The MSM and the "Republican Anger" Meme

I've been wanting to write about the emerging narrative among Democrats and MSM-types "concerned" with the rising level of "anger and rage" being stoked at McCain-Palin rallies. 

When I first heard some of these stories, I was skeptical.  Quite simply, I don't trust the opinions, perceptions and selective reporting that come out of the MSM tank.  Now I believe my skepticism has been validated.

First, here are some of the stories about this anger and rage from lefty media folks.  Here's Frank Rich.  Here's Maureen Dowd (although you'd probably have to be able to read Latin).  Here's Congressman John Lewis.  Here's an AP report.  Below is a video from a segment on Chris Matthews show:

Anyway, I think the point is pretty obvious. 

Rather than write about this myself, I wanted to link to some stories that pretty much say everything that needs to be said about the exaggeration and duplicity being orchestrated by the Left and its allies in the MSM.  Right Wing Nut House has a very comprehensive post.  Michelle Malkin points out that there has been and continues to be plenty of bitterness and rage being spouted from the supporters of Senator Obama.  Stephen Hayward at the Weekly Standard Blog illustrates examples of leftist rage.

I believe that the media is hard at work on constructing this narrative as a means of convincing undecided voters that Senator McCain, in an act of desperation to save his campaign, is resorting to vile and dangerous racial smears.  The subtext is that the Republicans are creating an atmosphere that is posing a grave threat to the personal safety of Senator Obama. 

The hope is that undecided voters will recoil at the perceived "ugliness" of the McCain tactics and flock to Senator Obama as a rational, mainstream candidate.

To make this case, the media must exaggerate occurrences at Republican rallies while ignoring years of vicious personal attacks and threats against President Bush on the part of Democrat extremists who have often accused the President of being a terrorist.

Update on Monday, October 13, 2008 at 09:54AM by Joe

Here are a couple more examples of leftist rage.  First an act of vandalism in New York.  Drudge posted a story about some men burning a McCain campaign sign, but the link to the story isn't working.

An Opportunistic Poseur

I'll be the first to admit that I have mixed feeling about the mortgage bailout package. 

On the one hand, I have no desire to see Wall Street bailed out for what appears to be reckless lending practices and rank corruption.  I also don't want to advocate on behalf of any policy that aggregates additional power to the federal government (and it's vast and corrupt bureaucratic structure). I'm also disconcerted by the idea of accumulating taxpayer debt to cover for the myriad of government and corporate screw-ups that contributed to this mess.

On the other hand, I don't want to take the risk that the American economy might descend into a deep and painful recession...or worse.   Too many of the people who make responsible decisions and play by the rules would be impacted.

As for now,  I consider myself an agnostic on the mortgage bailout issue.  I know that sounds evasive, but I sincerely don't believe I have enough of an understanding of the details of the pending bailout legislation to render an intelligent opinion at the moment.

What I do understand, though, is how thoroughly ridiculous it is for Senator Obama to try and claim that he, and not John McCain, deserves credit for the final legislative product that will be voted on by the Congress. 

McCain is the one who, to much ridicule on the Left, announced that he was suspending his campaign to steep himself in the mortgage bailout negotiations.   McCain is the one who spent most of the last several days in Washington working on the problem.  Meanwhile, Senator Obama was continuing his campaign while saying that he would be called if needed in Washington.

It's therefore a bit galling for Senator Obama to now argue that, not only should Senator McCain receive no credit for the pending agreement, but that he, Senator Obama, actually had significant influence over "shaping the provisions" of what appears to be the final product.  This is despite the fact that Senator Obama didn't commit to spending much time in Washington.  It's despite the fact that Senator Obama's Party controls both the House and Senate and should therefore have been able to push through whatever bill they wanted.  It's despite the fact that the crucial negotiations that brought about the pending agreement were largely brokered with the involvement of skeptical Congressional Republicans...the same Republicans among whom Senator McCain would carry far more influence than Senator Obama. 

In the end, both Democrats and Republicans were involved in crafting this pending bill.  If the bill helps to stabilize the economy, both parties can rightly take credit for an act of bipartisanship.  Should the bill do more harm than good, both parties should shoulder the blame.

Senator McCain's steady presence in Washington may or may not have helped move the parties toward an agreement.  The fact that Senator Obama largely stayed away, but now feels compelled to announce that Senator McCain should get no credit, is indicative of a very small man with exceedingly parochial interests.  The United State Congress is on the verge of approving a bill that was crafted with the intention of saving the U.S. economy and all Senator Obama can do is demand that voters not give Senator McCain any credit.  Way to show that class, Senator Obama. 

Now that's change we can believe in.

Joe Klein On American Myth

Joe Klein has articulated exactly why the Democrats don't consistently connect with American voters, but its not for the reason he believes.

The left has a difficult time winning elections because they continually assess their election defeats as more fluky than legitimate.  In 2000, they argued that Bush stole the election.  In 2004, John Kerry was "swift boated."  The latest example of this kind of analysis is Joe Klein.   This time, it's going to be that the GOP pulled the wool over the eyes of the electorate by turning the election into a "nostalgia referendum."

Klein published a piece in Time Magazine on the appeal that Governor Palin has on American voters.   In keeping with his worldview as a man of the left, Klein concludes that, by nominating Governor Palin, the Republicans might have put themselves in a position to fool American voters once again.  His basic premise is that, since Reagan, the GOP has been successful with the electorate because it has aggressively tapped into the power of myth and nostalgia about an America that never really existed.  Here is the myth as defined by Klein:

She embodies the most basic American myth — Jefferson's yeoman farmer, the fantasia of rural righteousness — updated in a crucial way: now Mom works too. Palin's story stands with one foot squarely in the nostalgia for small-town America and the other in the new middle-class reality. She brings home the bacon, raises the kids — with a significant assist from Mr. Mom — hunts moose and looks great in the process. I can't imagine a more powerful, or current, American Dream.

This is the typical kind of worldview we get from the left.  Those of us who live in rural, or even suburban settings are a bunch of unsophisticated rubes who are easily duped by the craven Republican spin machine.  Egads -- now we're falling for it again!

What about poor Barack Obama?  According to Klein, Senator Obama is himself a victim of the "America that was" myth that is exploited so well by the GOP:

The Republican Party's subliminal message seems stronger than ever this year because of the nature of the Democratic nominee for President. Barack Obama could not exist in the small-town America that Reagan fantasized. He's the product of what used to be called miscegenation, a scenario that may still be more terrifying than a teen daughter's pregnancy in many American households. Furthermore, he has thrived in the culture and economy that displaced Main Street America — an economy where people no longer work in factories or make things with their hands, but where lawyers and traders prosper unduly. (Of course, this is the economy the Republican Party has promoted — but facts are powerless in the face of a potent mythology.) Obama is the precise opposite of Mountain Man Todd Palin: an entirely urban creature. He lives within the hilarious conundrum of being both too "cosmopolitan" and intellectual for Republican tastes — at least as Rudy Giuliani described it — while also being the sort of fellow suspected of getting ahead by affirmative action.

Conservative voters can only hope that the Democratic establishment continues to view their defeats as resulting from nothing more than opportunistic and shallow manipulations of "average" Americans with traditionalist worldviews.  As long as the Democrats continue to believe their own myths, they won't understand that its their own policies and arrogance that keep the voters from embracing them.