Brokaw's "Bible ban" BS: All hope is gone

Tom Brokaw spewed the following on September 24:

The Republican National Committee now has acknowledged sending mass mailings to two states that say liberals want to ban the Bible. Republican Party officials say the mailings in Arkansas and West Virginia are aimed at mobilizing Christian voters for President Bush. Some Christian commentators say liberal support for same-sex marriage could lead to laws that punish sermons denouncing homosexuality as sinful.

Here we have definitive proof that our media can be called "liberal" only by those whose politics list to the right of George Lincoln Rockwell's.

Needless to say, no liberal wants to ban the Bible. I defy anyone to cite a specific piece of evidence backing such a silly assertion. In fact, I'd like to see some evidence that any liberal anywhere has called for the banning of any book of any sort (excluding, perhaps, a work of child porn).

This "Bible ban" accusation is a lie -- a stupid, obvious lie -- concocted by Republicans who have an elastic interpretation of the "bearing false witness" prohibition.

But instead of denouncing the lie as a lie, Brokaw goes on to repeat outrageous horsecrap about censorship of sermons.

I never thought political debate in this country would sink to such a ghastly level. Hell, I once spent an afternoon poring over old (1960s vintage) issues of American Opinion, the John Birch periodical -- and even they maintained a more sophisticated tone than the one predominating now. Has America truly devolved to this degree? If this is the sort of thuggish non-argument that appeals to our fellow citizens, if voters really are motivated by deliberate falsehoods designed to appeal to the Ids of zealots, then democracy has failed.