The Anonymous Liberal: A Game Without Referees

The Anonymous Liberal: A Game Without Referees:

Journalists today are more like play-by-play announcers than referees. They no longer see it as their job to step in and call fouls, i.e., to call a lie a lie. As a result, modern politics operates more or less on the honor system, which, needless to say, only invites the dishonest and unscrupulous to make a mockery of our political discourse. When all that readers are presented with is dueling narratives, suddenly even the facts are up for grabs; the very concept of objective truth becomes increasingly elusive.

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How did things come to be like this? Well, over the last two decades, the Republican political machine has engaged in a relentless and systematic assault on all of the institutions in our society that have traditionally served as checks on excessive partisanship. They have attacked the press, the judiciary, academia, even the very concepts of science and empiricism. Their goal has been to discredit and disable the referees, to politicize, marginalize, and co-opt any and all non-political institutions, and thereby eliminate any meaningful policing of political debate.

AL is one of the best writers on the blog scene, IMHO. Here he is reminding us of the under-handed battle for the hearts and minds of the nation engaged by the extreme Right for the past few decades. Not only has the press been duped and co-opted by them, they have successfully framed the word "liberal" as a denigration to be avoided at all costs. Being liberal used to be a good thing in this country, and you know what? It still is!