t’s natural for a losing political party to look for scapegoats.
And after Democratic President Barack Obama defeated Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney for a second term in the White House, Republicans did exactly that.
As political columnist Mark Shields said on the PBS Newshour on January 25, 2013:
“As far as the Republicans are concerned, they are simply going through the terrible stages that every defeated party does.”
And one side says we lost because we didn’t stick enough to our principles. And the other side we lost because we were too dogmatic and didn’t reach out to the undecided.
“And so the first inclination is always to blame your own candidate. You blame Al Gore if you are a Democrat in 2000, or John Kerry in 2004. You blame John McCain.”
“The Republicans want to blame Mitt Romney. That’s fine. But Mitt Romney is more popular than the Republican Party. I mean, he got 47 percent. The Republicans are dead in the water right now.”
Consider the reaction of Ann Coulter, the Republican version of the Miss America Nazi. Speaking on the November 6 defeat of Mitt Romney, Coulter whined:
“People are suffering. The country is in disarray. If Mitt Romney cannot win in this economy, then the tipping point has been reached. We have more takers than makers and it’s over. There is no hope.”
And what did she hope to see Romney do as President?
“Mitt Romney was the president we needed right now, and I think it is so sad that we are going to be deprived of his brain power, of his skills in turning companies around, turning the Olympics around, his idea and his kindness for being able to push very conservative ideas on a country that no longer is interested in conservative ideas. It is interested in handouts.”
Note the chief reason for her regret: Romney would have been “able to push very conservative ideas on a country that no longer is interested in conservative ideas.”
Or, as the Original Nazis would have put it: “You vill love it—or else!”
Unfortunately for Coulter, a majority of Americans rejected this mentality–and the repressive measures that would have accompanied it.
So, naturally, Coulter and her fellow Rightists feel dejected.
Comedian Bill Maher, appearing on the November 7, 2012 edition of “Hardball With Chris Matthews,” offered his own explanation for the Romney defeat: The Republicans fell victims to their own lies.
Bill Maher
Angela George, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
MAHER: But, you know, I think it gets to a bigger point, Chris, which is that Republicans have to start getting their information from a better source than FOX News. I’m not kidding about this….They believed it right up until the end. They were shocked by this election.
They have to somehow fix the way they get information, because they only talk to each other. And they don’t know what’s going on in the real world. And they were rudely awakened last night.
MATTHEWS: What do you think it was like to be in that bubble with Mitt Romney in that time after it really–I called it the knockout, like the sixth round?
MAHER: I mean, I think they were still saying, “Yes, Mein Fuehrer, you have 12 divisions on the Eastern front.”
MATTHEWS: Anyway, Donald Trump took to Twitter last night, trashing the election returns. Here’s what he said. On Twitter, in real time, to use your phrase. “He lost the popular vote by a lot.
“He’s talking about the president and won the election. “We should have a revolution this country.”
“This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy.”
“We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided.”
MAHER: I mean, it doesn’t deserve thoughts because these aren’t thoughts….This guy only two years ago was like apolitical, right? I don’t even know what party he was.
I don’t know if he knew what party he was. Now he wants to march on Washington? This is democracy–so it’s not democracy when your candidate loses?
* * * * *
Almost seventy-six years ago, another fanatical, right-wing woman concluded: “There is no hope.”
She was Magda Goebbels, wife of Joseph Goebbels—Propaganda Minister for the rapidly-collapsing Third Reich.
Magda and Joseph Goebbels, with their six children and a uniformed friend
“I do not wish to live in a world without National Socialism,” she said.
And to make certain her six children didn’t, either, she gave each of them a powerful sleeping tablet. Then she crushed a cyanide capsule between their jaws.
Finally, she and her husband died by their own hands–he shot her, and then himself.
Fortunately, Ann Coulter has no children. Nor even a husband who would willingly shoot her.
So if she truly believed she cannot live in a world where fascists don’t rule absolutely over America, she’s had ample time to let history to repeat itself.
