Reality and the Right

Imagine a scientist debating a creationist.  He's invited to the 'debate' and shows up, prepared to rationally discuss the facts and present his case, which he is confident will prevail--he's right, after all.  The creationist denies the facts, derides the logic, and then comes up with 'facts' of his own: when the scientist has never heard of the dead animal buoyancy experiments which explain how the geological column was laid down by Noah's flood*, he merely reveals his own ignorance, and when he mentions that the results are unpublished he merely reveals the scientific conspiracy to hide the truth.  Then, in the midst of his better points--something boring about accumulation of point mutations in cross-species non-coding pseudo-genes that's just some mumbo-jumbo no one really understands--the creationist whips out the final, dramatic proof: fuzzy pictures of human and dinosaur tracks walking side by side.

The scientist's jaw hits the floor.  The breathtaking inanity of it has just broken his mind.  Victory! cries the creationist.

This is the situation that we find ourselves in today.  The Right--like the creationists whom prominent Right-wing darling O'Donnell defends--are systematically denying reality, while turning around and accusing their opponents of the very same thing.  This leaves us a choice: a choice between an uninspiring and deeply flawed party on the one hand, and the barking moonbats on the other.  So in the spirit of injecting a little reality into the discourse, here is "Eight False Things The Public “Knows” Prior To Election Day", originally posted by Dave Johnson:

There are a number things the public "knows" as we head into the election that are just false. If people elect leaders based on false information, the things those leaders do in office will not be what the public expects or needs.
Here are eight of the biggest myths that are out there:
1) President Obama tripled the deficit.
Reality: Bush's last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama's first budget reduced that to $1.29 trillion.
2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy.
Reality: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the "stimulus" was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been.
3) President Obama bailed out the banks.
Reality: While many people conflate the "stimulus" with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson. (Paulson also wanted the bailouts to be "non-reviewable by any court or any agency.") The bailouts passed and began before the 2008 election of President Obama.
4) The stimulus didn't work.
Reality: The stimulus worked, but was not enough. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.
5) Businesses will hire if they get tax cuts.
Reality: A business hires the right number of employees to meet demand. Having extra cash does not cause a business to hire, but a business that has a demand for what it does will find the money to hire. Businesses want customers, not tax cuts.
6) Health care reform costs $1 trillion.
Reality: The health care reform reduces government deficits by $138 billion.
7) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is "going broke," people live longer, fewer workers per retiree, etc.
Reality: Social Security has run a surplus since it began, has a trust fund in the trillions, is completely sound for at least 25 more years and cannot legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit (compare that to the military budget!) Life expectancy is only longer because fewer babies die; people who reach 65 live about the same number of years as they used to.
8) Government spending takes money out of the economy.
Reality: Government is We, the People and the money it spends is on We, the People. Many people do not know that it is government that builds the roads, airports, ports, courts, schools and other things that are the soil in which business thrives. Many people think that all government spending is on "welfare" and "foreign aid" when that is only a small part of the government's budget.
This stuff really matters.
If the public votes in a new Congress because a majority of voters think this one tripled the deficit, and as a result the new people follow the policies that actually tripled the deficit, the country could go broke.
If the public votes in a new Congress that rejects the idea of helping to create demand in the economy because they think it didn't work, then the new Congress could do things that cause a depression.
If the public votes in a new Congress because they think the health care reform will increase the deficit when it is actually projected to reduce the deficit, then the new Congress could repeal health care reform and thereby make the deficit worse. And on it goes.

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*I really, really wish I was making this up.