Knock it off
Steve Almond has an essay in yesterday's New York Times magazine that, in the words of Charlie Pierce, makes me want to guzzle anti-freeze. The very title -- "Liberals Are Ruining America. I Know Because I Am One" -- made me groan before I even read it, and once I did, I wanted to throw it across the room.
His basic premise is that if we ignore the right-wing noise machine like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News or somehow seal them off from the civil discourse that the grown-ups are having, they will go away:
To that I say with all the due respect and decorum that I can muster: Bullshit. We have tried that approach before, and it hasn't worked. It didn't work in the 1990s when the machine went after the Clintons. Yes, Bill Clinton survived impeachment and Newt Gingrich was tossed out, but like the monster in Alien, Newt came back; we just spent a year enduring his inanities, and it wasn't as much fun this time because he's still insufferable and boring as whale shit. They do not go away -- Mr. Almond as much admits that -- they only get worse. So why does anyone think that by ignoring them or isolating them will work this time?
Imagine, if you will, the domino effect that would ensue if liberals and moderates simply tuned out the demagogues. Yes, they would still be able to manipulate their legions into endorsing cruel and self-defeating policies. But their voices would be sealed within the echo chamber of extremism and sealed off from the majority of Americans who honestly just want our common problems solved. They would be marginalized in the same way as activists who rant about racial purity or anarchy.
Rush Limbaugh would be a radio host catering to a few million angry commuters, not the alpha male of conservatism. Fox News would be a popular fringe network, not the reliable conduit by which paranoid hogwash infects our mainstream media.
In this world, it would be much harder to mislead people because media outlets would shift their resources to covering the content of proposed legislation, the exploding role of corporate influence in our affairs of state and the scientifically confirmed predicaments we face as a species.
Liberals and moderates would no longer be able to mollify themselves by watching Jon Stewart mock conservative wack jobs. They would be forced to consider their own values and the sort of actions necessary to reify [sic] those values in the world. They might even consider breaching our artificially inflated partisan divide.
To that I say with all the due respect and decorum that I can muster: Bullshit. We have tried that approach before, and it hasn't worked. It didn't work in the 1990s when the machine went after the Clintons. Yes, Bill Clinton survived impeachment and Newt Gingrich was tossed out, but like the monster in Alien, Newt came back; we just spent a year enduring his inanities, and it wasn't as much fun this time because he's still insufferable and boring as whale shit. They do not go away -- Mr. Almond as much admits that -- they only get worse. So why does anyone think that by ignoring them or isolating them will work this time?
I know all too well how little stomach progressives have for aggressive politics. We would much rather have a nice discussion over a nice glass of wine and reason together. But that's not what the haters and the right-wingers want. In the first place, those reasonable Republicans have all been primaried out of office, and even the ones who try vainly to sound reasonable are still capable of calling you a Nazi.
Liberals have got to get over their squimishness. The way to fight back is to fight back. Don't give an inch. It's like fighting a wildfire; you put it out in one area, it comes back somewhere else, so you put it out there. You respond to every provocation, every nutty e-mail sent by your whack-job relative about Kenyan birth certificates and Michelle's garden. It doesn't have to be a long discourse with facts and figures; they don't work, and well-intentioned pearl-clutchers like Steve Almond only enable them. Knock it off. You call bullshit and you call out the racist bigoted Neanderthal bullies that they are. You don't bring a peace pipe to a knife fight, and you don't win the argument by conceding anything. Of course, that assumes they want to have an argument. They don't. They want to end the chit-chat and get on with the bloodletting.
Take it from someone who spent a lot of his early years at the mercy of bullies: It's surprising how fast they run for their momma when you actually do fight back. It works. And it feels very, very good when you win. But you can't ever let your guard down, and no matter what happens in November, they'll still be out there.
(Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.)
Labels: liberalism, Liberals, Newt Gingrich, Republicans, Rush Limbaugh
posted by Mustang Bobby at
4:46 PM
4 Comments:
Whose votes are we after? If we're trying to get Rush Limbaugh's vote? Good luck.
Personally I'm talking to any of the millions of Americans who are uninformed or misinformed ---- more than likely they're centrist Dems, no party affiliation or indys. Approaching those people with a knife and an angry expression doesn't work well.
On the other hand, a smile plus an introductory question like "Did you vote?" (primary was here last week) works as a way of broaching the real issues. There's certainly a time for outrage but not at the beginning of a conversation and not aimed at the people whose vote will help us win in 2012.
Liberals haven't been good about reaching out. They need an approach that works with middle class folks whose lives will be negatively affected if we don't win in November.
By
nmlinks, at 10:14 AM
Well said. There is no reasoning with these people because they use emotional appeals. The only response that works is using an emotional appeal that hits closer to home, like smaller paychecks and sick children.
By
Ralph Crown, at 11:11 AM
absolutely goddamn right!
By not responding to the right wing noise machine, we allow the bad guys to set the narrative and mainstream looney-tune ideas. Case in point: Bircher nonsense from the 60's, which was considered crazy back then is now mainstream Republican thought, as reflected through many pieces of their proposed legislation.
These guys on the right will NEVER back down or be reasonable, period. It may suck to have to be constantly confrontational, but that's the only way to fight the madness.
By
Anonymous, at 11:13 AM
I agree, these people will NEVER back down or be reasonable. The only think one can do is make examples of them and make sure other people get the chance to understand that everything they stand for is a sham and a scam.
Just got done arguing with two Libertaritards on YouTube yesterday. They told me that taxation is theft because you're forced to do it. I looked up "theft" and told them that they didn't know what the word means. Theft is the WRONGFUL taking of property, not the FORCED taking. They won't be repeating that sham claim around me!
We have the truth, and that can beat their specious word games every time--and even if we don't change the minds of the Limbaugh Loonies we're arguing with, at least we can make examples of them so that others reading the arguments (if any) can get some understanding of what's really going on.
By
Jeff, at 1:48 PM
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