Non Fiction
On Monday I wrote about my "flat earth" approach to writing. It seems to me that the thing that has changed the most in the past year for me is that I have found company on the Internet for exploring the world of spin-free politics. That's a bold statement, I know, and I doubt there are very many people who would believe it is possible, but that's only because we have had our minds programmed for our entire lives to think that in politics there are only two possible perspectives, the wrong way (the Left) and the right way (the Right).
Now I will definitely admit that when you go online either to the media outlets directly or to the pundits and news bloggers, you generally do get "spin". You don't get the story straight. But this year, I think the Left learned a valuable lesson. In large part, the Left has stopped talking about most of the things that made them "Leftists" in the first place, things like universal healthcare, gay rights, abortion rights, labor protections, and all the other left-wing special interests. The special interests are still out there and yes, the Left is politically working for those interests, but the public debate has shifted. The Left has all of a sudden discovered the power of being on the side of truth.
That's a big leap for them, but it was made possible by the Right's precipitous slide in the past five years to the far-Right. In order to get there, the Right had to spin the truth to the point where the general public, you and me out here in the real world, had no concept of political truth or reality. The Right did to the truth what the Left has been doing to it for decades.
So where it was the political Right who always used to represent truth in America, and where ever since Reagan's Iran-Contra and especially now under the big W, nobody in politics has represented truth, now the Left has suddenly discovered the public appeal when you start talking about political truth. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the Left is all about truth and the Right is all about deceiving the public. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Both political movements in America are all about keeping the public uninformed. That is, after all, how politicians have traditionally maintained their power over us, by keeping us all in the dark while they do their business behind closed doors. That hasn't changed much.
What has changed is that the Left is so far out of favor now, in fact came so close to extinction, that they have suddenly realized that their one hope for a comeback is that Joe Public might vote for them if they begin to reveal some of the truth about how Republicans are now running our country. Since "truth" is "truth" and "spin" whether to the left or to the right is political deception, then it really doesn't matter if truth comes to us from the Right (the way it used to do) or from the Left (as it is now doing). The bottom line is that the truth is beginning to emerge into politics. The year 2005 is when that event really got some momentum. I'm hoping it keeps up and I'm thinking that what is really driving that momentum is that many people in the media, people close to the center of politics, are spilling the truth in their blogs!
I have hopes for 2006.
Now I will definitely admit that when you go online either to the media outlets directly or to the pundits and news bloggers, you generally do get "spin". You don't get the story straight. But this year, I think the Left learned a valuable lesson. In large part, the Left has stopped talking about most of the things that made them "Leftists" in the first place, things like universal healthcare, gay rights, abortion rights, labor protections, and all the other left-wing special interests. The special interests are still out there and yes, the Left is politically working for those interests, but the public debate has shifted. The Left has all of a sudden discovered the power of being on the side of truth.
That's a big leap for them, but it was made possible by the Right's precipitous slide in the past five years to the far-Right. In order to get there, the Right had to spin the truth to the point where the general public, you and me out here in the real world, had no concept of political truth or reality. The Right did to the truth what the Left has been doing to it for decades.
So where it was the political Right who always used to represent truth in America, and where ever since Reagan's Iran-Contra and especially now under the big W, nobody in politics has represented truth, now the Left has suddenly discovered the public appeal when you start talking about political truth. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the Left is all about truth and the Right is all about deceiving the public. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Both political movements in America are all about keeping the public uninformed. That is, after all, how politicians have traditionally maintained their power over us, by keeping us all in the dark while they do their business behind closed doors. That hasn't changed much.
What has changed is that the Left is so far out of favor now, in fact came so close to extinction, that they have suddenly realized that their one hope for a comeback is that Joe Public might vote for them if they begin to reveal some of the truth about how Republicans are now running our country. Since "truth" is "truth" and "spin" whether to the left or to the right is political deception, then it really doesn't matter if truth comes to us from the Right (the way it used to do) or from the Left (as it is now doing). The bottom line is that the truth is beginning to emerge into politics. The year 2005 is when that event really got some momentum. I'm hoping it keeps up and I'm thinking that what is really driving that momentum is that many people in the media, people close to the center of politics, are spilling the truth in their blogs!
I have hopes for 2006.
posted by Bill | 7:43 AM
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