Why Doesn't Romney Have to Denounce Far Right?

A graphic from this blog's early days.

This (rather lengthy) clip from The Rachel Maddow Show covers a couple of topics I've long talked about on the blog. One of them is the false equivalence in all stories about the left or right: they all do it, they're all the same, yadda , yadda. The other is the fact that the far fringe right-wing has become so mainstream, you can't separate it from Mitt Romney or any of the Republicans. And there is no equivalent on the left.

Remember the primaries? The clown show that included Michele Bachmann (and the fabulous Marcus), Herman Cain and his lady troubles, Rick (don't Google me) Santorum, and the always nutty Ron Paul (who is currently busy hoovering up delegates behind Romney's back). These were extremists, and yet they each (except Paul) had a time at the top of the litter. They're still around, they're still crazy, and they're on team Mitt now. And they're just the grand marshals in the crazy town parade, which includes birthers, Birchers, survivalists, FOX Fans, hockey moms, right-wing radio hacks and Glenn Beck fans. In the days of Morton Downey, Jr. (and even Rush's earlier days), these folks could be pandered to, and safely ignored. Now they're on stage. There is no left-wing equivalent.

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What Exactly is the Far Left Wing?

I've been pondering this lately, and it brought to mind an old post of mine. What is "far left wing" these days? And really, what is "far right wing?"  Rush Limbaugh (and thus, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Michael Savage) used to be far right wing. They were fringe. They were the equivelant of Morton Downey, Jr. But today? Sean Hannity is a prime time FOX "News" host. The rest (Hannity too) are the biggest ratings earners on AM talk radio.

What this odd change has brought is to bring the far-righty fringe into the mainstream, and to move moderates to the left. So who the freakin' hell are the left, and the far left now? Really, I wanna know. I'm a fan of several leftist personalities, from Randi Rhodes to Thom Hartmann to Rachel Maddow. But they're just left. Not far left, just left. Does anyone else see the bizarre skewing of the political spectrum?

ORIGINAL POST:

So I'm watching Meet the Press and FOX "News" Sunday on the DVR today, and I've heard that President Obama should "move to the middle" or "move to the right" in order to more effectively govern. It's counter-intuitive, since doing this is what his own party thinks he's already done too much of. Despite the ridiculous right-wing image of socialist/Marxist/Communist, the President has made countless gestures to "reach across the aisle" in the health care program, in fiscal policy and elsewhere. The President's descending approval ratings have as much to do with the left's disappointment in his timidity as they do with the right's over the top attacks.

So, I'm digesting this really annoying "conventional wisdom" talking point, and then I hear another one. Senator Evan Bayh--in trying to discount the move-to-the-middle point--said that "far left blogs" were upset with concessions already made to the right. Huh? Who is he talking about there? The biggest left-wing blogs I can think of are Daily Kos, Huffington Post, FireDog Lake, and Democratic Underground. I wouldn't classify any of those as "far left." I'd be willing to bet that Bayh (and every FReeper) would call this blog far left, even though I am a former Republican with a few conservative opinions.

Do some far leftist readers comment at blogs like these (and mine)? Probably. Is there occasionally a post that would be out of the mainstream, even for a solid Democrat? Probably. But by and large, all of those blogs represent merely the left, not the far left. None of them is as staunchly extremist as say FreeRepublic.com, the far right internet outpost. The weird part is, with the mainstreaming of people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck--extremist far right-wingers by any definition--anything left-of-center is now seen as "far left." It isn't. And I didn't like seeing a prominent Democrat furthering that misperception.

Sunday Update: Politics, Politics, Politics

Here I sit again. . .I said I wouldn't do it. . .but here I am. Watching Meet the Press with David Gregory. First up, Valerie Jarrett for the President's team. Milquetoasty, whisper-voiced, jacked up with political jargon: ineffective. Next was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Shelley the Turtle). He's so annoying. Very repetitive, though he's working in a new response to replace or supplement his claim that the American people are saying "please don't pass this bill." Now he's adding, "let's start over, start from scratch, step by step." He won't answer a direct question--even if it is posed three times (Gregory's limit)--but he will pretend that a) Republicans haven't merely opposed everything from Democrats, and that b) Republicans will work "in a bipartisan" manner if only the President would move to the center, and not from the "far-left."

