Sticklers for the truth who are closely following the ongoing campaign for the presidency of the United States cannot help but be more than a little discouraged these days.
In a Democratic debate last month in Las Vegas Barack Obama accused the Bush administration of both failing to encourage the use of alternative fuels and opting not to raise standards for automobile efficiency. However, the fact is that the president has signed bills advocating both of these things. That same evening Hillary Clinton reasserted her claim that President Bush’s 2005 energy bill contained enormous giveaways to gas and oil companies, when in fact it raised taxes on both industries. Both Democratic candidates pledged to have all U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of 2009, but each later conceded that our nation’s armed forces could well be there for many years to come.
That very same week at a Republican candidate debate in Florida John McCain proclaimed that he had won the GOP voting in both New Hampshire and South Carolina when the fact was that he had attained a plurality only because independents were allowed to participate in the primaries in both states. He also uttered several statements regarding his background in economics and his support for the Bush tax cuts that clearly contradicted many of his own recent statements.
To cite all the misleading and/or inaccurate proclamations of any one of the three major candidates vying for the position of commander-in-chief would require far more than one page of this publication, and were Mitt Romney still in the race it would necessitate felling every tree in Maine in order to manufacture the needed paper. FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization with the stated goal of reducing the level of deception in U.S. politics, monitors the factual accuracy of statements uttered by U.S. politicians, and a brief check of their website is discouraging for those eager to vote for someone who tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Perhaps the reason the chief executive’s residence is called the White House is because one has to tell so many White Lies just to get there.
If you really want to hear the truth during an election year your best bet is to listen to people who aren’t running for office, or beholden to someone who is. That’s why it’s so refreshing to listen to radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh and self-described “Public Intellectual” Ann Coulter these days.
Say what?
Mr. Limbaugh is noted for lying with impunity about, among other things, the AIDS epidemic, the 9/11 report, the federal minimum wage, and anyone with the temerity to have challenged him regarding any of his myriad of past lies. Ms. Coulter’s past screeds have included the suggestion that “The only real question regarding Bill Clinton is whether to impeach or to assassinate,” and that then-U.S. Senator Max Cleland, a triple amputee, was “Lucky” to have had his limbs blown off in Vietnam because, “He’d never have gotten elected if the incident had taken place at Fort Dix.”
Neither of these right wing provocateurs has shown more than a passing interest in factual accuracy in the past. Their respective histories suggest that the only truth they’re interested in telling is their own rewritten and/or fabricated version of it. But these days both have been telling all who’ll listen that they aren’t happy about the direction that their beloved Republican Party is taking. Not only that, but both have indicated that they might do something drastic now that John McCain has been all but anointed as the party’s standard-bearer for this November’s election. Mr. Limbaugh has hinted that he will not support McCain; Ms. Coulter has gone a step further, saying she’ll support Mr. McCain’s opponent, even if it turns out to be –gasp- Senator Clinton, who most of Ms. Coulter’s followers see as a cross between Osama bin Laden and the anti-Christ. And as bizarre as their stated intentions seem, it’s not hard to believe that both Rush and Ann are telling the truth, at least this time.
Mr. Limbaugh, Ms. Coulter, and their shrieking right-wing imitators have been feeding their audiences a strict diet of “Liberals are the devil” hogwash for nearly two decades now. Unfortunately, blaming the left for our nation’s real and imagined ills has become increasingly difficult given the embarrassing performance of the incompetent, inept, and inarticulate current chief executive, a man whose actions right-leaning pundits have been lauding and subsequently defending for over seven years now. Trying to defend the indefensible for better than half a decade is tough, even for experienced bullies and dissemblers.
Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh have long since proven that they are impervious to embarrassment, but despite their stated political views both are clearly capitalists above all else. The fact is that after quite a bit more than 15 minutes of fame, their respective shticks have gotten old. The first priority for each is staying in the public eye, and making that happen will be a whole lot easier if a Democrat (preferably Senator Clinton) takes up residence in the White House next January.
Their most recent shrill rantings provide further evidence that the one thing Ms. Coulter and Mr. Limbaugh dread more than liberals dictating our nation’s policies is the looming and very real prospect of their own inevitable irrelevance.
Andy YoungReturn to main page
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