Political Correctness Run Amuck?

I listened to this mornings program with Juan Williams.  I agree with almost all of what his views were with the exception of the date that changed the nature of civil discourse in this country.  He used for his book the date of 9/11.  While  I agree that it did greatly affect our perception of politics at that time, the actual date should have been in the mid-eighties during Ronald Reagan’s Administration. I place the beginning of the end of civility in political discourse with the repeal of the “Fairness Doctrine” by the conservative Republicans in office at that time. This allowed the Rush Limbaughs to talk for hours each day on  a one-sided harang containing little truth, but much anger and even hatred on a one-sided view of the world.

Have we forgotten the tirades Rush Limbaugh aired daily about the Clinton Administration.  I remember the day after Clinton was election.  I stopped in the gas station next door to my workplace and listened to a salesman say he was moving to Canada because Clinton would ruin America!  He wouldn’t listen to anyone else’s opinions or views.  But, whatever Rush said was 100% truth.  To try and tell anyone today that 90% of the national debt was caused by Republican Administrations or that today’s tax rates are at an historic lows would be dismissed as outright lies.  And the fact that this country has the lowest taxation of any industrialized nation in the world is not a fact that any of the hardline right wingers would acknowledge.

As Juan mentioned this morning, the demise of newspaper journalism and the rise of partisan national media has created a hard line stance by both right and left wing political groups in this country.  The irony in this is the fact that we, today, have at our fingertips the ability to research the truth far, far easier than any generation in history.

But the source we find should be examined for credibilty before it is taken as the gospel truth!  Simple because a person has a blog on the internet does not mean the information in that blog is based on anything but that person’s own beliefs.  Look for the sources of the information.  Who is funding the program or the website.  Is it a “Super PAC” group of large contributors who don’t want their contributions known by the public?  Is it a non-partisan independent group?  Is it a goverment source like the National Bureau of Statistics?  Why can’t people make the effort to educate themselves to the issues involved today, rather than being led by the loudest voice they hear?

Maybe we deserve to be ruled by the elite. If we continue to let others do our thinking for us rather than educating ourselves, then we do deserve becoming a country as backward as some Muslem countries or a South American banana republic. This country was based on Freedom of speech and religion and open discourse.  But that requires an educated electorate.  Are we, as a nation, up to that task? 

We have heard much ado in the last few years of the”Greatest Generation.”  But, as many of the historians are now saying, do we realize what made them the greatest?  It was a very simple fact.  The war made them into team players who knew the WE was greater than I and if we worked together, we could accomplish our goals and anything else!