Tea Party Hucksters
There is a supreme irony buried in the heart of the comprehensive investigation of the Tea Party Movement in this morning's New York Times. The governing principle of the movement is described as a,
Patriot ideology, which holds that governments and economies are controlled by networks of elites who wield power through exclusive entities like the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Many of us who grew up in the Sixties have heard this rhetoric before, ironically from the left. Here is a paragraph from the Port Huron Statement, the founding manifesto of the Students for a Democratic Society.
It is not possible to believe that true democracy can exist where a minority utterly controls enormous wealth and power. The influence of corporate elites on foreign policy is neither reliable nor democratic; a way must be found to be subordinate private American foreign investment to a democratically-constructed foreign policy. The influence of the same giants on domestic life is intolerable as well; a way must be found to direct our economic resources to genuine human needs, not the private needs of corporations nor the rigged needs of maneuvered citizenry.
I would hope that Glenn Beck, who clearly seems to be the driving force behind this new American Rebellion, might print out a copy of the Port Huron Statement to read in the comfort of his private jet as he flies to his next $60,000 speaking engagement. To deny that the American economic and political life is controlled by the elites is a fool's mission. That this narrative is shared by both the right and the left is not indicative of some mass "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" paranoia, but rather a sign that the collective consciousness has woken up to the facts of this chart.
My greatest fear is that the so called patriots are being played by another elite, the media hucksters long prefigured by Kazan's A Face in the Crowd
True Patriots Beware! All the simplistic proto-fascist solutions offered you by organizations like the Oath Keepers are a smokescreen, meant only to keep you in fear. Perhaps look back to those ideals you once had as a student in 1965 as the kids from SDS wrote.
We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit.When we were kids the United States was the wealthiest and strongest country in the world: the only one with the atom bomb, the least scarred by modern war, an initiator of the United Nations that we thought would distribute Western influence throughout the world. Freedom and equality for each individual, government of, by, and for the people -- these American values we found good, principles by which we could live as men. Many of us began maturing in complacency.
As we grew, however, our comfort was penetrated by events too troubling to dismiss. First, the permeating and victimizing fact of human degradation, symbolized by the Southern struggle against racial bigotry, compelled most of us from silence to activism. Second, the enclosing fact of the Cold War, symbolized by the presence of the Bomb, brought awareness that we ourselves, and our friends, and millions of abstract "others" we knew more directly because of our common peril, might die at any time. We might deliberately ignore, or avoid, or fail to feel all other human problems, but not these two, for these were too immediate and crushing in their impact, too challenging in the demand that we as individuals take the responsibility for encounter and resolution...Some would have us believe that Americans feel contentment amidst prosperity -- but might it not better be called a glaze above deeply felt anxieties about their role in the new world? And if these anxieties produce a developed indifference to human affairs, do they not as well produce a yearning to believe there is an alternative to the present, that something can be done to change circumstances in the school, the workplaces, the bureaucracies, the government? It is to this latter yearning, at once the spark and engine of change, that we direct our present appeal. The search for truly democratic alternatives to the present, and a commitment to social experimentation with them, is a worthy and fulfilling human enterprise, one which moves us and, we hope, others today. On such a basis do we offer this document of our convictions and analysis: as an effort in understanding and changing the conditions of humanity in the late twentieth century, an effort rooted in the ancient, still unfulfilled conception of man attaining determining influence over his circumstances of life.
The Times story notes, "In many regions, including here in the inland Northwest, tense struggles have erupted over whether the Republican apparatus will co-opt these new coalitions or vice versa." One Tea Party leader rebuffs Michael Steele and the GOP, another call Sarah Palin "a wolf in sheep's clothing". (Both these stories appeared in the past week on TPM Muckraker.) Yet, for the media, the Tea Party movement is defined by Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. It seems there is tremendous effort afoot both to co-opt this movement, and to define it as another atrocious outbreak of ugly American nativism - or worse.
