The level of delusion the Right Wing clings to these days is truly amazing at times. They are happy to pump out lies, and shout them from the rooftops as if they were God’s Own Truth. They are masters at ignoring any truths that might contradict their world view. They have moved from rational argument to deflection..and simply refuse to deal with anyone who is not part of the Cult as a human whose view of reality might disagree, but is worth testing with presentation of evidence, and logical argument.
Earlier today, I ran into yet another excellent example of their delusional state as I was skimming through posts on Quora, and thought I would pass it along. I have added some comments and links throughout to support the discussion.
A Cultist posted the following question: “Why do Democrats have such a hard time processing the idea that both Trump and Biden can be bad? Every time someone criticizes Biden, it’s immediately a rant on Trump. It’s almost like a mindless script. And aren’t they against whataboutisms?”
The first failure of this question is the assumption that Pres. Biden never gets any criticism. This is laughable false as it is trivial to find a number of Democrats and Independents who are not shy at letting their displeasure at how Pres. Biden is handling a given issue, or the priorities he has set, be known. In addition, while I have seen such criticisms (and have sent a couple or three myself to the White House), the ONLY time I see a “rant on #45” is when one of the cultists posts an obviously false and delusion statement of praise about him, and/or claims that the only salvation for America is for him to be re-elected.
I was thinking of addressing the foolish question myself, when I saw an answer by William Weir (Author, journalist, minister) and read through it. It is SUCH a little gem of calm rationality and abolishing the questioner with facts I did not think I could improve upon it…so, instead, I wrote this blog essay, to spread it further through the world. Rev. Weir’s reply goes like this:
“Because that is a dangerous and ridiculous narrative being pushed by right wing demagogues under the guise of being independent. Let’s review the last forty years under both Democrats and Republicans.
Gary Hart and John Edwards were both charismatic frontrunners for the presidential nomination until they had affairs with consenting adults and their careers ended. Donald Trump has admitted to cheating on each of his wives, boasted he was a sex offender and a pedophile, has been credibly accused of rape, has been found by a jury to be liable for a sexual assault, and is on track to win the Republican nomination for the third consecutive time.
Every Republican President in the last forty years has more than doubled the deficit. (Reagan actually tripled the previous record and GW Bush turned a record surplus into a record deficit more than quadruple the previous record.) Over that same time, every Democrat has cut the deficit by half or more. Trump is the only President in history to serve a full term and increase the deficit every year he was in office. Clinton is the only President in history to serve a full term and decrease the deficit every year he was in office (but Biden is so far on track to do the same). HERE is an article detailing this deficit growth. The following chart is color coded by party…
Unemployment effectively doubled under the last two Republican Presidents and was effectively cut in half by the last three Democrats. Workforce participation has fallen under the last two Republicans and risen under two of the last three Democrats. Again, very true, as the following chart shows us:
In the last sixty years domestic oil production has fallen under every Republican President except Trump while rising under every Democrat except Clinton, with the largest increase coming under Obama. While I am no fan of burning old dinosaurs, this claim is correct.
In the last fifty years, Republican Presidents have combined for 335 indictments of members of their administrations. And even if you forget Nixon and Trump the other Republicans combined for 44 indictments. Over that same time Democrats have combined for only 3. Note that this is for convictions…which does not include indictments dealt with otherwise.
So no, the two parties aren’t the same. But you were specifically talking about Trump and Biden, so let’s focus on that for a moment.
Trump set a record for the most corruption in an administration with 215 indictments of members of his administration (not counting his own indictments post-Presidency. Biden sits at zero.
Not only #45, but most Republic*nt administrations over the past few decades have far outstripped the Democrats…HERE is a more detailed exposition on this topic.
Trump set a record for the most job losses in history, the largest jump in unemployment since the Great Depression. Biden has already set a record for most jobs added to the economy in a single term (and even if you exclude the jobs he recovered that Trump lost he’s still on track to break Clinton’s record). He also saw the largest peacetime drop in unemployment, and we hit the lowest peacetime unemployment since before the Great Depression.
Trump saw the six largest point drops in the history of the Dow. Biden saw the Dow set a record for most record highs in a year. Trump was the first President in history to maintain a debt to GDP ratio over 100% for his entire term. Biden has seen the best GDP growth in forty years. And as mentioned before, while Trump increased the deficit every year, Biden has so far lowered it every year. While this is a valid point, as the following chart shows, the reality is that what party holds the Presidency does not have a HUGE effect on stock market returns in the long run.
So I think you’re confusing “whataboutism” with common sense and critical thinking skills.
So what is it that you find so bad under Biden? Is it the record oil production? The complete absence of corruption in an administration? The record low unemployment? The rising workforce participation? The record job gains? The record high wages? The record cuts to the deficit?
No one has to compare Biden to Trump to make him look good. You can do that by comparing him to almost any President in history. But what makes your question most absurd is that Trump looks bad compared to any President in history. We’re just in a peculiar time in history where we have seen one of the worst Presidents in history immediately followed by one of the best. And that juxtaposition should make anyone sane see Biden as even better than he is and Trump as even worse than he was (if that’s possible). So when you say they’re both bad, you look like a complete idiot. And only someone on the far right would be sinister enough or brainwashed enough to try to convince anyone that Biden has been bad or especially that he’s somehow on par with how bad Trump was”
Feel free to pass this along to anyone (especially Cultists!)
Be safe; Wear your Mask; Wash your hands; Social Distance – Covid is still with us!
Bee Man Dave