Warren: Americans ‘understand the game is rigged’

[Peaceful Protester]

23. What is... the UnFairness Doctrine, Deregulation, and Citizens United, Alex?

1) Ronald Reagan's administration fought to strike down the FCC's Fairness Doctrine.

Introduced in 1949, the FCC's Fairness Doctrine was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was, in the Commission's view, honest, equitable and balanced. The FCC decided to eliminate the Doctrine in 1987, and in August 2011 the FCC formally removed the language that implemented the Doctrine.

- Rush Limbaugh = 600+ stations
- Sean Hannity = 500+ stations
- Glenn Beck = 400+ stations

Currently, there are fewer than 100 U.S. commercial radio stations carrying liberal talk programs.

NOTE: Republicans now control 75%+ of the talk radio market and Fox New serves as their re-election center.

2) Propaganda: repeat the lie enough until people begin to believe it.

The Lie: Democrats are the party of big government and big spending.

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Truth:

Economist Mike Kimel notes that the five former Democratic Presidents (Clinton, Carter, Johnson, Kennedy, and Truman) all reduced public debt as a share of GDP, while the last four Republican Presidents (H. Bush, G. Bush, Reagan, and Ford) all oversaw an increase in the country's indebtedness.

Summary:

Democrats believe in hard work that builds sweat equity, saving money to create a stable nest egg of wealth, and a system that safeguards everyone against unnecessary risk taking.

Republicans believe in trickling-down economics and a predatory form of disaster capitalism that enables greed and corruption to flourish, relies on leveraged buyouts, hostile takeovers, gushes wealth to the top, and always eventually crashes a healthy economy.