Mastering election mythology
LARRY ANDERSON
Larry Anderson
We all know elections run on hyperbole, accusation, and mythology, but it becomes the voter’s responsibility to sort out facts from the mess we are handed. That isn’t always easy.
Here are some myths to aid in your search for truth.
Hillary Clinton is beloved by the masses. HRC is actually regarded with suspicion with low marks scored on honesty and integrity. She is correctly viewed by many as a political elitist who is much better at defining what others should do than doing them herself.
Hillary is, however, a political extrovert. Despite her numerous flaws, she can win election if people don’t demand she be specific, don’t expect documental proof for her assertions, and don’t insist on accountability for her words and actions.
Climate change is our greatest threat. I read an article recently that stated since climate records have been kept, starting in the Industrial Age of 1880, the globe has warmed less than two degrees. This warrants attention but belies urgency.
I suspect the man-made climate change menace is being perpetuated by this administration as a distraction from greater hazards and to advance its agenda for international redistribution. As a result of the recent multi-national conference, dozens of less-than-affluent countries will be receiving billions in aid from us to battle so-called climate change. To think that is where the funds will actually go is a real stretch.
Presently, our greatest threats to national security are ISIS, our insanely insecure border, our monumental debt, and our leadership.
The Left is all about progress; the Right is regressive.
What is in question is progress to what? Since the direction is toward socialism, then the Right will continue to resist. That doesn’t make conservatives regressive. It does make them conservators of the America we not only need here but the world as a whole must have for its democratic example.
Understand progressives like Obama are advancing an agenda that involves the tenets of social justice, redistribution of wealth (yours), and growth in government. Once a piece of the agenda is in place, the progressives quickly become defenders of the status quo, and, therefore, socialist conservators, which is, by their own definition, regressive.
America is chuck full of racists, misogynists, and xenophobes. These claims are purely political and come from the Left as part of its social justice screed. They are so grossly overstated it is laughable, but many will buy it anyway because they welcome political negativity.
That said, we all know there are individual examples of the above, but to advance the falsehood we are like that as a nation, or as a race, is divisive and wrong.
This country has made great strides in the last century and that fact should not be minimized by self-serving politicians who garner support via suspicion and anger.
The Left understands economics. Actually, the Left is clueless when it comes to what causes an economy to hum, what creates jobs, and how money is the key to individual security. They don’t even seem to understand that capitalism pays for social programs, not government.
This is not a “which comes first” issue; money has to come before the programs or they will become too expensive to maintain and lead to endless borrowing and/or higher taxes. Like now.
White privilege. This notion is camouflaged by various labels, but the point is it is deliberately divisive for political purposes. It projects the victim culture cultivated by the propaganda masters on the Left. The goal is to keep minorities in the Leftist pen by blaming the economic success of the rapidly declining majority. This is in itself racist and classist and promulgated primarily by accusation and emotion.
Liberals are champions of the middle class. This has been put forward by HRC already and caused some chuckles at its preposterousness.
The middle class has been decimated by liberal policies that have, for one, trashed manufacturing, a once reliable source of middle class employment for millions. Most new jobs in the future will be in retailing, which pays less and offers less opportunity than production.
The Keystone pipeline is destructive to the environment and gives us nothing. That’s not even hyperbole; it’s a naked lie caused by pandering to the environmental wing of liberalism. The truth is we have pipelines all over the country. Ever heard of the Alaska pipeline? In place for decades.
Of course the pipeline would provide a helpful link to one of our biggest trading partners. Of course it would help hold off energy dependency in the future. Of course it would produce jobs.
We can’t have Hillary and the pipeline.
I’d rather have the pipeline.
Larry W. Anderson’s novel, I, Eugenius, is available at Maryville Daily Forum.
