Republicans Are Not "Cool"

I find the daily show to jump on the mistakes of both the democratic and republican parties.

What is interesting in terms of the two presidential candidates that we have today is that they somewhat fit the Propaganda Model as proposed by Chomsky and Herman in Manufacturing Consent. During the Vietnam War, Chomsky and Herman noted that while opposing viewpoints to the war was allowed in the media, it was limited by parameters. The parameter then were that we did mention that we invaded Vietnam and so the opposing view more-less questioned the business wisdom of the war.

We have the same today. On one hand, McCain carries the Wide World of Sports view of the Iraq War--we should do all we can to experience the "thrill of victory" and to avoid the "agony of defeat." Meanwhile, Obama will dispute that our war on Iraq is immoral. Rather, he calls it rash and dumb. He views it as an ineffective part of our war on terror an thinks we can more efficiently use our resources elsewhere.

This leads many people, like myself, to view the Democrats as the Republican-lite party in that they are not opposed to the war on principled but would engage in a similar war if it made good business sense.

that you were right and The Daily Show and others of its ilk were evenhanded. However, I think that an honest assessment would find that they are far harder on conservatives than liberals. (I’ve watched many nights and noticed that Dems were treated much more kindly and the Reps were treated as if they were Hitler himself.)

I think that spotting bias is a lost art in this country, many abhor the slant that Fox News presents, but see CNN as fine. I will admit that both slant in opposite directions, I watch both, just as I listen to NPR and Rush. Not only do I want to know all the arguments on issues, but also I feel that my convictions are only enforced when challenged.

I do think that the anti-war position is not really represented by Obama any longer. I opposed the war, but not for an avoid-war-at-any-cost reason. I thought that Iraq was our best bulwark against Iran, and I feel vindicated in that position.