In 2004 Ron Suskind reported an interesting conversation with an unnamed presidential aide:
"The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
This denigration of reality by conservatives manifests itself in what I described in a post last year as the "conservative contempt for official findings" -- by an outright denial of the content of official reports. It has happened before, and thus there's absolutely nothing surprising about the "birthers," who, in the face of an official birth certificate from the State of Hawaii, and a birth notice in the local newspaper, continue to insist that Barack Obama was not born in the U.S.
I am a social conservative, but I'm not a nut job or a conspiratorial fanatic. Some hard core conservatives live in a fantasy world to the extent that official records are virtually meaningless to them. It gets so bad that, as the Ten Commandments say, they end up "bearing false witness" -- in other words lying in order to achieve a political goal.
So when you read about the "birthers," consider these other three situations:
Sarah Palin and "Troopergate"
Palin said ""Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing," and "any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."
That's rather amazing when you consider the official report:
" . . . Governor Sarah Palin Abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act ... Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional...
"The evidence supports the conclusion that Governor Palin, at the least, engaged in 'official action' by her inaction if not her active participation or assistance to her husband in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired [and there is evidence of her active participation.] She knowingly, as that term is defined in the above cited statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor’s office and the resources of the Governor’s office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired. Her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act...
"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda."
But Palin could read that and conclude that she had been "cleared."
Swift Boat Veterans
During the 2004 election the "Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth," funded by various right-wing individuals and organizations, claimed that John Kerry did not earn the medals that had been awarded to him.
These claims, of course, were contradicted by numerous after-action reports, fitness reports, and official citations for medals awarded to Kerry and others who were present at the same events. Some of the Swift Boat Veteran claims even contradicted statements that their own members had made years earlier.
Even after these claims had been proven false, conservatives continued to assert them:
Referring to widely discredited attacks on Senator John Kerry by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, FOX News Channel and FOX News Radio host Tony Snow falsely claimed that "there has been no documentary contradiction of the swift boat stuff." In fact, multiple documents contradict the anti-Kerry group's accusations and corroborate Kerry's version of events. As the Los Angeles Times reported on August 20: "Military documents and accounts of crewmates who did serve with Kerry support the view put forth by the candidate and his campaign -- that he acted courageously and came by his five medals honestly."
Snow's comments came on the September 15 edition of FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor, in response to a comment by fellow guest Juan Williams (National Public Radio senior correspondent and a FOX News Channel contributor), who observed that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's smear campaign was "promoted by conservative media that trumpeted it, despite the fact that all documentation contradicted it."
The Terri Schiavo Case
The Schiavo case was the most litigated and documented end-of-life case in the history of the country. Almost all of that documentation was freely and easily available on the Internet, and anyone who spent a couple of minutes could find official reports, medical records, and court decisions.
Nonetheless, conservatives continued to spout lies that were utterly contradicted by everything in the case record. Many of these lies concerned Michael Schiavo and his care for his wife. Michael was portrayed as an abusive monster who wanted to "kill his wife" in order to get his hands on money that was supposed to have been spent on her care. Judges involved in the case were likewise demonized, especially Judge Greer, who officiated at the initial trial. Greer, a Republican and conservative Christian, was said to be "in collusion" with Michael Schiavo and his attorney George Felos with the goal of "killing" Terri Schiavo.
All of this was completely contradicted by the offical case record. For example, guardian ad litem Jay Wolfson's report to Gov. Jeb Bush noted that
Proceedings concluded that there was no basis for the removal of Michael as Guardian. Further, it was determined that he had been very aggressive and attentive in his care of Theresa. His demanding concern for her well being and meticulous care by the nursing home earned him the characterization by the administrator as “a nursing home administrator’s nightmare”. It is notable that through more than thirteen years after Theresa’s collapse, she has never had a bedsore. abstractappeal.com/schiavo/WolfsonReport.pdf
In addition the Florida Department of Children and Families investigated 89 allegations of abuse or mistreatment of Terri Schiavo by her husband or hospice staff, and found no evidence whatsoever of any abuse or mistreatment.
