Facts Twisted by Both Political Sides; Far Right More Oblivious

COMMENTARY | President Obama Monday faced an angry crowd of Iowans at a Tea Party town hall meeting. Not the most friendly place for a Democrat or anyone with moderate to liberal leanings, one of the Tea Party activists, Ryan Rhodes, shouted a question to the president.

According to CBS News, Rhodes asked the president how he could "call for civility" when his vice president, Joe Biden, called some members of the Tea Party "terrorists."

Obama calmly told Rhodes that he agrees the political rhetoric should be toned down, as he has been on the receiving end more often than he'd like. The president stated , "Now, in fairness, since I've been called a socialist who wasn't born in this country, who is destroying America and taking away its freedoms because I passed a health care bill, I'm all for lowering the rhetoric."

The interaction between the two reminded me of an article I read recently, and it wasn't the first. It talked about how poor Rep. Michele Bachmann's words had been twisted by the media, as if she was the only victim in political games.

I won't get into how most of Bachmann's words have come straight out of her own mouth and how most of them were proved false.

The point is, word twisting is done by both sides in the political arena. We may not like it, but it's not going to change anytime soon. When facts are twisted so much as to completely change the truth, as they do when Obama is called a socialist or question that the president was born in the United States, it becomes even more of an issue.

Rhodes told reporters after the meeting that he truly believes our president is a socialist, according to AFP. The accusation is more than a little ridiculous, but when a fact is distorted and stated as truth time and time again, people believe it.

People have strong opinions, especially when it comes to politics. If you can only see one side of an issue, your words are going to reflect that, and your mind will automatically process what you really want to hear. I understand that. What I am surprised at is the number of people who fall in the far-right category insisting that it is only the liberals who change the words to reflect their side of the case.

The liberals I've talked to have no problem seeing that it is both sides, though I'll admit I've heard some outright lies from more than a few ultra media conservatives; Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Sean Hannity come to mind.

Is everyone on the far right so close minded they cannot see this? Their views on most of the issues do seem to reflect this, and it's a sad image.