February 16, 2010 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Take away Palin. Take away the signs with the Hitler mustache or Obama as a witch doctor, all the racist icons. Take away the Bircher's, the Birther's and LaRouchies and all of their paranoid delusions. What you have left is a group people, many by their own admission political neophytes, that tune in to Fox News or Tivo Glenn Beck for their required reading list. They mistake simple political slogans for policy prescriptions because, if it fits on a bumper sticker it must be common sense. They study the constitution and the founding fathers incessantly but ignore the Gilded Age and the history of the American labor movement. They support politicians that promise smaller government and less regulation. When those same politicians are elected and run headlong into reality they feel betrayed. "George Bush wasn't a real conservative." Just like the communists betrayed Marxism. Sure, they grumble while their guy is in office but they only start to come out of the woodwork when there is a Democrat in the White House.
These ideas aren't new and these people didn't just emerge to fill a void in leadership. They are always with us.
February 16, 2010 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
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February 16, 2010 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
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January 11, 2011 6:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
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February 21, 2011 8:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
But it seems there are some in impossible-to-define group that reject those attempts to neatly define them. The right would co-opt them, the Left demonize them. Both would delegitimize this mom-and-pop uprising for their own reasons.
For the Left, they're political neophytes, they're dumb people who watch too much TV. The Left would define them in the harshest terms it can apply Why don't we just be honest? We don't like the tea partiers because they are peasants and They Are Not Us.
February 16, 2010 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Curt, I've read your posts in defense of the tea-baggers. One of the things I like best about TPM is the diversity of opinion and your posts have really made me stop and think. I too am one of the unwashed masses who watches too much TV. In fact, I hardly feel qualified to get into some highbrow intellectual cage match. I've considered the tea-bagger movement, I've been banned from commenting on their websites. I don't think I would be received any better at their meetings. What am I left with except ridicule?
February 16, 2010 7:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
You don't see any middle room between blind embrace and "demonization"?
February 17, 2010 4:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Excuse me!? If a person is a murderer, is it "demonization" to call him a murderer?
If a person is an ignorant slug, is it "demonization" to say so?
If a person is a liar, is it not FACT to call him a liar?
February 17, 2010 5:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
We're not talking about one person, but a pretty loose collection of people whose basic reason for coming together is not clear, and by the nature of things will never be completely clear. So even if among them are some very big liars, if you treat this collection as a coherent criminal entity, you are, if not demonizing, at least stigmatizing for reasons that reflect your own need for a secure identity.
Curt wants to ignore the very troubling shit that percolates through this group and you want to ignore anything else except the shit. But its there in its complexity, shit and all.
Duke it out!
February 17, 2010 5:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good point.
February 17, 2010 8:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Don't you see any middle room between ignoring the very troubling shit that percolates through this group and defining the entire movement by what may be its fringe "bad apples".
February 17, 2010 9:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Do you have any reason to think it's just the fringes of the group?
February 17, 2010 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
The view, the idiotology, the entire "movement" is fringe. Are we to split hairs about the far-right having a "center"!?
That's the scam pulled by far-right hate-radio and FOX -- falsely claiming to be mainstream.
February 17, 2010 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
The problem is that you don't analyse the scam politically at all, you merely moralize it.
Obviously a scam works because it involves a process of negotiation between the manufacturers and the buyers of the scam. And the fact is that the number of buyers, including partial buyers, like Curt for example, is far larger than the number of scammers, or else the whole charade would have collapsed under ridicule.
This is a typical process of establishing or re-establishing hegemony. It is not enough to point out that a very large number of people bought into what is, to some extent, a "scam," or more accurately an ideological package deal that leaves them short, and is full of lies, nuttiness and racism. It is important to ask what are the components of the package deal, and what other alternative and better package deals might have a chance to de-hegemonized a significant part of this public.
This seems meaningless to you, in that you seem to suggest that because this deal was made, that is because these buyers bought this package, that must mean that this is exactly what they wanted and not the result of an uneasy compromise o n their part, and therefore that no other package can possibly appeal to them. Whereas I think that this is the only meaningful political question, because the struggle over hegemony is exactly about that, about challenging the assumption that the deal on offer is the best possible deal.
