Rather than quit smoking, they simply picked the facts that fit their purpose.
Please don't construe this next stuff as a support of New Gingrich, as it's not so much about him as it is about the American public. On "Meet the Press", when he said "radical changes from either side" are not good, it seemed to me one of the more rational statements he's ever made, but it was not what the right wanted to hear, and they quickly showed they would not tolerate it. This in spite of the many polls that show Ryan's budget's attack on Medicare is extremely unpopular.
Ronald Reagan is a hero to many on the extreme right, and any republican candidate who dared criticize him, even speaking facts, would be doomed politically. People believe what they want to believe about Reagan, and they actually shape his image to fit their beliefs, when his actual record does not.
We all know people who've been in auto accidents. How often does anyone admit fault?
Even Giuliani had to make statements politically correct to the extreme right. When he is forced to make statements that we had no terrorists attacks on our soil during Bush's presidency, or he kept us safe for 8 years, something is very wrong.
Harry Truman said that he told people the truth and it seemed like hell. Maybe that worked then. It won't work now.
If you tell people the truth, and it is unpleasant or inconvenient, they will destroy your career as a politician.
In the case of the smoker, his refusal to accept the truth kills him, and maybe those who live with him (our one friend has serious problems from second hand smoke). When it comes to denying that oil is a finite resource, or that Global Warming is happening, their refusal to consider as fact those things they find "inconvenient" prevent all of us from making progress.
Comment