Evolution of Consciousness

“Do Not Pity the Democrats,” by Chris Hedges, looks at ways to address the deep problems we have in this country.

DMG (David Michael Green) goes on a quick tour of the past thirty years of regressive American politics in “Mission Accomplished:
The Reagan Occupation and the Destruction of the American Middle Class.” Until a majority of Americans understand the basic premise of this story, we’re going to be stuck in it.

A great new essay from David Michael Green, called “Suicide by Regressivism,” examines the supreme illogic of the Teabag rant.

It strikes me as pompous and presumptuous, how this recently contrived temper tantrum has assumed the mantle of the original Boston Tea Party (1773). Here’s how one “Tea Partier” explained her position to The New Yorker:

“Government is for the post office, and to defend our country, and maybe for the roads. That’s all.”

Really? That’s all? (And I like how she maybe-ed the roads, like she’s thinking: if everyone drove a Hummer, then we wouldn’t have to pave at all.) Maybe this modern-day patriot ought to expend another millisecond of thought on the subject. I think a better name for the new movement might be “The TV Party” (2010), to honor the true source of propaganda that actually drives the thing (Fox News).

Not to slight the influence of Hate Radio, which I recently sampled…

A couple months ago, I caught Glenn Beck doing his radio show and was struck by how unhinged his presentation is. He sounds like he’s on the brink of a mental/emotional breakdown. Having heard so much about this guy, I didn’t expect such a whiny, victimized tone, but now I think I see what he’s doing.

Beck’s job is to sing a siren song to the frustrated American, all those people who have been on the receiving end of trickledown for too long. Now that Reagan’s economic sham has played out, Americans are thoroughly worn down and feel their backs against the wall. They know they’ve been had, but are unsure who did it or how it happened.

So Glenn assumes the sympatico tone of hurt, anger and desperation, in order to establish a bond with his target audience. Once the bond is established, his mission is to pour into those beleaguered ears yet another round of policies to benefit greedy wealth. A tall order, to be sure, but this frontman seems to be earning his lucre.

Then, about a week ago, trolling the AM dial once again, I heard a fellow named Michael Savage going absolutely ballistic on immigration. He was whipping up some white-hot fear and hatred with his listeners, using the argument that Mexican men are culturally inclined to rape “our women,” and we (American men) are wimps if we continue putting up with it. Upon hearing this, I realized I was listening to a modern-day Goebbels. Replace “immigrants” (or “terrorists”) for “Juden” and the echoes are unmistakeable and alarming.

There is too much of this sort of irresponsible, dangerous dis-info-tainment in our media these days. Sinister forces are at work in this country. Americans need to be aware and vigilant, to avoid complete disaster.

David Michael Green has written a lovely eulogy on the effort to reform the American health care system: Did Obama Sandbag His Own Health Care Bill?

Earlier this month we had the Teabag Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, featuring Ms. Sarabelle, the dominatrix of the hard right. This was followed by the annual fascism workshop known as CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) in DC. A remarkable quote emerged from this year’s show when the heavily pin-stripped Liz Cheney, railing against the current state of counterterrorism in this country, said, “there’s no polite way to put this, but that kind of incompetence gets people killed.”

Now when I hear words like “terrorism, incompetence,” and “people getting killed” I immediately think of 9/11, back when Liz’s daddy was Vice Incompetent. That gang was so busy making the rich richer, and vacationing, that they had little time for the barrage of intelligence briefings coming in that summer, strenuously warning them of imminent attack. For example, the brief titled Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US was delivered August 6, 2001, but our heroes bravely continued vacationing the rest of that month, only making it back to headquarters in time for the actual attack.

But that was then, and now, with Liz on stage, in what should have been an awkward moment, reality did not intrude. A couple minutes after making her cluelessly hypocritical statement, Liz introduced the original incompetent himself, jolly old St. Dick, to a rousing ovation. You’ve got to hand it to these demagogues, they certainly know their audience. Knowledge? facts? independent thought? critical thinking?…nah, none of that here, no “elitist” intellectualizing for this mob. They prefer leading with the gut.

Meanwhile, in between all this Teabaggin’ and CPACin’, a bunch of retrograde zombies arose from their graves to scribble out a sophomoric manifesto they call “The Mount Vernon Statement.” It’s a remarkable collection of 537 words that say next-to-nothing, beyond some vague sense that these guys are dead set against progress. The last thing in the world we should do is evolve, for god’s sake! Instead, they seem to be suggesting that we all curl up in George Washington’s lap and go back to sleep. This movement is obviously tapped out of ideas (beyond “no taxes, no regulation,” of course, those polar stars of the greedy man ethos). This is a shining example of politics at its worst, stirring the emotions while befuddling the mind. The document is available online, and I recommend giving it a once over, just to marvel at the gassy, empty rhetoric.

At bottom is a list of signatories that reads like a macabre Who’s Who of Democracy’s Demise: Meese, Norquist, Regnery, Feulner, Bozell, Viguerie, etc. It’s a shame their old friend Abramoff is behind bars, else he could have joined the fun.

A well-researched book that takes a close look at this destructive group, and their cynical perversion of the conservative movement over the past fifty years, is The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule by Thomas Frank (2008). It’s helpful to know how these traitors to American democracy think and operate. As an old Chinese general once recommended, “know thy enemy.”