It's more like they are lying to us to to further their agenda TOO, "the end justifies the means" . This seemed cool in 2002 with super high public support and everyone wanting to be a republican. But with the loss of two elections and the economic crash, and most people avoiding the R label maybe those same simple-ton talking points, with accusations by them that those that don't buy them are bad or stupid, is a failed strategy.
“This seemed cool in 2002 with super high public support and everyone wanting to be a republican. But with the loss of two elections and the economic crash, and most people avoiding the R label maybe those same simple-ton talking points, with accusations by them that those that don’t buy them are bad or stupid, is a failed strategy.”
Though accurate, that analysis is a bit too cynical. For politics is about power at least as much (and almost always more than) ideas. And to a certain degree, rabid partisans have a point. You can’t institute your ideas if you don’t win, and you can’t win if you don’t simplify. People who demand ideological purity tend to be viewed as extemists or ivory-tower intellectuals, and consequently—either through fatigue or choice—tend to be less engaged.
This is all a variant on the truism that history is made by those who show up. Talk radio is made by those who appeal to simpletons. Philosophers get the last laugh, because they influence the coming generations. In the meantime, politics is for the partisans.
Anyway, back to my cynicism charge. One must accept politics for what it is. It’s not for intellectual purity. Your expectations are far too high. Unless you want to drop out and hang with the philosophers, you have to deal with the Olbermanns and Hannities of the hour.
“But with the loss of two elections and the economic crash, and most people avoiding the R label maybe those same simple-ton talking points, with accusations by them that those that don’t buy them are bad or stupid, is a failed strategy.”
That’s the price of being in power. You get blamed for whatever happens. Sometimes it takes more than one administration. Sometimes it takes generations, as with the New Deal, but eventually every party in power has to bear responsibility for the fact that they didn’t create a utopia.