Rich writes: "There's a case to be made that a tea-party-infused GOP will have a serious shot at winning future national elections."
President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. (photo: AP)
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To them ignorance is bliss for why would they want to be enlightened since they already understood it better than these pesky intellectuals?
My guess is that the problem is that people's self-images are weak to the point where that can't admit even to the possibility that they might be wrong. In order to change one's mind about anything, one has to first admit to the possibility they might be wrong.
Most religions believe their belief system is perfect. If one believes they have a perfect belief system, they can also believe they never have to change anything about themselves or their belief system.
People who think like this almost alwyas find other people who think the same way, and they all agree to stop thinking about other possibilities at the same place. Nothing has to change then. They only run into problems when someone in their circle is confronted with new info they can't ignore or deny, and change becomes imperative. These people are then generally ostracized. Pastors who have lost their faith are a good example.
I think the bottom line is the fear of change keeps these people from looking at anything outside of what they've learned to believe is true. Fear keeps them in denial, and it keeps them blaming others for how they feel. As long as one thinks their belief system is perfect, they can blame others, and they don't have to change.
Both D's & R's are committed to maintaining the two-party system, because a 50-50 chance of being elected is "as good as it gets" for most politicians. They'll dight a 3rd party ro the death!
Based upon shifting conditions in immigration, ethnicity, the economic, social evolution, etc, party demographics change and w/each change triggers other changes. The most prominent example was the 1980 trek of the "Solid South" from the Democratic party to the GOP. The white, anti-labor-unio n Jm Crow Dixiecrats quickly co-opted their new party. As a result of this race-related shift, liberal-republi cans had to choose between extinction and the Democratic Party. In fact, ion 1981-8, the two parties actually swapped political philosophies and perspectives on all major social, racial, economic and political issues.
Subsequently, when the teabaggers' arrived on scene, the upstarts had to join one party or the other or become irrelevant. They joined the GOP, and now, based upon relative strengths and finances, it remains uncertain whether the new faction will lead or follow. In either case, w/Citizens United considered, our political system is NOT what our Founders envisioned.
To wit: Beck declared Paul Ryan to be something of a "soulmate" last year and in 2009, Romney introduced Glenn Beck as a "statesman." Glenn Beck, a statesman. That alone disqualifies Romney as an opportunist with horrible judgement. (You can Google this: Glenn Beck is statesman, Governor Romney. It's on video.)
Romney/Ryan/Beck: too extreme for most Americans now. Too extreme for most American always. Don't ever forget that as the reactionary right attempt to take this country over in the days and years to come.
It is a HUGE threat to us as progressives to contemplate a country run but utter insipid science denying idiots. Truly it makes me either want to self-deport or worse end this misery I have experienced since the election of Richard Nixon on down to the loathsome Bush.
So again, I am going to be an ostrich and NOT read this probable downer. I am ALREADY wishing I could vote multiple times for the president.
To eschew a clearly better more humane and decent president for a near fascist ideologue who will say and be anything that is required to walk into the oval. I WILL NOT GIVE HIM THAT GLORY and I HOPE everyone on this blog thinks as I do. The ONLY thing we have is our vote USE it before it is indeed too late!
WOOOOOOOOOOW...just a cotton picken moment.
Do not throw out Southern California.
We are many progressive people here.....And we want our FREEDOM from the right wing nutcases.
Given the region's decades long history of voting for reactionaries, I am have the impression that the percentage of "progressive people" in South California is very very small and shrinking.
Orange county is VERY red, but it is not all of Southern California. There are many democrats here. And the president will certainly win BOTH northern and southern California. BOTH our senators are smart democratic women and senator Boxer is a very hard working environmentalist.
I sure hope the senate stays democratic, for if the republicans take over, the worst idiot, evolution and climate change denier, will take the seat as head of the commission senator Boxer is head of. Senator Inhofe is so stupid, he simply does NOT belong in the senate.
What baffles me is: LOOK AT THESE T BAGGERS, So many of them ARE either seniors, using walkers and wheel chairs
(paid for by medicare) ore they are CLOSE to retirement.
