False equivalence mars the ‘why can’t we all get along?’ message

I attended the entire pre-election ‘rally’ by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert today.  If the health and well-being of the nation and countless future generations, including my daughter, weren’t at risk in the election Tuesday, one could revel in the entertainment.

But Stewart aspires to be more than an entertainer.  While he was clearly trying to walk a fine line here and not be overtly politically, the fact is it’s long, long past time to pick sides.  The political message basically equated Tea Party extremists and people like Limbaugh and Beck on one side with people on the other side who have sometimes pointed out the extremism of the Tea Party, like Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews.

Sorry, Jon, but Matthews ain’t Palin or O’Donnell.  Olbermann ain’t Beck.  Not even close.

It is precisely the kind of false equivalence that Jon Stewart skewers on his show.  More than anything else, the rally’s whole, “why can’t we just all get along through compromise and reason”  message reminded me most of Barack Obama circa 2008 or is that circa 2009 or is that circa now?

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For two weekends in a row, this new CP feature has garnered 99 comments.  I’m hoping we can get to triple digits in this thread.

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This is God’s green earth and we ought to respect it.

Faced with relentless attacks on his vote for clean energy legislation, Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN) slammed his critics for questioning climate science and doing the bidding of special interests who are destroying the environment.  Brad Johnson has the story and the video.

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This week Joel Francis, a senior at Cal State Los Angeles and a Marine Corps veteran, flew to the Wichita, Kansas headquarters of Koch Industries.  His mission was to knock on Charles Koch’s door, and demand he defend his involvement in Prop 23.  CAP’s Jorge Madrid has the story.

“If you are going to try to hurt the economy of a state you don’t even live in, then you ought to have the courage to explain yourself in person” said Francis.

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