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Posts Tagged ‘social conservatives’

Sarah 'Esther' Palin, during her resignation speech last July (Image: AP)

On Friday I wrote the following:

[...] socially conservative, right wing political factions in the US have truly earned the label ‘noise-machine’. Social conservatives in the States are vocal, well organized, well funded and extremely active in all levels of politicss [They] recycle talking points through an endless echo chamber that greatly increases the media attention given to what are often fringe opinions. The huge media saturation that these groups are able to attain inflate their perceived strength.

While I do believe this to be true, it is just barely so. The Obama adminisration is still less than a year old, and prior to January 20th, 2009 the leader of the US was a man, who after countless disgraces,  is still adored today by a third of the populace. Even with the majorities in Congress that Democrats gained in 2006 and strengthened in 2008, passage of any legislation is still a tenuous and delicate balancing act. With a large majority in the House of Representatives and a vaunted (at least in most media circles) ‘supermajority’ of 60 of the 100 seats in the Senate, any and all legislative victories are still extremely hard won, as the GOP, masters of legislative procedural abuse (tactics Canadians are also becoming more familiar with) are also very good at rejecting, in unison, every single policy proposal that attempts to wend it’s way through Congress. It’s also further worth noting, that were it not for a few hundred voters in Minnesota who pulled the lever for Al Franken, the Democrats would have ‘only’ 59 seats in the US Senate (a body that hilariously refers to itself as ‘the greatest deliberative body on the planet’) and the House and Senate majorities, along with Obama in the White House, would not have been sufficient enough to pass anything this past year.

It also seems that on the day I decided to write about over perceptions of ‘conservative’ strength, events had conspired to highlight how strong and pervasive it truly is.

Last week it was announced that Sarah Palin would be joining Fox News Channel on a multi year deal to provide “political commentary and analysis.” She also made her debut on the ‘fair and balanced’ broadcaster, and from a ratings stand point, was a smashing success, as nearly 4 million people tuned in to her appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor”, double the combined audiences of MSNBC and CNN. Those who love Palin really love her. Andrew Sullivan, who at his blog The Daily Dish has written about Palin in near abject horror since she was thrust onto the national stage by a desperate John McCain, commenting on the ongoing fusion of Fox News Channel and the Republican National Committee, noted the following after watching her interview with Glenn Beck:

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The other day while discussing the prorogation of parliament with my dad, an interesting point came up that is worth mentioning here. I was saying how depressing it can be paying heed to events as they unfold in the US, as right wing ‘conservative’ commentators have honed the act of endlessly spouting partisan vitriol into a science, whereas when reading comment threads on the CBC about a story such as Omar Khadr’s, how surprised and taken aback I am by the extremely base language that is rather prevalent. My dad was not surprised by this in the least. My differing reactions to the same kind of mindless commentary coming from both sides of the border highlight three worthwhile points.

First, Canadian social conservatives not only exist, but they make up a larger part of the populace than I know I instinctively feel is there. To make a generalization, Canadians tend to be shy and reserved with many of their personal viewpoints. In the States, abortion is a very visible, vocal and dividing issue. In Canada it just does not have the same power.

Second, socially conservative, right wing political factions in the US have truly earned the label ‘noise-machine’. Social conservatives in the States are vocal, well organized, well funded and extremely active in all levels of politics. As such, an entire cottage industry has formed to recycle talking points through an endless echo chamber that greatly increases the media attention given to what are often fringe opinions. The huge media saturation that these groups are able to attain inflate their perceived strength (which is not to say that they aren’t strong.)

The last thing I wanted to point out are some aspects of the US media that magnify the already over represented, vocal minority of social conservatives. Thankfully, Canadian reporters as a whole have not completely devolved into he said/she said, stenography ‘journalism’. The same can not be said for their US counterparts. And while Canadian journalists are bad for spending to much time on the ‘horse race’ aspects of politics, they do deliver policy analysis. The Villagers of D.C. however are in perpetual campaign coverage mode (did you know there’s less than 11 months until the midterm elections? Are the Dems in trouble? Stay tuned..) When that is the model used to deliver news, it is self serving to portray two competing sides as if they were in extremely close competition. It is mind numbing the extent that US news reports will feature blatant lies voiced by one side of an argument as a rebuttal to a perfectly reasonable and true claim. Readers are treated to both claims, yet sadly, truth distinctions are rarely made. You need to suggest that ‘death panels’ are going to be installed before many media outlets will even bother to think of doing a fact check.

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