By doing absolutely, unequivocally F**K ALL about, well, anything in regards to bettering this country in time of peril---let alone participating in its governance---the current crop of McConnell-led Republicans are clearly letting everyone know that the disastrous state of the economy is their own convenient 9/11.
The original 9/11 gave the previous incarnation of Republicancers their opportunity to rip out the nation's wiring and replace it with jerry-rigged folderol masquerading as legislation; little caustic booby traps calculated to distract and derail the regulatory mechanisms the Founders installed so painstakingly.
While everyone panicked and duct-taped their windows, the gremlins fiddled with the Constitution and the Supreme Court, simultaneously prodding the talk-big-carry-a-little-stick Democrats to see if they had the moxie to interrupt their mischief. Which of course they didn't.
Disaster capitalists to the core, Republicans have been parading their mistress Misery around like a gilded-tooth pimp, luxuriating in the country's dire condition and making them all positively, tauntingly tumescent.
It's becoming old already, but no less effective that panic and disarray makes a lot of money for a lot of people investing heavily in the perpetuation of pain. But it's the most low-brow of investment strategies since it's a sure bet with a quick return, especially given the terror-laced scenarios hammered round the clock into our brains like digital pitons. With a conveniently contrived atmosphere of prolonged dyspepsia and a policy that exploits it, how could failure fail to succeed?
The Republicans (and their Repubic Heirs, the Tea Baggers---ha! See what I did there?!) are as dense---and as immovable as a rock. But they lack a rock's charming ignorance. They know exactly what they are doing. And employing the do-nothing strategy is the height of cynicism; it is the gesture of a bilious, amoral hater.
Such a mentality is housed inside the type that would shove an indigent, disenfranchised person away with their soiled shoe, that reconfigures history to justify their current abhorrent war on reality, that demonizes change in order to combat its own obsolescence.
And since Americans still respond to sentimental iconography, their knees jerk and their eyes brim at the wispy echoes of Mom-and-apple-pie platitudes the Republicans use to soothe the citizenry's furrowed brow, to lull it into another fitful night's sleep.
The pattern of right-wing brazenness indicates that they are near bottom. The more shrill their cries, the more wild-eyed their avatars (I mean, Bachmann practically has little revolving whorls in her "Yes, master" eyeballs), the closer they get to revealing what everyone knows deep in their hearts resides, in the end the better it will be for all even should they succeed beyond this recent election.
And then, from the ground zero of the inevitable Republican conflagration we can---perhaps---rebuild.
Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@TheStevenWeber
And then, from the ground zero of the inevitable Republican conflagration we can---perhaps---rebuild.
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"You're in the midst of a war: a battle between the limits of a crowd seeking the surrender of your dreams, and the power of your true vision to create and contribute."
- Anthony Robbins
We need not wait for the arsonists to burn down the country. We can roll up our sleeves right now:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-court/how-can-progressives-win_b_778741.html
http://crooksandliars.com/darcy-burner/progressive-prescription-post-electio
"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves."
- William Shakespeare
Remember how everyone was saying the Republican Party was a regional party? Looks like it's the Democrats that are regional - that region being "Liberal Land". We're a right of center nation, my friends, and the Democrats are moving in the wrong direction.
Oh, and that "ha! See what I did there?!" line? I've got a feeling you'd like to put that, or something similar, after just about every sentence you write.
...thanks to the ignorant, the duped and the ill-informed. The puppet-masters of the right have only the interests of those at the very top at heart, although they will continue to hammer away at empty talking points to those citizens too lazy to think about what they're being told, and to honestly observe how those concepts actually translate to their lives.
Always feel a little better after reading your words.
Put together with perfect cadence.
And insight.
Touch of needed snark.
Many thanks.
- Tom
I think you hit a good point in bringing up how the Dems did virtually nothing to stop the Repubs from dismantling the civil rights our founders enshrined in the Constitution. The conservatives used 9/11 to whip citizens into an even larger fear-frenzy, thus, making wire-tapping, wrecked regulatory laws and many more murky civil rights abuses de rigueur.
It is a giant stain on the many Dems who had no backbone while Repubs desecrated America's true values and worth.
Love it Steven!
What about trying to make a movie based on the character Lonesome Rhodes to expose the massive propaganda on talk radio? People consider it old media, but it reaches by far, more than any other media format and is over 91 percent propaganda. 40 million each week listen to AM radio.
Beck has 2 million viewers, but over 10 million listeners on his 3 hr. radio show. Rush has 15-20 million and that is just 2 of the national shows. On all of these stations they play local parrot hosts before and after to repeat and repeat the message. We NEED to wake up the American people that talk radio is full of Lonedome Rhodes hosts (movie....A face in the Crowd)
Try driving for a living. I did for 20 years and could not find anything but rightwing talk or boring NPR. What is frustrating is I would listen to Rush, know the facts he was omitting and know his listeners believed him. It is not a matter of right and left. It is right and wrong.
The hypocrites deserve NOTHING if not being laughed at, and being asked about hypnosis for their continuous stup id non-answer answers - hiding their smirks at a head-in-the-sand voter base.
The wide-eyed "Yes, master" visual is a very precise description of her platitudinal non-responses.
Thank you again Mr. Steven, it's always a pleasure to read you!
Do the broadcasters PAY for these licenses? If so, they should have the freedom to air what they want.
And as far as public interest goes... it's the public that would suffer with the enforcement of this doctrine..
See faulty premise #3
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/1993/10/EM368-Why-The-Fairness-Doctrine-Is-Anything-But-Fair
And here's a couple more links that you might want to read .... you know... so you can get that all important other viewpoint... which, apparently, according to you (the left) it's the government's responsibility to present the opposing view as opposed to citizens being responsible and finding it themselves. I guess I saved the government the trouble this time (not to mention tax payer's money).
http://blog.aynrandcenter.org/ayn-rand-on-the-fairness-doctrine/
http://atr.org/fairness-doctrine-point-nudging-read-online-a4958#
They would make Gordon Gecko's jaw drop. While they seem merely an insane amalgam of religious wingnuts and empty-headed fiscal fanatics, in truth that is only camouflage. Party of Lincoln? Party of the southern strategy. But again, why? Quite simply they are a front for reactionary billionaires, conscientious objectors to the 20th century, who yearn for the Gilded Age when they pillaged and ran the politicians out of their pockets. The New Improved Robber Barons however have no national allegiance. They are masters of multi-national corporations.
Their goal--as ably facilitated by the Fascist Five on the Supremes--is a feudal state where the oligarchs can ravage the resources and exploit the workforce. Where they pay no taxes at the top and privatize community services: no unions; no Medicare; no social security; no minimum wage; no regulations. Private police; gated communities to keep out the mob. Their motto: I own your ass.
This will be a hell on earth only Ayn Rand and the Koch Boys could love. Animal Farm, meet 1984. Welcome to neo-fascism.