Ideological Drivel on the Senate Floor

I saw a Senate floor debate the other day concerning the Fairness Doctrine. No, it’s not being reinstated, nor is anyone pushing for its reinstatement. In fact, President Obama has repeatedly made the point that he is opposed to the Fairness Doctrine, which the assorted right wing radio talk show hosts keep insisting that he favors anyway, truth be damned.

The Senate exchange I witnessed was between extreme right wing conservative Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) and liberal Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). DeMint, whose constituency is supposedly the state of South Carolina but which is in reality the one person of Rush Limbaugh, proposed an amendment (to another, completely unrelated bill) that prohibited the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine. For those of you unfamiliar with it, this was a federal regulation, in effect from 1949 to 1987, that required licensed broadcasting stations (using public radio frequencies) to reasonably present diverse sides to discussions, a well-informed public and electorate being the aim. There were also regulations promoting news, weather, religious and children’s programming on stations. When the Fairness Doctrine was rescinded, these other rules remained in effect. But the language of DeMint’s amendment hinted that these rules would also go by the wayside. So Senator Durbin submitted an amendment to DeMint’s amendment (both amendments passed) restating what was already in the law books concerning these other rules so as to avoid any future misinterpretation of DeMint's amendment. And then DeMint spoke out a flood of ideological invective in opposition to Durbin’s amendment, calling it socialist, communist, and a “back door” attempt to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.

When I was a kid, I would often encounter communist ideological propaganda emanating from those totalitarian states behind the Iron Curtain or in the Far East. Those promulgating this stuff had their own specialized vocabulary as well as their own completely revised version of history that supported their propaganda. This was all coming from the left. On the right, there was also an ideology of racism in this country that decreed segregation and which accused those in favor of integration and civil rights of having loose morals and being pro-communist. Nowadays, I’m hearing ideological drivel as well, but it all seems to be coming from the right, and is found in talk shows hosted by the likes of Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin. And some of our elected politicians (like Senator DeMint, but he’s not the only one) have decided to take this dead-end road and spout this garbage. Sad, so sad!