Sunday, January 16, 2011

Cracks in the FunHouse Mirror, Part II

We like feedback and many of us require it so we can feel secure. Most of us need a mirror in order to properly shave or to apply makeup or, in Eddie Izzard’s case, both. We want to know how we’re doing. We see this desire in children, loved ones and co-workers. We seek affirmation from people whose opinions matters to us and often from authority figures. Here’s a warning to TEA Partiers and other conservatives and libertarians: Don’t expect an honest reflection from the left or from the media.

As amazing as it seems, there are still those who expect a true accounting from mainstream media, and even more astounding, from the left itself. It will never happen. The hatred of the TEA Party has become such an obsession for the left that it is a part of their identity. For the left to confess that it was mistaken, even in part, regarding its most high profile opponent is to admit its own shortcomings.

As for the media, the TEA Party Fanatic has become a part of their cultural mythology. In that myth put forth by political liberals, where logic and reality are unheeded suggestions, the TEA Party is full of violent, ignorant, stupid, homophobic, trigger-happy racists who hate all government but aren’t cool enough to be anarchists. And the facts to support this myth are . . . apparently unnecessary. Logic and facts are, after all, tools of an oppressive western civilization that liberals hate almost as much as they despise the TEA Party.

The latest example of the left’s political necessity and the media’s cultural myths is the reaction to the murder of six people in Tucson, including a federal judge, and the shooting of an additional 13 people, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Because Giffords is a Democrat, the immediate outcry from the left and their pet media was to blame the rhetoric of the TEA Party and other conservative sources. That fact that the alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, did not even vote in the last election and, reportedly, did not watch news or listen to talk radio, was no obstacle to the left’s politics and mythology.

The reality check question is, “After the shooting in Tucson, has the condemnation of the political left fallen more on presumed shooter Jared Loughner or the members of the TEA Party?” Loughner has largely been given a pass by the media and the left, while the accusations falling on the political enemies of the left has continued unabated.

Even without admitting its errors, one would think that the left would have slithered away into its hole and cut its losses. The left is counting on the usual attention span of the public, and here is where reality has sharp teeth: the TEA Party and its allies are now paying attention and there will be no neutral ground for Democrats in 2012.

Those who failed to call for a halt to the unsubstantiated attacks will be held accountable just as those who voiced that same heated, hateful rhetoric. Their feedback will be given in November of 2012.

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