The Republican Terrorist Campaign Against Truth

If I've told you once, I will tell you a hundred times: the right wing is waging a guerilla war on truth. Adam Cohen calls out one of the latest battles in this intellectual insurgency in his piece, The New York Times >"The Difference Between Politically Incorrect and Historically Wrong."

Democrats (and all others interested in liberty and justice for all), stop wringing your hands about how to advance progressive values and policies. The trouble isn't the values and policies. The trouble is that the opposition has convinced too many people that the facts don't match the policies. They convinced people that Social Security is in crisis, that Al Queda wants to attacks Walmart stores in Des Moines, that evolution is not scientifically credible, that Saddam was an immediate threat to the US mainland, that civil liberties are over-rated, that the average person will be disadvantaged by the inheritance tax and helped by cuts in corporate taxes, that cells are citizens, that ignorance is faith, that rudeness is decisiveness, that tolerance is weak, that freedom of religion persecutes believers, that up is down, and that you and your grandchildren have to spend more to get less from your government.

Sooner or later, some of this will come back to haunt them. I don’t know exactly how we can hasten that day, but I know we have to call them out whenever we see it. (But, please, don’t use the term ‘lie’. It is being abused, and that is a central part of their rhetoric.)