This is such a load of hooey. There is no "far-left" in this country. There is far-right, right, right-center, center, left-center and left. There is quite simply no counter-balance--at least no vocal one--to far-right voices. I'd love to see a list of "far-left" voices. Rachel Maddow? Nope, fairly straight-down-the-line liberal. Olbermann? Same thing. The political spectrum is so skewed due to the fact that far-right voices like Rush Limbaugh have been proclaimed to be mainstream.

And this President has moved to the center. His approval rating is low because liberals are pissed that he's drifting rightward. I got into a brief argument with my mother the other day, saying my problem with Obama is not that he's done too much, it is that he hasn't done enough. She was incredulous. Because she watches FOX "News" and thinks Obama is far-left. Horse pucky.

I may be back with a part II if I don't throw something through the screen.

Watch out Democrats, the 90s Lunacy is About to Start Again!

I try to run a video clip of Bill Maher's New Rules, from HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher every weekend, because--well, it keeps the blog up to date with a very easy cut and paste, for one--but it almost always relates in some way to something I've been blogging about. The last new rule in this week's clip, is about something I've been blogging (and warning) about since before Barack Obama was even named the presumptive Democratic nominee.

That is, while we Democrats are entitled to feel a massive amount of schadenfreude over this election, we have to steel ourselves against a coming onslaught: the attack of the 50 foot conservatives. If we use the Clinton presidency as a model, we know what to watch out for. The far-rightest of wingnuts like Rush Limbaugh attacked Bill and Hillary Clinton from day one (or before that, if you count the time as President-elect). There was an instant hatred, and overwhelming chorus of "let's get this guy" from the moment he was elected.

Bill Clinton was a Presidency in search of an impeachment charge from the moment he set foot in the White House. Conservatives like Sean Hannity, Matt Drudge and Ann Coulter were figuratively born during the Clinton administration, and were among the henchmen who brought him down. When they finally found something to hang Clinton with (Lewinsky), Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes used the scandal to solidify and grow FOX "News," then a fledgling and foundering startup news channel, into a ratings powerhouse.

In short, the animus toward the Clintons changed the far-right fringe of the party into something approaching mainstream. Loony conspiracy theories from Rush Limbaugh (think Vince Foster) became conventional wisdom to a large chunk of the electorate. The ferocity with which party insiders and conservative punditry, and conservative money went after the Clintons forged a new "conservative America" that didn't really exist. But it was powerful enough to convince us for a while. And working in concert with political operatives like Karl Rove, the end result was George W. Bush becoming President, with control (for most of his term) over all three branches of government.

The list of immoral and illegal things done by Bush and his lawless lackeys is long, and detailed here on this blog, and all over the internets. These are not years-old land deals, cattle futures, suspect Christmas card lists, tit-for-tat nights in the Lincoln bedroom, or other frivolous "scandals" like lying about a blow job. These are real, honest-to-goodness examples of law breaking, cronyism, incompetence and (many believe) treason. And yet, it looks as though Bush and the rest will largely get a pass on everything.

And the real kick in the head, is that once President Barack Obama finally does measure for new drapes, he is going to be beset by the same nit-picking, stalker-like attention to every little thing that Clinton was--probably worse. Conservatives who let things slide from Bush--like torture, and ignoring Congressional subpoenas--will suddenly care about the slightest minutiae of everything. And if Democrats try to say, "Hey, this is nothing. Remember what BUSH did?", we're going to get the same response we used to give when someone would whine about Clinton: "Let it go, he's not President anymore!"

The difference between the offenses of Clinton and Bush are vast, but it won't matter. Watch and see. And if the Clinton years birthed Hannity, Drudge and Coulter, and helped legitimize FOX "News" and Rush Limbaugh, what are we in for now? Can the needle of far right or far-far-right move much further? Will we as a public allow ourselves to be fooled again? Might the center once again become the center? Time will tell.

Here is the Real Time with Bill Maher "New Rules" segment that inspired this post: New Rules