It's the start of a new academic year here at PSU. Much has changed over the summer – the campus media outlets all have new leadership, the Rearguard has a new look, and signs point to academic productivity. But not all is right in the world. Attempts to reform the health care system may be derailed by the outrageous propaganda of our conservative masters. The hope felt by many Americans about the new health care initiatives has largely evaporated, which only illustrates the staying power of lies.

The attacks on Obama would be funny if they weren't so scary. In a July broadcast of “Fox and Friends,” conservative commentator Glenn Beck declared the president to be a racist who has a “deep seated hatred for white people.” Whether Beck was consciously or unconsciously influenced by his own feelings towards minorities is unknown. It is known that “Fox and Friends” has lost 57 advertisers since Beck’s statement aired. Early on, the Republican Party attempted to torpedo Obama's presidency by painting him as racist. These claims are only the tip of the iceberg.

Apparently, President Obama is the most ideologically complex and contradictory politician in world history! According to the conservatives, the president is simultaneously a socialist, a Nazi, a fascist and a Maoist. Obama must be either very talented or have multiple personality disorder. The Nazis were right-wing fascists who called themselves socialists, while Maoism is a branch of authoritarian socialism. But right-wing propagandists know that Americans are ignorant of such distinctions, not for lack of intelligence, but for lack of time. Most Americans are too busy working and raising families to read tracts of political theory.

This ignorance is exploited by the Republican Party and their lapdogs in talk radio and on Fox “News.” As a result of right-wing misinformation, citizens attend town hall meetings held by members of Congress, brandishing weapons and hanging effigies of politicians who support public health care.

The aim of this Republican propaganda is simple and disturbing: To discredit and dismantle the Obama administration. Fear is the Republican Party’s principal tool. One only has to revisit the constant “terror” warnings prior to the 2004 presidential election, or Dick Cheney’s assertion that Obama’s election would inevitably lead to America’s destruction at the hand of terrorists. As the American Right is bereft of actual solutions to the country’s problems, many of which were created by conservative policies, fear is all that remains. Understand this rhetoric, and fight back.