Thursday, June 23, 2011

Keith Olbermann is back.

Welcome back Keith Olbermann.  You are a national treasure.  People, this is a what a REAL patriot looks like and sounds like. 

He doesn't wrap himself in the flag for the sake of self-aggrandisement.  He doesn't spout patriotic hooey to impress the ill-informed.  He doesn't tow the line or blindly mouth the talking points laid out by any political party or media conglomerate.  He speaks the truth, and backs it up with accurate information and where necessary, historical and/or scientific data.  That is, DATA.  Facts.  The indisputable, incorruptible, untarnished truth as revealed by objective research into the historical past or the accumulated depth of knowledge that is the result of scientific inquiry.

In an era when one party (Democrats) lacks the backbone necessary to do what is right for the welfare of the nation, and the other party (Republicans) is utterly dedicated to the glib misrepresentation of the truth for the sake of its own enrichment, having a commentator like Keith Olbermann makes him one of the nation's most important voices.

I, for one, really believe in American Exceptionalism; I hear so much criticism of the government and so much wailing over the deficit, and so much crying about how America can't do the great things that we have always done.  I am shocked by the outright cowardice and utterly craven hypocrisy. 

We can't afford to rebuild the nation's infrastructure because the Republicans insist on giving the uber-wealthy a pass on paying their fair share of the tax burden.  We can't afford to pay our public employees (teachers, fire-fighters, police officers, janitors, social workers, etc...) because to do so might involve taxing the rich.  We can't afford to provide basic health care for all Americans because we are deceived into thinking that somehow we are sinking into a "socialist" morass, when the truth is we just don't want to raise taxes on the rich to pay for it.

How is it that middle-class Americans, who have seen their incomes stagnate for thrity years, but who nonetheless pay a greater share of their hard earned paychecks in taxes than their corporate and financial overlords, are deceived by the hypocritical propaganda spewing from the likes of Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly and Dobbs.  The Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

I'm always surprised, and frankly dismayed, at the ease with which Republicans turn their backs on the Constitution when it doesn't suit their purposes, and how easily the deliberate half-truths and innuendos they spout deceives their followers, especially the suddenly emergent Tea Party.  Seems to me there's not a whole lot of critical thinking going on on the right.

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