here we go again

If you've just had the misfortune of losing the presidential election and being beaten soudly in congressional races, as the democratic party has, I suppose it's not strange or unreasonable to go looking for the reason. What is unfortunate, however, is that journalists feel like they have to get involved and that they have to have the answer by tomorrow. What's doubly unfortunate is that whatever answers the news makers can come up with overnight is usually the one that becomes common knowledge.

And so it wasn't surpising that the folks who make news up here on the upper right coast turned to their favorite whipping child, the heartland evangelical. After all, there's tons of b-roll of these folks, and the New York Times has been hating on them for months now. You can read that entire piece here. It's astonishing to me that Ron Suskind and the folks at the Times could be so verbose and self-congratulatory in the process of myth-making.

But, myth or reality, they are the ones who write the news. And when some exit poll data came along which showed "moral values" as a top reason voters went to the polls last Tuesday that was more than enough evidence for news makers to come together and craft the story line for post election analysis: The (Christian Implied) Moral Values Majority Rebuked The Secular Leftists And Flexes Religous Piety Muscle.

Sounds clever right? And it gives the secular (non-religous) types all the excuse they need to croon about the religious freaks who live in the middle of the country. After all, it's best to pin your failures on people you already despire, it makes the hating that much easier. And since this narrative had already been reheared over and over in the minds of those who frequent the New York Times Sunday Magazine, all that was left to do on Wednesday night was build a factual case for what they already knew the narrative was. That method sounds familiar doesn't it? Suskind had just spent 8,000 words spelling it out and denouncing it. The whole reality-based notion gets foggy at this point.

No, I'm afraid the losses last week aren't that simple. And I'd recommend that folks put down their hate mongering and get at least two other opinions from people who may have taken a bit more time to think about things.

I can forgive the newsies their sins of beating a straw beast - they've gotten into the habit of doing it, but when I saw this, I knew I had to say something.