Good-bye to All That

[Jefferson23]

By Scott Horton

Once in a blue moon, a figure deep inside the Beltway beast leaves and says something profound and honest about the environment in which he works. One such figure is former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel; another is former South Carolina congressman Bob Inglis. Both Republicans presented lucid criticism of their party’s policies and conduct, but were essentially ignored by major broadcast media. Now a Republican staffer in the House and Senate budget committees with nearly thirty years’ service under his belt, Mike Lofgren, has left his position and published a stinging critique of Washington’s partisan ways. Lofgren’s piece,( http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779) published at Truthout, provides an insider’s assessment of the dynamics that drive the G.O.P., coupled with well-aimed missiles at the Democrats and the Beltway media. It’s also composed in an unusually lucid, entertaining style.

Lofgren’s core thesis is that the G.O.P. has transformed itself into something dangerous: “The crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital center today. . .The Congressional directory now reads like a casebook of lunacy.” He points out, too, that the Beltway media’s inept coverage of political developments has enabled the extremists, writing that the “constant drizzle of ‘there the two parties go again!’ stories out of the news bureaus, combined with the hazy confusion of low-information voters, means that the long-term Republican strategy of undermining confidence in our democratic institutions has reaped electoral dividends.” In other words, the crazies feed off the lazy, inept coverage that fills American broadcast media.

The G.O.P. now has three major tenets, Lofgren argues:

1.The G.O.P. cares solely and exclusively about its rich contributors. We see this now in G.O.P. positions on tax-revenue issues: The party has adopted a mantra of opposing any effort to dispense with tax breaks for the truly wealthy, even though polling consistently shows a solid majority of Republicans favoring the elimination of loopholes such as tax breaks for corporate jets.

2.They worship at the altar of Mars. As the conflict in Libya demonstrated, Republican leaders don’t seem to be able to say no to a new war — even when some of them had been coddling Qaddafi in Tripoli only a year earlier. They also instinctively oppose cuts to the single biggest chunk of discretionary spending, the defense budget, an attitude that fuels increasingly extreme positions on other sectors.

in full:http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/09/hbc-90008232

[patrice]

1. False Dichotomies + False Equivalencies = Media . . .

And anything that strives not to do that is deemed incomprehensible/elitist/boring.

[CrispyQ]

2. I tuned into CNN this morning for a few moments.

It was a Rick Perry fest. They showed the clip of Perry saying social security is a ponzi scheme & then asked, "Is Perry throwing bombs or telling the truth?" They were gloating over the fact that he's knocked Romney out of first place. A few minutes later they featured a story showing aerial shots of acres & acres of scorched Texas land & not a word about how their golden boy cut funds to volunteer fire departments.

[patrice]

4. They are unconscionable pox-ridden WHORES. nt

[Jefferson23]

5. Yes, this is what they do each and every day..lie by omission is one tactic they're great at. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

3. That was an excellent analysis by Lofgren.

Thanks for the thread, Jefferson.

[Jefferson23]

6. You're very welcome, and I hope we'll hear more from others like him.

[Scuba]

7. As Dorothy said...

“The heaviest restriction upon the freedom of public opinion is not the official censorship of a press, but the unofficial censorship by a press which exists not so much to express opinion as to manufacture it.”

Dorothy L. Sayers
1893-1957

British writer, essayist, playwright and translator.