February 17, 2010 6:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
This seems meaningless to you, in that you seem to suggest that because this deal was made, that is because these buyers bought this package, that must mean that this is exactly what they wanted and not the result of an uneasy compromise o n their part, and therefore that no other package can possibly appeal to them.
_____
I said nothing of the kind. In fact, I've repeatedly said the exact opposite:
When the Republicans tell them to cut their throats, tehy also tell them they have to use their own knives to do it. And they rush out to buy the knives.
They vote against their own interests because they've swallowed the scam. There is no "finesse" to the brute scamming, or to the brute stupidity; and "finesse" won't work against the stupidty: as repeatedly noted -- this based upon over twenty years of confronting these functional illiterates -- the only thing they understand is response that conforms to their understanding. They are rude and obnoxious and that is all they understand; they refuse to learn any alternatives unless the cost of that mode is made greater than the gain from it.
It's like dealing with infants: one must first speak their language before they'll understand enough to begin speaking the language everyone else speaks.
February 17, 2010 8:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would never view or treat it as coherent -- which should be obvious.
February 17, 2010 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
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December 16, 2010 2:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
What I see is a group of people whose basic reason for coming together is not clear, held together by a common thread of fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets. The devil is in the details but I think I've heard this song before.
The economy was headed over a cliff and just when we're starting to get the course corrected this loose collection of people are trying to jerk the tiller to the right again.
February 17, 2010 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
The "teabaggers" are indefensible functional illiterates spewing -- even if they don't realize it -- white supremacism, and all the worst of the grunt-level whites-only retrogression.
If you're going to defend them by asserting that we don't like the "peasants," then why not attempt defending the KKK?
I don't know about you, but I DON'T respect ignorance. And I don't respect any DEFENSE of it.
February 17, 2010 5:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Because the KKK was a specific organization, and what we discuss here is a loose and inchoate populist rumbling in which the KKK spirit is only one potentiality and thread, even if one that needs to be uncompromisingly fought against, which Curt doesn't understand.
February 17, 2010 6:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
The KKK was and is the visible organization that manipulated and manipulates the inchoate populist rumblings of the funtionally illiterate.
February 17, 2010 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Given that functionally illiterate people exist, and will continue to exist, in large numbers for a while, then your position means that political change must either wait until capitalism itself creates a generation of common people with a PhD (as if functionally illiterate PhDs don't exist), or that it must happen through the imposition of "benevolent" elite power. I'd rather take my chances with the illiterate than with the powerful, because a chance in a thousand is better than none at all.
Positive change will come from a positive bundle that appeals ALSO to many who are functionally illiterate, not by indulging racism and paranoid ideas that have taken hold among them, but by communicating with them and winning them over. Not an easy job, maybe impossible. But I'd take maybe impossible over certainly impossible any day.
February 17, 2010 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I mean nothing of the kind.
I grew up with exactly the same sort of functional illiterates. They hate education because they constantly heard from their earliest understanding their parents rail against. Their first major goal in life was to quit school at 16 -- exactly as their parents had.
Once they "achieved" that they'd get married and have a kid or two, and more, and rail against education exactly as their parents did, and their children would pick it up from first understanding, along with the goal of quitting school at 16.
They don't read. They are suckers for hate-radio and FOX because they "level" -- they reduce everything to mere "opinion"; thus the educated -- those who don't view the false "opinion" that the world is flat as a legitimate topic for debate, let alone serious debate -- are no longer "more important" than themselves.
I have a sister like that. For years whenever I attempted to point out that not all opinions are equal -- some are informed, some are not -- she in essence covered her ears. Same when attempting to point out that there are facts and truths, not only "opinion"; that a falsehood or lie is not an opinion because an opinion has a chance of being true; that a falsehood or lie is not a "point of view" because a "point of view" has validity.
