The Longest Lasting Political Myth in American History
It took centuries to debunk the sun revolving around the earth or that the earth was flat. It took very short to debunk the idea that Obama, our commander in chief, is a Kenyan born Muslim. The idea that Illinois handed Kennedy the WH is bs because sans IL, he'd still have had 276 electoral votes (back then 269 was the magic number before DC got EVs). And the idea that John Anderson cost Jimmy Carter 1980 doesn't even get currency here (Carter tho still believes it), like another infamous myth, devoid of data, and full of hatred.
For 23 years, the people who pointed out that "Perot-Cost-Bush" were barely heard. Data, facts, and numbers ignored (think "I am not a scientist"
Newspapers used to uniformly imply or outright claim Perot "siphoned" "conservative votes" from Bush in 1992, thus implying a lack of legitimacy of the Clintons (at least Bill got the most votes twice, no Bush ever got the most votes twice for president), or positing how "conservative" this country was, nevermind that Ross Perot was pro-choice, anti-NAFTA, pro-taxes-on-the-rich, and for gun-control. In 1992, the GOP ran a very far right social agenda (remember Pat Buchanan's culture war speech, Dan Quayle's Murphy Brown tirade, Planned Parenthood vs. Casey), and there was Bush on one side of those, Clinton and Perot on the other. Even on the Daily Kos and here (sometimes), you can see people try to diminish Clinton's elections using the Perot myth, or acting like winning a plurality is less than a win, just because they hate the Clintons, not because of any principle. Pluralities, if above 40%, are democratic (Congress passed a national popular vote with that threshold in 1970 but it never got ratified, Nixon didn't need it in 1972 anyway. Many other democracies have that threshold too). In 2008, some of Hillary's unnamed opponents had surrogates using that hoax.
It seems the media tide is slowly turning against the Perot myth. Writers of articles can no longer claim Perot elected Clinton without armies of people who honour the truth, statistics, and numbers, as well the Clintons, shoving hard empirical data in front of their faces. Steve Kornacki and Rachel Maddow have done a great job attacking it, and making it mainstream to debunk Perot. Recently, the Washington Times, not a progressive paper, has published two articles in the last few weeks which attack the Perot Myth. Even the American Spectator allowed someone to point out the sheer disregard to empirical facts the Perot-Myth had. IMO, its one of two things: introspection, or a useful way to attack Jeb W. Bush
This is good news. He who controls the past controls the future. However, some others, the same people who claimed Clinton was under FBI investigation, even tho she never was, still wanna pass this on as truth.
Fact is that Bill Clinton has done for our party since 1992 what Nixon did for the GOP in 1968; got it out of the electoral college wilderness and convinced rich suburbanites and white working class, respectively, to vote against their economic interests in the name of social issues. From 1968-1988, IL, CA, NJ, VT, NM, and NH went Republican 6 out of 6 times, MI, DE, ME 5 out of 6 times, PA, CT, ME, MD 4 out of 6 times. Those states alone add up to 161 EVS. All of them except NH and NM have voted Dem 6 for 6 times since 1992 and comprise this "blue wall" that exists now. Nixon did that with the South, for the GOP. His legacy must not be tarnished.
How did this particular myth last so much longer than other ones out there? I think given the strength of the data, any politician or media member who had access to the data (all of them), and any poster here who peddles or has peddled the Perot-myth, owe us an apology. I think they also owe Ross and the family Perot an apology; god knows how many redneck Conservative nuts have sent him death threats over the decades.
Still tho, the myth isn't fully dead yet. I call on anyone and everyone who believes in empirical data to refute and rebut ANY and all articles you can find which peddle the Perot myth. Comment, tweet, but lets end the sheer hatred for math and science conservatives have.