The Middle's finally gone.
And when the supporting struts have been surgically blown away, the two polar ends inevitably, violently collide.
The sane, sentient middle-ground has been swamped by a tide of right-wing extremist toxicity, bent on the buffering middle-ground's complete extinction. By twisting the truth and delivering the mauled messages through Machiavellian emissaries, the bulwark that is the Middle Class has been decimated, leaving the Right to tread over the confused, abused, unknowing masses.
The Republicans -- despite their disingenuous protestations to the contrary -- have done more to foment that result than any political philosophy left or right of Democracy could have on its own, save a proposition reintroducing slavery into the present day polity.
If the recent election results had occurred without the unnaturally rancorous tactics launched by berserker Republican operatives bent on control rather than governance then I might be disappointed with the outcome, but with my belief in the electoral process still intact, rather than utterly disgusted with the specious outcomes, the elevation of trolls and drones into positions of power and the disseminating of moronic memes and false equivalencies shoved down The People's throats. In a civil democratic society, the pendulum swings and all involved accept the outcome, if the object is the promotion of the nation's welfare, that is.
But the frothing desperation of the Right to consistently play down-low, dirty and mean has become their -- and since they wield the media like a electric prod, this country's -- identifying characteristic. Their scorched-earth approach to all things is like a nightmare out of William Gibson. Or should I say "white-mare"?
In fact, in many ways the opposition to the Right's onslaught has become little more than a scattered resistance, rather than a full-fledged, unified force. For, a major defining characteristic of the Moderate Middle and its Liberal allies seems to be a time and energy wasting introspection along with a cumbersome adherence to the rules of play in the face of an opposition which has dispensed with boundaries and absolutely, fundamentally loathes rules. It's like a bookish, bespectacled adherent of the Marquess of Queensbury stepping into the octagon with Brock Lesner.
This is the Right's holy, hellish war, and they've been spoiling for it for years. They have waged a premeditated assault on whatever is deemed an obstacle to their cynical, profiteering ends.
The Left either accepts the terms and becomes what it hates in order to survive, let alone triumph, or endures its own slow descent into irrelevancy, unseen by anyone who might give a toss about the perpetuation of a dream of true, civil Democracy.
Without a Middle, all that's left are bitter ends.
Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@TheStevenWeber
Petty little musing about the left is good/right is bad is getting a bit tedious and boring.
http://fallingpanda.blogspot.com/2010/11/steven-weber-mad-steven-weber-smash.html
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...since the Bush years drove the Left to the brink of setting themselves on fire...
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http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/docpage-recoverystats1.jpg
Don't leave out the fact that the conservative Bush years have driven conservatives to the brink. You’re all about being “Fair and Balanced,†right?
Otherlyn wrote:
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Regrettably, I am "one of those" who is now on un-employment and foodstamps. I am 62 years old, and have long clung to my Conservative principles. I was a stay-at-home-mom who actually raised her children, while my husband worked to support the family. When the kids got to Jr High, I re-entered the workforce. I trained as an optician, and worked for ten years. Then, my husband decided I was too old, and left me for a younger woman...At 62, with only 10 years worth of earned Social Security, depleted savings, a huge mortgage, and no job, how can I possibly turn down unemployment benefits and foodstamps for as long as possible. There ARE no jobs for me! As a Conservative, I am conflicted. As a person who is about to lose everything, I have no hope...but to use the system for as long as I can. After that...after doing all of the RIGHT things for so long, I am screwed anyway. Where is the American Dream?
http://www.newt.org/newt-direct/food-stamps-or-paychecks
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I think God just sent Newt a message.
- Tom
But hey, at least the cheese sticks come with the promise of diabetes and a heart condition, right?
– Jim Hightower
Gallup poll has those who call themselves conservative at 42%(always stupid/racist), moderates 35%(sometimes stupid/racist) and liberal, a whopping 20%(always smart/brilliant/pure of heart/good to the last drop/etc./etc.).
This election was far closer to the way Americans actually think and feel. It was 2008 that was the anomaly.
Oh, and the actual blog from Mr. Weber? Another tiresome piece of writing, both in content and execution.
