Truths that distress media, Democrats

David Hirsanyi:

Or as DG Myers tweeted, “at least, a contestable proposition they are too lazy to contest.”

Democrats are energetically attempting to create the perception that Republicans — specifically, Paul Ryan — are running around Tampa making stuff up about Barack Obama (as if that’s necessary). And when I say Democrats, as regrettably cliché as it may sound, I also mean the mainstream media.

The following assertions, for instance, are true:

• Obama did cut over $700 billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare.
• The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare and cronyism.
• The Janesville, General Motors plant was closed down under Obama (though Ryan made a more nuanced assertion that we’ll cover below)
• Obama did blow off the bipartisan debt commission.
• Obama’s waivers do allow for the relaxing of work requirements in welfare reform.

Do some Republican speakers use politically hyperbolic rhetoric on occasion to attack the president on these points? No doubt. Are some of the accusers hypocrites. Sure. Is any of this out of line with traditional political campaign rhetoric? Hardly.

You expect advocates of the president to flail away after Ryan’s highly effective speech. The New Republic asks: “The Most Dishonest Convention Speech … Ever?” “At least five times,” Jonathan Cohn writes, “Ryan misrepresented the facts.” He then goes on to list five irrefutable facts that he finds ideologically distressing. Joan Walsh of MSNBC and Salon also writes of “Paul Ryan’s brazen lies,” as is her fact-challenged way, failing to offer one. Michael Tomasky claims Ryan’s speech was a “Web of Lies” but isn’t kind enough to find one for his column.

But take this Associated Press piece that is, no doubt, being run across the country: “FACT CHECK: Ryan Takes Factual Shortcuts in Speech.”

You know what’s funny about this piece? Not a single item highlighted is a factual shortcut or an untruth. They are simply items that put the president in a bad light. Now, some conclusions Ryan comes to might be contestable or they may make Ryan look like a hypocrite, but none of them are inaccurate.

The “post-truth” age, which James Fallows of the Atlantic refers to, is thriving among Democrats who’ve forsaken debate and have gone into the business by asserting that inconvenient truths are “lies” and using that assertion as a baseline for any debate that follows. Just read Fallows’ piece for evidence.

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There is more.

I have talked about Democrats substituting insults for logic for some time, but this is a new stage in their descent into avoiding debate at all cost by trying to shut down debate and criticism  of the candidate they support.  It is the equivalent of putting their hands over their ears and sticking their tongue out rather than engaging on the issues raised.