By MICHAEL CROWLEY | @CrowleyTIME
Looking back at the conventions, it’s hard to avoid a fairly damning truth: they were dishonest. I’m not talking about those “pants on fire” fact checkers everyone’s arguing about. I’m talking about the grand narratives the conventions presented.
In Tampa, a weeklong celebration of Mitt Romney virtually ignored his four-year tenure as governor of Massachusetts, his only stint in elective office and the launching pad for his presidential campaign. The Republicans also largely ignored the dark side of the Bush years, including the Iraq War, once a defining issue for them, and the 2008 financial collapse. Both were treated like some terrible family tragedy that is never to be spoken of again. George W. Bush didn’t even appear in person.
The Democrats told powerful stories about Obama’s grit and determination, like his calls to rescue Detroit and send Navy SEALs after Osama bin Laden. But those episodes are a tiny fraction of his first-term work. A visitor from Mars could have spend hours in the convention hall and left unaware of Obama’s most consequential achievement, his health care reform law. Ask Michael Grunwald how many times we heard about the stimulus, even though that $800 billion plan averted a global depression and will ripple through the economy for years. And how about that epic drama that consumed the fall of 2009 — the debate over intensifying the war in Afghanistan? It’s like it never happened.
Voters still got a decent sense of the big-picture choice at hand: higher taxes on the wealthy vs. budget cuts. More abortion rights vs. fewer. An individualistic businessman’s philosophy vs. a more collective, forgiving, activist-style worldview. But taken as a whole, the stories they heard about recent American history were selectively told to the point of outright dishonesty.
Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/07...#ixzz25z0uuPZq
- BigLouie
- 09-09-2012, 09:32 AM
- gfejunkie
- 09-09-2012, 11:40 AM
We did get to see the dims booing God and Israel though.
That ought to play well with the "undecideds".
gfe
That ought to play well with the "undecideds".
gfe
- i'va biggen
- 09-09-2012, 11:51 AM
It did Obie got a bump...
- Little Stevie
- 09-09-2012, 01:23 PM
Obama got a bump but the Tepublicans are still waiting on the RNC bump?
LMAO!
LMAO!
- Guest032516
- 09-09-2012, 07:46 PM
Neither side got up and told the painful, unvarnished truth.
We have to raise taxes on everybody making 100K and over. Those making $200K and over should expect to go up to 42-43%. Estate taxes need to be jacked back up to about 50% once you get over a couple of million. Yeah, I know that will force a lot of family businesses to be sold, but we are in a mess.
At the same time, defense needs to be cut a LOT. Tell the Europeans we are pulling out of Europe, even if we stay in NATO. Russia isn't attacking any time soon. It is time they paid for their own defense.
And entitlements need to be pared back significantly. Push retirement back a few years (phase it in) and for a few years let cost of living increases lag inflation by 1% or so.
We have to run surpluses of about $200 billion for a decade just to pay down about $2 trillion on our national debt. That's only a small dent, but it is a start. Right now, the interest ALONE on our projected $17 trillion dollar debt will be $1 trillion each year.
All of the above will tend to slow economic growth and we may be in for a lost decade like what Japan had. But it will finally - hopefully - break us of our big spending ways.
We have to raise taxes on everybody making 100K and over. Those making $200K and over should expect to go up to 42-43%. Estate taxes need to be jacked back up to about 50% once you get over a couple of million. Yeah, I know that will force a lot of family businesses to be sold, but we are in a mess.
At the same time, defense needs to be cut a LOT. Tell the Europeans we are pulling out of Europe, even if we stay in NATO. Russia isn't attacking any time soon. It is time they paid for their own defense.
And entitlements need to be pared back significantly. Push retirement back a few years (phase it in) and for a few years let cost of living increases lag inflation by 1% or so.
We have to run surpluses of about $200 billion for a decade just to pay down about $2 trillion on our national debt. That's only a small dent, but it is a start. Right now, the interest ALONE on our projected $17 trillion dollar debt will be $1 trillion each year.
All of the above will tend to slow economic growth and we may be in for a lost decade like what Japan had. But it will finally - hopefully - break us of our big spending ways.