R i g h t a r d i a: Quote of the month, October 2010

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Quote of the month, October 2010

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts.”

Both Al Franken and Lawrence O'Donnell are credited with this quote.

The problem is that the right wing has created an alternate reality in which distorts both the history of the US and current science.

Here are some examples of what I am talking about. According to many conservatives, this US has always been a Christian nation. Most of the early settlers believed in God but not necessarily organized religion. Many of the founders like Jefferson and Franklin were deists, not theists. Franklin even said that light houses were more useful than churches.

Rightardia has also pointed out that article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796 clearly states that he US is not a Christian nation. It was signed by John Adams and endorsed unanimously by the US Senate. The First Amendment is called the establishment clause led to the legal doctrine of separation of church and state.

Is any one surprised that Texas wants Thomas Jefferson out of their text books? Jefferson is probably the most distinguished of the Founding Fathers and he wrote the Declaration of Independence and contributed to the writing of the US Constitution.

The problem the GOP has is that American history has not been kind to it after the Civil War. The GOP opposed changes to work hours and child labor laws. It broke up unions with force. It opposed Medicare, Social Security and civil rights law. It led the country into the Great Depression and the current Great Recession.

Many members of the GOP even opposed the entry of the US into World War 2.

The GOP even has developed an anti-science tack to oppose global warming and stem cell research. In it alternative universe led by Rush Limbaugh, who failed every college class he took during one year of college. According to Rush college professors and academics are tools of the liberal elite who lack common sense. Many college professors would say Limbaugh's problem is that he needs more 'uncommon sense.'Can the right get any more anti-intellectual than this?

Conservatives became upset that a free online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, was available on the Internet. It was useful to dispute right wing claims that the Democrats caused the great Depression an that the Nazis were socialists.

The right got so many bloody noses on Usenet from Wikipedia, it created Conservapedia as the right wing source for 'facts.' This is an analogue to Fox News the right wing organ for alternative conservative news.

We agree with Franken and O'Donnell that one is not entitled to their own facts. Moody's Economic's did a study that did not support most of the premises of Supply Side economics.

The right needs to do a better 'fact based' job to convince Americans that the extending the Bush $100,000 tax cuts per year for millionaires and billionaires will strengthen the economy. The Moody's table below suggests otherwise.