“If our enemies will stop lying about us we will stop telling the truth about them”*

Though he attracted ridicule from the Right for saying it (and what could he say that wouldn’t attract ridicule from the Right?), the President is correct: the private sector is okay, creating jobs at a respectable clip.  The weakness in job creation comes primarily from the public sector, where states and municipalities are firing teachers and firefighters and police officers for lack of Federal funding to retain them-and where lack of Federal funding is the direct result of Republican policies.

So apparently McConnell was telling the truth in 2009, if at no other time, when he said that his party’s highest priority was to defeat the President.  If the Republicans have to swell the ranks of the unemployed to accomplish this goal, why should they care?  Republicans mostly aren’t unemployed, and vice-versa.

In other words: the fact that Republican deficit-cutting policies increase unemployment is a feature, not a bug.  Their success in concealing this unattractive fact is truly remarkable.

——

*A 19th Century political saw, revived by and therefore often attributed to Adlai Stevenson.  Adlai’s version: “I would make a proposition to my Republican friends… that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.”  This edition of Today’s Pedantic Footnote provided gratis to our readers.

Author: Kelly Kleiman

Kelly Kleiman is a freelance writer on the arts, feminism, travel and social justice. Her reportage and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor, among other dailies; in magazines, including In These Times and Dance; in the alternative press; on the BBC; and on Chicago Public Radio, where she’s one of the “Dueling Critics” and a contributor to the Onstage Backstage theater blog. She is also a consultant to charities and editor and publisher of The Nonprofiteer, a blog about charity, philanthropy and nonprofit management. She holds undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Chicago.

6 thoughts on ““If our enemies will stop lying about us we will stop telling the truth about them”*”

  1. “So apparently McConnell was telling the truth in 2004, if at no other time, when he said that his party’s highest priority was to defeat the President.”

    If only. Though I assume you mean 2008.

  3. “Their success in concealing this unattractive fact is truly remarkable.”

    Remarkable? Humbug. Their success in concealing this is the direct corollary of the Dems’ ineptitude in framing important issues. The Dems seem deathly afraid of being accused of “promoting class warfare” for pointing out Republican policies that pit the rich against the rest.

    How lame is your campaigning skill when you can’t handle that? “Promoting class warfare? B.S.! We’re just urging a little more ‘fighting back.’ “

    1. Thanks, that’s a great graphic-though it would be more powerful if the color key said “State Government,” “Local Government,” instead “CE9203330000” or whatever it is!

Comments are closed.