What will they do when Ryan cuts medicare and toss a couple of vouchers at them??? Then it sure will be TOO LATE. They will have opened Pandora's Box. And there is NO WAY to close it.
They will die for the lack of care, and they only have them selves to blame; but unfortunately a lot of innocent people will die too. AND their children and grandchildren will curse them for all the ills the Climate change is causing because it is getting worse all the time, and they are in TOTAL DENIAL.
I still maintain the problem is that our social norms are addictive in nature. The two basic properties of addictive behaviors are denial and blame.
In the book "When Society Becomes An Addict," Anne Wilson Schaef points out that all addictions are based on fear. All hatred is based on fear. All greed is based on fear. Every negative thing I can think of is based on fear.
We have learned to be so afraid of the things we fear that many, if not most of us, have a hard time even being curious about what we fear.
Marie Curie once wrote "There is nothing to fear, it just needs to be understood."
Denial and blame get us nowhere. It's also been written that life is 5% what we make it, and 95% how we've learned to take it.
As adults, being responsible for our emotional responses to events is the only way to begin to change. Being responsible keeps denial and blame from happening, and allows people to change.
Ironically, change is what most addicts fear most of all. Or so it seems to me at this point in time.
It is gratifying to be cured of an affliction, but it is terrifying to be divested of a crutch.
People learn to believe they need their crutches, and that becomes their relaity. The known hell is more prefarable to the possible unknown paradise. And when ones entire peer group is doing, thinking, and saying the same thing as one is also doing, the reinforcement is hard to ignore.
People want to stay in their comfort zones, and, given time, most comfort zones become ruts, then gorges, and people have not learned to see past their learned walls.
I've always thought that this country was ripe for Fascism -which is what we're ultimately talking about here (and I don't chuck the expression around freely like some on RSN) but I'm speaking from the perspective of a European who has traveled Globally with an open eye and (I hope but should never presume) an open mind.
I know that many of the candidates for the highest post in this alleged "Land of the Free" could never be taken seriously and would be pushed to the looney fringe but here, you've already (s)elected some and others have run close.
The owner media Plutocrats are doing their job well in fragmenting the people and states against each other and the rest of the world.
Right on reiver...it is an all to scary prospect and as Sinclair Lewis or Huey Long may have said: "when fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving a cross."
Strangely and sadly it is the reactionaries, the people who constantly yell "freedom, liberty, freedom, liberty, freedom, liberty" who fear genuine freedom that only the right to choose your own path with the backing of your family, friends, society, and even nation.
Strangely and sadly it is the reactionaries, the people who constantly yell "freedom, liberty, freedom, liberty, freedom, liberty" who exhibit so pathological a refusal to be responsible that they relinquish their greatest freedom, the freedom to choose their own moral path, by delegating all their moral decisions to their religious and political "leaders" and then, with cult-like blindness, following and repeating what those "leaders" say.
That's too bad. I worry for the country too but I LOVE it and do what I can to help and the least I could do is become a citizen.
I do what I can too, especially in an educational and cultural sense at a community level by being socio-political ly aware and nationally activist but don't get to vote. So I have to think ahead and don't like what I see, and have seen looming for a long a long time, which after all, is what this article is all about but most especially the entrenched attitude to health care, the elderly, the indigenous people and the disadvantaged. I'd have become a Citizen a long time ago but the US does not generally permit dual citizenship (the UK does) unless a dual-nationalit y couple children born here.
I love the PLANET of which this country is only a small part and I see the US -especially it's bloated Military- as the single most destructive forces which threatens the very continuation of the evolved existence of all species with which we live and which the indigenous peoples have long recognized as such.
So I am forced into a situation of choosing my fealty and prefer to stick to one which provides what I might need to sustain myself in my elder years.
What would you do?
I DO realize from reading your posts, that you do a lot to help. You may have noticed from my comments, that health care is VERY important to me. It is a disgrace that so many people are left out in the cold.
And like you I am also against this enormous military. because it is THERE, too many crazies want to use it, and of course that will only mean more death destruction and misery.
