Rachel Maddow, beacon of reason

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ^ | Monday, January 9 2012 | Stanley Crouch

[presidio9]

Those who are professional media enemies of the Republicans are having a fine time catching the elephants lying. The only problem to me is that they do not always follow the same rules when a supposedly oppressed group proves that it, like all others, is a contradictory bundle of human realities.

Yet Rachel Maddow, for one, is remarkable when it comes to proving in high quality intellectual detail how often the elephants do and say irrational things for the sake of pure ideology. Her proof that President Ronald Reagan did things contrary to what he supposedly believed is perfectly executed with hard facts — such as the fact of Reagan raising taxes 11 times.

Though professional right-wing liars like Dick Armey of FreedomWorks and the Fox News crew will dismiss what she says, we can be sure that neither in public nor on television will they take her on, because Maddow can bring it. Her research is superb and the time she is willing to give to making an idea or a pattern of activities clear brings a high level of sophistication to what could easily be no more than howling at the elephants as though they are cartoon monsters, which is a favorite tactic of lazy liberals who would rather rely on slogans than actually do the mental work that objectively supports an idea.

She is not afraid to look into the snake pit of racism that is hidden beneath the conservative rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh and his troops. Maddow knows that what we are seeing over and over is a development of redneck attitudes that began to emerge as soon as the South lost the Civil War and created a mythology with lies like D.W. Griffith’s toxic masterpiece “The Birth Of A Nation,” which depicted black people as quasi-monkeys. Insidiously, those ideas continue to this day.

I should say that Maddow’s interest in American women would be deepened if she were to read “Mightier Than the Sword” by David S. Reynolds. It is a stunning look at the importance of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which rednecks fought against with every paranoid fantasy about black people because her novel did not depict them as anything other than human, the greatest sin in the eyes of bigots.

And she would better understand redneck Tea Party elephantiatis if she were to read William C. Davis’ “Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America.” Davis explains how the redneck South was threatened by the diminishment of what has been called “the slavocracy.”

Davis writes, “If slavery could not spread as new states were formed, then the existing slave states would be doomed to perpetual minority in the representation in Congress, guaranteeing that if the day came when Northern antipathy to slavery itself became hot enough, the majority could use the government to subvert the Constitution and abolish the institution where it already existed. In short, the South could not afford to lose any battle over slavery, nor even over issues on its periphery.”

That is how deeply we are still connected to the underlying mental forces that drove the slave-owning South to take on the entire country and bring about the deaths of more than 600,000 people. Those forces are still at work — they were at work in Griffith’s racist film, and they are at work today on Roger Ailes’ “news” channel.

The truth is that there are hustlers and truth-distorters on both ends of the spectrum. That is the American way, at least for now. Rachel Maddow is better than both ends. And she can push up her batting average. That is what the best of us do.

[nutmeg]

bookmark

[READINABLUESTATE]

“Bacon of Reason”..

I misread the title, thought it said bacon and Clicked on the thread. I like bacon. Don’t know much about beacons.

Mmmmmmm Bacon.

[darkangel82]

This is NOT journalism. Even the NYT isn’t this foul. This is juvenile libspew from some high school newspaper. Stupidity ought to hurt.

[Pigsley]

I sort of thought this was a joke article. The outrage! The rednecks! The tying slave owners to the Republicans of today! Then, I realized the writer was serious. Then, I laughed. Then, I thought maybe it was written by a 14 year old that just had learned about how evil slavery in the world was and just had to get their deep emotions (and incredible insight) into an English class report. Then, I saw the name of the author. Then, I understood.

My, my...the Left thinks a lot of this strange woman. Is she really the best they've got? Is she always demanding to debate others? And those refuse because they are so verrrrrrrrrrrry afraid of her incredible mind? Or is she like Ed Schultz, who DEMANDED that "idiot" Dennis Prager debate then ran for the hills like a little girl when Dennis said “certainly”. Dennis was funny for weeks after that—never let it drop.

