I’m tempted to focus tonight on the xenophobic outbursts and the racist attacks that were witnessed yesterday at the Republican National Convention, but, instead, I thought that I’d share a few observations that others have made concerning the “We Built It” theme, which has been so central to this week’s proceedings in Tampa. (As you’ll recall, the “We Built It” meme began in earnest a few weeks ago, when the Romney campaign released a misleading television ad entitled “These Hands”, in which President Obama is heard telling the entrepreneurs of America that they didn’t, contrary to what they might think, build their own companies. What Obama had actually said is that business owners benefit from shared infrastructure, like bridges and highways, which we all build together, but the audio had been edited in such a way as to reinforce the prevalent Republican narrative that Obama is a Socialist, who, in the words of RNC Chair Reince Priebus, doesn’t even know how to run a garage sale. No, in the eyes of Obama, Priebus would have you believe, it’s government that creates companies, not rugged, hard working, American individuals.) So, the past few days have been spent by Republican party leaders, whipping up their supporters, who apparently don’t realize that they’re inside a convention center that was built with public funds, into an orgasmic froth of anti-government frenzy by repeatedly dropping the phrase, “We Built It,” like it was the most clever buzz phrase since Bush the Elder said, “Read My Lips.” Here’s a photo. (Note the incredible irony in the image.)
Of course, as we all know, the debt isn’t the fault of the Republicans… at least not if you listen to the people on the podium in Florida. Here, with more on that, is an except from today’s Washington Post column by Greg Sargent about Paul Ryan’s keynote last night… a speech, by the way, that was even called dishonest by Fox News. (Just how bad does something on the right have to be before before Fox News expresses outrage? I don’t know that I’ve seen it happen before.)
It was, by any reasonable standards, a staggering, staggering lie. Here’s Paul Ryan about Barack Obama.
“He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.”
“They.” “Them.” “Them.” Those words are lies. Because Paul Ryan was on that commission. “Came back with an urgent report.” That is a lie. The commission never made any recommendations for Barack Obama to support or oppose. Why not? Because the commission voted down its own recommendations. Why? Because Paul Ryan, a member of the commission, voted it down and successfully convinced the other House Republicans on the commission to vote it down.
That wasn’t the only bit of mendacity – lazy mendacity, incredibly lazy mendacity – in Ryan’s speech. Twitter lit up as soon as he started telling the story of the Janesville auto plant that Barack Obama didn’t save – a plant that, it turns out, closed before Obama was president. And of course there’s the infamous cuts to Medicare that Ryan lambasted Obama for without happening to mention that those very same cuts were in Paul Ryan’s own budget…
And this is from coverage of Ryan’s speech in The New Republic.
…Ryan said “President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him” and proclaimed “We need to stop spending money we don’t have.” In fact, this decade’s big deficits are primarily a product of Bush-era tax cuts and wars. And you know who voted for them? Paul Ryan…
So, yes, when they show the national debt ticker above a sign that says “We Built It,” they’re being uncharacteristically truthful. And, if you don’t believe me, here’s the graph from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities that proves it.
But we like the idea that Obama is a free spending Socialist who wants nothing more than to take all of the money from hard working white people and hand it over to lazy blacks, and there are no number of facts that can dissuade us from the belief that this is what’s happening. It doesn’t matter that, in reality, the government is growing less under Obama than it has at any point in the last 60 years. All that matters is that we know in our hearts that he’s doing things like removing the work requirement for those receiving Welfare. He isn’t, of course, but that’s beside the point. Facts, as we discussed yesterday, don’t matter anymore. No, we’re way beyond that.
update: The photo at the told of the post, showing the debt clock hanging above the “We Built It” sign, is a composite. Both signs did appear at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, but they were not situated on the same side of the arena, as they’re shown to be in the image. The Atlantic, and several other news sources, unknowingly shared the image, as I did. As both appeared at the convention, I’m going to keep the photo in the post, but I wanted to be clear that it was a composite. Honesty, it would seem, is still important to some of us.
19 Comments
What they want to say is I Built It. By saying “we” they just make Obama’s point. these people can do nothing right.