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MY PHILOSOPHY AS A BLOGGER
In History, Politics, Social commentary on October 23, 2024 at 12:59 amOn November 13, 2012, Dave, a conservative friend of mine who reads my blog, sent this email to a friend:
Warren,
This is the propaganda blog editor friend of mine in San Francisco that I talked about during my presentation last Thursday evening at the Opera House.
As you can see, he is a typical unbiased uournalist…. As I said, I love the guy dearly and truly have the utmost respect for his ability and intellect (although it’s sometimes pointed). Nonetheless, I thought you and others would get a kick out of this blog.I would suggest that you log onto his site and read some of his other postings. You will then see why I am such an admirer….
* * * * *
Thus, here is my philosophy as a blogger for those of you who read my blog.
Many years ago I worked as an investigative reporter, covering local police and courts for a small Utah newspaper
As a reporter, I adhered strictly to a policy of objectivity: Reporting only what I knew to be true. And in crime-related stories, reporting only what I knew I could legally prove to be true.
For example: You might feel absolutely certain that So-and-So committed a crime. But to avoid libel suits, you had better have the proof in legal documents. And if you can find sources who are willing to back up those legal documents, so much the better.
Another thing: As a straight journalist, you have no right to inject your opinion into anything you write.
So if you write a story about a mayor or councilman you know is corrupt, you don’t have the right to add: “This guy needs to be tossed out of office and indicted.”
If a prosecutor says that, quote him. But your opinion doesn’t matter.
As a blogger I editorialize by pointing out what these facts mean (at least to me) and offering, when possible, a proposed solution to problems.
Take my column about Right-wing columnist Ann Coulter.
On November 13, 2012, I posted a column entitled, “Tears for the Miss America Nazi.”
Coulter had been outraged that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had not deprived Barack Obama of a second term as President.
First, I laid out her recent, public weeping over the re-election of President Obama. Then I quoted comedian Bill Maher and political commentator Chris Matthews on their reactions to Coulter’s comment that “There is no hope.”
Ann Coulter
Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
So far, I had adhered to journalistic principles of fairness and objectivity—the who, what, when, where, how and why of journalism.
Only in the last six paragraphs of my column did I venture an opinion.
First, I laid out the historical precedent for what I intended to recommend. When her Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, committed suicide, Magda Goebbels murdered her six children. Then she and her husband, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, killed themselves.
Magda and Joseph Goebbels and their children
Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1978-086-03 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons
Then I offered the depressed Coulter an option she might not have considered: She could follow the example of Magda (minus the husband and children that Magda had and Coulter lacked).
Not that I expected her to do so.
Frankly, I didn’t consider Ann Coulter a legitimate journalist. She and Rush Limbaugh were the ultimate propaganda icons for the Republican party. They made a career out of attacking the integrity and patriotism of anyone who dared to disagree with them.
For example: Take Coulter’s book Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism.
One of her heroes is Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, who unleashed a wave of hysteria across America with his slanderous accusations of massive Communist infiltration of the Federal Government.
Joseph McCarthy
Coulter maintains that McCarthy was a true patriot, and that he—not his victims—was the true victim of history.
This is on a par with rewriting history as the son of Laventi Beria, Joseph Stalin’s infamous secret police chief, has attempted. He insists that his father was a good man who was forced by Stalin to do bad things.
Jesus was right: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” I hugely admire those who seek out the truth and speak it forcefully, without fear or favor.
And I despise those who ride to fame, power or wealth on a carpet of lies and evasions. Although I have written heavily about the infamies of the Right, I realize there is plenty of stupidity, arrogance and criminality on the Left.
I don’t believe that any person, agency, political party or corporation has a monopoly on virtue, intelligence or judgment. On the contrary: Members of agencies, political parties and corporations should be held to the highest level of scrutiny. This is especially true when those institutions hold vast power over the lives of ordinary citizens.
Throughout the last half-century Republicans have dominated American politics—and the lives of Americans. Thus I have written far more about their all-consuming lust for absolute power than I have on the usually secondary role played by Democrats.
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