The GOP Smear Machine

The GOP Smear Machine

Did the White House threaten to close a military base in Nebraska if Sen. Nelson didn’t vote for health reform? No, but the accuracy is meaningless when it comes to the GOP smear machine.

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Did the White House threaten to close a military base in Nebraska if Sen. Ben Nelson refuses to fall in line with their healthcare plan? Both parties have denied the allegation–but as The Nation‘s Chris Hayes points out on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, the accuracy of this rumor is meaningless when it comes to the GOP smear machine. Already being called “treason” by Glenn Beck and Co., this latest story just signals the kind of unfounded “infection” that can start on Twitter and conveniently spread to nightly Fox News–regardless of bountiful evidence against its accuracy. If there’s a silver lining to it, Hayes points out, is that it all takes place in a self-contained conservative universe–and that ultimately, the Republicans have proven that they are irrelevant in a substantive healthcare debate.

Fernanda Diaz

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Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

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As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

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