November 12, 2012
In spite of what all of the obsessively blathering talking heads have told you, Barack Hussein Obama did not win this election for any of the reasons you are presently being told…
Not because:
- He won the single women vote
- He won 99.999% of the black vote
- He won the Hispanic vote
- He won the this or that vote
Or because Republicans were:
- Against amnesty
- Against public funding of abortion or birth control
- Against (or for) this, that, or the other
- Mean, unfeeling, insensitive, racist, etc.
Or because there has been a major shift in political philosophy in the country
Although all of that may be true, none of those things, either by themselves or in any combination you care to name, won this election for Obama. Obama won this election for one reason and one reason only – because of the (apparently still powerful) mainstream print and broadcast media, along with their cable counterparts.
Someone, I do not remember who, once said something to the effect that a republic cannot exist within the vacuum created by the absence of a free press. Well, I agree with that up to a point but would amend it a bit as follows:
A republic cannot exist within the vacuum created by the absence of a free and virtuous press!
In this country, we still have a free press, or at least we did as of election day. What we do not have is a virtuous press, and as a poet said, that has made all the difference. Just having a press gives you nothing special or good. On the other hand, having a virtuous press – filled with virtuous journalists who value doing the job over keeping it, who value principle over politics, and who both know and respect that, of all of the duties and responsibilities of a free press, the one that must never, ever be compromised is that to investigate, pursue, and print the unvarnished truth, no matter whose ox gets gored or where the chips may fall, well, that gives you something truly noble and infinitely valuable.
It is precisely because we no longer have a virtuous press in this country that:
- Obama was elected to the United States Senate and then the presidency without any vetting at all, let alone a thorough one, so that voters had no earthly idea who this person was.
- The administration could fudge inflation, growth, and unemployment rates to assist his reelection.
- This administration could do what it did in Benghazi with impunity and then have every confidence that it could engage in an effective cover-up that would hide the facts at least until after the election.
- The administration could hide the fact that a US drone was fired upon by Iran until after the election.
- The administration could hide until after the election the fact that CIA chief David Petraeus was found months ago by the FBI to have had an extra-marital affair that would necessitate his resignation.
- Obama could throw away billions in crony pay-offs on phony green energy projects and trillions on Keynesian give-aways that every reputable economist knew would not stimulate the economy.
- Obama could violate contract law by stealing assets that morally and legally belonged to Chrysler and General Motors bond holders and give it to unions.
- Obama could kill the Gulf oil industry, kill the coal industry, stop the Keystone Pipeline, keep new refineries from being built, and issue thousands of new regulations, the intent of all of which is to, as our president has said, make energy costs skyrocket.
- And any combination of a thousand other things.
Most of the (two or three) people who will read this have one or more pets, and any one of them should have been able to beat this president in a fair election shepherded by a free and virtuous press. That a decent, though not great, candidate of the homo sapiens species could not do it is sad and shameful testimony to the current state of that institution which the Founders valued above all others …
A free and virtuous press!
Jere Moore has been blogging about political matters since 2008. His posts include commentary about current news items, conservative opinion pieces, satirical articles, stories that illustrate conservative principles, and posts about history, rights, and economics.