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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor (slightly modified)

 

For the most part, our big news orgs simply don’t explain things. In all candor, they rarely seem to know what sorts of claims are being made in the wider discourse.

Bob Somerby, Why is it easy to beat our side? Wisely, Dionne asked [via Kevin Drum]

When asked about Obama’s plan (without being given any details about what the legislation includes), 49 percent opposed it and 40 percent were in favor. But after hearing key features of the legislation described, 48 percent supported the plan and 43 percent remained opposed.

Sarah Kliff,  Newsweek Poll: Mixed Signals on Health Care [via Political Wire]

Politicians want to pass the ball forward, and if a banker can show them a way to pass a problem to the future, they will fall for it.

Gikas A. Hardouvelis, economist and former official in the Greek government, quoted in Wall St. Helped to Mask Debt Fueling Europe’s Crisis

…the First Amendment to this Constitution shall not be construed to limit the power of the People to restrict any significant and disproportionate non-party financial influence during the last 60 days before an election, where such influence would reasonably draw into doubt the integrity or independence of any elected official.

From a proposed constitutional amendment in reaction to Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commisson, from Change Congress’s Call A Convention

They’ve identified a loophole, a vulnerability in the operating system of American democracy for which as yet there’s no patch. And because their victory conditions don’t require the affirmative production of a workable solution, the challenge before them is much (infinitely!) easier: all they have to do is drive a wedge through that vulnerability and they’ve won.…

Adam Greenfield, on health care reform opponents, in On systems, and what they do [via Fred Scharmen, via Nat Torkington]

No democracy has survived needing a supermajority.

Vice President Joe Biden, VP: Constitution ‘on its head’ [via Political Wire]

Fixing the problem doesn’t mean voting out the feckless Democrats or the obstructionist Republicans. It doesn’t even mean voting out Senator Lieberman. As long as our legislative process is held in thrall to an economy of influence that nearly requires members to play nice with the special interests, the will of the people — on the left and on the right — will continue to be stymied on every issue, in every Congress, under every administration.

Lawrence Lessig, in an email for Change Congress [via squashed]

Work formerly done by reporters and producers is now routinely performed by political operatives and amateur ideologues of one stripe or another, whose goal is not to educate the public but to win. This is a trend not likely to change.

Mark Bowden, The Story Behind the Story

The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America’s flora. Only now, it’s being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest.

Rick Perlstein, In America, Crazy is a Preexisting Condition: Birthers, Health Care Hecklers and the Rise of Right-Wing Rage

…as time went by I think that knowledgeable, responsible commentators got tired of the [taking head] format, decided it was a very poor way of getting their points across, and mostly stopped doing it. Also, scholars will tend to agree with each other too often to make good television. So they were replaced by political hacks who know that their only job is to get the talking points of the day across and do everything possible to discredit their opponent. This has led to a deterioration in discourse that benefits those most willing to be outrageous.

Bruce Bartlett, on why the media is apt to allow discredited ideas on the air nowadays

Oh, to be a state or local official in America over the next 10 to 15 years, before somebody figures out the business model [to replace newspapers]. To gambol freely across the wastelands of an American city, as a local politician! It’s got to be one of the great dreams in the history of American corruption.

David Simon, quoted in Newspapers last bastion against political corruption, says creator of The Wire

The basic elements of contemporary right-wing thought can be reduced to three: First, there has been the now-familiar sustained conspiracy, running over more than a generation, and reaching its climax in Roosevelt’s New Deal, to undermine free capitalism, to bring the economy under the direction of the federal government, and to pave the way for socialism or communism….

Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, written in 1964