An assault on democracy

by | Nov 28, 2016 | Editor's Blog, Politics | 4 comments

If Pat McCrory’s attempt to win the election through challenging voters does anything, it should put to rest the Republican notion of widespread voter fraud. His appeals have shown that fraud is rare and statistically insignificant. GOP attempts to restrict access to the polls would clearly disenfranchise more people than it would prevent fraud.

Unfortunately, in our dystopian government, House Speaker Tim Moore says that McCrory’s baseless claims are reasons to revisit the voter suppression law found unconstitutional by the federal courts. And now, Donald Trump’s claim that “millions of people voted illegally” will add fuel to the McCrory/Moore fire. We’re moving from a post-truth election to a post-truth government. Baseless claims by politicians will drive policy, not the real needs of people.

This is the world we’re entering. Facts are irrelevant and truth is in the eye of the beholder. A GOP that was once guided by conservative principles is now led by an ideologically bankrupt habitual liar—and the leadership is falling into line.

A big part of the post-truth governance will be the fake news industry. A trend started by Fox News and copied by the likes of MSNBC has mutated into a powerful disseminator of disinformation.  The new “trusted” news cites don’t even pretend to be neutral. They’re blatantly, and often dishonestly, promoting policies and politicians they support. They’re little more than propaganda machines in an age when consumers can increasingly pick their own sources of information while declaring others corrupt. Brietbart News will become the new CBS or NBC.

In North Carolina, we’ve already seen what it’s like to have a government that will run roughshod over local governments and people to consolidate and protect their power. Despite some initial apprehension, small government conservatives quickly fell in line and routinely defend heavy-handed tactics, often with the lame and false excuse, “Democrats were worse.” Consequently, we’re in a state where democracy has been under assault for the past four years.

Now, our country is about to be led by a man who has no respect for the truth and a propaganda machine to back up his lies. With the GOP solidly in control of the federal government and most states, we’re dependent on them to hold Trump accountable. If North Carolina is any indication, the future is pretty bleak.

4 Comments

  1. Norma Munn

    I agree that democracy in NC has been sorely tested and often missing in NC over the past four years. I am also sure there were instances before then, but the blatant bigotry and non-stop efforts to disenfranchise voters was not, as far as I can see, a part of the previous decade or so.
    One thing that strikes me as different also is the constant whining of some of the GOP (particularly those in leadership positions) and their insistence that others are to blame for any difficulties. They sound like preschool, not adults.
    However, saying that MSNBC is disseminating false news just like Fox is not in my experience supported by those I watch. Admittedly, that is Maddow, O’Donnell, and now Joy Reid with an occasional nod to the others. Their coverage of the NJ Bridge scandal, the Flint lead water crisis, even some aspects of the NC voter suppression efforts, not to mention Maddow’s frequent use of local reporters to speak to serious issues in communities in various parts of this country are just a handful of examples that come to mind as being both useful and accurate. I actually watch Fox news once a week to remind myself of just how off the walls information can get under the guise of news. I do not, and will not, read Brietbart News in any way at any time. (Garbage in/garbage out applies.) Perhaps I am missing some aspect of MSNBC, but I have watched the other parts of it sometimes and used to occasionally watch some who are no longer there.

  2. The Analyst

    The Mouthbreathers, Yahoos, Rednecks, and other assorted low information asshats were conned into voting for the VERY folks that had led the deterioration of things that mean the most to them by the media con job. I have watched daily as the Tea Baggers / Alt Right have ginned up the fake news story of the day, disseminated it to the Faux News, Breitbart.com and other Borg manipulator outlets, with the predictable result that people I work with, who I thought would be able to discern when their tallywhacker was being tugged too hard, buy this nonsense hook line and sinker. The inevitable response has been “They’re all carrying it, it must be true!”. Well, the fact is it wasn’t on the 3 majors and their affiliates, tarnished but still visible Most of the time as reasonable sources of information, or BBC or other reasonably reliable sources. But as you say, truth, or truthiness, is where you are willing to find it. Sometimes I have even heard that “Shrillary is operating straight out of the Alinsky playbook!” which is quite a tribute to a fringe character that died in 1972. For those hard core fantasists there is the Alinsky-Clinton-Satan compact. Or that the Billions the Koch brothers have invested in manipulation via the John Locke society, or AFP, or ALEC, or a dozen other front groups, as well as direct TV ads day and night, is somehow dwarfed by the Tens of Millions George Soros invested in political causes in America. Yes, he has about a quarter of the money that they do, but he just doesn’t have the same financial interest in continuing to rape and pollute America that the Koch swine do.
    Well now that the entire country is completely in Right Wing hands, how will the Fake News media spin it as the Democrats fault when the inevitable predations of the All-Star cast of Reich Wing players being assembled in D.C. fall predominantly on the Working and Lower Middle Class heads of those that put them there? Additionally, with the longest jobs expansion (not that they were by and large wonderful jobs) sure to come to an end, we will soon be subject to the bottom side of the cycle. We’ve seen that Tax Cuts, increasing or guaranteeing continued profits for the wealthy have little overall effects in a recessionary environment; the other half of Keynesian stimulus, that of public works projects, which inject money at the lowest levels of the economic stratum, have never been favored by the ivory tower republican’ts in our house and senate, and the new regime doesn’t look to be any different.

  3. Apply Liberally

    Yes, indeed, news consumers today can pick and choose their sources of information, and if they so choose, remain in their own political/ideological echo-chambers. But those consumers can also switch channels or URLS at any time, and get the other side’s viewpoint on near any issue.

    I also disagree with your putting MSNBC in the same cabal as FOX News or Brietbart.

    Yes, no doubt, MSNBC has an unabashedly liberal lean. But it does at least try to adhere to rudimentary journalistic standards (like getting verification, and giving full attribution, noting the consensus view of scientists on key issues–not just the independent flake view). FOX and Brietbart do not.

    MSNBC discussion panels most always include voices—in person, on air— offering countering conservative positions. FOX and Brietbart do not.

    MSNBC will air from Flint, Michigan, where it held a town hall forum on the water crisis there, and spoke to the city’s mayor, those impacted, as well as church leaders who were handing out bottled water, and also invited in the Michigan governor and state agencies to answer questions. FOX nor Brietbart wouldn’t think of airing such a open-ended and open-minded event.

    And MSNBC did not report that the UK voted to leave the United Nations (wrong; it was the Common Market), did not challenged and criticized (numerous times) a pre-eminent religious scholar (who happened to be a Muslim) for authoring a book about Jesus Christ, and did not show its top news show host (Megyn Kelly) asserting that Santa Claus was white. FOX did all of these things.

    Again, recognizing that MSNBC holds a progressive world view, one can watch that channel and still get actual and accurate news reporting as well as more balanced coverage and commentary. One cannot get any of those things from FOX or Brietbart.

    • The Analyst

      Nicely done. I do think I have a disease called MSNBC-FOX False Equivalency Debunking Exhaustion Syndrome. After a while you don’t react as strongly as you should, because, well Fake News Abounds. I don’t think anyone with a concience and a firm grasp of reality would ever try to equivocate Rachel with Scamity or Oh?Really! but I’m not 100% sure. I AM still pissed at MSNBC for not coddling Keith O. including parsing out the brown M&Ms or whatever the known Heart On His Sleeve, Tantrums R Us! baby needed. His honesty, involvement and earnestness (and honest to goodness Liberal Outrage) in getting the important stories of the day out are sorely missed.

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