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Democracy for Sale, The Purchasing of Public
Opinion
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- By Anthony Wade
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- January 17, 2005
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- The alarm bells have been sounding recently, but no one seems
to be paying attention. In latter day America we seem to take news
with such growing disconnect that it is frightening to consider
what might be enough to generate outrage. The Bush administration
is in the business of buying your opinion; there is no doubt about
it. There have been warning signs building, which have been
largely ignored. Recently however the other shoe has officially
dropped.
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- I am speaking about Armstrong Williams. I am sure you heard
about the story but have you honestly stopped to consider what it
represents? Armstrong Williams was just another right-wing
mouthpiece until last week. While he generally supported Bushite
policies, he actually originally criticized the No Child Left
Behind legislation in his column in 2001, after the administration
decided to remove private school vouchers from the proposed law.
The quote from his column in 2001 was:
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- "By letting vouchers fall by the wayside and by throwing more
money at public schools than any president had previously
imagined, Mr. Bush scooped out the soul of his own education
proposal."
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- He was so upset about it, he expressed his concerns on Paula
Zahn, then on Fox News where he said, “On the issue like where he
[Bush] just totally capitulated to Senator Ted Kennedy [D-MA] on
his education plan, on vouchers, which he's trying to revive
today, we certainly criticized him on that because the plan
eventually became the Kennedy plan."
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- Stinging indictment from Williams in 2001. He then proceeded
to not mention the law until December 2003. From that point on he
suddenly had a change of heart and wrote about NCLB five times,
always in a positive light. Why the change of heart? Well, it
turns out that the Bush Administration paid Armstrong $240,000 to
promote NCLB. They bought his opinion, which is essentially
promoting propaganda. Once a voice for conservative black America,
Williams now just becomes another whore for this administration.
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- Now, the focus has been on Williams, who took the bullet for
the administration and has made the talk show circuit to admit his
error in judgment and beg forgiveness. I could care less about
Armstrong Williams. He was relatively irrelevant prior to this and
now he just becomes a footnote to the corrupted heritage of this
presidency. The angle that seems to be avoided here is the role of
the administration.
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- The Bush administration passed a law that is supposed to
improve education but it is a sham. No Child Left Behind
conceptually sounds great. Test schools and improve expectations.
Unfortunately, what they leave out is two things. One, the law
primarily prepares students just to take the test, not actually
teach them anything. The second point is that Bush under-funded
the law to the point that multiple states officially declared the
law unfunded. The problem was that the Bush administration still
demanded the results, without providing the resources. Localities
were devastated and essentially, the law became useless.
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- Never one to admit any mistakes, Bush had to figure out a way
to make sure that the public looked upon NCLB positively. Why? It
is one of the only things he was able to get bipartisan support
on, thus making it a jewel for his first term. He referred to NCLB
continuously during the presidential debates, even boasting about
it during a question about the minimum wage. Faced with a failed,
under-funded policy, Bush did what he felt he had to, he bought
your opinion.
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- Armstrong Williams will disappear into the land of discarded
public figures that can no longer be trusted. One less shill, but
what does this tell us about the Bush administration and how they
operate? Faced with a failed policy, they resorted to buying your
opinion. On his way out the door to irrelevancy, Mr. Williams did
manage to tell David Corn, of The Nation, that he was not alone.
Armstrong Williams confirmed what a lot of us already know, there
are a lot of people out there that have been bought and sold to
pimp for this administration. There is a word for this, it is
called propaganda. The question is how far does it go?
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- We have already seen that Bush had produced propaganda about
the Medicare law changes. Additionally, it has been revealed that
Bush has produced spots where news casts are faked to give the
impression that the pro-Bush policy spots were news, when they
really were propaganda.
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- Does it go even further? Does it go as far as newspapers? A
cursory glance at a paper such as the NY Post or Washington Times
can easily confuse one into thinking it was written by the White
House. Does it go further than that though? Does it go to radio?
One only has to listen to a Limbaugh or Hannity show and wonder if
they just got off the phone with Karl Rove. They agree with Bush
so much, they should be paid for it. Does it go further than that?
Does it go to cable news? Take a gander at Fox News on any given
night an you will see an entire network devoted to spreading the
Bush perspective of everything to the country and dressing it up
as news. What payments are being made on the side there?
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- What the Armstrong Williams incident reveals is how the
Bushies operate. In all likelihood, it does not end there though,
and even Mr. Williams himself admits as much, although he won’t
reveal names. I understand why he won’t after all he has no
intention of returning the bribe money. He may be for sale, but he
is not stupid.
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- This is what we need to remember when we hear any pundit spin
more Bush propaganda. How much of our own tax money bought that
opinion? That’s right America; Armstrong Williams was paid with
YOUR tax money. Let’s review the sequence. Bush passes a useless
piece of legislation. He does not fund it appropriately. He
realize he needs positive public relations about it, so he pays
public personalities to tell you it is a great law, and he pays
them with your money. Essentially, he takes your money and then
buys your opinion with it. Welcome to propaganda 101.
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- It has been revealed that Bush will spend another 100 million
of your money to convince you that his social security scam is in
your best interests. He will have someone tell you that social
security is in grave danger, but it is not. He will have someone
tell you that social security will become insolvent without this
plan to steal two trillion dollars of your money, but it is a lie.
The only question is who will he pay to tell you and will you
believe him again?
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- Continuing our free fall from democracy, we now see a
government that wages war and decides why after the fact. We see
voting outsourced to partisan companies that refuse to have
transparency in our electoral process. Democracy is far, far
behind us. Now, we have a media that can be bought. It was bought
to sell you Medicare, it was bought to sell you NCLB and coming
soon, it will be bought to sell you Bush’s social security scam.
There are only two questions left for you to answer. Who will be
selling it to you, and is it time to tell George W. Bush that your
opinion is not for sale? Is it time for all of us to say democracy
is not for sale?
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Anthony Wade, a
contributing writer to
opednews.com is dedicated to educating the populace to the lies
and abuses of the government. He is a 37-year-old independent writer
from New York with political commentary articles seen on multiple
websites. A Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation
Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that
you can have faith and hold elected officials accountable for lies
and excess.
Anthony Wade’s
Archive:
http://www.opednews.com/archiveswadeanthony.htm
Email
Anthony:
takebacktheus@gmail.com
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