Even after Terri Schiavo died conservatives continued to spread absolute falsehoods about the case. In 2006 Schindler family attorney David Gibbs, of the Christian Law Association, made a video called "Fighting for Dear Life." In one segment of the video he makes three claims that are utterly false, and that he must have known were false:
00:30 - Early on Terri Schiavo was recovering, and learning to talk and walk again. (Somehow this "fact" was missed by every physician, nurse, and therapist who ever worked with Ms. Schiavo. There is absolutely nothing in the medical or legal record to support this.)
01:04 - Michael Schiavo won a "multi-million dollar" malpractice award. (The amount was much less; Gibbs was the Schindler attorney, and therefore must know that this is false.)
06:30 - When someone dies from dehydration there is a "heart explosion" - the heart "literally disintegrates." (This video was made long after Schiavo's autopsy report was made public. There is no mention in the report of an "exploded" heart. Again, this is something that the attorney would know.)
So there's nothing new about approach of the "birthers." It is standard operating procedure for those who are not part of the "reality-based" community.
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RATED
Nice examples.
maybe it has something to do with the fact implicit in the quote cited from the Bush administration operative that reality has awell-known liberal bias
thanks as always for keeping it real, mish
Yes, exactly. During the Schiavo case I had a discussion about the Gibbs video with a conservative religious friend. I asked him "is there ANY evidence whatsoever in the legal record to show that Terry Schiavo was learning to walk and talk after her collapse?" He replied simply that it was true and the legal record was wrong.
So I asked him " if the legal process and findings of fact are so irrelevant, and you have no concern for 'bearing false witness,' why is it that you want to bolt copies of the Ten Commandments to every courthouse in the country?"
Am in the middle of a fascinating book called "The Family" by Jeff Sharlet, that relates to your point. Sharlet details the line between Jonothan Edwards, Charles Finney, and a little known Norwegian immigrant named Abram Vereide. Abram came up with what he called "The Idea". His idea was that the taking care of the rich and powerful was the true mission of the church. He built an organization that's made recent news in its connection to the C Street House in DC. At the heart of THE IDEA is this: the belief by the birthers, Terri Schiavo, Swift boat, or Karen Hughes on any given day---is that it is their birthright to say whatever they must say to maintain what they see as their "rights". So lying is OK. Same thing with Glen Beck. He can call the President a rasicst because he, Beck, deserves to do that. Bottom line: a fundamentalism of the elite.
And the curtain really needs to come off of these people. Thanks for helping!
Yeah, I heard about that on Bill Maher, but haven't read it yet. As far as I can tell "the family" is not just fundamentalism, but a reprehensible and heretical version of Christianity in which evil and immorality are overlooked and even encouraged. Wolves in sheep's clothing, in other words. And where are the Christians who will denounce that? I hope some will come forward.
http://open.salon.com/blog/sara_knight/2009/08/05/as_an_adoptee_the_birthers_really_piss_me_off
Great Post! :)
Why does not the "liberal" run with these stories 24/7. Why doesnot any one in the media or on OS talking about Jeff Sharlet's "The Family." Are democrats stupid or pussies or cowards?
The "aide" said it right. His is reality. The owners of this country will always do exactly what they want. No one will ever, ever say anything about the "owners." Everyone is like, what? what owners? This is the best democracy in the world.
Rated for excellent reporting.
Like the 30 million "undocumented" workers (known as illegal aliens for 100 years to those people who live in that false reality) who debilitatingly tax our health care systems, school systems, penal systems, social/welfare systems, law enforcement, first responders system and virtually every other area of our lives.
We can afford to spend trillions on virtually every silly dream Obama and the ideological circus in DC can come up with, but we can't afford to locate, and manage a way to legitimize and document those well meaning folks and secure our borders.
