Opinion Believing six impossible things

The Democrats have been terrible at trying to explain who they stand for and the larger goal of their governance. But if they lose,it should be because their policies are unpopular or ill-conceived — not because millions of people believe a lie.

In the much-discussed Pew poll reporting the spike in ignorance,those who believe Obama to be Muslim say they got their information from the media. But no reputable news agency — that is,fact-based,one that corrects its errors quickly — has spread such inaccuracies.

So where is this “media?” Two sources,and they are the usual suspects. The first is Rush Limbaugh,who claims the largest radio audience in the land among the microphone demagogues. A few quick examples of the Limbaugh method: “Tomorrow is Obama’s birthday — not that we’ve seen any proof of that,” he said on Aug 3. Of course,there is proof as clear as that baseball box score. Look at http://www.factcheck.org,for starters,one of many places posting Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate.

On the Muslim deception,Limbaugh has sprinkled lie dust all over the place. He has repeatedly called the president “imam Obama,” and said,“I’m just throwing things out there,folks,because people are questioning his Christianity.” He drops in suggestions,hints,notes that “people are questioning” things. Once Limbaugh has planted a lie,a prominent politician can pick it up,with little nuance. So,over the weekend,Kim Lehman,one of Iowa’s two Republican National Committee members,went public with doubts on Obama’s Christianity. Of course,she was not condemned by party leaders.

Finally,there is Fox News,whose parent company has given $1 million to Republican causes this year but still masquerades as a legitimate source of news. Their chat and opinion programs spread innuendo daily. The founder of Politifact,another nonpartisan referee,said two of the site’s five most popular items on its Truth-o-meter are corrections of Glenn Beck.

Beck tosses off enough half-truths in a month to keep Politifact working overtime. Of late,he has gone after Michelle Obama,whose vacation in Spain was “just for her and approximately 40 of her friends.” Limbaugh had a similar line,saying the First Lady “is taking 40 of her best friends and leasing 60 rooms at a five-star hotel — paid for by you.”

The White House said Michelle Obama and her daughter Sasha were accompanied by just a few friends — and they paid their own costs. But,wink,wink,the damage is done. He’s Muslim and foreign. She’s living the luxe life on your dime. They don’t even have to mention race. The code words do it for them.

Climate-change denial is a special category all its own. Once on the fringe,dismissal of scientific consensus is now an article of faith among leading Republicans,again taking their cue from Limbaugh and Fox.

It would be nice to dismiss the stupid things that Americans believe as harmless,the price of having such a large,messy democracy. Plenty of hate-filled partisans swore that Abraham Lincoln was a Catholic and Franklin Roosevelt was a Jew. So what if one-in-five believe the sun revolves around the earth,or aren’t sure from which country the United States gained its independence?

But false belief in weapons of mass-destruction led the United States to a trillion-dollar war. And trust in rising home value as a truism as reliable as a sunrise was a major contributor to the catastrophic collapse of the economy. At its worst extreme,a culture of misinformation can produce something like Iran,which is run by a Holocaust denier.

It’s one thing to forget the past,with predictable consequences,as the favorite aphorism goes. But what about those who refuse to comprehend the present?