I'm pretty sure Americans who pay attention to politics saw two very different versions of the very same interview yesterday.
Attorney General William Barr finally appeared before the House Judiciary Committee and was alternately grilled and massaged by democrats and republicans. Having watched the MSNBC version of the hatefest, I came away with the image of Pramila Jayapal asking Barr why the DOJ was not on high alert when armed militia invaded the Michigan state house and advocated the hanging of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, but mobilized hundreds of federal police in camo gear because of graffiti artists and protestors besieged the federal courthouse in Portland.
I don't know what the Faux News version of Barr's confrontation with reality contained, but I'm sure his bluster and stonewalling of democrat's questions was held up as a macho defense of the party and its president*, and incidentally, how dare the committee actually demand answers from Barr.
In a nutshell, that is politics in our country today. While I want to believe my side is fighting for "truth, justice and the American way", I also realize a Bizarro world version of the battle is being served up every night on right wing media and up to 30 % of my fellow citizens are not only being served this obnoxious stew of half truths and outright falsehoods, but they actually believe it. When a sizable fraction of the citizenry cannot agree on objective reality it is hard to believe we are not witnessing the death knell of democracy in the USA.
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