Randy Barnett is almost right
Randy Barnett, while guest blogging on Glenn Reynolds' blog, said the following:
Since the 2000 election, however, I have begun to realize for the first time that the Left really and truly lives in a socially constructed world -- a world where "truth" is their own construction.
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But what I am now coming to appreciate is that increasing numbers of persons on the Left create in their minds a false world in which to live -- a world that better suits their preconceptions. They are not content to disagree with the goals of their opposition or about predictions of future policy results. They must make up facts about the world that fit their theories... Randy has it almost right. The only problem is that it is the Right that has been living in a fantasy world of their own construction.
How about these startling results from a mid-January poll - 44% of Americans believed that most or some of the September 11th hijackers were Iraqi when none were. 65% of the Americans surveyed believed that al-Qaida and Iraq were closely collaborating allies when in reality there were idealogical opposites. A May poll found that a third of the American public believed U.S. forces had found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 22% believed Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons. Unfortunately, these poll results are not broken out by political party, but I think it is a logical to guess that Dubya supporters would be the most likely to believe the worst about Iraq in spite of the facts.
Randy himself is in denial. "Now the Left is lying about Bush to make him appear to be a liar because they cannot catch him in any actual lies." Recently Dubya said "And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power....” Is that not a lie?
Dubya's administration's made a lanudry list of claims about Iraq's WMD's - 100's of tons of VX, mobile biological weapon labs, missiles with biologoical weapons hiding under palm trees - and none of them have proved true. Any rational discussion of the administration's WMD claims has to start with that American people were misled. Then we can begin to discuss whether the Dubya administration received bad intelligence, did they overstate what intelligence they got, did they make false claims, etc. However, I haven't the Republican politicians and conservative pundits accept that the American people were misled on Iraq's WMD's.
Contrast the Right's denial about being misled on the WMD's with Clinton supporter's acceptance that they were misled about Monica. I can't remember anyone saying that "I did not have sex with that woman" was technically accurate and that claims that Clinton lied were overstated. I accepted that I was lied to about this issue, wasn't too concerned that the President lied to me about his personal life, and continued to support Clinton because I supported the majority of the policies he pursued.
An early example of that is the first presidential debate in 2000. Al Gore stated "Under Governor Bush's tax cut proposal, he would spend more money on tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent than all of the new spending that he proposes for education, health care, prescription drugs and national defense, all combined." Dubya responded, "Well, let me just said that obviously tonight we're going to hear some phony numbers about what I think and what we ought to do." Dubya called Gore a liar, but never said whether the wealthiest 1 percent was getting less that all of the new spending that he proposed. Gore was citing a study from a well-respected think tank. Dubya cited nothing. After the debate, Dubya would get his supporters to chant "Fuzzy Math" but never debunked any of Gore's descriptions of his plans. To me, those supporters who chanted "Fuzzy Math" were either (a) horribly cynical or (b) in severe denial.
Randy is right to ask"how can we settle our political disagreements if a large number of the players are living in a world of their own making?" It is impossible to have a meaningful debate about the invasion of Iraq when so many people have the basic facts wrong. But Randy and the Far Right are the ones living in a fantasy world. Apparently, when Randy sees people talking about real world, he just writes them off as fruitcakes instead of trying to learn the truth.
8:21:28 AM 
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