False Equivalence
An analysis I have heard too much of lately:
"The GOP is divided into two factions symbolized by what New York's Dan Amira calls "the world's worst investor, Karl Rove, and the world's worst vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin." Rove, an establishment figure and Bush family stalwart, wants to win. Palin, darling of the Tea Party, the grassroots, and talk-show fans, wants purity — which she believes will bring victory.
It's déjà vu all over again: The Goldwater Republicans in 1964 and the McGovern Democrats in 1972. Both groups later tempered their rough edges and became more influential in their parties. But first they clung to extreme platforms far outside the mainstream of American politics. And they lost badly."
Goldwater was a racist who lost to Lyndon Johnson, who brought us the Civil Rights act and Medicare. McGovern, because of his totally justified opposition to the Vietnam war, lost to Nixon, a crook who was soon kicked out of the White House.
The false equivalence between the two is intended to suggest that Democratic positions, such as raising the minimum wage or seeing to it that people do not die because they can't afford to see a doctor, are the same as the idiotic, malicious behavior of the Republican base. It is, of course, the "moderate" view, a product of the corporate press, which doesn't care what the country does as long as it benefits their rich paymasters at the expense of everyone else.
"The GOP is divided into two factions symbolized by what New York's Dan Amira calls "the world's worst investor, Karl Rove, and the world's worst vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin." Rove, an establishment figure and Bush family stalwart, wants to win. Palin, darling of the Tea Party, the grassroots, and talk-show fans, wants purity — which she believes will bring victory.
It's déjà vu all over again: The Goldwater Republicans in 1964 and the McGovern Democrats in 1972. Both groups later tempered their rough edges and became more influential in their parties. But first they clung to extreme platforms far outside the mainstream of American politics. And they lost badly."
Goldwater was a racist who lost to Lyndon Johnson, who brought us the Civil Rights act and Medicare. McGovern, because of his totally justified opposition to the Vietnam war, lost to Nixon, a crook who was soon kicked out of the White House.
The false equivalence between the two is intended to suggest that Democratic positions, such as raising the minimum wage or seeing to it that people do not die because they can't afford to see a doctor, are the same as the idiotic, malicious behavior of the Republican base. It is, of course, the "moderate" view, a product of the corporate press, which doesn't care what the country does as long as it benefits their rich paymasters at the expense of everyone else.
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