Talk about the elephant in the liberals room. No denial here.....nawww.
Recognizing (or failing to recognize) larger issues is to some extent a matter of belief, interpretation of facts, and so on, in which reasonable people can disagree.
What I was writing about are instances in which there really is no reasonable doubt about the facts. For example, one might disagree with the findings of the "troopergate" report, but there is no reasonable interpretation of that report that would show that Palin was "exonerated." One might disagree with the outcome in the Terri Schiavo case, but there simply is no evidence whatsoever that she was learning to walk and talk after her collapse.
I am unaware of any situation in which liberals have ignored official findings of fact to such an extent. If you know of one, let me know.
So when I grew up I started working in republican politics and I loved it - for a while. But the last straw was watching the republican party create and thrive on lies. When I watched the Bush (that's GHWB) organization push the concept of "family values" created by Lee Atwater who was knowingly courting, not one, but two misstresses around the campaing HQ I realized the hypocrasy was too great for me.
As far as I can see, it has been straight down hill for the GOP which is fueled by lies and deceptions because it is votes at all costs and those costs are too great for me and for this nation.
So, the trillions of dollars spent on failed social programs is not an"official finding". The strain on our whole nation is not an "official finding".
In my humble opinion, the "reality" you speak of is the defining characteristic between the parties. Yes, there are elements of hypocrisy and blind spots in both parties, but I must say that I see the willingness to live in a false reality is the cancer that defines the democrats and has our country in a stranglehold.
The Schaivo incident is an extreme example that does NOT represent the whole of the right, and to try to use that in conjunction with the Palin situation, (where you would frame it the same way if you were her), is a stretch. These cases were years apart and to say that the right does this on a regular basis ignores the radical example on the left that IS the democratic party. Just as opinion. Opinions are like assholes, we all have them, and they all stink. Peace
I wasn't saying anything about undocumented workers. But if I were I would note that yes, they do burden certain parts of the system. But it's a terribly complex issue. They do the work that many Americans don't want to do. They are often drawn to the border by the hope of work in the maquiladoras, the border factories in which consumer goods are assembled for import into the U.S.
So you get hundreds of thousands of people drawn to the border from southern Mexico. These are people who come from areas of Mexico that have been economically devastated, often farmers of small plots who can't compete with U.S. agricultural goods imported through NAFTA. So they are on the border, working for 80 cents an hour, and they can look across and see El Paso and other cities, and realize that they can make several times the money that they can make in Mexico.
So yes, there are problems, but it is a very complex situation, and not something with an easy or obvious solution.
philos777: "So, the trillions of dollars spent on failed social programs is not an"official finding"."
What constitutes a failed social program?
Again, I'm not talking about large and complex issues. I'm talking about a denial of reality where the facts are clear and unambiguous.
philos777: "The Schaivo incident is an extreme example that does NOT represent the whole of the right."
It represented a vast portion of the right, even including members of congress and the president who convened in a special session to pass legislation specifically for that case. Bush, who could not be roused from his vacation with the approach of Hurricane Katrina flew back from Texas specifically act on the Schiavo case.
Your biased perspective on Bush & Katrina/Schiavo and his appropriate/inappropriate response is a stretch. Typically, a signature that only the president can give to a specific time sensitive issue, (Schiavo) or the usurping of local political authority are very different things that should require very different responses. You & the left seem to forget that 2 days before the storm, in a dedicated meeting to avoid a catastrophe, Bush and FEMA offered complete and full support and an admonition to evacuate the city. Racist Nagen, the mayor of the "Chocolate city", said he had everything under control. To paint Bush as insensitive in this situation is purely politically motivated and more than unfair.
You usually seem to be more rational in your thinking than on this one.
