POP Goes The Other Side

 

(The following is an op/ed piece written by A. Barton Hinkle and is being used with his permission.

Here is the original piece as it appeared in The Richmond Times Dispatch on 8/19/12.

Mr. Hinkle was not involved in the production of tonight's show.)

 

The past several weeks have made one thing crystal-clear. Our country faces unmitigated disaster if The Other Side wins. No reasonably intelligent person can deny this. All you have to do is look at the way The Other Side is running it's campaign. Instead of focusing on the big issues that are important to the American People, it has fired a relentlessly negative barrage of distortions, misrepresentations and flat-out lies.Just look at The Other Side's latest commercial, which takes a perfectly reasonable statement by the candidate for My Side completely out of context to make it seem as if he is saying something nefarious. This just shows you how desperate The Other Side is and how willing it is to mislead the American People.The Other Side has also been hammering away at My Side to release certain documents that have nothing to do with anything, and making all sorts of outrageous accusations about what might be in them. Meanwhile, The Other Side has stonewalled perfectly reasonable requests to release it's own documents that would expose some very embarrassing details if anybody ever found out what was in them. This just shows you what a bunch of hypocrites they are.Naturally, the media won't report any of this. Major newspapers and cable networks jump all over anything they think will make My Side look bad. Yet they completely ignore critically important and incredibly relevant information that would be devastating to The Other Side if it could ever be verified.I will admit the candidates for My Side do make the occasional blunders. These usually happen at the end of exhausting 19-hour days and are perfectly understandable. Our leaders are only human, after all. Nevertheless, The Other Side makes a big fat deal over these trivial gaffes, while completely ignoring it's own candidates' incredibly thoughtless and stupid remarks - remarks that reveal The Other Side's true nature, which is genuinely frightening.My Side has produced a visionary program that will get the economy moving, put the American People back to work, strengthen national security, return fiscal integrity to Washington, and restore our standing in the international community. What does The Other Side have to offer? Nothing but the same old disproven, discredited policies that got us into our current mess in the first place.Don't take my word for it, though. I recently read about an analysis by an independent, nonpartisan organization that supports My Side. It proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that everything I have been saying about The Other Side was true all along. Of course, The Other Side refuses to acknowledge any of this. It is too busy cranking out so-called studies by so-called experts who are actually nothing but partisan hacks. This just shows you that The Other Side lives in it's own little echo chamber and refuses to listen to anyone who has not already drunk it's Kool-Aid.Let's face it, The Other Side is held hostage by a radical, failed ideology. I have been doing some research on the internet, and I have learned this ideology was developed by a very obscure but nonetheless profoundly influential writer with a strange sounding name who enjoyed brief celebrity several decades ago. If you look carefully, you can trace nearly all The Other Side's policies for the past half-century back to the writings of this one person.To be sure, The Other Side also has been influenced by it's powerful supporters. These include a reclusive billionaire who has funded a number of organizations far outside the political mainstream; several politicians who have said outrageous things over the years; and an alarmingly large number of completely clueless ordinary Americans who are being used as tools and don't even know it.These people are really pathetic, too. The other day I saw a YouTube video in which My Side sent an investigator and a cameraman to a rally being held by The Other Side, where the investigator proceeded to ask some real zingers. It was hilarious! First off, the people at the rally wore T-shirts with all kinds of lame messages that they actually though were really clever. Plus, many of the people who were interviewed were overweight, sweaty, flushed and generally not very attractive. But what was really funny was how stupid they were. There is no way anyone could watch that video and not come away convinced the people on My Side are smarter, and that My Side is therefore right about everything.Besides, it's clear that the people on The Other Side are driven by mindless anger - unlike My Side, which is filled with passionate idealism and righteous indignation. That indignation, I hasten to add, is entirely justified. I have read several articles in publications that support My Side that expose what a truly dangerous group The Other Side is, and how thoroughly committed it is to imposing it's radical, failed agenda on the rest of us.That is why I believe 2012 is, without a doubt, the defining election of our lifetime. The difference between My Side and The Other Side could not be greater. That is why it absolutely must win on November 6.

 

 

Song Artist Album   Year Totally F**ked Spring Awakening 2006 Original Broadway Cast   2006 BlahBlahBlah Dont     2007 Mediocrity Rules Le Tigre From The Desk of Mr. Lady   2001 Condoleezza, Check My Posse The Majestic Twelve Schizophrenology   2006 Rebirth Of A Nation Gills and Wings Gills and Wings   2008 Ship Of Fools World Party Private Revolution   1986 ++++++++++++ +++++++++++++ +++++++++++++     Right and Wrong Joe Jackson Big World   1986 Wicked Little Man (live) Bob Schneider     2005 The World Is Full Of Angry Young Men XTC Rag & Bone Buffet   1990 America Bree Sharp A Cheap and Evil Girl   1999 The People's Drug John Wesley Harding The Name Above The Title   1991 Help Save The Youth Of America Billy Bragg Talking With The Taxman About Poetry   1986 ++++++++++++ ++++++++++++ +++++++++++++     Ponzi The Felice Brothers Celebration, Florida   2011 Jesus Flag American Fish Cuckoo Chaos Woman   2011 Hey Unbelievers Robbers On High Street Hey There Golden Hair   2011 Repatriated Handsome Furs Sound Kapital   2011 Rebellion (Lies) Arcade Fire Funeral   2004 99 Percent The Mooney Suzuki Have Mercy   2007 ++++++++++++ ++++++++++++ ++++++++++++     (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang Heaven 17 Penthouse and Pavement   1981 Everything Counts Depeche Mode Construction Time Again   1983 Lies Alphaville Forever Young   1984 Selfish Ned's Atomic Dustbin God Fodder   1991 The National Front Disco Morrissey Your Arsenal   1992 Waving Flags British Sea Power Do You Like Rock Music?   2008 ++++++++++++ ++++++++++++ ++++++++++++     A More Perfect Union Titus Andronicus The Monitor   2010 Freedom Fighters The Music Welcome to the North   2004 Porcupine or Pineapple Brakes The Beatific Visions   2007 Senator Stephan Malkmus & The Jicks Mirror Traffic   2011 Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down The Toasters Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down (D.L.T.B.G.Y.D.)   1997 ++++++++++++ ++++++++++++ ++++++++++++     Hate to Say I Told You So The Hives Veni Vidi Vicious   2000