In other news, S&P's downgrade isn't so bad after all<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At least that's what they're saying in many news outlets, and that's what Democrats are insisting. Take Barney Frank. Why on MSNBC earlier, I\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/08\/in-other-news-sps-downgrade-isnt-so-bad-after-all.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In other news, S&P's downgrade isn't so bad after all\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At least that's what they're saying in many news outlets, and that's what Democrats are insisting. Take Barney Frank. 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{"id":3141,"date":"2011-08-06T16:29:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-06T16:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/08\/in-other-news-sps-downgrade-isnt-so-bad-after-all.html"},"modified":"2011-08-06T16:29:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-06T16:29:00","slug":"in-other-news-sps-downgrade-isnt-so-bad-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/08\/in-other-news-sps-downgrade-isnt-so-bad-after-all.html","title":{"rendered":"In other news, S&P’s downgrade isn’t so bad after all"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

At least that\u2019s what they\u2019re saying in many news outlets<\/a>, and that\u2019s what Democrats are insisting.\u00a0 Take Barney Frank.\u00a0 Why on MSNBC earlier, I heard him say S&P; was wrong for saying there was anything big about the process of agreeing on the debt.\u00a0 Why he insisted that even had we missed the deadline by a few days, there was still plenty of money to take care of things and avoid default.\u00a0 Several news agencies have assured us of the same thing, and reminded us that this is just S&P; after all, either it doesn\u2019t matter or it\u2019s all part of some vast [fill in the blank] conspiracy.\u00a0 There are other agencies that haven\u2019t downgraded us, and in all likelihood, this won\u2019t impact the average American in any event.\u00a0 Not that we shouldn\u2019t care of course.\u00a0 But it isn\u2019t, you know, the end of the world or anything.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Now, this does sound a little different from a week ago, where we were assured that missing the deadline would touch off Armageddon.\u00a0 And of course we had to get the process in line and stop messing around with stalemates and cantankerous politicians who wouldn\u2019t compromise since it could cause something like S&P; to downgrade, and that would be catastrophic.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

But you see, that was last week\u2019s undeniable truth.\u00a0 That was the narrative of a week ago.\u00a0 In the Internet age, 5 seconds is approximately 4.5 seconds past the average attention span, and what happened a year ago is about when the Pyramids were constructed.\u00a0 The media, every bit a player in our age of punditry and partisanship over principles, stands by and aids or attacks according to its own ideals and agendas, not being overly concerned that anyone cares what is true.\u00a0 In short, good luck finding out what is really true in our world.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Think about that. Can we even know?\u00a0 Sure, partisanship and punditry have been around since the beginning of time.\u00a0 But there always seemed to be an umbrella of common values and common sense that said it was time to put the agendas and ideals aside for the greater concerns.\u00a0 There was a point where someone, somehow demanded some shred of evidence and measured it against a collective fail-safe common sense of\u00a0priority. Hence Republicans could go to Nixon and say \u2018You\u2019re out of here, you\u2019ve crossed the line.\u2019\u00a0 Or Democrats could abandon Jimmy Carter\u2019s inept and impotent leadership and try to give Ronald Reagan a chance for the good of our country.\u00a0 Or Republicans could, again, abandon George H.W. Bush because he betrayed their trust and demonstrated weakness in handling the problems of the day. <\/p>\n

But somewhere between 1992 and 1999, when almost the entire left of our nation said ethics, truth, morality, character, perjury, sexual intimidation, affairs, slander and abuse of the office of president to carry it out, family loyalty, and just about any other trait no longer mattered as long as we had plenty of money (while standing by and watching economists warning of out of control debt be obliterated by the president\u2019s axe men), we became a country that said \u2018we don\u2019t care.\u2019\u00a0 Facts?\u00a0 We don\u2019t care.\u00a0 Data?\u00a0 We don\u2019t care.\u00a0 Promises?\u00a0 We don\u2019t care.\u00a0 Ethics?\u00a0 We don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n

We care about one thing: Our side winning.\u00a0 And nothing can happen to this country that we aren\u2019t willing to allow to happen if only our side wins.\u00a0 Truth?\u00a0 What is truth?, Pilate asked Jesus all those years ago.\u00a0 And by the 21st century, America has lost any ability or any concern about even trying to find an answer.\u00a0 If only our side wins.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"