When I finally did get those facts across, she cut off communications, because she was no longer able to deceive herself that everything is only mere "opinion," therefore education is no big deal.
One must deal intelligently with such people; but one can't expect them to deal intelligently because they are anti-intellectual to begin with. And sometimes the only thing one can do is neutralize them.
February 17, 2010 8:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting post. What to say? Everyone does get "educated" or "informed" or "indoctrinated" in some way. I imagine the people you speak of listen to Rush and Glenn and Fox...or listen to people who listen to them.
Just to ramble a bit, I think the Democrats' and Progessives' problem is that their message has been a bit bloodless. It doesn't resonant emotionally, only intellectually. But this is a problem, even if you're talking to truly educated people.
It takes a lot to overcome one's emotions and make truly rational decisions. For example, in advertising, it's well known that people make buying decisions emotionally and then back them up with "reasons" that appear to appeal to the mind and reasoning--but only with reasons that support a decision already made on emotional grounds.
The far right has almost all the emotionally laden buzz words going for them, e.g., "freedom." Who could argue with THAT?
There's a fascinating book I'm itching to read called The Hammer and Hoe. It's about the communist party in Alabama in the 30s and 40s and how a bunch of mostly illiterate blacks came together with a smaller number of liberal whites to combat racism, poverty, etc., and had some real successes in the face of unrelenting violence and intimidation. They predated the NAACP (which apparently was NOT a civil rights organization at the start) and showed what could be done, even by people without an education who espoused an ideology that was anathema to mainstream America.
I understand times have changed, but even illiterate people can have a native intelligence that's pretty acute that can be appealed to.
Anyway, J, I'm NOT arguing with you, just trying to add to the conversation here...
February 18, 2010 10:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
One door closes, another door shuts...
February 17, 2010 9:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
They study the constitution and the founding fathers incessantly
_____
They do nothing of the kind: look at their signs: they are functionally illiterate.
February 17, 2010 5:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well put.
February 17, 2010 8:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
It IS an outbreak of "nativism" -- and worse: the foundation underlying is White Supremacism.
February 17, 2010 5:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
There does indeed seem a terrific effort by both parties to hold control of the whole Tea Party issue. I'd love to see which party gains more political mileage and breate a better brand name for themselves through all this. It's entertainment for us, it's politics for them!
October 14, 2010 9:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Times story quotes Richard Mack, who co-wrote a book with Randy Weaver and is connected with the militia movement, comparing Rosa Parks with David Koresh and Randy Weaver. Rosa Parks was a hero. David Koresh was a child rapist. The idea that
someone could equate them is horrendous.
The Tea Party is filled with people ignorant of the political storms in which they have stepped into.
Beck is laughing all the way to the bank.
February 16, 2010 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
You've got it. But be careful of being sympathetic or compassionate: be wary, even circumspect.
February 17, 2010 5:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ripe for a charismatic demagogue.
February 17, 2010 8:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Look Sarah Palin's Rush, Is Obama's Harry..so nobody can say much. So Obama supporters can't hate Sarah Palin, because in more ways than one she is just like Obama, check this story out
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February 16, 2010 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Umm, no.
February 16, 2010 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Untenable hypothitical -- in fact, racist bigotry masquerading as objective political analysis.
Hate is hate is hate. And hate is immoral.
February 17, 2010 5:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
ATLAS SHRUGGED is over 1000 pages long. I would be shocked if greater than 0.5% of the Tea Party movement has read it -- even if lead there by Beck. I say this because the arguments from the Tea Party side do not have the sophistication of those people generally associated with "readers".
Indeed, if Beck really led them to Orwell, you'd hope that the Tea Partyers have looked at ANIMAL FARM with its lesson that Beck may not look like a farmer, but he is just another pig.
Nevertheless, the rise of this movement is directly associated with the lack of leadership in Washington, Obama included. By not articulating -- and rearticulating -- ideas, the void was filled with the nonsense that now goes a political discussion.