I for one would pay to see Prager,Bill Bennet, Levin,etc. take this brainiac on. A general topic like Liberalism vs. Conservatives would be fun. If you give this little dude a particular topic before hand, you know she runs to her crappy little apt to meet her uber lefty minions that will stay up a few nights compiling that devastating “truth” the writer fawns about. Just a little 1 hour free form debate about Liberalism vs. Conservatism where she would actually have to put forth some logic not a string of crap she culled off the Internet to make King Barry look good.

Oh and she really is starting to look like the ugly brother of the guy on that old TV show E.R.

[Pigsley]

Yeah, that Rosie is hawt! I'll never forget the cartoon from about 6 years ago making fun of her and her new “wife”. Showed “wife” smashed into the bed, flat as a pancake with the hulk laying next to her smoking a cig with a happy grin on that mug of hers. One of the funniest things I've ever seen.

I heard Maddow on some late night show and she was talking about her “partner”. Bully for her...guess we'll be hearing about her formal wedding soon.(Tux for her, no doubt.) Then the adoption of poor kids will be after that. What a world. She seemed like a nervous, creepy, doofus on that interview. So that's the best the Left has. Alrighty then.

[stylin19a]

It is a stunning look at the importance of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which rednecks fought against with every paranoid fantasy about black people because her novel did not depict them as anything other than human, the greatest sin in the eyes of bigots.

everything about Crouch boils down to race. In 1852, the "rednecks" he is talking about were southern democrats.

[Tublecane]

“Her proof that President Ronald Reagan did things contrary to what he supposedly believed is perfectly executed with hard facts — such as the fact of Reagan raising taxes 11 times.”

Reagan wasn’t a dictator. He couldn’t order Democrats in California and Washington to vote as he wished. It’s sorta like the defense of Obama’s not shutting down Guantanamo I saw Debbie Wasserman-Shultz offer last night. Except it seems to have slipped her mind that Democrats monopolized Congress for his first two years.

[Tublecane]

“’consumer’s demand is the engine of job growth’”

“Supply creates its own demand.”

- J.B. Say

The only way to grow an economy is through saving, i.e. capital formation. That’s why the most productive system in human history is known as capitalism.

[Tublecane]

“Also did those increases not coincide with a commitment to real spending cuts?”

On Reagan’s part. Not on the part of the Democrats who tricked him. Let that be an object lesson.

[Tublecane]

“It is a stunning look at the importance of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ which rednecks fought against with every paranoid fantasy about black people because her novel did not depict them as anything other than human, the greatest sin in the eyes of bigots.”

For all the talk about conservatives being stuck in the past, note that we are not the ones who cast contemporary race relations in terms of “Unlce Tom’s Cabin,” minstrel shows, lynch mobs, “The Birth of a Nation,” or any of the thousand alternative centuries-old obsessions of libs. Nor are we vicious enough to pretend one region, never any other, hasn’t changed in 400 or so years since African slavery was introduced to the continent.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”She seemed like a nervous, creepy, doofus on that interview. So that's the best the Left has. Alrighty then. “

Well on her MSNBC show she acts arrogant, snarky and like a know-it-all and pitches failed economic liberal hoax theories like “People getting welfare are the engine of job creation because they create consumer ‘demand’ which the source of all jobs” She also pitches that raising taxes on the rich to give to the job creators (those getting the welfare) has proven to over and over make the rich even richer, which is why they beg for higher taxes. The key (she says) is that those getting money must be poor, the poorer the better.

[Hacksaw]

Stanley Crouch, a good example of a lib mangina.

[andy58-in-nh]

It is most revealing when one confronts a person like the author (or Rachel Maddow, for that matter) with factual arguments, because the result is always the same: anger, hostility, and false accusations loaded with presumption.

I have found it useless to even casually engage most of them for the simple reason that they do not wish to have a discussion. Instead, they are impelled to hate you and people like you, and nothing that you can say will dissuade them from their mission. Collectivist ideology does that to people: it turns their minds inward instead of outward; they seek not truth, but validation.

And what "validates" people like our author is the unshakeable belief that they are put upon, discriminated against, cheated, and despised. Why? Because they wish to evade responsibility for their own lives and fortunes and the necessity of making choices that may in time turn out to have been wrong.

