Check out Salon and Edwyn Lyngar’s latest article The Angry Right’s Secret Playbook. It’s an interesting, yet frustrating read. Lyngar, a former republican, suggests liberals have a monopoly on the better ideas but that they need to adopt some of the right’s tactics to win the ideological debates of our time.  I would rather lose elections than act like Sean Hannity for five minutes—unless it’s during a Discord News parody bit and I can coax Tina Fey into playing Sarah Palin.

Lyngar explains why the left keeps losing the war of ideas, despite having all of said ideas:

“In an ideological battle, the tendency toward inclusion and reflection can become a handicap. As a side effect of all this soul-searching, the left becomes ineffectual at fighting even the worst excesses on the right.”

—Edwyn Lyngar

Whereas I appreciate the sentiment, I also know such tactics—if taken one step too far—end up being fodder for the right (see: any Drudge Report headline). It’s often the only meat in any given Fox News segment. Behave badly and you will be called to the carpet.

“Hey everyone, look at what the craziest liberal professor thinks!”

—John Q. Republican

And yet I remain perpetually mortified by what the sanest republican thinks. That’s the difference. I understand there will always be fodder on both sides. Any poorly behaved liberal across the country can and will be the focus of the right’s scrutiny, be it politician, professor, teacher, plumber or what have you. Joe the Dumber? Just like any death in America will be somehow linked to Obamacare or how every snowflake that hits terra firma is God’s way of “refudiating” climate change. I don’t need to battle the comment section over on Breitbart.com., because I have bigger Fox to fry.

[Hyperlink removed for your protection]

The right’s inability to synthesize data as well as predict or understanding anything relevant remains astounding to me, and yet this zombie party still exists, devouring resources, craving brains, and gathering in ever greater herds. The Walking Deaf? Whereas it’s true the country will always be replete with ultra-liberal morons (ULMs), the real media need not slip down to Fox News standards. In fact, I insist.

As a person with some liberal sensibilities, MSNBC does not speak for me. The problem for conservatives is that Fox News always speaks for all of them. They may say in some private conversation “this one goes too far,” or “I don’t agree with this tactic,” but then they all, in unison, regurgitate any given Fox News talking point like the gospel—which if I recall is from Leshiticus: Chapter Poo.

“When you only have to win the news cycle, it doesn’t matter that any Fox talking point has a shelf-life on par with your average unpasteurized dairy product.”

—Mick Zano

There’s only one Foxx quote that ever resonated with me:

“When you see the handwriting on the wall, you’re in the toilet.”

—Red Foxx

Fox News is that toilet. We either move back toward reason, or this place isn’t worth saving. Lyngar is calling for liberals to play dirty pool. He wants them to get in the trenches and start winning the arguments.

“I call on my fellow liberals to embrace the rough stuff. Engage in battle with people who hate you and feel free to throw crazy right back, even if you only half believe it.”

—Edwyn Lyngar

Win the arguments, certainly, but minus these questionable tactics. Lyngar’s a bit too Machiavellian for my tastes. The ends justifies the Seans? Oh the on-Hannity! Sure we must, in the strongest possible terms, dismantle their arguments and remind them each and every news cycle how fundamentally wrong they all are. Hell, that’s what I do. But why stoop to bullshit? If both sides are mindless mudslinging machines, what good can come from that? Having two polarized and nonsensical arguments is depressing, not inspiring. Hold the line, people. The society you save may be your own.

I do agree that liberals are far too wimpy, on each and every topic. Pluralism is a handicap and a fatal one at times (see: Neville Chamberlain). Dems are wishy washy, they are too aloof, they are too cerebral, and they often perseverate to the point of total inaction. But ask your doctor if deciding on a course of action is right for you. Still, it sure beats being the village idiot any day of the week (Python bit excluded).

I refuse to replace crazy republicans with crazy liberals. That thread back to reality is tenuous enough for all of us these days; there’s no need to muddy the waters further. 