Yer killin' me! Minorities in America are worse off now in every track-able area that effects them as a whole. Sure there are some regional success stories, but as a whole the investment in the great society has been a grand failure that created a nanny state and is the precursor to organizations like A.C.O.R.N. and the horrible fiasco we have now with a "culture of complaint" and a resistance to assimilation and self determination.
From the U.S. Census Bureau:
POVERTY
Poverty Rate for Blacks, 1966: 41.8%
Poverty Rate for Blacks, 2006: 24.3%
Poverty Rate for All, 1966: 14.7%
Poverty Rate for All, 2006: 12.3%
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
Graduation Rate for Blacks, 1940: 21.7%
Graduation Rate for Blacks, 2000: 72.3%
Graduation Rate for All, 1940: 60.7%
Graduation Rate for Blacks, 2000: 80.4%
Black college graduation rates are around four times what they were forty years ago, compared with white graduation rates that are around three times as great.
I forgot to write down the web references. Do a google search and you can find the data tables.
Obviously something is going right, though no one claims that things are perfect. Welfare did create some dependency, but Welfare programs were reformed some years ago.
Pockets of inter-generational poverty remain, especially in the larger cities. But poverty programs have had considerable success. One thing to remember -- while not all effects of anti-poverty programs were good, we didn't have many people wasting away from malnutrition or people dying in the streets from hunger.
That's why it is important to define what constitutes "success." For example, one might say that national defense spending has been a failure because we're spending more now than we were years ago. But -- we're still here. In that regard national defense programs have been successful, whatever other problems they may have spawned.
I doubt that philo and I agree on many issues, but I do want to answer your question to him: "If you know of ....any situation in which liberals have ignored official findings of fact to such an extent...let me know." 9/11Truth is one. A wacko subset of liberals have ignored facts and science on the 9/11 attacks to maintain a wildly implausible set of beliefs that is as caustic and destructive as the Birthers' faith in Obama's otherness. I'm a liberal, but I'm also a scientist. We've had far too much of faith-based politics, of any stripe...
For many mainstream conservative Americans, it seems that among the people on the left, a desire for personal responsibility has given way to blame, dependence, externalizing and complaint.
I think that is why my perception of the Great Society is a failure. Keep your stats about HS & college graduation. The unintended consequences of spending trillions to prop up minorities have been to cultivate a culture of complaint and to embolden a hatred for America that runs deep and has produced the likes of Obama. God help us.
To get back on point....About creating or ignoring reality......
I am glad you agree that America has been the best country on earth for minorities. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to a society born from Christian principles, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. The Rev. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
No people anywhere have done more to embrace and lift up people from other cultures other than those “uppity” white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ' 60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against blue collar white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance minority/black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for minorities.
This is the most flagrant abuse of reality by the left. To willfully deny the indisputable truth of our recent (45 year) history is the most perfect example of living in a false reality that it makes the examples you cited almost trite in comparison.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude? Where is the assimilation? Where is that one black voice that admonishes black people to love white people as their brothers? Where is the one black voice that says America is the greatest country in the world because of the ideas that were implemented by our founders. It's not Obama! I think most Americans believe that if Obama were honest with the general public, that he would tell us that he is skeptical of the founders and disagrees with many of the principles of the constitution. He has said as much in early interviews.
That is another example of the left's willingness to live in denial of the truth. They call one who despises parts of the American Constitution a patriot. Go figure?
Yes, programs trying to set this straight have their flaws and need to be amended as time goes by, but given the magnitude of the problems they are attempting to address, I'd say it's a good start. And there certainly have been messages from Obama and others from the black community that blacks need to stop blaming and start living as they should be expected to. It's just not going to happen overnight...it's way too complicated, there's way too much bitterness and too little understanding...on both sides.
'It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to a society born from Christian principles, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.' Gosh, this is a disturbing sentence on so many levels, but primarily because you make it sounds like it's been a gd picnic, a great fun-filled field trip. Gratitude? Please use some imagination and channel it through the instincts of those Christian principles of yours. Thank you.