Here’s Robert Reich again, almost sputtering with indignation regarding Mitt Romney’s incessant lying on the campaign trail:
…So Romney’s lying machine is working.
But what does all this tell us about the man who is running this lying machine? (Or if Romney’s not running it, what does it tell us about a man who would select the people who are?)
We knew he was a cypher – that he’ll say and do whatever is expedient, change positions like a chameleon, eschew any core principles.
Yet resorting to outright lies – and organizing a presidential campaign around a series of lies – reveals a whole new level of cynicism, a profound disdain for what remains of civility in public life, and a disrespect of the democratic process.
The question is whether someone who is willing to resort to such calculated lies, and build a campaign machine around them, can be worthy of the public’s trust with the most powerful office in the world…
Is Reich being disingenuous, or merely naive? He contradicts himself by accurately describing Romney as a cypher and then professing to be shocked by the cypher’s “outright lies” and “disrespect of the democratic process.” What does he expect of the Romneybot, a figurehead for a “campaign machine” fueled by billionaire fascists and headed by Karl Rove, who makes Joseph Goebbels look like a paragon of ethics?
Reich simply doesn’t want to admit that the entire system is a mirage. Once he tells us that we’re all sitting chained and facing forward, our backs to the fire wiile the cardboard images are being projected on the wall, it’s all over for everybody. Did these fools actually think that the Christ would be the last one to come back from the light?
And Reich conveniently overlooks Obama’s 2008 campaign, built also entirely on lies. In fact, Obama’s lying was revealed clearly before the election on multiple occasions! FISA vote, anyone? Or how about telling the Canadians that his campaign policy positions were completely false and would not be in effect once he was elected (which turned out to be the case)? Let’s just ignore all that and yik about how deceitful Romney is! Boo hoo!
Yep, that’s why i’m votin’ fer Jill Stein (Green Party). i’ve had it with the big two lying, greedy, sexist, racist, elitist, corporatist, militaristic pollution parties. This will be the worst election of my entire life (& i’ve been around since Eisenhower).
Jill Stein and the Green Party. That’s a chuckle. For somebody who’s been around since Eisenhower you sure don’t seem to have learned very much in all those years, Tom. [And for Anon. As Pontius Pilate asked the Christ, “What is truth?” The Christ was wise enough not to answer him. But you seem to have all the answers nailed down. Another chuckle.]
What I find shocking about Romney is that most pols who lie do so in ways which have plausible deniability built in. If they’re lying about what they promise voters they’ll do, they tend to tell the truth only to a limited number on reliable allies and powerful supporters in controlled (backroom, eh?) settings ahead of time. As in, don’t worry about what I’m saying on theg stump, that’s only for votes. What I’m really going to do is in line with what you, who have shown yourselves to be wise by having wealth, have in mind. Those gems of truth are NOT supposed to get out to the public.
With Obama, a couple of whoppers got out, usually from people who had gained access to a few of those “controlled” private meetings. In the case of FISA, iirc, Obama et al had rationalizations at the ready to explain his “apparent” lie, thus making it a rational “change” due to new facts, etc.
Obama’s big whoppers came out early in his presidency, but most of the MCM (Maintream Corporate Media) essentially covered for him or just took those changes as being in line with what the Very Serious People were thinking and wanting, so it was all good. Backroom deals with Big PhRMA? Meh, just something that was necessary to achieve the greater good of Obama’s profit protection plan for for-profit insurers and other health industry players. Not closing Guantanamo? The Republicans wouldn’t let him. And, OMG!, we can’t have terraists tried on home soil!! Only those stupid enough to be tricked into terraist thinking. No public option was promised to the Big Health Industry very early on? Well, just another “had to be done” for the greater good of the One Percenters.
Usually, Obama can hide behind some plausible deniability.
Romney is stunning in that he will tell a lie, have complete proof that it’s a lie in front of him, and he will continue to lie. Over and over. That a pol will tell a lie when confronted with irrefutable proof of the falseness of a statement and continue on with it, that is astonishing. And indicates a person who lies regularly and with great ease and confidence in not being found out or held accountable.
Oh, and I think we now know where the MCM has come down in choosing whom to support in this election. When this kind of lying is permitted, it means they’re in the bag for Romney and Ryan. And if that doesn’t persuade you of the MCM’s inclination, think about this week’s program NBC program with Brian Williams about the Mormon religion. Pure hagiography! With intense concentration on business leaders who are Mormon, with the clear implication that Mormons know how to “create jobs.” And they’re such kindly and successful bosses, too. So, all you voters without work? Vote for Romney.
Big Money has already chosen Romney, it’s looking like Big Media is doing the same, so it’s very possible Romney may pull this out, and an outrageous, unapologetic liar will take the Oval Office.
The MCM covered up BushBoy and Cheney’s lies for a long, long time. They covered up Obama’s. But it appears they’re now plumping for the Repub and a stronger Bush IV presidency.
Thomas Frank thinks Obama is fatally flawed by his need to be conciliatory toward those who oppose him. I think Obama is basically a true Corporatist. But, either way, Romney is pure unadulterated Corporatist, with no twinges of conscience about how the non-wealthy live or are treated. Romney is “Drill, baby, drill” on steroids and with no belief in preseving this world far into the future for coming generations. His Mormon god will just make all those who die into Mormons and increase His power…in the afterlife or somewhere other than Earth, Heh.
Keep this in mind. No president can on their own determine what US foreign and economic policy will be. Those policies are decided upon well in advance by “committee.” Which is why those policies are, over time, so consistent from one administration to another. So what does a president have the power to do? Obama is NOT (really) a corporatist. He just plays one on TV. How long do you suppose he’d stay alive if he sounded like H. Rap Brown or Huey Newton?