The expected Republican victory on Tuesday will be built on an untruth: that President Obama’s stimulus didn’t work. Sir Harold Evans sets the record straight.
Millions will go to the polls tomorrow deceived by a brilliant propaganda campaign. They may have many reasons to vote against the Obama administration. Many of the criticisms may be justified, many not. Take your pick.
I am concerned only with one. I call it The Big Lie because its acceptance has had a big impact on all our lives and it will continue to have a big impact, like a malign virus that one ingests wreaks progressive damage.
The Big Lie is that the aggressive fiscal and monetary measures by which Obama defended America in the Great Recession were a waste of money, a notorious example of the Democratic appetite for throwing money at any problem.
The summary charge is that “the stimulus did not work.” It has been propagated in a blizzard of television ads, in the slogans of Tea Party rallies, in countless vehement blogs and in print. Mostly this has been argument by assertion, even from such a distinguished writer as George Will. There has been precious little analysis of what effect the money had, and barely any reporting of what serious analysis there has been.
CNN made a valiant effort early on and then seems to have gotten bored–or should we say gored by ratings–and two authoritative reports have been published (I will come to them), but they have been washed over, flotsam on the tide of ignorance. Even this bright Monday morning, the New York Post publishes a Big Lie article by Stephen M. Meister, a partner in the law firm of Meister, Seelig and Fein LLP who writes that from the stimulus “none of the jobs showed up.”
The Obama administration made a tactical error in trying to be precise. It estimated that the stimulus spending would keep unemployment to 8 percent or less. But the commonplace assertion and the widespread notion that no jobs have resulted from the program is off by an order of magnitude that if made in business would instantly bankrupt millions of going concerns. Continue reading…
Related Articles
- Rev. Jesse Jackson: GOP runs on the “Big Lie” (huffingtonpost.com)
- “The Big Lie that is the commentariat’s narrative of the Obama presidency,” revisited (riehlworldview.com)
- Will Bunch: Palin, Beck, the Tea Party and the Big Lie About Saving “Children and Grandchildren” (huffingtonpost.com)
- Newsweek Hates Fox News: Cover Story Blames Them for New Era of ‘Big Lie Politics’ About Obama (newsbusters.org)
Thank you Kstreet. Great article.
Its amazing to me that the Dems didn’t get the facts out about the good the stimulus was actually doing.
The rethuglicans will lie and lie and lie, and before you know it, the dumber folks in the country start to believe the lies.
They and the teabaggers (same thing) definitely are bringing up memories of the 1930′s in Germany.
Hi Billy D, the credit goes to Kato. I agree, it’s a shame that the WH, Rahm Emmanuel and David Axelrod didn’t get their messaging right, early on. It may cost them dearly. Not since Roosevelt’s spending on the “New Deal” after the Great Depression, have Democrats faced losing a massive amount of seats. In 1937, Roosevelt lost 71 or 72 seats to the GOP in the midterms back then.
It’s fine for us to know about the big lie. But what about all the people–intelligent and otherwise–who believe it. Have you seen the discussion here: http://bit.ly/aCUrMI6
All sorts of people who get it and who don’t. It’s shocking!