Proposition 30 in California offers a comparison of the right's propensity to exaggerate for effect.
The right campaigned against Prop 30 as a sham. It claimed that the tax increases would not go primarily for education, but for pensions, raises for officials; etc.
This was the main argument against the Proposition. The people of California were not fooled. They didn't buy the lies.
And what has transpired? First of all the budget was passed on time, because the spending bills that were in it did not need the 2/3 vote, since another initiative passed that removed that idiotic requirement, and Conservative legislators, thanks to Republican stubborn adherence to immigrant bashing, are irrelevant.
So, laws are being passed, and the state is beginning to move, the economy is picking up, money is flowing again. Moreover, educational finance has seen the most meaningful reform in fifty years.
So, laws are being passed, and the state is beginning to move, the economy is picking up, money is flowing again. Moreover, educational finance has seen the most meaningful reform in fifty years.
Governor Brown has courageously included in the budget a educational spending provision that finally puts more money into economically disadvantaged areas. And there is, for the first time in seven years, REVENUE!
Money that can begin to erase the damage of eight years of austerity by yet another Hollywood actor governor, was elected on the promise to cut yet another tax, then ruled with austerity, starving programs. He almost pulled it off, until the damage and the discovery of illegitimacy doomed his leadership.
Arnold was supposedly a moderate, but education suffered enormously under his misguided "leadership". He was no moderate, he was the same old thing: austerity is promised to cure the economy, and only makes it much worse.
A Hollywood actor is elected, cuts the tax rates of himself and his other rich friends on the promise that it will help the economy, people are fired, demand for goods and services drop, and a recession follows. Governor Reagan did the same thing. California has endured over 30 years of Republican led austerity splurges, with untold damage to human capital and to children.
Educators were left out by Arnold. Budgets were cut to the bone. And the children suffered.
And Prop 30. Well, the cons promised that no money would be produced to help education. It was all a ploy to add to the greedy teacher's pensions they claimed.
Nonsense...and lies!
Sure enough, not a peep from the right now. Not a damn peep.
They lied. They flat lied about the consequences of Prop 30. The right's propagandists lied about Prop 98, that MANDATES the amount of new money for education. There was literally no way Prop 30 could not be spent on education. It was the law; and they knew it.
The right's "approach" to almost everything is that lying is just part of the political game. That somehow it is alright to lie.
When I argued that Prop 30 would help education, to my con friends, I was dismissed. No, they said, there would be No new money for education.
That was based on a lie, not on honest appraisal. Now, my friends may not have been lying, but they were operating on talking points that were provided by liars.
And the lies about the Affordable Care Act are likewise as onerous.
The difference is that richer interest groups are pouring billions more than they spent against Prop 30, into a dis-information campaign to discredit the law. And the premises of opposition are based on bald-faced lies!
Proposition 30 predictions were wrong. They just weren't wrong not because of honest errors or mis-understandings about the law, but because people were lying. This is a calculated effort, based on lying, to sway public opinion.
Now, I am sure liberal proponents exaggerate for effect at times. But I would argue the right lies more all the time. It seems to be part of their political rules; government is bad anyway, so lying about it is okay.
So, cons base their arguments on lies all the time. Prop 30 was misrepresented during the election, the right was wrong again, they were wrong because they were lying!
We would expect an apology, if the right had any honor it it. We will get nothing but more lies.
Have any of you conservatives out there ever wondered why lies have to be used by your interests so much?
Have you ever worried when your values are represented by falsehoods?
Arnold was supposedly a moderate, but education suffered enormously under his misguided "leadership". He was no moderate, he was the same old thing: austerity is promised to cure the economy, and only makes it much worse.
A Hollywood actor is elected, cuts the tax rates of himself and his other rich friends on the promise that it will help the economy, people are fired, demand for goods and services drop, and a recession follows. Governor Reagan did the same thing. California has endured over 30 years of Republican led austerity splurges, with untold damage to human capital and to children.
Educators were left out by Arnold. Budgets were cut to the bone. And the children suffered.
And Prop 30. Well, the cons promised that no money would be produced to help education. It was all a ploy to add to the greedy teacher's pensions they claimed.
Nonsense...and lies!
Sure enough, not a peep from the right now. Not a damn peep.
They lied. They flat lied about the consequences of Prop 30. The right's propagandists lied about Prop 98, that MANDATES the amount of new money for education. There was literally no way Prop 30 could not be spent on education. It was the law; and they knew it.
The right's "approach" to almost everything is that lying is just part of the political game. That somehow it is alright to lie.
When I argued that Prop 30 would help education, to my con friends, I was dismissed. No, they said, there would be No new money for education.
That was based on a lie, not on honest appraisal. Now, my friends may not have been lying, but they were operating on talking points that were provided by liars.
And the lies about the Affordable Care Act are likewise as onerous.
The difference is that richer interest groups are pouring billions more than they spent against Prop 30, into a dis-information campaign to discredit the law. And the premises of opposition are based on bald-faced lies!
Proposition 30 predictions were wrong. They just weren't wrong not because of honest errors or mis-understandings about the law, but because people were lying. This is a calculated effort, based on lying, to sway public opinion.
Now, I am sure liberal proponents exaggerate for effect at times. But I would argue the right lies more all the time. It seems to be part of their political rules; government is bad anyway, so lying about it is okay.
So, cons base their arguments on lies all the time. Prop 30 was misrepresented during the election, the right was wrong again, they were wrong because they were lying!
We would expect an apology, if the right had any honor it it. We will get nothing but more lies.
Have any of you conservatives out there ever wondered why lies have to be used by your interests so much?
Have you ever worried when your values are represented by falsehoods?
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