Here's the deal: if you're going to lose, lose gloriously. Put the progressive out there--proudly, resolutely. It might surprise the president's advisors that the public likes attitude, even incoherent feistiness (think Palin). Call out the Republican phonies for their false fiscal piety. Call them out for their proposed predation on the entitlements. Call out the Supremes for their crypto-fascism. The Dems will not weasel their way back to dominance. Time for a spine implant.
Maybe the voters just decided that they did not like the ultra left direction that the country was going in, or is that to simple a concept for you to grasp?
Because that's the direction I've seen the country going in....
which was caused by a tide of left-wing extremist toxicity...
While you may one day be justifiably inclined to choose the south of France, most of us will only be left with choosing to vote or not - in elections that no longer make any difference. And, as it takes another couple decades for the greater part of OUR country to finally learn the neoCON sell-out lessons of the GWB era, it will then be too late for saving anything, including perhaps OUR planet.
Is there some sort of becky coulter lesson here for progressives then - to just forsake any integrity and compassion we may have left, to instead become like those hypocritical teapublican'ts - and grab all we can, while we can -- no matter who gets hurt?
If so, pass the Prozac please, because it's just not possible if I still feel ...'anything'.
I've been a Democrat since I could vote. And that's a good, long while. I can remember, long ago, when a Republican would win a race I would be disappointed. Frequently, however, they had a few decent ideas.
Today it is completely different. The GOP and their fringe mob, the T-P-ers, are so far to the right a sane, thinking person can find no good ideas for the majority of citizens. I think it's due to several historical occurrences, but the over-arching reason is they have perfected the game of brainwashing, fear mongering and the rewriting of history. They control the lion's share of media. So they pump Fox and Limbaugh and countless conservative tools into every corner of the country. They've learned to play on busy people's fears. They've learned to make it sensational, twisted and seemingly patriotic. They've learned a great many Americans need a scapegoat, easy answers, and they are happy to supply them.
History proves many things if you are interested in learning those lessons. Fascism took many years to complete it's grip in places like 1930s Italy. They brainwashed a majority over years of repeating lies and falsehoods. They gradually took over the media. It's all very tenacious and slow. But it's all very profitable to the very few who are powerful and rich.
Hey Steven. Like I told you before, I admire your passion. I wish more in Hollywood shared it.
The moder Republicans and White Whine Party folks call themselves "Constitutional conservatives" and always cite the "founding fathers" and the Revolution even though--as I've also said--they're really Tories in disguise--those who opposed the Revolution. But there was another little thing called the French Revolution. There was a quaint little quote that partially led up to it: "Let them eat cake." Yeah. That's the revolution they should be studying.
From "Legacy of the Founding Parents" by Jane Anne Morris
The people who founded this nation didn't fight a war so that they could have a couple of "citizen representatives" sitting in on meetings of the British East India Company. They carried out a revolution in order to be free of oppression: corporate, governmental, or otherwise; and to replace it with democratic self-government.
It seems that things have slipped a little. Today, as soon as any group or movement puts together a coherent critique of the role of corporations, tongues start clucking. Politicians, mainstream reformers, degreed experts, and media commentators fall all over each other in an effort to dismiss such clear, practical, focused thinking as mere "conspiracy theories" cooked up by unbalanced "crackpots."
They forget that political philosopher Thomas Hobbes called corporations "worms in the body politic." Adam Smith condemned them for their effect in curtailing "natural liberty." And most of the so-called "founding fathers" of this nation shared an opinion of corporations that today would earn them the label "lunatic fringe" from the same mainstream tongue-cluckers.
Those who won independence from England hated corporations as much as they hated the King. For it was through state-chartered corporations that the British government carried out some of its most pernicious oppression. Governments extending their power by means of corporations, and corporations themselves taking on the powers of government, are not new problems.
Because they were well aware of the track record of government-chartered corporations, and because they guarded their freedom so jealously, citizens of the newly independent United States of America chartered only a handful of corporations in the several decades after independence.
rings a few last notes
from the broken bell
left behind to show us the way
I whistle my blues to the birds
but they turned away
but thought I saw bird-shit
on god's shoulder
as the sun set down today