Americans have a place in their hearts for the eccentric underdog; they honor the wisdom of the dirt farmer and the listening skills of the bartender; they embrace the righteous cynicism of a watchdog newspaper reporter; their eyes well up at the homespun appeal of the down-on-his-heels drifter.
These archetypes are, of course, stock players of Frank Capra's classic films, staples in the pantheon of classic American film.
All of these characters would, however, be roundly excoriated by the current incarnation of conservative class warriors, who have taken the very qualities with which they would identify as being noble and twisted them to fit a vague, corruptted reinterpretation of Americanism.
The genius behind the capturing of familiar icons whose very mention trigger endorphins into the pulsing blood stream of true-blue patriots is probably the greatest example of mass manipulation since the infamous twenty year period of National Socialism in Germany.
What the right has masterfully pulled off is the ability to shape-shift (or body-snatch, whatever science fiction conceit you prefer), ironically as much evidence of Darwinian theory as anything. For to assure its survival in a time when the president of the United States is a black man, when gay rights are flourishing, when the fruits of religious devotion are close-mindedness and frequent violence, it has had to grow even more cunning and dangerous when faced with the end of its significance.
Because it seems more and more that the civilized world no longer prizes racial, tribal or ideological purity, which are the foundations for the brand of right wing conservatism which seeks to reign today. Since its ideas are roundly refuted by the majority of prudent minds, it has sought to grab hold of people's most vulnerable area -- emotion -- and do the very thing a filmmaker like Frank Capra did (but for reasons pertaining to the cold acquisition of power rather than artistic enlightenment).
You know those down home, come-from-behind reg'lar folks who have lately been running for office and in many cases are poised to win over their establishment incumbents? They are Capra rip-offs who, clad in the skins of Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur, shun debates, spout confabulating combinations of Jack Chick homophobia and Creation Museum cretinism, while looking every bit as if they were products of a right wing studio system: scouted, signed to Mephistophelean contracts and schooled in the ways of appearing just familiarly earthy enough to sway the hearts of disenfranchised Americans. Then, having their paths paved by a media thirsty for anything "new and different" to ride all the way to the bank, they are virtually escorted into our lives and are thus implanted in the most fertile psyches.
But outside of their staged appearances, these impostors' intellectual grasp of actual substantive issues is exposed, and the grand strategy becomes clear.
As with Reagan's good natured Gipper/uncle and W's "wanna-have-a-beer-with-'em" persona, these tea baggin' automatons are mere cardboard stand-ups who can neither compare to or compete with even the standard bought-and-sold corporate politician. But since winning is everything to the right wing, they are once again mutating in full public view and, while once decrying the presence of the upstarts, have now begun to embrace and back them with their full force.
And though what these newly minted tea-bots say rings a sweet bell to the cocked ears of their kneeling and bobbing acolytes, the rest of the country (and the world) are seemingly too stunned to stop the dissonance.
In Capra's classic films, the division between right and wrong was clearly drawn. To utilize another Capra classic, it would be as if the charmingly stammered sentiments George Bailey spouted were really capitalisto-fascist philosophy made pretty by his homespun eloquence and the good, trusting people of Bedford Falls swallowed the poison pill and built Pottersville, without ever having to go through the rigmarole of hanging out with angels.
Capra also made Why We Fight. But the Bushies already did that one.
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I always enjoy your insight. I have been a lover of Capra films since I was a little girl and watched with my Dad. He certainly had a way to hook a viewer and see the world as it was, as it could be, and who would take the lead on the journey to a fair and tolerant society.
Yes, the teabaggers, either through total ignorance or something else, are distortions of the Capra characters. I shake my head with sadness that the intolerance, and hateful rhetoric of women like Palin and Palin 2.0 (O'Donnell) have followers. As a women, I see thoughtful, intelligent women like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi demonized whole these other women are given too much attention. I partly blame the media who just love a pretty girl as opposed to an intelligent woman. Even the so called left media were all too eager to demonize intelligent women while giving Palin et al so much media attention. Sad but true.
In this corporate run world, Potter would be played by Jimmy Stewart, and George Baily would be played by some unknown, not so attractive, actor. Our world is upside down. Labor is demonized, and corporate power controls the tea party people who will vote against their own interest. Somehow, Wellpoint will be defended for taking away health care for sick kids (Huckabee already had done that, good Christian that he is), just as BP is defended by the right. Sad times.
PS: It's heritage, not hate. Yeehaw!
Commented 2 months ago in Green
“Warmers are silly.â€
Commented 2 months ago in Green
“Warmers belong to the party of the miserable.â€
Commented 5 months ago in Green
“Warmers are like lemmings.â€
Commented 8 months ago in Green
“Notice how global warming lemmings get all angry if you don't agree with them.â€
Commented 8 months ago in Green
“What's also laughable is the lemming like mindset of believers.â€
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“All the hacks are falling like dominos.â€
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“Most climate change believers are angry lemmings who want to force people to believe the way they do.â€
Commented 8 months ago in Green
“If someone disagrees with a global warming lemming, the lemming gets all angry.â€
Commented 8 months ago in Green
“Global warming believers are like lemmings. It's all nonsense.â€
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“Misguided lemmings who believe in anthropogenic global warming.â€
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“Your name is silly.â€
I'll have to remember to use that one.
This is a different world. It is at our peril that we continually elect people who are intellectually limited, motivated by greed, ideologically warped (either way) and guided by the nose ring of religion. These attributes are responsible for every failed state, every war and most all other troubles at a national level.
The most successful countries in the world, the ones you never hear much about because they're not killing brownish people or collapsing in on themselves, are those with the highest levels of education and lowest rates of religiosity. Then there's China. One fifth of the human race and we are their livestock. They need us...for now.
