Or so he would have us believe
“Moralizing’s High Cost
Published: January 19, 2012
Multiple
marriages and even adultery are not automatic disqualifications for the
presidency. If they were, the country would have a very different roster of
former presidents and candidates. But when a political party decides that
moralizing about personal conduct is as important as public policy, it
inevitably makes some of its leaders vulnerable to the worst charges of
hypocrisy…
…“Mr. Gingrich responded that he knew the issue would dog him
through the campaign, but that he and his wife decided “the country was worth
the pain.” He told the Marine — and all voters struggling with the same
question — that the decision was one that “you have to make.”
It’s magnanimous of him to be willing to allow voters
to decide for themselves on the importance of his moral choices, since he and
his party have been so unwilling to allow the public to make its own moral
choices.
For too many Republicans, it’s not enough that
Americans are free to pray in the house of worship of their choice; they want
all children to be required to pray in school. They want to impose their own
ideas about sexuality and abortion on everyone. And they love to accuse
Democrats of being insufficiently pious. (Rick Perry’s exit from
the race on Thursday
may mean no more ads accusing President Obama of a “war on religion” and
liberals of believing faith is a sign of weakness. Or, it may not, depending on
how desperate the other candidates get.)
When Republican officials then get caught violating
one of the Ten Commandments, they make an enormous show of contrition and
repentance and ask for the public’s forgiveness. But as the hypocrisy level
continues to rise, that forgiveness may become much harder to provide.”
Polarized news market has altered the political process in South
Carolina primary
Cassi Creek: The
link above leads to a rather long but highly significant article. Please read every line and follow as many of
the subsidiary links as you can. It
describes an increasingly common practice among voters and non-voters and their
selection of news sources and resources.
More and more voters are choosing bubble news –highly biased sources
that feed them a steady diet of selective reports, many of which confuse the
issues further by including propaganda with facts.
With the
development of the 24-hour news cycle and with around the clock talk radio and
television masquerading as news sources, it is possible to spend the entire day
on-line, watching TV, or listening to talk radio while never hearing a single
item that conflicts or disagrees with your personal core bias.
We are all
more or less guilty of falling into this pattern of bubble isolation news. I never watch Fox News, believing it to be
largely a GOP funded 24-hour propaganda source.
I never listen to talk radio, and rarely watch talk television. I regard Christian oriented broadcasting and
internet as Marx described them to be. I
view the organizations that fund Evangelical media as a dangerous collective
that wants to demolish the 1st Amendment and create a theocracy with
mandatory participation.
There are, at
the same time, sources I find to be unacceptable in many ways despite their
innate leftward trend in reporting news.
For instance, The Huffington Post is highly regarded by many people with
a liberal bent. However, they also are
given to publishing “alternative medicine” articles that are absolutely
bullshit in conclusion and potentially harmful to people who have the misfortune
to believe them.
My own bubble
includes CNN, The Washington Post, the New York Times, NPR, PBS, CBS, NBC, and
ABC News. I also tend to trust AP,
Reuters, and BBC. For military news, I
read various publications by the various branches of service.
These bubbles
are everywhere now, we all live under ones of our own making. We need to be aware of our self-inflicted decrease
in possibly accurate sources of information just as we are aware of the
steadily increasing diet of propaganda we are exposed to daily,
Shabot Shalom!
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