tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494384.post116266192634430996..comments2024-03-04T04:09:01.839-06:00Comments on And Doctor Biobrain's Response Is...: The Pundit Power MythDoctor Biobrainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01641661532899934766noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494384.post-1162780350237475592006-11-05T20:32:00.000-06:002006-11-05T20:32:00.000-06:00I'm not convinced. Pundits at best are a reflecti...I'm not convinced. Pundits at best are a reflection of conventional wisdom. To that extent, they do damage to us on a range of issues.<BR/><BR/>They create the premise for the questions. So while we in the reality based community know Democrats have far more sane ideas for fighting terrorism, we still see Democrats largely appearing with pundits to <I>defend</I> their record on terrorism.<BR/><BR/>In a trial, the accused is either guilty or "not guilty" - generally the best you can do is avoid conviction, but there will always be a bunch of people in the gallery, not to mention several jurors and possibly the judge himself who thought you were guilty.<BR/><BR/>Democrats are always defending themselves from accusations of tax-raising (As if that were a crime), being soft on terror, crime, drugs and having zany ideas on guns or women's rights or helping the poor.<BR/><BR/>It isn't so much that any individual talking point that convinces anyone, but the cumulative effect of the environment they create. One where true liberals are afraid to speak out against the death penalty, or for gay-marriage, or proudly being members of the ACLU or for legalizing marijuana and a host of liberal issues where we're on the defensive.<BR/><BR/>In their world, Nancy Pelosi is part of the "extreme liberal wing" of the "Democrat Party" - if she's extreme they've obviously never met people who reject using deodourant and abstain from ever using money or want major industries nationalized. There are left-wing radicals out there, and none of them are in the elected portion of the national Democratic Party that I know of.<BR/><BR/>I can think of a few examples where the punditocracy altered events:<BR/><BR/>- Dean's scream and his sudden loss of credibility as a "serious" candidate. The pundits could have laughed at that once, or they could have talked endlessly about it and how it would make dean a joke. Guess which they chose?<BR/><BR/>- the portrayal of Gore as a liar/serial exaggerator. Any pundit would know that Gore actually did have a substantial role in creating the internet. Anyone smart enough to put on a suit and talk on TV could read what Gore said and realize he wasn't claiming to have personally invented TCP/IP or Ethernet or something. Yet this myth of Gore as deceptive pervaded.<BR/><BR/>- the equivalency myth. Anyone paying attention knows that the Republicans have all the serious corruption problems, especially all the systemic ones - particularly Abramoff's racket. Yet pundits feel obliged to point out Jefferson (D-LA) as some proof of Democratic equivalency in corruption. They ignore that he's one guy, and that Pelosi stripped him of his ways-and-means seat, while Republicans have closed ranks around every single one of their corrupt officials until they actually confess or get convicted. <BR/><BR/>There's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem in that it's hard to tell when the pundits create these memes and when they just reflect them. I think that either way, even when they're just echoing nonsense they heard somewhere else, they're prolonging it and giving it self-referential credibility.<BR/><BR/>Watch, and wait for post-election analysese about how many seats Democrats didn't win because of Kerry's joke or because Pelosi is "too liberal" or some shit. Watch for them to repeat the new republican spin about how 6 year elections are always bad for the Presidential party and losing 30 in the house, 6 in the senate is just par-for-the-course and not a rejection of republicans or Bush.<BR/><BR/>No, I hold you in the same esteem I do Greenwald, but I'm with him on this one.Danielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17355077650707854680noreply@blogger.com