rssPosts by Hannah Dreier
4. An ACORN in Every Bill
ACORN, the advocacy group for low-income people, has long been a favorite bogeyman of the right, and this year conservatives tried to convince America that ACORN was not only stealing votes and corrupting the census, but also receiving massive kickbacks from the Democratic Party. Conservatives succeeded in muddying the debate More…
3. Sotomayor Is a Racist Who Favors ‘Wise Latinas’ Over White Men
Within moments of Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, it was all over the airwaves: Obama’s pick had claimed that Latina women made better judges than white men. Sotomayor had said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would More…
2. Birtherism
Too far-fetched for even the likes of Rush Limbaugh to discuss as anything but the punchline to a joke, “birtherism” has gained 9/11 truther-like staying power this year, triumphing over widespread ridicule from liberals and conservatives alike. Despite the fact that Barack Obama long ago produced his Hawaiian More…
1. Death Panels
It was a scenario that tapped into Americans’ deepest fears about increased government involvement with health care: President Obama was planning to a create a panel of bureaucrats charged with deciding which patients should live and which would have to die. The claim was first voiced by misinformer extraordinaire Betsy More…
A Year That Abounded With Fears Unfounded
While one might have expected Washington to recover some civility after the mudslinging of the campaign season, the year instead saw the rise of the “just asking” paranoiac style on Fox News, the return of serial health care misinformer Betsy McCaughey, and the accusation “You lie!” hurled at the More…
5. The Community Reinvestment Act’s Responsibility for the Financial Crisis
Experts will likely be debating the constellation of factors that led to last year’s financial downturn for years to come, but many conservatives arrived at the answer early. In late 2008 and early 2009, pundits and politicians on the right were quick to single out the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) More…
