Joe Wilson's Folly
In Britain and many other countries. it's nothing at all for a member of Parliament to stage an outburst when the Prime Minister says something the minority doesn't like. But in America we like to pretend we're a lot more civil here, so it came as a shock when South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson called President Obama a liar when he said that the heath care reform bill would not cover illegal immigrants. But in the end it may be that President Obama who benefits from Wilson's unprecedented-- and dishonest-- outburst.
First of all it was mean and partisan. While 'the base' of both parties may not be tired of partisanship, most Americans are. Obama had already offered a few olive branches to Republicans by praising John McCain's call for co-ops (though many insurance companies are chartered as non-profits, in part because of their roots in crop insurance) and even offering a fig leaf toward tort reform. But then came Wilson's outburst.
It's fairly normal for conservatives to insult Democratic presidents and even to call them liars but generally they leave that Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and that set. Mitch McConnell may hate every fibre of Barack Obama's but Congressional Republicans generally use far more diplomatic and positive language. It's the way things are done. People are well used to Glenn Beck spouting off, but not their Congressman.
Worse for the Republicans everyone who actually bothered to fact check Wilson's claim on a neutral source found out Wilson himself was in fact lying. Nor is it credible for Wilson himself to claim he was 'misinformed'. He is, after all, in Congress, debating a bill and if he felt competent to challenge the President on something he is responsible for knowing what he is talking about. The fact that he was wrong and flagrantly wrong tars the entire right.
When you combine Wilson's outright lie with the forceful and systematic way the President made his case you can see what those still undecided might do, like take a closer look at the rest of the right wing claims. Where they will discover even more outright lies, such as the so-called 'death panels'. While politics has never been a game for choirboys lying has become endemic among conservatives in recent years. Part of it in my view is an unfortunate consequence of the old myth of Liberal bias in the media. While it was true that in the 70s and early 80s most reporters leaned left, the claim was exaggerated at best, particularly in light with the right's overwhelming domination of media ownership, particularly at the local level. Often accepted as gospel, that claim allowed many conservatives to simply view uncomfortable news as a result of bias. When the Reagan administration ended the Fairness doctrine that opened the door for people like Beck and Limbaugh. The came Fox news who pretends a lack of bias but whose real agenda is gleefully lampooned almost weekly by Jon Stewart & Company.
For many conservatives, particularly movement and religious conservatives, the new right wing media allowed them to retreat into an incestuous news cycle. They read right, watch right, and listen right. And that creates a feedback loop which encouraged more and more extremism, one where Ann Coulter's famous claim that "liberals need to know they can be killed" is simply a exposition of what many already feel.
It is this incestuous media that created the 'tea-baggers' and their ilk, and many of the outrageous statements about evolution, global warming and other issues they consider the property of the left. In that context Wilson's statement is not outrageous, but rather a representation of what Wilson believes his constituents feel, that Barack Obama, being a liberal, must be lying when he tells people that right wing claims must be false.
Is Wilson's statement a dagger in the heart of movement conservative? No way. Movement conservatism has endured many more potent errors in recent years, such as the damage done to free-market idealism in the wake of the 2007-8 economic crises. It will take many more to undo that. But it did once again expose the right's true center lies in an imaginary world. That while they may claim others do not know, they have no claim to knowledge themselves.
Moreover, Wilson helped galvanize Democrats, particularly the "Blue Dogs' Obama's speech was really aimed at. It made clear their need to join together, greatly abetted by the President's flexible but informed approach.
Thanks to Joe Wilson, I feel far better about health care reform today then I did the moment his lips came unzipped.
First of all it was mean and partisan. While 'the base' of both parties may not be tired of partisanship, most Americans are. Obama had already offered a few olive branches to Republicans by praising John McCain's call for co-ops (though many insurance companies are chartered as non-profits, in part because of their roots in crop insurance) and even offering a fig leaf toward tort reform. But then came Wilson's outburst.
It's fairly normal for conservatives to insult Democratic presidents and even to call them liars but generally they leave that Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and that set. Mitch McConnell may hate every fibre of Barack Obama's but Congressional Republicans generally use far more diplomatic and positive language. It's the way things are done. People are well used to Glenn Beck spouting off, but not their Congressman.
Worse for the Republicans everyone who actually bothered to fact check Wilson's claim on a neutral source found out Wilson himself was in fact lying. Nor is it credible for Wilson himself to claim he was 'misinformed'. He is, after all, in Congress, debating a bill and if he felt competent to challenge the President on something he is responsible for knowing what he is talking about. The fact that he was wrong and flagrantly wrong tars the entire right.
When you combine Wilson's outright lie with the forceful and systematic way the President made his case you can see what those still undecided might do, like take a closer look at the rest of the right wing claims. Where they will discover even more outright lies, such as the so-called 'death panels'. While politics has never been a game for choirboys lying has become endemic among conservatives in recent years. Part of it in my view is an unfortunate consequence of the old myth of Liberal bias in the media. While it was true that in the 70s and early 80s most reporters leaned left, the claim was exaggerated at best, particularly in light with the right's overwhelming domination of media ownership, particularly at the local level. Often accepted as gospel, that claim allowed many conservatives to simply view uncomfortable news as a result of bias. When the Reagan administration ended the Fairness doctrine that opened the door for people like Beck and Limbaugh. The came Fox news who pretends a lack of bias but whose real agenda is gleefully lampooned almost weekly by Jon Stewart & Company.
For many conservatives, particularly movement and religious conservatives, the new right wing media allowed them to retreat into an incestuous news cycle. They read right, watch right, and listen right. And that creates a feedback loop which encouraged more and more extremism, one where Ann Coulter's famous claim that "liberals need to know they can be killed" is simply a exposition of what many already feel.
It is this incestuous media that created the 'tea-baggers' and their ilk, and many of the outrageous statements about evolution, global warming and other issues they consider the property of the left. In that context Wilson's statement is not outrageous, but rather a representation of what Wilson believes his constituents feel, that Barack Obama, being a liberal, must be lying when he tells people that right wing claims must be false.
Is Wilson's statement a dagger in the heart of movement conservative? No way. Movement conservatism has endured many more potent errors in recent years, such as the damage done to free-market idealism in the wake of the 2007-8 economic crises. It will take many more to undo that. But it did once again expose the right's true center lies in an imaginary world. That while they may claim others do not know, they have no claim to knowledge themselves.
Moreover, Wilson helped galvanize Democrats, particularly the "Blue Dogs' Obama's speech was really aimed at. It made clear their need to join together, greatly abetted by the President's flexible but informed approach.
Thanks to Joe Wilson, I feel far better about health care reform today then I did the moment his lips came unzipped.