From Dick Lugar’s first address after leaving elective office, an observation worth pondering:
Perhaps the most potent force driving partisanship is the rise of a massive industry that makes money off political discord. This industry encompasses cable news networks, talk radio shows, partisan think tanks, direct mail fundraisers, innumerable websites and blogs, social media and gadfly candidates and commentators. Many of these entities have a deep economic stake in perpetuating political conflict. They are successully marketing and monetizing partisan outrage.
So, is this Lugar’s excuse for his drive to the hard right in his latter days? The man of principle was just trying to survive in the polarized environment? Is this why he thinks he lost?
Lugar’s drive to the hard right ? The man was so out of touch that he had long ago ceased living in Indiana, then hurried to establish residence on a farm that had no habitable buildings.
Lugar is 80 yrs old, it was time for him to retire. I respected the man for many years, but his generation needs to step aside while the rest of the Americans embrace the 21st century ways of communication. It’s not wrong to read blog (such as yours), it’s liberating, it’s informative and the wave of the future. I’m not that fond of his replacement Donnelly as he appears to be just as right wing as Lugar, but at least he is a couple of decades younger and hopefully, a bit more informed about where our country is heading. I see the only resolution to politics is overturning the citizens’ united ruling.
I agree with #2 and #3. People blame the right wing or Tea Party for Sen. Lugar’s loss. But Lugar has no one to blame but himself. He sold his residence in Indiana and would only stay in hotel rooms when he came back. (I won’t even get into the fact, he voted in more than 20 elections swearing under oath he lived at a house in Indy where he admittedly did not own, did not live, and did not ever intend to live again.) He was completely out of touch with Hoosiers. If he had done something, anything, to keep some Indiana ties, he would have easily been re-elected. But he chose not to do that.
The machine has been running for a long, long time. The comments reflect what Lugar was talking of. Spin. Wars. Drama. Dig Deeper for accountability and transparency…The games are on for a Rep. Pres and machine will continue to manipulate media and try to rule over the truth…
Dick Lugar’s personal and political characteristic notwithstanding, the guy spoke some wisdom. The media industry has a stake in perpetuating discord.
Great comeback to support my comment SS…This town is a disaster and many need to stand up and speak up re: injustices, corruption, deals and more. Digging deeper and exposing the truth with some authors blogs I read really have given me hope. Lugar had some issues, but the right hates is connection to many insights that they don’t want exposed. Which he did in his address…
Indianapolis isn’t alone in this mess. Lake County has made corruption and deals a fine art. Each area has developed its technique to deal with local public mindset. Indiana is an interesting state where the south doesn’t know what’s happening in the north, and the north has no clue about what’s happening in the south, and both ends are divided by miles of farmland. The content in the Post-Tribune, the Star and the Evansville Courier Press are totally different, not just from a local perspective. The politicians take full advantage of that and even encourage the division, because where there is division the wrong people benefit from it.
Regardless of your political affiliation, Sen Lugar addressed an obvious fact. Those entities with the most to gain monetarily are going to continue to promote strategies that make them richer. Think about the obscene amounts of money spent in the last election cycle and ask yourself who most benefited from the dollars spent.
Those who discriminated on the basis of the senator’s age need to get to know some more mature adults. Lots of us have life experience and knowledge you might find of use, believe it or not.
Joanne, it looks like the Democrats benefited most from the money spent in the last election. Are you saying they are the ones trying to perpetuate the discord more than others? If not, are you unable to grasp logical reasoning?
Lugar has sour grapes because he was a RINO and got pointed out as such. Perhaps if he better represented his constituents, he wouldn’t have lost a primary election.
John: read more about the media take over of elections…