It’s no secret that we humans are drawn to stories. It’s how we connect to each other; we share narratives from the Bible, we pass family stories from parent to child, and we build relationships based on our love for megastories like Star Wars and Harry Potter, or ministories like the Real Housewives. People who master the art of story-telling become our teachers, entertainers, and mentors.
Unfortunately conservatives have been very effective at tapping into our love for stories. It’s why the tea baggers think the Boston Tea Party was about socialism, and why so many Christians think Jesus was conservative. They cling to their stories so dearly that they will even try to re-write history to prove that Sarah Palin was right when she said Paul Revere was ringing bells to warn the British that Americans had guns. (Really?!??) And don’t even get me going on McDonald’s coffee lawsuit or Sean Hannity’s Libarro World.
Now we’ve got two more false narratives, this time coming right out of our beloved Michigan. The first is in the form of a fictional novel in which the world could be saved from a deadly virus if only Nancy Pelosi would get out of the way. Says the author John Bascom,
“I have strong political opinions—a conservative world view—and wanted to express them in an interesting way. At its core,Caine’s Pestilence is a cautionary story about the pitfalls of the liberal agenda with a path to hope and redemption for the story’s main characters and our country emerging at the end,” Bascom explains.
The book is obviously fiction, but that won’t stop conservatives from using the book to “prove” that we liberals are bad for the world. Heck, it’s probably already required reading for Paul Ryan’s staff.
Next we’ve got a campaign video from Mitt Romney in which Ryan King claims to represent “Obama’s Misery Index.” Mitt & Ryan aren’t so honest in this narrative. Ryan claims that he can’t find a job because everyone requires experience, and he can’t get experience because he can’t get a job, so he’s living off baloney sandwiches and we need a [...]
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