Last updated on February 9th, 2013 at 03:02 pm
As you were happily eating your French freedom fries this Independence Day, the armchair patriots of the Republican Party via their conservative media outlets were stewing in a marinade of right wing lies about your President. The usual suspects — Karl Rove and Breitbart’s site — are involved. They kicked off the celebration of our independence by lying on Saturday.
Sure, this is nothing new, but this time around the lie was so blatant, so horrifically obvious, that it should be noted for it tells us something important about the Republican Party and its followers.
The conservatives have decided that the President is spending July 4th in Paris, France to raise money for his campaign. They are outraged, I tell you! OUTRAGED!
What kind of Muslim Kenyan Socialist spends 4th of July in Paris!? Oh, well, yeah. Okay. It kinda makes sense if you believe everything they say. And therein lies the rub.
Here’s Ezra Klein sitting in for Rachel Maddow and detailing the latest big right wing lie:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
In reality land, the President is actually spending the day at the White House giving a barbeque for our troops. Sinner! Here’s their announcement:
“Happy Fourth! In each of the past three years, President Obama has marked Independence Day with a celebration at the White House featuring a concert, organized by the USO, to honor members of the U.S. military and their families.
Tonight, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will continue the tradition by hosting more than 1,200 troops and military families for fireworks and a concert featuring country music star Brad Paisley.”
And of course, it’s worth noting in passing that it is W. Mitt Romney who lived in France while dodging the draft, speaks fluent French, and is spending his Fourth ensconced in an 8 million dollar elite paradise that his son hopes real Americans don’t discover and ruin because they like having it to themselves. Rah rah.
First of the big outlets to spread the lie about Obama spending the 4th in Paris was Andrew McCarthy of the National Review made this announcement, writing:
Final Jeopardy – Category is OBAMA: The answer is: Fundraising in Paris
Karl Rove tweeted out McCarthy’s obvious lie on June 30th:
Final Jeopardy – How will Obama be spending American Independence Day this week? http://bit.ly/LatMhu
It’s now July 4th, and Rove hasn’t corrected his Tweet.
How could Andrew of the National Review have known this was a lie? Well, for starters, he linked to Breitbart.com. I kid you not. It’s as if they don’t know or don’t care that Breitbart’s site is a known source for lies, selectively edited tape, and emotionally questionable bullies.
Obama Campaign Celebrates Independence Day … with Fundraiser in Paris
Apparently tiring of US soil as a source of campaign dollars, the Obama campaign is headed overseas — with its celebrity friends in tow. The European Obama campaign starts next week in Paris on July 4 with a reception organized by various fundraising heavy-hitters. Independence Day fundraisers in Paris – now that’s a flag-waving campaign.
Breitbart’s writer Ben Shapiro was of course outraged in all his patriotic glory, and offered a thin bridge from Obama campaign to Obama sorta, by sneering that maybe only in France can Obama still find cheering throngs. That leads the reader to think that Obama will indeed be there.
But Shapiro got his story from the Hollywood Reporter, whose story was headlined “George Clooney to Appear at Mega-Dollar Obama Fundraisers in Geneva”
Yes, the story is about Geneva but if you dive into it, in the last two paragraphs we learn that they will kick off in Paris. Clearly Obama wasn’t going to BE THERE , as it reads:
Meanwhile, the Continental branch of the Obama fundraising effort will kick off next week in Paris with an Independence Day reception at the Rosenbloom Collection on the chic Rue du Chevaleret. Organizers Forrest Alogna, Pamela Boulet, Zachary James Miller, Valerie Picard, Joe Smallhoover and Curtis Young will host an early-evening event whose ticket prices range from $250 to $1,500.
This led predictably to the outraged Fox army condemning the “socialist” President on Twitter.
@FoxNewsMom wrote:
Fitting: Comrade Obama Campaign to Celebrate 4th of July in Socialist France: scaredmonkeys.com/2012/07/01/bar…
And much ado about how the President hates America, blah blah yada puke.
I know you’ve run into these folks in person, if not online. It doesn’t matter what facts you send their way. They are convinced that only they know the truth, and they’re super, duper angry.
Since we occasionally see a person spouting such right wing outrage go off their rocker (“one bad apple” defense should be turned into “poisoned right wing apple orchard”) and either run screaming from the cockpit of a plane or go on a shooting rampage to get rid of the socialist garbage, it’s time to ask ourselves how to deal with people who live in an alternate reality.
Do you think reality has any bearing at all on the Right? No, you know better than that by now. It matters not what the AP reports or the White House or the fact that there are itineraries for the President and the schedule is available to any who wish to look. The pictures and video won’t matter. Facts don’t matter.
On July 2nd, Michele Bachmann was on Piers Morgan spreading the utter fabrication that Obama was charging Americans a 3% tax on their houses to pay for ObamaCares. This lie came from a chain email that was debunked years ago. Conservatives spent the Post-ACA ruling days steeped in Death Panel revivals and numerous other conspiracy theories involving God and epilepsy.
What kind of party purposefully exists on lies? What kind of people fall for the lies and then thuggishly, angrily throw them in the faces of everyone they know for months with nary a care when you reply all with Snopes.Com debunking them?
The time has come to declare our independence from the lying cons on the Right, whose insane army of drone thugs never, ever show even a moment of shame for maliciously lying – even when doused in facts. They are immune to facts. And the really sad thing is, some of these people – the cult members – are nice people in person. They are our relatives, our friends, our co-workers, and our neighbors. But when the President comes up, they turn into slobbering zombies of hate. It’s okay if they scare you a little bit. They should.
We are not meant to accept pure fabrications as reality, nor is this politics as usual. When one party operates within a demonstrably proven false reality, we have a problem.
They claim you are divisive when you fact check them. They call you a partisan or accuse you of being an Obama loving Socialist. You may well be an Obama loving Socialist, but that isn’t why you are bothered by reality nor does it discount or disparage your accurate version of reality as it’s intended to.
Sadly, this accusation is only a projection from people who believe everything they are told and do not believe facts when they read them. They believe everything the Republican leaders and conservative media tell them. They are tools of the highest order, being used and abused. They don’t care about fact checking and Google is only there to help them spread the latest chain email of lies.
I suggest to you that this July 4th be our independence day from the lying liars and their thuggish behavior. It’s time to say enough. It’s time to shake your head in calm condemnation of the liar over dinner. It’s time for people of all political beliefs to insist that at the very least, political leaders and media be accurate about something so clear and so obvious.
If we don’t take a stand for reality, we’re heading to dangerous waters. Demand that reality prevails and refuse to accept alternative, paranoid reality of the deranged conservative cult.
Does Karl Rove have no shame? Does the National Review have any standards at all? Where are the retractions or corrections? This is shame worthy behavior, and they deserve to be ridiculed and mocked for it. The Republican War on Reality is a sign of just how empty their party has become. When all you have are outright lies, what do you stand for?
While the Right wing lies about President Obama’s Fourth of July, he will be spending it as he always has since he became President — with the troops.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
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