There is a rather disturbing article in the LA TIMES on the TX gubernatorial race. The Tea Party candidate is on record saying that Fed laws which don't make "sense" shouldn't be followed.
As usual, the Tea Party member apparently don't know that history already decided this question.
Or maybe not.
February 16, 2010 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
the rise of this movement is directly associated with the lack of leadership in Washington, Obama included.
_____
Bullshit. These are the same functional illiterates who cheered on the fake "militia" "movement". Who believe the horseshit that KultKingKoresh and Weaver were "victims" of the gum'mint.
Who at least suspect that the 168 murdered in OK City were all "Feds" -- including the infants.
These are not people who know even the rudiments of logic and reason. Their notion of "debate" is that they copy from hate-radio and FOX: name-calling, and shouting people down, preventing them speaking.
These are the people who deliberately disrupted last Summer's local efforts to discuss HCIR.
February 17, 2010 5:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Nevertheless, the rise of this movement is directly associated with the lack of leadership in Washington, Obama included. By not articulating -- and rearticulating -- ideas, the void was filled with the nonsense that now goes a political discussion."
It's directly related to Washington's inability to deliver on its promises. Were it able to and did, much of this would die down. These people are hurting and they're looking for "answers" and folks to blame.
February 17, 2010 8:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
you honestly think that passing Health Care Reform, aka a socialist takeover of one-sixth of our economy, is going to quiet down the paranoiacs terrified of big government?
February 17, 2010 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
What I think is that when people actually EXPERIENCE the benefits government promises, they often like them.
They still oppose the "ideology" of big government when the question is asked that way, but they like the benefits.
So you have people uttering the nonsensical, "Keep government away from my Medicare."
But if conservatives can convince people that health care reform is one step removed from the gulag, then yes, there will be lots of opposition. Most of it drifts away, IMO, when they taste the medicine, though, when government really does come to their aid.
February 17, 2010 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, the Port Huron Statement quote seems more true today than it was in the 60s! I don't see the corollary between the conspiracy theories of the Tea Partiers as depicted in the Times piece and the facts any analyst of the distribution of wealth in America and the influence of corporate lobbies in Washington will relate to you, all documented and reported ad nauseum.
As you say, "To deny that the American economic and political life is controlled by the elites is a fool's mission." However, to compare that flat-footed fact of analysis to hidden-elites-conspiracies is a disservice to clear understanding of the Tea Party movement as well as the issues that could lead us out of an economic mess paralyzed in place by narrow, industry-driven interests.
February 16, 2010 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
All the political claptrap bullshit in the world can't hide the fact that the membership in the top 5% is not hereditary. That Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, EARN their money. They have something a great many people are willing to pay for.
It's also true that the bottom 20-40% have nothing anyone is willing to pay for.
So where does that leave Leftist ideology? Especially in a world with too many people.
February 16, 2010 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
And of course we all know that everything of any value has a money price and is found in the market.
We also know that everyone who receives money has earned every dollar of it based on their personal contributions. Power does not attract money, only effort exchanged for dollars attracts money.
February 16, 2010 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
What kind of pathetic moronic commentary is that, loser?
Are there talented people who never achieve success? Of course. Are there talentless people who do? Obviously.
Are there ideas and things which have no market value but are valuable? What does that even mean? That some people are smarter than others and therefore can value items before the herd does? Is that what you mean? True, but definitely NOT an egalitarian perception. And actually one of the main reasons the wealth is so concentrated.
There are approximately 1 million people who qualify as the wealthiest 1%. What percentage of them inherited their wealth, are talentless coupon clippers? My guess is less than half, probably considerably less than half.
February 16, 2010 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry Spider, but some people are smarter than others. It's a well known fact, established since the dawn of time, and for which your posts would be an additional proof if such proof were necessary. You confuse that fact with the wrong idea that some people should hold unaccountable power of others. And that confusion is easily explained by the fact that, well, some people are smarter than others.
Get over it.
February 17, 2010 4:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
February 17, 2010 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can we assume, then, that, at the very least, YOU aren't?
