Thursday, January 13, 2011

Incivility is Only Part of the Problem; Falsehood is Another Part

Obama touched on something last night that I've been mulling over for some time--and here's somebody hitting the point at Sully's digs.

You can't get a complete picture of what's going on if you only emphasize the incivility that's coming from the right. That's bad, but it's not like they are saying "@#$% Obama! He wants the government to play a slightly more significant economic role!" Much of what's coming out of the right these days is not only uncivil, but false. It's not like they're saying true things in a derisive tone or something.

And, of course, the stuff that is really troubling isn't the stuff that's just a little bit false...the stuff that misses the target by something like the normal political distance...it's the stuff that's stark, raving, bat$hit crazy that's really worrisome. When you've got nontrivial numbers of people apparently seriously contemplating the possibility that our civil, centrist President is the Antichrist...well, then you've got a real big problem...

1 Comments:

Blogger Jim Bales said...

WS,

Thanks for the link to Sullivan.

If you've not seen it, the point is also well made by Conor Friedersdorf and amplified by Fred Clark.

Best,
Jim

10:30 PM  

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