Solid Fallows Piece on "False Equivalency"

This James Fallows piece from last Friday -- titled "Your False Equivalency Guide to the Days Ahead" -- is definitely worth a read.  Some of my favorite parts:

This time, the fight that matters is within the Republican party, and that fight is over whether compromise itself is legitimate.*** Outsiders to this struggle -- the president and his administration, Democratic legislators as a group, voters or "opinion leaders" outside the generally safe districts that elected the new House majority -- have essentially no leverage over the outcome. ***

As a matter of journalism, any story that presents the disagreements as a "standoff," a "showdown," a "failure of leadership," a sign of "partisan gridlock," or any of the other usual terms for political disagreement, represents a failure of journalism*** and an inability to see or describe what is going on.***

This isn't "gridlock." It is a ferocious struggle within one party, between its traditionalists and its radical factions, with results that unfortunately can harm all the rest of us -- and, should there be a debt default, could harm the rest of the world too.

This "failure of journalism" to which Fallows refers has really annoyed me over the years.  The GOP has done such a number on the mainstream press that some journalists are afraid to tell the truth, namely, that Republicans are not only responsible for gridlock in Washington, but they have admitted their responsibility and actually brag about it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  the problem is that the Mainstream Press has no interest in reporting what may be the most underreported story in recent political history, namely, the radicalization of the Republican Party over the last few years.  A lot of folks in the Press are not reporting this important story because they are too scared to report it, but it really is The Big Story right now because the radicalized elements within the GOP are basically calling the shots right now and are killing the Republican Party in the process.

When was the last time a major political party went belly up in this country? Well, we are seeing this happen right now, and I find it hilarious that one of the great political stories of our time is going unreported because journalists are so afraid of the GOP that they are unable to notice the stench of death beginning to emanate from that Party.

By the way -- as usual, Jon Stewart nails it.