[Hoochie Steve Doocey joke removed by the editor]

So you want our elections to be decided, not on the merits of any given argument, but to the loudest blowhard? Okay, let’s skip the election and anoint President Christie, right now. And let’s hope Air Force One doesn’t go all Kevin Smith on him.

Hey, I’m allowed one once in a while. Maher does it every week.

I do agree with Lyngar on this much: liberals need not work across the aisle and compromise with crazy people. Use the existing laws and fight them on every issue through every legal avenue and for the love of their God block every appointment. But I don’t want any further expansion of executive power and I do not want Foxian tactics to win elections. If neither side gives a shit about the truth, or the Constitution, we’re in big trouble. It’s bad enough having half our country living amidst some delusional self-created echo chamber of feces. [Editor still working on lousy acronym joke]

Liberals are all over the place and republicans remain one massive united force of wrongness. It’s why liberals still lose easily winnable elections, well, besides gerrymandering, voter suppression and The Fox News All Sharts. Republicans are on the same page, but in the wrong book. Everything is on a spectrum and so are they. Sorry, it’s a DSM-V thing.

“Liberals focus on leveling the playing field while republicans focus on leveling the rain forest.”

—Mick Zano

Having MSNBC employ guilt by omission tactics is disturbing enough, but I don’t want the outright lies to follow, though as per Lyngar’s sentiment, I’m sadly predicting they will. Still, I don’t know how anyone can watch Fox News and think for a moment that this is a serious attempt at journalism. The fact half our country is not immediately nauseated by the likes of Sean Hannity is beyond me. He should be marketed, not as a news anchor but as an appetite suppressant.

At the end of the day, I don’t want any part of what Lyngar the Horrible is suggesting. Go back to conservatism if you feel this way. We don’t need you and I won’t defend you. I refuse to mimic the right wing’s media tactics in any way shape or form—with the exception of Megyn Kelly’s form, who, despite being unable to spell her first name properly, has a pleasing form nevertheless.

[Closing comment deemed inappropriate by the editor]

[Image included by editor to, um, illustrate journalist Megyn Kelly’s form]

I don’t think we have to worry about a republican president anytime soon, but let’s contemplate an elephant in the White House.  Let’s watch this scenario play out and see what he or she would do from day one. But let’s take this sneak peak from the relative safety of a nearby parallel dimension —preferably the far end of said parallel dimension.

First, let’s look at the riveting platform our new Commander in Chief, who would no doubt be using his “mandate” on steroids (mandate = losing the popular vote while squeaking out the Electoral College):

1. I will continue to stand behind the most tested and failed economic strategy on earth (Hint: it rhymes with Pickled Clown Economics).

2. I will run on creating a slew of committees to investigate a host of invented scandals (Hint: the most popular one sort of rhymes with Svengoolie).

3. I will run on an imaginary republican record, based entirely on a form of revisionist history that would make even Don Quixote wince (Hint: this is part of my “when the manure hits the windmill” theory).

From day one:

A republican president would start to revoke Obamacare and Medicaid expansion to the cheers of millions of the now uninsured masses. Kentuckians, many of whom are among our sickest and poorest, won’t really notice as they probably haven’t gotten too attached to their new doctors yet. NYT story here.

“Don’t think of it as losing more teeth, think of it as protection from roving death panels.”

—John Q. Republican

Then church bake sales would increase across the nation in an effort to compensate through a nationally unfunded: Don’t have Healthcare? Have a brownie Instead initiative. This would compel Michelle Obama to dash around the country trying to knock the tasty treat out of people’s hands.

[Heck of job, Brownie joke omitted by the editor]

Eventually the Affordable Care Act would be replaced with a Hannity America’s “Get a Life” Survival Kit, which comes with a free year’s subscription to The Weekly Standard. Should any condition become too painful, the gun included in Hannity’s We Don’t Care Package can be used to stop any dental or medical emergency, before it starts.

“From my old, bleeding gums!”

