Politics 101: Don’t Reinforce Your Opponents’ Lies - Sirota

[eridani]

http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=1390DD2B-E0C3-F08F-95604D257E9516AF

Media critic Eric Alterman recently wrote that "one the country's most significant problems is the stupidity of our political discourse." He says, "It's not just inconvenient and annoying; it interferes without our ability to address our problems and allows thugs to get away with metaphorical murder." He's absolutely right - and one of the things that really bothers me are the definitions used to describe political positions -definitions that progressives themselves repeat, even though they imply dishonest storylines about the progressive movement.

Take, for instance, the term "moderate." This is a word the American Heritage Dictionary defines as "Being within reasonable limits; not excessive or extreme." Yet, it is applied specifically to politicians pundits who, measured against public opinion, are the opposite, like Joe Lieberman (De Facto GOP Nominee-CT), John McCain (R-AZ) and New York Times columnist David Brooks. Think about their major positions: Lieberman likens his opponents terrorist sympathizers, calls them "extremists" on national television, and shills for a war that polls show 60 percent of Americans oppose. McCain actually wants to send more troops to Iraq - again a position only a small minority of Americans supports. Brooks calls for an end to American democracy, saying "voters shouldn't be allowed to define the choices in American politics." Yet, these folks are routinely referred to by the media and political Establishment as leading "moderates," that is, leading voices for positions that are supposedly "within reasonable limits" and are "not excessive or extreme" in relation to the rest of the country's positions.

Same thing with what the media/political Establishment refers to as the "center." The dictionary, again, defines this word as "the middle" - but politicians and political ideology that is portrayed as "the center" in America is nowhere near the actual middle of American public opinion. I've written a book, a Washington Post op-ed, a Nation article, and various blog posts showing in detail and with facts how the politicians and corporate-funded institutions that are billed as "centrist" are anything but.