February 17, 2010 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not aren't. Can't.
What saves the day - so far as it can be saved - is that elites are not cohesive groups, that they fight among themselves, that they make allies among their lessers and reward them.
That allows the possibility of constructing societies which channel that conflict and those alliances in constructive ways.
February 17, 2010 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Looking for some elite folks to reward you?
Send me your address and I'll fedex you a cracker.
February 17, 2010 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
They've been rewarding me all my life...but thanks for your kind offer.
February 17, 2010 9:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just read a post by a granny about a Constitutional Amendment the gist of which was:
No corporation that receives $1 Million or more in govt. contracts can lobby that level of govt. except for appearing before congressional committees of inquiry!
How would that be in changing things? HUGE.
Without something with teeth, we'll keep wallowing in this muck.
February 16, 2010 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
No corporation that receives $1 Million or more in govt. contracts can lobby that level of govt. except for appearing before congressional committees of inquiry!
_____
"except for appearing before congressional committees of inquiry"?
I can see it now: corporate polluters, as example, spending billions to lobby Congress to allow them to testify under oath against themselves.
There is, by contrast, an intelligent Amendment movement -- begun by a law professor -- which would deny personhood to corporations.
The proposal you post would be more appropriate as a statute, which are more easily amended.
February 17, 2010 6:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
First time tragedy, second time farce.
February 16, 2010 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
With chaos and anarchy becoming more apparent as the World's conditions deteriorate; who’ll be the scapegoat or the object of hatred? Our political leaders, our church leaders, who?
If you think I paint a bleak picture of going from bad to worse; tell me what you base your hope on, that things are going to get better?
(2 Timothy 3:1-5) . . .But know this, that in the last days
critical times hard to deal with will be here. 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, 3 having no natural affection,
--- not open to any agreement, ---
slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, 4 betrayers, headstrong, puffed up [with pride], lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power; and from these turn away. . .
February 16, 2010 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just read a post by a granny about a Constitutional Amendment the gist of which was:
No corporation that receives $1 Million or more in govt. contracts can lobby that level of govt. except for appearing before congressional committees of inquiry!
How would that be in changing things? HUGE.
Without something with teeth, we'll keep wallowing in this muck.
February 16, 2010 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where was the Tea Party when it mattered most, in 2002, with a new, improved surveillance state, the connected folks getting their defense contracts, and no tax cut too large for the wealthy?
It is only the scary fact of an African-heritage President that has inspired the racists, who now find it necessary to protect the Constitution. We were trying to protect it from the Patriot Act, we wanted to impeach a war criminal, and we had facts on our side.
I hope the Tea Party becomes the new Ku Klux Klan, too embarrassing to admit you ever belonged to it, like the Independents that are really Republicans but won't admit it, since the GOP is crazy now.
February 16, 2010 9:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bravo. Call them what they are.
February 16, 2010 10:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's exactly right: one labels a lie a lie -- one doesn't pretend it's true. One labels a liar a liar -- at the very least to help the liar orient toward reality, fact, truth.
February 17, 2010 5:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
...but also the economic plight of the people in this movement. The masses in it. That didn't exist then--at least the problems hadn't manifested themselves in big unemployment. That's a key difference also between now and then. People are willing to overlook a lot when their bellies are full. I don't deny the racial aspect; it's most definitely true.
February 17, 2010 8:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Divide and conquer.
I think we're at the conquering part.
February 17, 2010 4:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sure, let's stick to economic issues. Why would the unemployed fear help on health care? Why would they fear government takeover, when they need it the most? Simply because they don't trust this administration, and the only reason for that is racism, since everything else they claim is wrong, or a simple lie.
February 17, 2010 10:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Addressed to Tintin.
February 17, 2010 10:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Do you know any of these people you're describing? I doubt it, since your remarks are so uninformed.
Sure racism plays a role. But the same plans failed under the Clintons. And, before that, under other Presidents all the way back to TR. You'll have to look much deeper for explanations.
