Rove: Telling The Truth Out Of Fashion?

Jay Rosen at NYU has written a great piece he calls "Rollback" at PressThink about the context and backdrop of the Karl Rove situation. I think everything he says about our post-modern truth-fabricating political establishment is spot on.

He keenly marks all the landmarks on the slippery slope of spin, a bit like a trip falling off Mt. Everest instead of climbing up it. He brilliantly documents the alien landscape journalists find themselves in -- a terrain where telling the truth and a quarter surely won't get you the proverbial cup of coffee.

HOWEVER, the notion that no one tells the truth anymore, or that the truth is something politicians can invent and we all better get used to it, just doesn't work for me.

Yes, we live in strange times, when a book like Princeton University Press's Bullshit can top the bestseller list, but after spending Sunday in church AWAY from blogs and political news programs, I come back to the blogosphere with a slightly less cynical perspective.

The truth might not necessarily set us free, but it is THE TRUTH. The truth exists. It has an inherent unmistakable gravity to it. It has an up and a down. It doesn't spin around and around, but instead lets you plant your feet firmly on the ground. The turth has an odor. It smells clean compared to lies, which smell dirty.

The color black is black -- Karl Rove can't change that.

The color white is white -- Karl Rove can't change that.

I believe there is something called the truth and upholding it matters. I think we're all about to fall off the edge of this tsunami of bullshit into better times and calmer seas. We've all had enough.

I think a backlash is beginning to build and will lash out at this government from two unlikely mobs. Christians and fiscally-responsible Republicans who are sick of being dragged through the muck of lies, will blow the whistle on Bush's administration of liars.

Also, as a Christian and (don't be shocked) a liberal, the idea that the government can woo right-wing Christians with lies just doesn't add up for me. It's so insulting.

Christians know lies from truth. Right-wing or left-wing, how did it become the fashion to lie to Christians and make them out as idiots who would never notice you're lying? Is abusing and smearing your own constituency a successful long-term strategy? I don't think so. It's like cheating your customers. It tends to ultimately reduce your pool of customers.

Has telling the truth gone out of fashion? I say no. Telling the truth is very fashionable. We all need to start wearing it out on the town. I think we're about to enjoy a new fall season of veracity, strutting around town in our finery, all dressed up in the naked truth.