The Big Lie

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Andrew Sullivan

It seems to me that the last year or so in America's political culture has represented the triumph of untruth. And the untruth was propagated by a deliberate, simple and systemic campaign to kill Obama's presidency in its crib. Emergency measures in a near-unprecedented economic collapse - the bank bailout, the auto-bailout, the stimulus - were described by the right as ideological moves of choice, when they were, in fact, pragmatic moves of necessity. The increasingly effective isolation of Iran's regime - and destruction of its legitimacy from within - was portrayed as a function of Obama's weakness, rather than his strength. The health insurance reform - almost identical to Romney's, to the right of the Clintons in 1993, costed to reduce the deficit, without a public option, and with millions more customers for the insurance and drug companies - was turned into a socialist government take-over.

Every one of these moves could be criticized in many ways. What cannot be done honestly, in my view, is to create a narrative from all of them to describe Obama as an anti-American hyper-leftist, spending the US into oblivion. But since this seems to be the only shred of thinking left on the right (exacerbated by the justified flight of the educated classes from a party that is now openly contemptuous of learning), it became a familiar refrain - pummeled into our heads day and night by talk radio and Fox. If you think I'm exaggerating, try the following thought experiment.

If a black Republican president had come in, helped turn around the banking and auto industries (at a small profit!), insured millions through the private sector while cutting Medicare, overseen a sharp decline in illegal immigration, ramped up the war in Afghanistan, reinstituted pay-as-you go in the Congress, set up a debt commission to offer hard choices for future debt reduction, and seen private sector job growth outstrip the public sector's in a slow but dogged recovery, somehow I don't think that Republican would be regarded as a socialist.

This is the era of the Big Lie, in other words, and it translates into a lot of little lies - "death panels," "out-of-control" spending, "apologies for America" etc. - designed to concoct a false narrative so simple and so familiar it actually succeeded in getting into people's minds in the midst of a brutal recession. And integral to this process have been conservative "intellectuals" who should and do know better, but have long since sacrificed intellectual honesty for the cheap thrills of enabling power-grabs. And few lies represent this intellectual cooptation of talk radio/FNC propaganda better than the lie that Obama has publicly rebutted the idea of American exceptionalism.

Where does one start? Where one always starts with these things - Jonah Goldberg:

Last year, when asked if he believed in American exceptionalism,

President Obama

responded, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."

This reminded me of the wonderful scene in

Pixar

's "The Incredibles," in which the mom says "everyone's special" and her son replies, "Which is another way of saying no one is." But at least the president made room for the sentiment that America is a special place, even if he chalked it up to a kind of benign provincialism.

Oh really?

Here is the full Obama quote:

I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.

I'm enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world.

If you think about the site of this summit and what it means, I don't think America should be embarrassed to see evidence of the sacrifices of our troops, the enormous amount of resources that were put into Europe postwar, and our leadership in crafting an Alliance that ultimately led to the unification of Europe. We should take great pride in that.

And if you think of our current situation, the United States remains the largest economy in the world. We have unmatched military capability. And

I think that we have a core set of values that are enshrined in our Constitution, in our body of law, in our democratic practices, in our belief in free speech and equality, that, though imperfect, are exceptional.

Now, the fact that I am very proud of my country and I think that we've got a whole lot to offer the world does not lessen my interest in recognizing the value and wonderful qualities of other countries, or recognizing that we're not always going to be right, or that other people may have good ideas, or that in order for us to work collectively, all parties have to compromise and that includes us.

And so I see no contradiction between believing that

America has a continued extraordinary role in leading the world

towards peace and prosperity and recognizing that that leadership is incumbent, depends on, our ability to create partnerships because we create partnerships because we can't solve these problems alone.

In other words, Obama emphatically doesn't reduce the idea of American exceptionalism to "benign provincialism." Quite the contrary: he explicitly asserts that the values enshrined in the Constitution are exceptional, and defends them and the US's history in front of a foreign audience. It's worth pointing out this factual error at such length because everyone in the conservative movement has already made it.

And that's hardly an exaggeration. Here are Ramesh Ponnuru and Rich Lowry:

...while acknowledging that America has been a force for good,

he has all but denied the idea that America is an exceptional nation

. Asked whether he believed in American exceptionalism during a European trip last spring, Obama said, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exception­alism." (Is it just a coincidence that he reached for examples of former hegemons?)

