It's the Phonies, Stupid

Would America seriously consider giving them another four years?

Millions of viewers who tuned in to watch the GOP convention in St. Paul found out, if they did not know already, that America is hip deep in phonies. Events recorded during and after the convention demonstrate that leading conservative opinion makers resemble tobacco industry lobbyists. Garrison Keillor recognized [1] these aging boomers from high school, "as cohesive now as they were back then, dedicated to school spirit, intolerant of outsiders, able to jump up and down and holler for something they don't actually believe."

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show captured several supporting players in this clip, “Sarah Palin Gender Card [2].” It has attracted over three and a half million views, more than any other of the show’s bits to date. Jon Stewart’s TiVo team has preserved a digital exhibit of phonies who - without blinking - tell America what to think today, and tell America to think the opposite tomorrow.

Gov. Sarah Palin would be unblinkingly proud.

Karl Rove claims Palin’s experience as mayor of Wasilla, AK (pop. under 10,000) qualifies her to be vice-president. An earlier Karl Rove claims former Virginia Lt. Gov. and current Gov. Tim Keane’s limited experience as mayor of Richmond (pop. 200,000) would make him a purely political VP pick for Barack Obama, showing how unserious Obama is about America’s national security. Bill O’Reilly insists the Palin family’s pregnant teen is a family matter. An earlier Bill O’Reilly condemns Britney Spears’ parents as “incredible pinheads” because their teenage daughter is pregnant. Dick Morris and John McCain advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer take us through the Looking Glass: Hillary Clinton was a wuss for complaining about negative media coverage, but Sarah Palin is a victim.

An open MSNBC microphone caught Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan speaking bluntly [3] about the Palin pick during the Republican convention, calling it “cynical” and “gimmicky” (Murphy) and “political bullshit” (Noonan).

Joe Klein mentions [4] Matt Miller's upcoming book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas. Miller interviewed Douglas Holtz-Eakin, one of McCain's chief economic advisors. Holtz-Eakin admits that the next president will have to raise taxes. "It's arithmetic," he says. Asked why "tax-cutting mania persist among Republicans," Holtz-Eakin explains, "It's the brand, and you don't dilute the brand." Translation: McCain will raise your taxes after promising he won't.

In a radio interview last week [5], the Economic Policy Institute’s Heidi Shierholz cited recent economic reports and studies by the institute that highlight the sorry record of the "supply-side mythology" that McCain advocates (i.e., tax cuts boost revenues). Supply-side policies persisted through the Bush administration despite the fact that even those promoting them do not believe in them [6]:

Glenn Hubbard ... was the first Chairman of George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, and an avid defender of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts ... He devised a clever two-pronged strategy for loyally defending the tax cuts, while avoiding saying things that he as an economist did not believe to be true. [Emphasis mine.]

Unlike the prosperity promised by trickle-down economics, the Martin Blank-ish "moral flexibility" [7] prevalent among neoconservatives has trickled down through the culture the same way the Bush administration’s “get tough” approach to terrorist suspects may have led to the Abu Ghraib abuses and the beating deaths of detainees at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Responding last week to reports about Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter, conservative talk-show host Reese Hopkins (WRKO Boston) questioned Palin’s parenting on air [8]:

Angry Republican listeners blew up his e-mail box, claiming Bristol's condition is family business. And Hopkins, who talked extensively on-air about the suspicious Gloucester [9] teen pregnancy pact, was a little shocked. "You called these girls sluts, you said their parents were horrible," he said of his listeners. "But in 125 e-mails I have stacked in front of me, you're telling me [Bristol Palin's pregnancy] is not a big deal." Hopkins went back to the e-mails he received on the Gloucester story and compared them to his Palin e-mails. He found 70 listeners who flip-flopped on the teen pregnancy issue and invited them to explain.

For conservative talking heads who tell Americans what to think and when to think it, small government, fiscal and personal responsibility are mere shibboleths, gang colors displayed to rally their base. Even words like honor, on which John McCain based his reputation, have been shown to be conveniences to be discarded when political advantage is at stake. McCain's campaign team is the same Bush/Rove team [10] that smeared McCain so viciously in South Carolina in 2000. Every four years, they drag the Roe v. Wade football out of the closet and tee it up for the religious right to have another run at. After the election, they yank away the football and put their wedge issue back in the closet for another four years, leaving supporters wondering what happened this time? McCain has freshened up the act for 2008, with a real, live Lucy to hold the football.

If that wedge issue ever stops working, conservative operatives might urge values voters to help a friend recover a large sum of money tied up in Nigeria. As with so many victims of that particular scam, voters will continue to give the phonies money and support rather than admit that they have been had and had again.

Honor and integrity be damned, many voters are prepared to forgive smears, lies and blatant flip-flops if they think they will help elect politicians with whom they identify. (At our regional state fair this weekend, a farmer and former Republican - now registered independent - defended Palin's non-answers in her ABC interview: "Well, she answered them ... the way she wanted to. She’s a politician. They all do that. It’s called spin.")

It sometimes takes looking into a mirror to truly see ourselves. Digital technology has made it tougher to get away cleanly with shameless phoniness. Robert Greenwald excepted, it is still an underutilized tool for progressives. If presented with repeated examples - video examples - of phoniness by conservative talking heads, will voters defined by their beliefs finally reject people who clearly have none? Or will they avoid responsibility for supporting them by saying, "They all do it"?

Progressives will never know unless they try. As the “Sarah Palin Gender Card [2]" video and the open-mic comments make clear, conservative opinion-makers do not even believe what they say. After years of successfully peddling propaganda and lies, the phonies think American voters are still gullible enough to believe them anyway. But with relentless video voter education by progressives, maybe not so much.