The Right's Greatest Victory

Billy Bragg - New England 

B-36 "Peacemaker" - the largest bomber the US has ever produced

On the latest episode of Lovett or Leave It, an otherwise educated person went on a rant that we need a "moderate" party, and we have to have it publicly funded. This is because all the moderates "have no political home." 

This is, easily, the right's greatest victory - to have the public equate the far-left politics of Billy Bragg with the far-right politics of every elected Republican. 

Of course, Billy Bragg is not the president. Or Democratic leader in the House. Or Majority Leader in the Senate. Those folks are all "moderate" Democrats who are not on the verge of imposing crazy far-left policies like those in ... most every other advanced democracy in the world. (Universal health care, gun control, parental leave, safe and legal access to family planning, etc.) 

What are the crazy, radical positions being pursued by the left that leaves people wanting a "moderate" party? These "no label" "purple party" folks can't name anything. But somehow, they just know that the Democratic party is "extreme."

Back in the George W Bush era, Paul Krugman noted that by being played by the right, the media has given the right this victory. No matter how crazy the right gets - from lying about Iraq to Tangerine Palpatine's 30,537 lies - the "mainstream" media always claims "both-sides do it," to show how fair and balanced they are.

Or, as Krugman put it, in presenting an argument between sane people and flat earthers, the media would run the headline: “Shape of the Planet: Both Sides Have a Point.”

Think about it. Everyone in the country knows that Hunter Biden did something nefarious. But almost no one knows that Darth Tax Evader's son-in-law (who worked in the White House) was given two billion dollars of blood money by Saudi Arabia. They also don't know Kushner was colluding with Rupert Murdoch to try to throw the election. 

Because, you know, democracy dies in darkness. And that is just what the oligarchs want.

And by cowering before the threat of right-wingers saying mean things about them, the media has aided the right in convincing the masses that the left and right are equally extreme. When, of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

Working the refs works. 

More on the media by Colbert.