They acknowledge here that the full quote should have run (though the original piece remains uncorrected). Said Dinesh D'Souza in his infamous Forbes piece:

This is known as American exceptionalism. But when asked at a 2009 press conference whether he believed in this ideal, Obama said no. America, he suggested, is no more unique or exceptional than Britain or Greece or any other country.

No surprise that the magazine didn't catch that error during its post-publication fact check - another one of its authors made the same mistake here. Monica Crowley in The Washington Times:

During his public life, Barack Obama has often referred to his biracial background and itinerant childhood and has said, "In no other country on Earth is my story even possible." True.

But earlier this year, while attending the European summit of the Group of 20 major economic countries, the president was asked if he believed in American exceptionalism. He replied, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism, and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."

Here's Victor Davis Hanson: "After all, Obama has rejected in explicit language the notion of American exceptionalism." And Michael Barone:

"I believe in American exceptionalism," Obama said on one of his trips to Europe, "just as I suspect that Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." In other words, not at all. One cannot imagine Presidents Roosevelt, Truman or Kennedy, Eisenhower or Reagan, uttering such sentiments.

Here's video of Charles Krauthammer making the same mistake. Ken Blackwell at Townhall:

When asked if he believes in American exceptionalism, President Obama said yes, but he was sure that the British and the Belgians also believed in their countries' exceptionalism.

President Obama's version of American exceptionalism is Lake Woebegon's children: they're all above average. Or perhaps, he'd be more at home in Alice in Wonderland's Caucus Race, where everyone runs and everyone gets prizes.

What's especially remarkable about this hackery - and there are numerous other examples - is that these conservative authors don't just egregiously misrepresent the president's actual position. It's that all of them actually cite, as evidence, an out of context line from the very speech that proves their analysis is wrong.

You can call this truthiness if you like. Better, the Dish believes, to call it what it is. A deliberate campaign of misinformation. A Big Lie.

http://andrewsulliva...cy-problem.html

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Oh, that is so ripe!

[Pooky 3,825]

Andrew Sullivan? Isn't he Billy Mays' old mate?

####### pitch, this time around.

[luckytxn 2,265]

I see the sheep are still blindly following their Socialist leaders.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

The problem is, Obama and the Democrats have done an abysmal job of countering all of this garbage.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

We had Vietnam...and then everyone seemed to forget about it sans "Iraq War". Then we had eight years of getting corn holed by Bush, Cheney and Co. and America has already forgotten about that also.

####### has happened to this country ? It's like we are on a fast track to stupidity.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The problem is, Obama and the Democrats have done an abysmal job of countering all of this garbage.

You mean, like Newt and the Republicans did with, "Withering on the vine"?

[mawilson 2,133]

Nice article.

[DEDixon 39]

as they said in "The Wire" many times, "it is all about the game." you get killed, it isn't personal, it is just how the game has played out. this is politics too, it isn't about common sense, it is about how individual and groups play the game.

i think obama's spending was right on except for health care. i think a lot of people looked at HC spending as just another dem entitlement program enacted at the worse time possible.

one time, a long time ago, steve jobs said to bill gates, apple's machine is better and gates said "that doesn't matter." so even in business... all about how well you play the game.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

O's actions betray his words.

[alienlovechild 75]

We had Vietnam...and then everyone seemed to forget about it sans "Iraq War". Then we had eight years of getting corn holed by Bush, Cheney and Co. and America has already forgotten about that also.

It took the foolishness of Obama and the Dems to make Bush and the GOP look good by comparison in just two years. The Democrats still have the White House and the Senate so shifting all the blame back the GOP isn't exactly fair but that's going to be the line until 2012.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

It took the foolishness of Obama and the Dems to make Bush and the GOP look good by comparison in just two years. The Democrats still have the White House and the Senate so shifting all the blame back the GOP isn't exactly fair but that's going to be the line until 2012.

So I'm going to guess that you were either comatose or not on this planet when Bush invaded Iraq, or worse yet when our economy spiraled down into a h*ll hole by the time he was on his way out.

So what was it...comatose or not on this planet ?

[alienlovechild 75]

So I'm going to guess that you were either comatose or not on this planet when Bush invaded Iraq, or worse yet when our economy spiraled down into a h*ll hole by the time he was on his way out.

So what was it...comatose or not on this planet ?

You mean the same planet that disagrees with most Obama's economic policies?

Obama hasn't exactly been more successful than Bush in Iraq or Afghanistan and he's done nothing to improve the economy. Most people who vote know this and that's why the Democrats didn't want to talk about these issues for the last few months.