Republicans are obfuscating every Democratic initiative while using Fox News and other propagandists to skew reality. Their playbook is doom, gloom, fear and smear.
As Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and right-wing propagandists castigate the Obama administration, history is their worst enemy. They criticized Obama for shaking hands with Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, yet neglected to mention that Richard Nixon gave a Cadillac to Leonid Brezhnev.
Fox offered a bevy of Republicans to characterize Obama as placating dangerous dictators (Chavez isn’t a dictator, a fact Hannity apparently does not realize). They did not mention Ronald Reagan sending arms to Iran (Iran Contra). While they deified Reagan, they neglected to mention that during his second term he was vilified by conservatives as a useful idiot of the former Soviet Union.
Fox seems blissfully ignorant of the fact that the administration of George H.W. Bush put stinger missiles into the hands of the Taliban.
Republicans pilloried Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank for the bailout, yet avoided discussing Republican control of the Banking Committee from 1995 until 2006.
As for the tea parties, even Fox could not hide vile signs likening President Obama to Hitler. Meanwhile, a recent article in the “American Conservative” by Sean Scallon praised former President Jimmy Carter as more disciplined and courageous than Reagan.
At least some conservatives are considering a sober review of history while the extremist Republican party implodes.
Mark Tardif, Waterville

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