Media Still Drooling Over GOP Propaganda
Friday, April 20, 2007 -    reddit
Glenn Greenwald wrote recently on how the supposed "press" has been eating from the hand of conservative "issue" manufacturers over the Edwards hair story and how damaging it is to everyone who takes the bait when there are so many other more honest and important things to be reporting and writing about. I've woken up to a dose of it this morning while reading my news alerts, take this one for example from an Idaho newspaper.
First, Edwards' construction of a $5.3 million, 28,000-square-foot mansion in North Carolina made news that surely put him out of touch with Middle America voters struggling to meet mortgage payments and hold on to jobs that are vanishing overseas.
To insinuate that wealthy people are out of touch with middle America simply because of their social status is ridiculous, and if it had any merit, virtually every president and member of Congress in the past 30 years would be wandering bafoons.
John Edwards may have made a fortune as a very successful trial lawyer fighting for the victims of medical malpractice, but he's got nothing on President Bush, and unlike Edwards who earned his wealth on his own, Bush had everything he has given to him on a silver platter.
Does that mean Bush is hopelessly out of touch with middle America? No, even though he is, it's not because he's rich, it's because he's stupid. It's a dishonest personal attack that has no relevance on Edwards' interest in helping the poor get out of poverty. And I might add this is something Edwards is campaigning on, something Bush has never addressed in his life.
Now we're somehow supposed to believe that because Edwards is rich, that he doesn't care about the poor, even though he's campaigning on the issue unlike the entire wealthy and apparently uncaring Republican field? I don't know of a single top tier candidate on either side that doesn't have a million dollar home somewhere in the country, so this lame accusation makes them all incapable of addressing poverty.
Uh, no...not so much.
To me, it's rather like saying I can't identify with the problems women face because I'm not a woman (sexist) or African Americans because I'm white (racist.) They don't have a term as far as I know for the prosperity divide, but it's equally disingenuous.
Meanwhile, the Internet is alive with a videotape spoof of Edwards combing his hair with background music, "I Feel Pretty."
Created and consistently spread by right-wingers who want the obedient media to focus on this instead of Edwards plan to decrease poverty, create universal health care, and end the Iraq war. They want this because those are issues they can't win on. Just like during the 2006 elections, conservatives are scurrying to avoid having to debate the real issues because they aren't interested in solving real problems. They want power, period. War is the ultimate way to express that power which is why you don't find Republican anti-war candidates. It has nothing to do with right or wrong, it's all about who has the power.
They want it. Will we give it to them?
Other posts from this blog: Media, Poverty
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