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