges in that e-mail for a future story. For more explanation of the bullet points above, please read the Analysis.
Analysis
Since Republican presidential nominee John McCain tapped Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, information about Palin's past has been zipping around the Internet. Several claims are not true, and other rumors are misleading.
Just google Sarah palin myths debunked.like i did, and you'll find a plethora of sites debunking the lies and smears about her.
And about being againt abortion in cases of rape and incest, that is true, but so I am I. I don';t think an innocent child should be killed for the crime of his or her biolgical father.