Taylor Marsh: "Truth isn't subjective"

Taylor Marsh makes some very good points on false political equivalencies in Rally to Restore Sanity an Ode to Independents 10/31/2010. While she sees a real need to mobilize indepedent voters and win them to the Democratic side, she points out the problem with pretending for the sake of an image of "moderation" that "both sides do it" when, in reality, it's mainly one side "doing it." It, in this case, being promoting violence, racism and hatred. She writes:

Truth isn’t subjective, however, which I’m reminded of every day. Sometimes one side is absolutely wrong, like when Sarah Palin talked about "death panels," or when Rand Paul talked about private business owners being exempt from the Civil Rights Act. That would have been worth Stewart or Colbert pointing out. Pres. Obama and the Democrats were wrong not to fight for the public option, but also a stronger finreg bill, should have stood strong for women instead of selling us out. But that's a hell of a lot different than Sharron Angle’s charge that Second Amendment remedies should be used, which is not a way to solve differences. There is no one on the left suggesting such dangerous notions, which should have been said. No one on the left had a reporter handcuffed, like Joe Miller did in Alaska, or threatened to take a reporter out as Carl Paladino did in New York. These things matter, all of which Stewart and Colbert ignored for drawing false equivalents to the right and left. ...

Unfortunately, by amplifying left and right equally Stewart and Colbert did a disservice to the truth, which is not subjective.

If Jon Stewart truly believes that the left talking softly while the right wields a big rhetorical stick can get the job done he’s not been paying attention to his own show this year and should review the tapes, starting with the ones featuring Fox. [my emphasis]

And, as we've seen this last two years, the Republican version comes not just in the form of a metaphorical big stick, but in head-stomping (Kentucky), arresting a reporter for asking questions (Alaska) and variety of "Tea Party" nastiness. Oh, and various kinds of lethal far-right terrorism here and there, to which the Republican Party has largely responded by ignoring it and complaining that people who notice it are trying to unfairly connect Republicans with them.

Tags: 2010 elections, democratic party, radical right

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