It’s truly amazing; how this GOP convention was literally lie after lie after lie.
They don’t care at all about any facts.
This is just crazy.
My dad just sent me a long email suggesting that Obama’s college education was paid for by a Chicago crime syndicate. I don’t quite follow the logic, but I guess they had somehow taken a liking to the young Barry Obama when he was attending Occidental as an undergraduate, and determined that he could one day be molded into a powerful weapon and brought to Chicago to do their bidding. So, they decided to put him through Harvard. There’s no other way, you see, that a young black man of modest means could do something like that on his own. Two minutes with Google brought up all kinds of information on Obama’s student loans, which are well documented. (He was still paying them off when he was in the Senate. Ultimately, he paid them off with the royalties from his autobiography.) I made this clear to my father, and the next day I received an email about Obama’s birth certificate and how easy it is to have documents forged when you control NASA and the Pentagon. There is absolutely nothing that you can say to these people. But, I keep trying. The debunking fatigue is setting in, though.
I consider myself a fan of Clint Eastwood’s, but Jesus that was painful watching him on stage last night. They should have known better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DGl-4gByV4
Michael Moore weighed in on Eastwood’s bizarre performance.
Eastwood says he doesn’t think attorneys should be Presidents. (Yeah, Lincoln was pretty terrible.) Apparently he doesn’t know that his candidate, Romney, is an attorney.
I was in a park yesterday and noticed a car with a bumper sticker “I don’t believe the LIBERAL media.”
I spent the next hour trying to tease it out.
Like:
1. What exacty IS the liberal media? Is he referring to specific media providers? Or does he mean to imply that ALL media is liberal?
2. What is there to “believe” or not believe. Are weather reports on how much rain fell yesterday to be left to scrutiny? Are we being misled by reports on football scores on the New York Times?
I don’t know, I probably spent way too much time with the bumper sticker, but I couldn’t help but interpret it as to say “I only believe whatever suits me, don’t confuse me with the evidence”
I will return to my coffee now that Mark has turned down my lunch offer, that bastard.
a better bumper sticker would be
I DONT BELIEVE THE LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE MEDIA
Given media consolidation, almost all of our current alternatives are owned by the same few individuals and corporations, almost all of whom are conservative. When people rant about the “liberal media” what they’re really ranting about are facts. They’re objecting to having to be confronted by facts. It’s that simple.
I take issue with the use of the word “facts.” I think the more appropriate term would be ” evidence.”
People dislike being confronted with evidence which counters broad assumptions, which are perceived as self-evident.
I agree, though, the “liberal media” is really a catch all term for “all media which runs counter to my fixed and immutable perception of the world.”
It’s sad, really.
Another pont, the US media is not a monolithic entity. The New York Times, Fox, the Christian Science Monitor, The Economist, The Nation, Alex Jones’ website, NPR and this very blog are a testament to the diversity of the US media.
Correction, the Economist is not American,. I apologize for the oversight.
the photo is not real. I saw it yesterday and they debunked it. Those signs did not appear together at the convention. Just FYI
Nate Silver is giving Obama a 71% chance of winning. I don’t think having a delusional Clint Eastwood yelling at a chair helped.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/author/nate-silver/
The next Republican Convention will be better. Honey Boo Boo is going to be the mystery speaker.
Chris Rock said it best.
https://twitter.com/chrisrockoz/status/241373614572724224
The most troubling line from Mitt’s speech last night.
“President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.”
It got tons of applause.
Not only do they not want to do anything about the impending disaster that we’re facing, but they’re gleeful about their refusal to address it.
Also, did Obama not want to “help you and your family”? I don’t recall him saying that.
They had considered having a hologram of Reagan at the convention.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/80532.html?hp=l3
Ryan said: “Last year, under President Obama’s failed leadership, 1.4 million businesses filed for bankruptcy.” The actual number was just under 48,000
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/03/paul-ryan-ties-obama-to-carter-on-eve-of-dem-convention/comment-page-1/
Ryan doubles down on his lies:
Taken from the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-paul-ryan-fact-check-20120904,0,3872415.story
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