Sunday, July 25, 2010

FIGHTING AN UPHILL BATTLE...

...to set the record straight on any given day.

I was up in Lenox Mass. yesterday morning driving on a stretch of road I hadn't been on in a while, 7A. It had been widened and mostly repaved, so the ride was quicker, safer, and more efficient. There was a sign saying something about the "American Recovery Act" or something, but it had way too many words to comprehend as you drove by.

What it should have said was: "Obama and the Democrats made this happen." And that's what Obama and the Democrats should be saying too.

But the right not only gets more air time and has more influence on the messages we get these days (it would seem even on the comments on this blog, even from those on the left!, because we spend way too much time defending the president and his party or responding to rightwing ploys to change the subject or divert our attention etc. from what's really going on!) it also has mastered the art of propaganda, "The Big Lie," and other media manipulation tactics and the left is still back in the 1960s, or actually even further back, at least in the '60s we knew how to get the media's attention.

And for those on the right who would point out how short the section of route 7A is that I saw improvement on yesterday morning, or how elitist that neighborhood is compared to the supposed "real Americans" the right pretends to represent (but actually exploits for the benefit of the corporations they are in thrall to), I can point out that a much more complex use of a lot more manpower can be seen on a stretch of 78 and the Garden State Parkway in Newark and environs back in Jersey—urban, economically hurting, and much in need of jobs—also funded by Obama and the Dems' stimulus package.

But the right is still able to use the magician's trick of distracting with showmanship with one hand while doing the actual deed with the hidden other hand, as in convincing a lot of our fellow citizens that Obama bailed out the banks that Bush Jr. did, and that the stimulus hasn't done anything for the economy and jobs when it is doing just that every day.

Only not enough, which is the substance of Obama and the Dems' problem (beyond their problem with getting their story out to people and the media in a concise and clear way). The stimulus package should have been at least twice as big and the manpower projects twice as ambitious (not just improving some of our nation's infrastructure, but all of it and quickly, etc.).

But as we will see from comments here and elsewhere, and on most news shows and everywhere politics are debated or even just talked about, the right will try to dominate—and be successful at it most of the time—the discussion with misdirection, misinformation, and their distortion or outright lie of the day, and they'll all stay on message about it until their masters change the message for the next round of headlines and punditry.

[PS: For those who can't access the links on my second comment below, here and here they are.]

16 comments:

JIm said...

The failure of Obamanomics is simple to explain. Government has raised the costs to business through new health mandates, regulations and taxes(ending of Bush tax cuts). I am unaware of any socialist expansion of government that resulted in a expansion of economic activity with a expansion of employment and opportunity. The fact is that European Socialism is in a death spiral followed by liberal states like CA, NY, MI, IL. New Jersey the state of my youth, is making a comeback under the leadership of a fiscally Conservative governor.

Anonymous said...

Obama's Economic Recovery Act funding to Massachusettes

Massachusetts: Lowell Regional Transit Authority (Lowell), $1,500,000. Hale Street Solar Photovoltaic system: The installation of a photovoltaic panel array on the roof of the Hale Street garage facility owned by the LRTA. The facility is used by the LRTA to store, fuel, maintain, and repair transportation vehicles (buses, vans, tow trucks etc.) as well as administrative and dispatch services. The facility is a 70,000 square foot building located in an industrial zone in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Massachusetts: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (Boston), $2,500,000. Renewable Wind Energy: MBTA will design and construct wind energy generation turbines in eastern Massachusetts (from among Kingston, Newburyport, Bridgewater).

Any road widening or improvements you may have noticed, Obama hasn't a finger in. That must be the use of the Big Lie that the Left is always citing.

Any word on John Kerry Sen - D MA being made to pay his taxes on his boat instead of evading them as the Left has made public. You know how the Left feels about taxes on the rich.

Lally said...

The highest levels of prosperity and the most evenly shared among the population in the USA occurred when the graduated income tax rose on the rich to over ninety percent. I.e. the higher the taxes were on the wealthy the better the economy did. As for highway projects funded by the recovery Act (Obama and the Dems) it all can be found on recovery.gov where the millions spent in Mass. include the road I mentioned.

Anonymous said...

also it is
gonna be "neat" to see what the current administration does when the BUSH TAX CUTS (for the rich) expires next month.

THAT was the "tax cut" that y'all speak to as being "Obama's tax cut"

it was "Bush's tax cut" !

a left-over piece of crappy legislation/legislator/ attitude from that Great American Trickle Down MORON Reagan!

