Bill O’Reilly starts a new form of a politics of fear
Monday night Bill O’Reilly’s talking points memo was quite interesting and dangerous. If one listened to the tonality of the piece, it sounded rather level headed. Examining the words and interpreting their associations made it a rather sinister piece that was perfectly laid out to engender a visceral fear of Hillary Clinton.
His Talking Points Commentary started innocent enough. He played pieces of the Hillary Clinton announcement video. He then started to enumerate many of the known economic ills most poor and middle-class Americans are going through. He questions whether Hillary Clinton “embraces or rejects the economic policies of President Obama.” He implies that it is President Obama’s policies that are at fault instead of an intransigent Congress that refuses to allow the implementation of the President’s Middle-class economics. After all, we are still operating under the tenets of trickle-down economics that have decimated the middle-class.
Bill O’Reilly, there is neither an attack on White men nor Christians
Bill O’Reilly went on to play clips of Republican presidential candidates’ reaction to Hillary Clinton entering the race. They linked her to a failed foreign policy. Of course President Obama and Secretary Clinton have been attempting to cleanup the mess the Bush Administration left in the Middle East and elsewhere not to mention an economic catastrophe that affected the entire world. It is a task that will take decades.
Bill O’Reilly gave much time to that ‘Liberal’ show Saturday Night Live as he played several of their skits that placed Hillary Clinton in a comedic bad light. But what Bill O’Reilly did in the video above is unforgivable.
Bill O’Reilly rightfully points out that the country is in trouble. He is correct that the next president will inherit a big mess. Of course the big mess was caused by a Congress that refused to work in the best interest of the American people. This means the mess will continue until the extremists are voted out irrespective of the president elected.
Bill O’Reilly inserted a phrase that is intended to incite a subliminal fear for Hillary Clinton that is generally very effective for a stressed population. It is important that honest thinking people push back hard on these fallacies.
“The jihadists are threatening millions of people,” Bill O’Reilly said. “Iran is close to having a nuclear weapon. Working Americans are still struggling to make money in the marketplace and out traditional American values are under siege nearly everywhere. If you are Christian or a White man in the USA, it is open season on you.”
That is fear mongering. But worse, it is a lie. It is a lie that rings true to many Americans that are hurting who are actually being hurt by the ideology of the ones attempting to garner even more power. Americans must not allow a manufactured fear to have them vote against their own interest.