In case you hadn't noticed, radical Islamists are on the march in the Middle East, Russia is attacking its neighbors, Iran's nuclear ambitions are continuing unabated, Syria isn't really giving up its chemical weapons as it promised, children are being dumped onto our border, Venezuela is in an upheaval . . . and the New York Times is on the story.
Oh. Not the story. Not the actual substance of anything mentioned above. No. The New York Times is breathlessly reporting the real story, which is the dastardly attempt of Republicans to win votes by telling the voters these are serious challenges and Barack Obama is not up to the task. Never you worry: The Times will not fail to enforce accountability - not on the people elected to deal with these issues, but on the opposition party for having the nerve to make it known our leaders are failing:
Darkness is enveloping American politics.
With four weeks to go before the midterm elections, Republicans have made questions of how safe we are – from disease, terrorism or something unspoken and perhaps more ominous – central in their attacks against Democrats. Their message is decidedly grim: Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party run a government that is so fundamentally broken it cannot offer its people the most basic protection from harm.
Hear it on cable television and talk radio, where pundits and politicians play scientists speculating on whether Ebola will mutate into an airborne virus that kills millions. See it in the black-hooded, machine-gun-brandishing Islamic fighters appearing in campaign ads. Read about it in the unnerving accounts of the Secret Service leaving President Obama and his family exposed.
Republicans believe they have found the sentiment that will tie Congressional races together with a single national theme.
Got that? The problem is not the actual disturbing events happening across the globe - events the Obama Administration is completely ineffective in dealing with thanks to its feckless view of American power and its undying fealty to the America-hating left - but rather the nerve of Republicans to introduce "darkness" into the American political conversation by actually talking about these things.
Like the rest of the MSM, the Times long ago gave up on covering real news, and now merely peddles narratives concerning political strategy and messaging. It's not what's happening that's the news, it's how politicians are attempting to use it for their own benefit, and whether these efforts comport to the outcome desired by the editors of the Times.
Yes. It is a dark and dangerous world. And no, Barack Obama doesn't have the slightest idea what to do about it. We need a real leader. (And no, pretending to be a hawk every election cycle or so does not qualify you!) But the Times can't get past the fact that these rascally Republicans dare to say things that might make you upset. You ought to just relax and be glad we have a president who is going to make the planet heal and the rise of the oceans stop, because we are the ones we've been waiting for.