Electing uneducated, unsophisticated, cross waving dolts like Angle, O'Donnell, Palin and ilk, to make the most important decisions the human race has ever faced, will get us nothing more than a Darwin Award. We're not even at least concerned with who is the least stupid anymore. I think the ship has sailed.
If they get in, beginning in January, C-Span is going to pick up a lot of viewers to watch the floor antics live on TV. The President is going to look like the ONLY normal voice in Washington, because most of the Democrats are Wimps and don't know how to fight back. It is the reason they are going to be this year's "Biggest Losers".
I am liberal so please don't bash me to bad.
are taking swipes at a movement that you really haven't studied or at least check out. All parties have rotten apples in them don't be so quick to judge.
The real true tea partiers want the same thing most liberals want. True tea partiers I believe are more center right.
And the true Tea Party movement isn't anything like the old, white Christian conservatives that polls and photos from rallies might suggest.
And yes some of the tea partys has been infiltrated by some bad corporations and bad people.
They also are trying to clean out their own party by sending a message to their party.
They are also saying the same thing we're saying about corrupt career criminal politicians.
1- Like for the government to stop taking taxpayer money and giving it to bail out brokerage firms and
Wall Street wealthy bankers
2-And to downsize the government to save taxpayers dollars
3-And to tell senators stop shipping jobs overseas
4-And for our elected leaders to concentrate on creating jobs
5-And campaign reform
6-term limits in the house and Senate
7-Immigration reform
8-To secure the border
9-And to somehow get a control on the exploding cost of health care and not forcing mandates on citizens
10-And for our government not to deal with totalitarian oppressive governments
1. There are no current plans to feed funds to the brokerage firms. Banks? Well, there is the FDIC insurance and we don't want to see that go away.
2. Downsize. OK --- what are they going to eliminate? Saying 'downsize' is like resolving to save money personally. Nice idea, but without a plan, it's just rhetoric and empty promises.
3. Downsize government, but more regulations to keep COMPANIES from shipping jobs overseas. Because senators don't ship jobs....unless you count the military. So doesn't that idea refute #2?
4. Obama has been creating jobs, but both the TP and the R are lying about it.
5. Campaign reform. Currently being attempted, but the GWB conservative SC caused a major, major problem there.
6. Term limits? I'm with you there.
7 & 8. Again, how? The AZ law leant toward individual state foreign policy. Just the southern border a problem? Then how to you protect the rights of legitimate Hispanic citizens? What's the plan? And don't forget, this will mean more government, therefore endangering, again your #2 (and a prime TP meme).
Next, the federal pension and benefit programs are way out of line. There is virtually no other business that offers those kinds of benefits.
Of course, your assertion that Obama has been creating jobs flies in the face of this proposal. Creating government jobs doesn't add one dollar to the national wealth. If anything it detracts from it.
10. Not deal with totalitarian governments? So we shouldn't have sold the Saudis all those planes? Nixon shouldn't have talked to China, Reagan shouldn't have talked to the USSR? Clinton shouldn't have gone to NK to get those Americans out? Like it or not, the world is a community, where varying degrees of communication and cooperation are required.
My problem isn't with the TP, it's with their simplistic, emotion-laden "we the people' slogans that mask the fact that they have no actual platform. Their presentation that their candidates are valid because they are 'just like us'. Well, guess what, 'us' doesn't have a plan to deal with the country's problems, and none of us are qualified to be President. Just like the TP candidates.
All sizzle, no steak.
Why do Democrats act as if the government is the owner of the citizens’ income and can hold a blank check on our earnings?
The nature of the proper governmental services must be constitutionally defined and limited, leaving the government no power to enlarge the scope of its services at its own arbitrary discretion.
as are we, the people. You really should look beyond the myth of america as the "land of the free".
No corporation on the planet comes close to the United States government in sheer magnitude, or unimaginable, unprecedented power.
The nation's top 100 corporations combined still fall far short of the behemoth in Washington, D.C., which conducts extensive operations in agriculture, weapons production, medical care, housing, real estate, education, mail delivery, policing, resource development, banking, the arts, security services, food provision, transportation and much, much more. Within five years, federal spending will consume 25% of every dollar generated by the private economy.
Of course, government carelessness threatens the populace even more fundamentally than corporate malfeasance. If you want to boycott a major company, you can make the choice do so — even if that choice requires sacrifices of money and convenience. If you want to boycott government, however, and refuse to do business with Washington, the feds may ultimately imprison you — for non-payment of taxes or an array of other charges.
When big companies disregard the interests of the general public, the members of the public still get the final decision on their level of involvement with any private enterprise. The government alone possesses authority to force every citizen to cooperate, and to bend to its will.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html
The assumption is that an individual will take the steps necessary to be self-sufficient by working in an occupation that they can contribute and be compensated to pay their own way.
In the past, the American culture prized personal responsibility and looked down on the willingness and desire to take without producing more than they consumed.
When the Tea Party talks about "taking our country back," that is what they mean.
What they mean is "taking back our country for people who look and think like US."
Sorry you haven't noticed that. Or the fact that the whole thing was cooked up and funded by the Koch (perfect name, that) brothers and Faux Noise.
The purpose of the teaparty is to:
-Motivate a floundering base.
-Create the illusion of a populist grass roots political movement, in spite of the fact that they have total political, corporate and media support control and manipulation.
-Distance, divert and re-brand the republikkkant party from the ineptitude, criminality, mismanagement and stank of the Bush/Cheney junta.
-Bash a duly elected presidency that serves their best interests.
-Pull the political dialog so far right that, by the time the smoke clears, people forget what the center even looked like.
Your inference of r@cism is beyond absurd.