The Beltway Myth

Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

 
The truth is exactly the opposite of what Liasson said. Americans want to
withdraw from Iraq
in accordance with Obama's timetable (if not faster) regardless of
circumstances "on the ground" -- not conditioned on those
circumstances. But because that's not the view Liasson and her establishment
colleagues embrace, they just lie and claim that the majority view is the one
held only by the "left-wing" fringe, while their own actually
fringe view is the one embraced by "the American people" and thus
defines the "Center."
This is the standard propaganda tactic of establishment media stars like
Liasson, and she's hardly unique -- in this way or in any other. This is how
they manipulate public opinion and coerce political officials to disregard the
views of most Americans in favor of the fringe, establishment view. The views
of the establishment pundit class are automatically labeled "the
Center" even when they're rejected by majorities of "the American people."
By contrast, views that are actually held by majorities but which the pundit
class dislikes are demonized as those of "the Left." Thus, they
argue, political candidates, in order to win elections, must embrace the views
of the establishment and reject the view of most Americans. That's how a
candidate "moves to the Center."
This is the central deceit that causes the war in Iraq to continue despite most
Americans' wanting it to end for quite some time (because "only
the Left" wants an end to war while "the Center" wants to say
until we win). It's why crimes committed by the Washington elite go uninvestigated and
unpunished (due to the lie that only
"the Left" favors investigations and punishment while the
Center" opposes investigations). It's how radical Bush policies such
as warrantless eavesdropping, telecom amnesty and torture become the
"Center" even when they're no such thing. This is the central premise of the Beltway
class -- that any policies they dislike, any attempts to hold them accountable,
are necessarily the rantings of "the Left."
The fact that Mara Liasson feels perfectly comfortable going on television
and baldly uttering a clear-cut falsehood -- that only "the left-wing
base" favors unconditional withdrawal while "the American
people" only want to leave Iraq
when "facts on the ground" allow it -- demonstrates how pervasive
this deceit is. She likely isn't even aware that what she's saying is false.
The establishment class is so self-absorbed, so inculcated with faith in their
own wisdom, that they automatically think that whatever they and their comrades
believe is, by definition, what "the American people" believe, even
when all empirical data proves that the opposite is true.