The Arizona Republic engages in ‘pundit’s fallacy’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Steve Benen posted about Another Edition of the Pundit’s Fallacy:

A while back, Matthew Yglesias coined the term “Pundit’s Fallacy,” which refers to the “belief that what a politician needs to do to improve his or her political standing is do what the pundit wants substantively.” We see this happen just about any time political writers give “recommendations” to those running for office and reelection. Today’s deployer of the aforementioned fallacy is the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin.

Benen goes on to discuss how the Washington Post's far-right blogger Jennifer Rubin "giving 'advice' to someone who you think ought to lose, and to have that advice be for him to capitulate to his political opponents, is not advice in the normal sense, but some kind roundabout way of expressing your substantive views."

This applies equally well to the conservative editorial pages of The Arizona Republic. Let's be clear: Willard "Mittens" Romney could be "caught with a dead hooker or a live boy," as the old saying goes, and the Arizona Republic is still certain to endorse Romney for president this fall (have they ever endorsed a Democrat?)

So this editorial opinion in the Arizona Republic on Sunday suggesting that Democrats need more DLC/Third Way corporatist Blue Dogs who will sell out the Democratic Party's values and constituencies to serve the interests of corporations and to roll over and give the Tea-Publicans everything they want falls into the category of "Pundit's fallacy" (it reads like Robert Robb's usual tripe). Free-market Dems push back:

The impetus behind all the Democratic push-back against the "vampire" imagery is not hostility to Obama's re-election. Every one of the campaign critics bracketed his comments with support for the president.

More accurately, their comments represent the return of an aggregation of Democrats who do not reflexively view business or free enterprise as a bad thing. That was a perspective promoted by the Democratic Leadership Council, a pro-business wing of the Democratic Party that enjoyed much popularity during the Clinton years, including from Clinton himself.

Led by famous "third-way" advocate Al From, the DLC backed the 1996 welfare reforms and some school-choice plans, and opposed a government-directed single-payer health-care plan. It was viewed as enthusiastically pro-business.

It nearly dissolved in 2011 as the Democratic Party became increasingly infused with a view of business and free markets as malevolent and undertaxed.

The reaction of these important Democrats to the anti-market sentiments of the "vampire" ads is refreshing. If it leads to a resurrection of a more business-friendly party, all the better.

Well, clearly the Arizona Republic does not have a problem with the banksters of Wall Street who created casino capitalism — as opposed to market capitalism — and nearly destroyed the world's financial system and economy with the greatest fraud ever perpetrated in the history of the world.

And despite its editorializing against the financial bailout, the Arizona Republic really did not have a problem with the banksters of Wall Street socializing risk and being bailed out by taxpayers, and not one of them being prosecuted for their fraud or ever being held accountable. That's the "free market" baby! That's just how the wealthy investor class rolls.

The fact that millions of Americans lost their life's savings, their homes, and their jobs to casino capitalism and continue to struggle to recover even after the banksters of Wall Street have fully recovered — with our tax money — is of no concern to the Arizona Republic.

Its only concern is a religious devotion to the "invisible hand" of the free market, a cruel and malevolent false god. It's graven image is money. The author might want to check the first two Commandments.

Democrats do not need more corporatist DLC/Third Way/Blue Dog Democrats who will give the Tea-Publicans everything they want. That is how we got into the mess we are currently in. Too many Democrats are beholden to the massive amounts of money in campaign contributions from the banksters of Wall Street. it has corrupted our political system and our capitalist economic system.