—Charlton Denture Heston

[Stand your ground under it law joke omitted by the editor]

The second term for John Q. will start with the creation of his initiative: Stand Your Ground From Six-Feet Under It.

From day one:

A republican president would initiate the War on Math by firing the current director of the Congressional Budget Office and then immediately spare no expense finding a qualified mathmafictionalist. You see, a person with the right math-deficient-personality-disorder (MDPD) must run the CBO, a person that has the ability to present the “right” kind of numbers each month. Of course, you might as well ask the CBO to find a unicorn, because conservative economic theories reside wholly in the fairy realms—wait, I’m being told they banished all fairies. FAGS DOOM NATIONS!

“Few economic theories have been as thoroughly tested in the real world as supply-side economics, and so notoriously failed.”

—Robert Reich

Reich’s take here.

[“Reich’s third joke” joke omitted by the editor]

From day one:

The anti-apology tour would begin in earnest. The president would dash from country to country in an effort to remind leaders how:

“We’re really not sorry for anything—that was just the black guy talking—and those U.N. rules and global standards are really for other countries—those not deemed number one and who act like number two.”

—John Q. Republican

Meetings with other world leaders would become surreal as other parts of the globe aren’t really privy to the whole Fox News alternate universe thing (FNAUT). This will likely come as a great surprise to President John Q., who doesn’t understand why everyone doesn’t thank America, regardless of its actions, or recent policies, or inability to adhere to international law. In response, our new president would start saber rattling at all of the petty dictators all around the globe, from Putin to Borat.

For Phase Two they would initiate Operation: Enduring Erection by proceeding to blow the shit out of lots of stuff, fairly randomly at first, until some annoyed factions initiate a coordinated response, thus forming actual targets. All this military action would occur while taxes magically go down. It’s a secret strategy republicans like to call, Fuck the Global Economy. Soon, the Defense Secretary would be fired and then so would his replacement, as these unnecessary wars just “don’t seem to be accomplishing the desired results.”

“I had to start these wars without congressional approval as Post-Obama the world no longer takes America seriously. For proof, see related Breitbart.com link, here.”

—John Q. Republican

This will all go over very well and make the world safer for Democracy…at least in a hundred years or so when radiation levels subside.

From day one:

John Q. would put tremendous pressures on the Mayor of New York City to jack rents so high that the United Nations would be forced to move to New Jersey, where Chris Christie could then close all the bridges, forever trapping the entire building in East Orange, all during Operation: Bolton Lightening.

From day one:

The president will cosign all techniques utilized by our police and military, even the parts that strangle unarmed people in the streets—especially those. They will then continue to strip anyone deemed wrong of their rights and will then strip them of their clothing.

“Then we will commence with the torturing for Jesus.”

—John Q. Republican

P.S. Habeas corpus? That’s Latin, which is all Greek to me.

The police state will jump back into gear as every sneeze from across the pond will be translated as an imminent threat. Then, the most incarceration happy country in the world will open even more private prisons to house all the different-looking-folks (DLFs) because:

“The incarcerated market works! Uh, for those few left outside.”

—John Q. Republican

President John Q. would then further expand NSA and the CIA while pulling back any and all oversight. All in the name of Freedom!

From day one:

The president would initiate a slew of Real Benghazi investigations—you know, now that we’ve gotten all that preliminary nonsensical stuff out of the way. This round our republican friend would start asking the right questions about those who died tragically on the real 9/11 because Obama hates America.

From day one:

Our republican president would fix the educational system. No Child Left Behind would then be expanded to rocks and other inanimate objects so we can all wait for Johnny and his pet rock to overcome his fetal meth addiction. (Actually I blame liberals for this one too). I say we gut our educational system like a fish and start from scratch.

“Once the new republican budget is passed, children from sea to shining sea will have the choice to pick themselves up by their bootstraps, or be beaten with them. Oh, and I’m being told the shining sea part is due to rising mercury levels.”

