The Normalization of Political Depravity

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

It was a bright, cold day on the campaign trail, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

In The Lyin’ King, Denis Campbell observes that Mitt Romney has repeatedly told more than 700 lies since he began campaigning for president in 2011 . . .

Mitt Romney is nearly to China with his digging now.  When even National Public Radio, the mildest, least controversial of any network leads with “Romney Goes On Offense, Pays For It In First Wave Of Fact Checks,” you know you are in trouble.

But Romney was right out of trouble again when the media shifted rapidly from exposing his lies to characterizing his deceit-saturated debate performance as “strong” and “commanding.”  The Romney/Ryan campaign’s calculated decision to blatantly lie their way to Election Day and the media’s subsequent abandonment of all journalistic responsibility are only the latest examples of how political depravity has been normalized by the politicians complicit in it and the “journalists” who cover political campaigns.    

Political depravity is the new normal.  Bush v. Gore legalized it, the Patriot Act compels submission to it, Citizen’s United. makes it permanent.  Americans are being subjected to blatant voter suppression, massive surveillance, a vast expansion of police power, and relentless government violations of the Bill of Rights. Obama is further to the right than Nixon was, the Wall Street/corporate establishment has absolute control over Congress and the courts, journalism is dead, unions are dying, and we’re all on a one-way ride to serfdom on the Austerity Express.    

One would think that Republicans would be satisfied.

They’re not.

As Election Day draws nearer and Republican fear intensifies that the enemies of America, Jesus, and the white race are going to steal the election, they’re gathering on the banks of the Rubicon–ready, willing, and eager to believe that crossing it is the only way to save the republic.  

In Election Truthers Richard Hasen of Slate asks . . .  

What if President Obama wins reelection and Republicans don’t believe it?   For several weeks, we have seen Republicans challenge the veracity of a number of election-related facts, and the outcome of the presidential election may be no different.

Why would it be any different?  Facts are irrelevant to conservatives, the truth doesn’t matter anymore, they waved farewell to reality long ago.  If they lose a close election, if Obama’s margin of victory is only 2 or 3 points, they’ll cross the Rubicon and the media will cross it with them.  

As Media Matters reports, Rush Limbaugh has already crossed it . . .

A leftist is a leftist wherever you find them. Totalitarianism, liberalism, it’s all a derivative of the same ideology.  We can still defeat liberals without violence. So terrorism still, of course, represents a greater threat than the Democrat Party. We can handle them without violence. So far.

Will Republicans still display such admirable restraint if they lose the election?  Will they accept defeat in November?  Will their rabid base allow them to?  I don’t think so. We’re heading for a political crisis that will make the 2000 recount look like a love fest.  Sanity won’t determine the outcome, depravity will.

But it will be alright, everything will be alright, the struggle will be finished.  We will have won the victory over ourselves.  We will love Big Brother and his friend President Romney and the Corporate Overlords, and democracy will step down into the dampness of the grave, and it will not take a final look back at us, for it has always known that the grave was there and waiting for it.