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Elections Are About Neither Party John L. Perry The coming midterm congressional elections are not about whether Democratic or Republican candidates win but whether the American people lose their integrity and their identity. Another way of saying that is: What really counts when the votes are counted Nov. 7 is what the voters perceived reality to be – and then what they did about it. There are at this moment two clearly divergent versions of the reality facing the United States. One is the phony reality cooked up and portrayed by the leftist mass media, which largely take their bias from a once-great newspaper, the New York Times. The other reality is the real thing. It is what really is. If a voter going into the polling booth Nov. 7 actually believes the reality in the world is, indeed, what the New York Times and the fellow-traveling masscomm falsely depict it to be, then that voter would be nuts not to vote the way the leftist media are trying to spin him or her.
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When Unreality Becomes Reality
After all, one definition of insanity is refusing to recognize and then act in concert with reality. And if you perceive something to be reality, even if it is a fraudulent reality, then it becomes your reality. Here lies the peril if a perfectly normal person sees – or is convinced he sees – a "reality" that turns out to be just one, big false illusion. Acting in concert with a perception of reality that is unreal then renders what could have been an otherwise sane decision into an act of insanity. Pause here for a moment at the foot – or at what one perceives to be the foot – of Spook Hill, in the lovely citrus country near Lake Wales, Florida. A roadside sign invites you to take your car out of gear, lift your foot off the brake and let it roll. Instead of rolling forward "downhill," your car rolls mysteriously backward "uphill." Try it again and again as many times as you like, and the car still rolls "uphill."
Untrustworthy Perceptions
You cannot believe your own eyes. Cars don't roll uphill. So you drive back to the starting point, put your car in "park," open the door and get out. You perceive you are parked on a road that is on the slope of a downward slanting hill. So, when you step out of the car you do the natural (sane) thing. You tilt your body backward, or toward "uphill." But instead of standing straight up as you intended, you find yourself about to fall over backward. In order to stand up straight, you have to lean forward "downhill." Your car isn't the only thing that's all mixed up. You are, too. Does this mean there are unexplained forces at work, reversing gravity? No. Nothing is abnormal. The back of your car has been rolling backward along what in real reality is downhill. How did this all come about? Simple. The topography in that hilly section near Lake Wales you were driving through has gradually twisted and turned, ascended and descended until what looks for all the world like the down-slope of the road is, in reality, a modest uphill grade. You were not at the foot of Spook Hill after all. You were on the brow. What you perceived as reality was – in real reality – precisely the opposite. All the News That Fits Unreality This is the Spook Hill game the New York Times and its truth-slanting media cohorts have been playing on the American people ever since George W. Bush was first elected president. They couldn't beat him on the straight-and-level playing field, so they painted a false sound-and-sight picture of reality as they want reality to be – and they want the electorate to accept as reality. Having peddled unreality as reality, they obviously felt it would be easier to persuade those in the electorate who bought that fraud to vote the "sane and normal" response to that unreality. Driving along through the orange groves, distracted by the beauty of the rolling landscape and lulled by the scent of orange blossoms on the breeze, it's easy enough for the unsuspecting driver to get turned around 180 degrees on Spook Hill. It's something else for Americans as a whole to get hornswoggled by the make-believe phony reality in which the New York Times and its mimics are trying to smother them. Where Real Reality Resides It's entirely possible this is what will take place on Nov. 7, but if you, too, are one of those who believe in the reality of the innate goodness and old-fashion horse sense of most Americans, you're not going to loose a lot sleep between now and then. You get the strong, reassuring feeling this is also what the president believes. Yeah, but, the leftist media are so pervasive in this country. Everywhere you look and listen, there they are, spouting unreality as if that's really how things are in this world. The leftists are counting a lot on the big-city urban culture helping them pass this fraud off as normal reality. Truth is, though, most Americans do not live in the big cities. Most of them live in smaller, far-more-normal communities. These good folks take a look at what's on their television screens and ask in astonishment and dismay, "Who lives like that?" And they want no part of what is such a big part of the unreality being pushed at them by the leftist masscomm. Okay, but what about the big-city papers – the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and that crowd? They're so influential. Indeed, they are. However, they are a lot-less influential than they would like to think they are. What's more, they are growing less influential by the day. Smaller Can Be Bigger You bet, the leftist masscomm is a very big deal, but there are many other, smaller deals that add up to an even-bigger big deal – a real deal. Most Americans don't read the big-city papers. They read smaller, hometown newspapers, often owned and operated by folks they know from the Rotary Club or in church. A dramatically growing number of Americans are turning to Fox News Channel for their TV news. There is also talk radio, where the leftists have failed laughably to produce programs that enough people will tune in to attract enough advertisers to make those shows a financial success. It's true that many of the less-large media take their cues each morning from what those larger papers play on their front pages and editorial pages. You can easily observe the TV news outlets aping those fonts of unreality. The American people are not dunces. They can sense that most national television news programs sound like echo-chambers. The leftist mass media ridicule and try to tear down religion in America, especially the Christian faith. Even so, millions of Americans take their families to church and synagogue and say their prayers each night. Families by the millions still teach their children the difference between right and wrong. People still do an honest day's work for an honest wage. Old Glory Still Glorious When the Stars and Stripes go by, people still place their hand over their heart – to the angry consternation of the blame-America leftists. Despite all the unreality that the leftist media spew out, most Americans still love America with a patriotic passion and expect their leaders to protect it – and them. Nov. 7 will be a date that America learns what America believes and what reality really is. What is at stake is not the political fortunes of politicians, Democrats or Republicans. What is at stake is whether enough Americans have reality figured out – and what they are going to do about it that makes sense. The immense, unanswered question hanging over these coming congressional elections is whether enough voters have been taken for a ride on the Spook Hill contrived so slyly by the New York Times. John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is a regular columnist for NewsMax.com. Read John Perry's columns here.
Editor's note:
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