—John Q. Republican, Education Czar

So what’s the worst that could happen with a republican president in 2016? Best case scenario, another global economic collapse and the worst case scenario, WWIII. None of our savvy Foxeteers really remember how the Bush Administration came very close to coordinating with Israel to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities. Hell, the lessons from the last news cycle seem beyond them. Oh, wait, those are called talking points and they do seem to remember all of those.

President John Q. Republican would likely be even more delusional than our last president, as that’s the current GOP trend.  Armed with a fixed belief that America can do no wrong and how, despite not winning any wars since WWII, we can’t possibly lose any. And how gutting all taxes will somehow spur growth, or as I like to call it “a depression.” Frankly, I think avoiding the next collapse will be difficult enough for a Dem. In short, a republican president operating from a delusional ideology will be a complete fiasco. You can bank on that—wait, I’m being told those will collapse too.

Someone recently asked me, “Why do you have such a visceral response toward people who simply have a different view than yours?” I responded, “Visceral response?” and then proceeded to throw up on her shoes. It’s not the views, it’s not even the disturbingly low levels of consciousness involved, it’s how fear and propaganda are being used in a coordinated way to warp reality itself. There’s no better example than the Affordable Care Act, which is known to conservatives as Obama’s End of Freedom Initiative.

I admit I initially had my own concerns about another large beauoracracy as well as the constitutionality of the individual mandate. In a new spirit of bi-partisanship Waldman has a novel solution:

“What if Republicans agree to pass a technical fix to address what it essentially a typo in the ACA, one that threatens to take insurance from millions of middle-class Americans, and in exchange, Democrats agree to repeal the ACA’s employer mandate? Everybody would win.”

—Paul Waldman

So the Dems get forgiveness on an obvious typo within the law itself and republicans would remove their most hated feature. They really hate the individual mandate. Personal responsibility is suddenly very unpopular with the personal responsibility party. Makes sense. Pokey McDooris and I both had reservations since the beginning about this part of the gig, but how much lost revenue are we talking about if we ax the mandate? Waldman says it varies widely from $46 billion over ten years (The Urban Institute) to $149 billion (The Rand Corporation).

I don’t think we need to worry too much about how to keep the ACA viable minus the mandate, after all, this is fantasy. Republicans aren’t going to compromise, lest we forget they’re batshit. They want to rip the Affordable Care Act up by its roots, even though it’s working fine and people generally approve of all of its individual components.

Republicans are all-or-none thinkers, minus any actual thinking. For them, Obamacare remains the end of freedom because Fox said so. Congress has always had the chance to fix the law and they have been encouraged to do so, but this is no longer a functional party—a point I may have mentioned before.

Meanwhile, the law is exceeding expectations on every indicator. The Urban Institute just found how the number of uninsured have dropped by an astounding 30 percent. The law has lowered the overall cost of healthcare significantly, here, and hospital errors are way down, here.

And:

“Obamacare is based on an old Republican plan, developed by the Heritage Foundation and first tried by Mitt Romney, whose central feature was market competition. This dynamic has worked better than expected.”

Who knew the Heritage Foundation could be right about something? All four of these indicators as well as the quote were snagged from a Chait article over at The Daily Intelligencer, here. All of this good news is prompting some to ask, Obamacare: great law or greatest law?

It’s worth noting how astoundingly wrong republicans were on this topic. Okay, no it’s isn’t (See: any issue in the 21^st century). So the “deeply flawed” Affordable Care Act is exceeding all expectations in all areas. Amidst the botched rollout of 2013, the law’s darkest hour, here’s a certain spoof news guy’s take:

“My reasons for going out on a limb again (predicting the ACA will eventually work):

1. The GOP thinks Obamacare is doomed, but their uncanny ability to always get things wrong should not be underestimated.

2. None of these larger social programs were ever rolled out smoothly, but they tend to get fixed, at least historically speaking.

3. Frankly, it has to work. There’s too much riding on it. I would not use the word frankly otherwise. Frankly, I hate that word.”