People who value liberty and individual rights are not threatened by such choices, nor by life's challenges, especially so when they are informed by faith in God. Those who put their faith in groups and in government demand that others provide them with unearned goods, services and security as a matter of "right" because of their need - regardless of their lack of effort and without consideration for the actual rights and earnings of others.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”The only way to grow an economy is through saving, i.e. capital formation. That’s why the most productive system in human history is known as capitalism.”

Of course if everyone saves that is called a Great Depression.

When Democrats daily pull this ‘Welfare to the poor creates demand creates jobs ‘ crap they always cite employers that say that lack of consumer demand is what keeps them from hiring, not taxes or regulation but lack of demand.

Lets for the sake of argument say that was true. Do we really have to raise taxes to get the money to bribe consumers to create demand?? What if the producers could lower their prices ? Wouldnt that create more demand just as well or even better? What could the government do to help producers lower prices? How about cutting regulations and taxes.

I never see Republicans counter Democrats with any real arguments, they just respond “Duh, low taxes on the rich help everyone even you”(which I think they hear on AM radio) and wonder why the polls say the opposite.

[rockrr]

When it comes to Maddcow I’d call it self defense ;-)

[Iron Munro]

When it comes to Maddcow I’d call it self defense ;-)

Good call!

Only in 21st century America could a semi attractive young girl grow up to be an ugly mannish lout with her its own TV show!

[lentulusgracchus]

Why do I never see anyone counter this myth of Reagan the tax raiser? If someone lowers the rate from 70 to 28%, and then increases it a couple percent, are they a tax cutter or a tax raiser?

Toss in the fact that TEFRA and DEFRA were Bob Dole's handiwork. My personal opinion is that they were Big Bob's contribution to disciplining the Gipper, that you don't do tax cuts unless Big Bob is on board and "in the room".

MHO.

But those were Congressional tax bills, so I don't know where Madcow gets off assigning to Reagan and the Reaganauts like Wanniski and Laffer responsibility for bills run out by the Old Woman School of GOP Fiscal Wisdom.

[lentulusgracchus]

Nor are we vicious enough to pretend one region, never any other, hasn’t changed in 400 or so years since African slavery was introduced to the continent.

Stanley the Liar conveniently, for the purpose of demonizing Southerners, forgets that The Won's home state of Illinois once -- when Lincoln lived there -- had on its books draconian Black Code laws that forbade free blacks to live in Illinois; and if any black person were suspected of wanting actually to live there, the remedy included imprisonment and "selling South" into bondage, to move him out of the State.

[FourPeas]

Madcow a beacon of reason? B’waaahaahaahaaahaaaaaaaaa.

Seriously, I had to give the title a second look. At first I thought it said “bacon of season”. Fits better than the real title.

[Tublecane]

“Of course if everyone saves that is called a Great Depression”

No, not really. I believe you’ll find the depression resulted from a frenzy of spending, in the form of malinvestment. A period of austerity after such prodigality is edifying, despite what demand-crazed Keynesians tell you. The only reason it lasted so long is because the wastefulness was followed by a crowding out of private investment in the form of government spending, and recovery was stalled by regime uncertainty caused by rabid yet random regulation. If you want to call that “saving,” go ahead, but it is an abuse of language.

“Do we really have to raise taxes to get the money to bribe consumers to create demand??”

I’d say that’s precisely the opposite of what we should do. Cut taxes, more appropriately. Government spending only crowds out private investment, as I mentioned above. And, surprise of surprises, government spending isn’t as smart. Plus, again, all stimulating demand would do is keep the economy on life support. It wouldn’t grow anything, which only happens through capital investment, i.e. saving.

“they just respond ‘Duh, low taxes on the rich help everyone even you’(which I think they hear on AM radio)”

That may not be the best way to put it—and actually isn’t very fair to how it’s put even on the radio—but it has the advantage on Keynesians of being true. How would you get the message out? How best to tell people jobs are not created by welfare? Maybe we should airdrop copies of “The Forgotten Man.”