MoveOn's Politics of Deception

*More in the extended section*

MoveOn's Politics of Deception
By Robert Stacy McCain
FrontPageMagazine.com May 10, 2006

On page 217 of DONKEY CONS, in the epigraph to the concluding chapter we quote an aphorism by Ann Coulter:

"Liberals simply can't grasp the problem Lexis-Nexis poses to their incessant lying."

The politics of deceit will ultimately destroy anyone who practices it, and Coulter is exactly right that deceit has become "incessant" among liberals. Witness this message from Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.org:

The influence of big money and corporations in politics is out of control. From Jack Abramoff to Tom DeLay, it's clear that lobbyists and big corporations have way too much power in American politics.

But we can fight back and win.Author and political strategist David Sirota has a new book out entitled, "Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption have Conquered our Government and How We Can Take it Back."

Tonight, Tuesday, May 9, our friends at The American Prospect magazine and the AFL-CIO are hosting a book launch party and panel discussion entitled, "Fighting the Hostile Takeover in America's Red States" Speakers include Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D), author Thomas Frank, columnist Harold Meyerson, David Sirota and, ah...well me. I'll be joining the panel to talk about how MoveOn members
make a difference across the country.

This little MoveOn.org e-mail contains multiple lies:

It promotes a book whose fundamental premise is false. Having recently co-authored a book on this subject, I can with complete confidence assure anyone who would care to investigate that "big money and corruption" are no more in control of the American government than at any time in the past 50 years -- and certainly no more so than during the heydays of Jim Wright, Dan Rostenkowski and Bill Clinton.

It is false that "big corporations" are the most notable source of corruption in Washington. Abramoff's scams and swindles were not perpetrated on behalf of Microsoft or Exxon. Rather, he lobbied chiefly on behalf of Indian tribal casinos.

Who is "we" and how can "we fight back and win"? Sirota's book's proposed solution is (surprise, surprise!) to elect more Democrats and impose more liberal policies. Right.

The event is sponsored by the American Prospect magazine and the AFL-CIO. Don't the wealthy liberals who bankroll the American Prospect qualify as "big money"? And since when is the AFL-CIO a force battling against "corruption" ... hello?

Tom Matzzie couldn't elect a dogcatcher in the Red States. He was one of the masterminds of the blunder-prone Kerry campaign, and an activist for the AFL-CIO, where he did nothing to halt or reverse Big Labor's disastrous membership declines. Matzzie's incompetence is notorious.

Taking political advice from Matzzie is like taking driving lessons from Patrick Kennedy. And finally, how do MoveOn.org members "make a difference" -- other than gullibly sending money to the fools like Tom Matzzie who are misleading them?

The reason the politics of deceit inevitably fails is that people are not stupid. Especially in an age when information flows freely via the Internet, you can't pass off Microsoft Word documents as 1970s-era National Guard records. You can't pretend Sirota — a native of New Haven, Conn., who grew up in Philadelphia — cares more about the people of the "red states" than do, inter alia, Tom Coburn or John Cornyn. You cannot forever make the working man believe that greedy corrupt union officials are his friends, nor that his enemies are the investors and entrepreneurs who make possible a growing economy.

The politics of deceit, alas, has practicioners in both parties. But ultimately the American people cannot be deceived forever, and no amount of hype, no amount of money, no amount of propaganda churned out by the likes of Tom Matzzie will prevent the truth from conquering the lie. Even if this campaign of deceit results in a November victory for Democrats, the resulting regime will be a political deck of cards, a parliament of fools, a crooked coalition that will fly apart in confusion at the first solid blow.