In a review of Al Gore’s new book, Dionne mentions, almost as an aside, that…
…the larger change is that the very process Gore describes — of propaganda taken as fact, of slogans taken as arguments, of repetition substituting for logic and, yes, of lies and half-truths taken as truth — is now well-recognized. What worked against Gore during the recount and what worked for the administration in the run-up to the Iraq war doesn’t work anymore. That is an advance for democracy and for reason.
That is an extraordinarily sunny assessment, to put it mildly. I myself am more of a cynic, and will bet E.J. Dionne a moderately priced dinner in a relatively pleasant restaraunt that there will be an effective instance of lies and half-truths taken as truth before the summer is finished. I’ll even handicap him the current examples of propaganda taken as fact and slogans taken as arguments.