Rather than listening to me about it, I suggest you make a greater effort to talk to them.
February 17, 2010 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sure, I'm not fighting you here and denying the role of racism, but my SENSE is that it's more than that. I have no proof of what I'm saying, but it's my sense. Sometimes, two or more causes come together, like streams flowing into each other, and that's what I THINK we have here.
In terms of the questions you ask, you have to ask them in terms of the rise of movement conservatism in general. What's The Matter With Kansas? How has the conservative movement, for decades now, gotten working class people, even at the low end of that spectrum, to vote against their economic interests? It's a big, big question. I recommend a book called Invisible Hands by Fein. The Conscience of a Liberal by Krugman also goes into it.
My quick take points to a few issues:
• Government failed to deliver on some of its promises. People LIKE government when it works, but hate it when it doesn't. But instead of trying to fix it, RR and other movement conservatives, convinced folks, at a low point in the 1970s, that government was the problem. It was unfixable. This worked in part because NO ONE likes to pay taxes, even people who believe in government. So the momentum flowed in one direction.
• The left went to alien extremes and alienated the working class. EJ Dionne wrote his thesis on this point. Originally, Archie Bunker would have been a union man and a staunch Democrat, but he was alienated by the antics of the left (or new left) and RR was the just the guy to beguile them.
• Racist politicians found that they could get their message through by cloaking it in the language of "states rights" and "small government" and "lower taxes." This gave and gives racists a socially acceptable way to vent their racism and protect themselves from this charge. Instead of being racists, they just have a "different opinion," a different philosophy of government.
One reason this philosophy remains attractive is that it's never been implemented. And when the Republicans have tried to implement it by dismantling SS, almost everyone has rebelled. "Keep the government away from my Medicare!" If Ron Paul was really able to enact his libertarian agenda, you'd see a LOT of people waking up with a huge headache. They take so much of what government gives them for granted, they can hardly imagine being without "those things" and may not even get that it's government that's giving it to them. Or rather, that they are giving those things to themselves through government and the tax dollars that support government actions.
Anyway, my two cents.
February 17, 2010 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Many of us who grew up in the Sixties have heard this rhetoric before, ironically from the left. Here is a paragraph from the Port Huron Statement
Let me guess: you didn't spend much time reading the blogosphere during the Bush years?
While I was around to laud the Port Huron statement as a teenybopper wannabe revolutionary, that's not the first thing that comes to mind to make the point you are trying to make.
Sites like DKos and Democratic Underground hosted a multitude of posts on the new world conspiracy during the Bush years, it was a very popular topic. Bilderberg et. al. was all neatly tied up with bows and ribbons to the Neo-Con cabal Straussian cult coming out of Univ. of Chicago.
A reduced number, but still enough of them, are still at it,
here's just one quick example of a Democratic Underground diarist hard at work tying Obama and a lot of his team to Bilderberg and the Trilateral Commission. It's funny, glancing at some others of similar type, I see Henry Kissinger is still mentioned so often, he is like the lynchpin to serious new world order leftie conspiracists, the grand evil puppetmaster of the world order for the last 40 years, you've got to give him credit for accomplishing that with lefties, the old man, he's got staying power as an uber signifier.
February 17, 2010 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just found out about this stuff the other day and am not sure what to do besides tell everyone about it…
Here is some things you may or may not know:
Look up in you tube or anywhere you want about:
Builderburg group
Tri-Lateral commission
“Bohemian Grove” this is a big one, just found it a few hours ago….
And can I ask you, did you know about this stuff, if so have you told everyone you know?
All of this is in the news and on the History channel, not as fiction as fact.....
I pulled my head out as it were, I suggest we all do before its to late....
July 1, 2010 7:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with yout hat the so called patriots are being played by another elite, the media hucksters long prefigured by Kazan's A Face in the Crowd.
True Patriots Beware! All the simplistic proto-fascist solutions offered you by organizations like the Oath Keepers are a smokescreen, meant only to keep you in fear.
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