Reagan after all came out of HOLLYWOOD ... a "C" actor and a worse president.... I guess 'we the people' get what we pay-fore! on credit...

- the other "Anon"

JIm said...

The top tax rate of 70% in the 1970s gave way to the Reagan tax cuts with significantly lower top rates. Malaise gave way to prosperity.


"the higher the taxes were on the wealthy the better the economy did." mlally

Lally said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lally said...

okay, this is my last response to the two sets of lies being promulgated by the comments in this post: for Obama's tax cut see (among tons of other sources): blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2009/02/is-obamas-tax-cut-the-biggest.html

for the lie to Reagan tax cut claim see this: krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/reagan-taxes-jobs/




et-endlessly-cetera

JIm said...

Krugman's last good work was 20years ago, but he recognised that it took WWII to get us out of the Depression.

You recently lamented that reponses to your political museings has lacked much liberal support. May I offer a few theories.

Your liberal supporters are on vacation or are becoming bored because the liberal policies, if polls are to be believed have lost credability and what little support they had. Obama was only able to bring the US to the precipice of European Socialism by hiding what he planned on imposing on America.

Some liberals may be having a "Come to Jesus" moment, realizing that no amount of good intentions and a desire for "Fairness" can make up for the destructive interference of heavy handed government.As one example let me offer the minimum wage laws. The goal of the Liberals was to provide a living wage for all. The reverse has happened. Teenage unemployment has soared to 25% plus. Black teenage unemployment is in the 40% area. So much for good intentions.

Lally said...

As always, wrong , wrong and wrong. I never lamented a lack of "liberal" supporters. I get feedback all day through e mails, telephone calls, cards, letters and comments, almost all of which are in agreement with the perspectives in my posts. The conversation on this blog has been and continues to be mostly between those of us who are informed and understand the facts and reality but disagree on solutions or aspects of solutions. The solutions offered by the right have been tried and enforced on the rest of us for decades in some cases and for the previous eight year administration for the rest and the outcome was total failure. End of story. Your return to commenting on this blog, Jim, has only proven once again how little you know or truly believe in that isn't dictated by the latest rightwing talking point ad nauseam. I will continue to consider the advice of others who read this blog because they are interested in my experiences and perspectives to either delete your comments or not bother to respond to them since it doesn't encourage clarity but rather ideological intransigence.

Anonymous said...

the Patients Affordable Health Care Bill is OVER 2400 pages !

here read it and weep

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2010/03/health_care_bill_seven_pulitze.html

my health insurance has now gone from $60 per month
to over $95 per month and most of the doctors that I used dropped out of the Medicare Program...

so much for quality health care! so much for quality anything

and it is not who is president it doesn't matter...we are a bankrupt nation/culture living in a "fantasy land"
of myths and lies and ignorance.

our politics and religions are bologna!

Anonymous said...

p.s.

not to "kick a dead horse"
but,
please explain to me how it is that Freddie Mac AND Fannie Mae ARE NOT
included in this new finance bill?

seems like wall-street/big banks are catching all of the 'heat' for the financial melt-down that Freddie and Fannie caused!

I guess it is because Big Government can do no wrong!

JIm said...

Mike you shout lies and seem to think you sound knowledgable and itelligent. I should count my blessings, I don't believe you shouted racist. Congradulations on what passes as insight for you.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Personally, I don't mind paying taxes, but not to fund so called wars that aren't really wars. Schools are suffering, after school programs are being cut, teachers are being let go. Our greatest resource and hope and defense, education, is suffering and shattered thanks to unregulated corporate greed and corruption, to countless dollars being squandered on 'war' by the man-you-factured fear-control purveyors. If all the money spent in Iraq/Afghanistan,etc. was put into education, healthcare and alternative energy, we wouldn't be in this mess. Stop whining about taxes and government Jim and be grateful for the incredible freedom and comfort you have.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/commentary/new-jerseys-budget-crisis-and-the-human-imperative

Jim and others, check this out.

JIm said...

Robert,
I am not whining. I have joined the Tea Party to fight European Soacialism in the form of Obamacare and Obamanomics. I live in a country in which people can fight back, because of Constitutional rights of freedom of speech and of assembly. I believe we have the possiblilty of rolling back the destructive Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda. I plan on fighting back and am looking for the beginnings of victory for a reinvigorated US Constitutional govenment, with particular prominence of the 10th Amendment, limiting federal government. November 2 may signal the beginning of the rollback.

Jamie Rose said...

Jim, I'd like to invite you to have your tea party SOMEWHERE ELSE!