—Mick Zano

Pokey McDooris recently admonished me for giving Obama a free a pass, especially on Obama’s “you can keep your plan” comment, but this is what I said at the time:

“When Obama said people could keep their existing policies…umm, there’s no defense for that statement. He lied. I can’t defend the indefensible. That’s a Foxeteer’s job.”

—Mick Zano, Obama defender

And this was one of my jokes about the botched rollout:

Is Rocky the Rollout Rodent Helping or Hurting Obamacare? Will a congressional hearing determine the whereabouts of Glitchy the Death Panel Pigeon?

This somehow equates to a free pass. But despite the ACA’s long list of successes, why do so many people still despise the thing? It’s bullshit, stupid. A Stanford Study suggests those who understand the law better like it better. Imagine that. Knowing stuff apparently matters.

“Democrats understood the most and liked the law the most, independents less, and Republicans understood still less and liked the law the least. However, attitudes were not just tribal. Within each party, the more accurate your knowledge of the law, the more you liked it.”

—A bunch of Stanford people

On a related note: the more you know, the less likely you’re a republican. Let’s face it, republicans don’t know dick.

[Cheney joke omitted by the editor]

In a recent breakdown of the truthiness in the media, Fox News rated the worst, here, with an astounding 50% of their comments rating as false or mostly false.  This same author commented on a Fairleigh Dickenson survey that suggests Fox News viewers have less knowledge of this planet than people living in caves:

“How do Fox News viewers know less than people who literally don’t know anything about current events? If you would allow me to hazard a guess, it could be because unlike people who didn’t bother to watch any news programs, Fox viewers thought they were watching informational content – instead they were being lied to under a carefully constructed veneer of responsible journalism.”

—Jameson Parker

I call bullshit! “A carefully constructed veneer of responsible journalism?” Have you watched Fox News, sir? Yes, a number of studies are suggesting Fox will shave off IQ points, but that’s not news…in fact, neither are they. Yet the Fox Effect has convinced a ton of people—many who actually like the ACA—that they really don’t. This is how each individual component of the ACA polls very highly and yet half the country still rails against the overall law. Strong work.

The problem is not just that conservatives watch opinion-based programming in the guise of news, it’s that they are always on the wrong side of any given issue. It’s uncanny. Is anyone counting how many things they get wrong? Oh, right, I am.

1. Invading Iraq was a good idea. No it wasn’t.

2. We don’t torture.  Yes we do.

3. The stimulus didn’t work. Yes it did.

4. Trickledown economics works. Actually, nowhere on Earth (throughout history).

5. Obamacare will end the world. No, and it’s exceeding all expectations.

6. Climate change isn’t happening. Yes, it is, and man is influencing it (or 0 for 2).

7. Obama botched Syria. All WMDs handed over by Assad (no deaths)

8. Putin’s Crimean move was a good one. No it wasn’t (see: Russian collapse of 2015).

9. Obama has a series of major scandals. Zero, actually.

10. Obama is the worst president in history. Uh, you’re thinking of Bush.

11. Sanjaya won American Idol in 2007. No he didn’t.

Okay, to be fair, I got one of these wrong, but I STILL BELIEVE SANJAYA!

I predicted everything on that list (screw the linking today). Most of these are closed cases, yet Republicans will still argue many of these points. Someone once said, “What does it say about a movement whose brightest ‘stars’ are the dimmest bulbs?”  This is key. Your important movement just can’t seem to find the right person to articulate your views, huh? Republicana is just lacking that champion who can turn every issue over to the win column, eh? What exactly is in your win column anyway? When I ask this question I never seem to get an actual answer. This list of atrocities doesn’t start here, it starts with republicans being against the revolution and their keen insights continue when they voted against Medicare, Social Security, women’s suffrage, civil rights, abolition, etc, etc and so forth. It’s an astounding record, one worth breaking over one’s knee.

With the economy finally firing on all cylinders and the ACA kicking some ass and then healing said ass, it’s no wonder so many Dems are now jobless. Makes sense…well, if you are forced to live in this alternate universe with the rest of the Foxlodytes.