If you have the time, there are all of two paragraphs here that are worth reading and pondering at length. My favourite part (which refers specifically to the GOP but which can, without too much trouble, be extended to right-wing discourse in general):
The GOP has mastered an error condition in the political process, an infinite loop of abstraction that drains all meaning from political speech. They don’t have to focus on meaning, really, at all, they just turn up the burbling nonsense until we all descend past the noise machine event horizon into infinitely unproductive debate, never to re-emerge.
One stellar example of this is, I think, any Scott McClellan press gaggle that you can find here. As any regular reader of a Scottie gaggle will know, these little get-togethers aren't meant to impart any actual information. Rather, they've turned into an elaborate, carefully-choreographed game in which the White House Press Corps try to phrase their questions as carefully as possible, while McClellan pulls out a numbered excuse as to why he can ignore it and move on the next questioner.
The question has been answered already, it's been addressed previously by the President, you have to ask someone else, Scottie disagrees with your characterization, yes I know what the President said yesterday but he misspoke and, by the way, if you have any evidence to back up that question, he'd be happy to hear it. And the dance continues and time passes and, eventually, everyone leaves, no one being any the wiser.
The absolutely best example of this descent into the right-wing noise machine recently is, of course, the debate over the breaching of the levees of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Ignore the years of warnings from numerous people about how the levees simply weren't built to withstand a Cat 5 storm, and how they desperately needed strengthening, and how everyone watching Katrina barrel in from the Gulf could see what kind of kick-ass monster storm it was.
Ignore how countless experts talked about the very real possibility of the levees not being able to withstand a storm of this magnitude and of the levees failing or of being "overwhelmed" and the possibility of massive and catastrophic flooding and how, months after Katrina, thousands are still homeless and dead bodies are still being hauled out of ruined homes and hundreds are still missing.
Yes, all of these issues that might actually be worth, you know, discussing have been savagely swept from the table of public discourse, to be replaced by the only debate of value: Is being "topped" significantly different from being "breached" because, after all, they're two different words and, technically, nothing is more important than making people understand that two different words always have two totally different meanings and should never, ever, ever be confused unless you're talking about "sexual relations" and "blowjobs" which, of course, mean exactly the same thing and are grounds for impeachment but that's, like, a totally different situation altogether and if you claim that it's somehow analogous, well, I just have to disagree with your characterization, don't I?
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