I apologize. I really did not want to offend you.
I've usually enjoyed Rich's commentary, but I have a distinct feeling that he's closing in on membership in the 1%.
some "minorities." They'll need SOME small scapegoat. A declining empire is certainly vulnerable. But Frank is perhaps too grim. Europe, including Germany, seems far from fascist. We have no tradition of Omnipotent Leader & religion is fading.
Thee have been "preventions" but not a cure as of yet. How about slavery in the early U.S.? How about gradual, genocidal campaigns against Native Americans through broken treaties and violence?
It didn't appear that there was prevention. Now, it may have gotten a little better, but those legacies still reverberate. Past and present are connected. But I don't expect you to know these things while you cling to a strictly B/W, antiquated-19th century vision, which is dying out. Take off the rose-colored glasses.
BTW: Some U.S. founders were fond of empire. The proof is in letters written by Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, etc.
Regarding Exxon and Monsanto, probably the most "kickbacks" have gone to the U.S. government, corporations, and visa versa. Money is rapidly exchanged between the two "parties" and the private corporate beaucracy in what amounts to buying elections; don't forget corporate lobbyists getting their "kickbacks."
Take a U.S. history 101 class where shades of gray are shown.
Relentless vicious assaults upon civil, legal and moral rights are hidden from view, while snitches and tax cheats are held up as heroes.
Seth Rosenfeld exposed how J.Edgar Hoover and the FBI were the muscle of an American Right Wing that did not allow free speech, that exploited the communist scares to wage wars on our children, our workers, our religious leaders to divide, decimate and destroy. No wonder there's a sense of entitlement on the smirking faces of the leadership. They have benefited, as did Ronald Reagan, by being the remora on the scales of the reptilian right wing.
Ultimately, the Tea Party's brownshirts may dominate the elections, and their moneyed backers will convince the uneducated, and misled that up is down, toxic waste is good to breathe, and that waging endless war somehow keeps us safer. The idea that was America has changed forever, and we can thank the paranoid cabal that has sold our birthright for an unchallendged right to "Drill, Kill and Spill."
This is not a one person problem. This is a systemic problem. As Thomas Friedman said ":We don't need better government - we need better citizens."
Obama mentioned this fact during his acceptance speech. We need citizenship skills. The people who want to control other people, do not want to have more people involved in the process. They want to keep us deaf, dumb, and blind.
They want to have power over others, not power with othyers. Sharing power with others means less of everything for them.
It's been written that to a wise person, enough is as good as a feast. To the people who want power, who are afraid of giving up power, there will NEVER be enough. Power never gave up anythhing withyout a concerted effort by a group of people.
As long as we the people can be kept divided and ignorant, nothing will change. And that is not all Obama's fault. We all need to take some responsibility for what has happened and is happening, and work to do better.
Want to rid yourselves of tea party cretins than you should have been getting involved and moving the other parties along
Want to blame someone do not kill the messenger...you were all asleep at the wheel. I know most of you, I see you when I come to get signatures, meetings...not tonite, not tomorrow, too busy, nope do not want to sign that, do not want to get involved. Just gonna run me mouth.
twenty nine years my friends and I called on you, showed you facts...but you refused to look. Now all we can do is point fingers. Go to a Mirror and do it.
Tea Party will sell themselves out to the next bidder. If Romney gets in and jobs leave...their gonna lose jobs too Maybe even companies...no small loss Time they all were on our side of the boat and we are gone in the life rafts
More likely she needs to ATTEND
If you can get a person to understand the difference between a fact ann an opinion/assumpt ion, they might, possibly, allow themselves to look further into the subject. Perhaps they will even begin to ask their friends and co-wrkers to prove it. That would be progress.
We also don't need to get government out of religion as much as we need to get religion out of government.
So many people respond to the passion and sincerity of the messages being put out my Romney and Ryan. They seem to have forgotten how passionate and sincer Adolph Hitler was with his message.
To me, that speaks of ignorance more than anything else. Passion without rational intelligence leads to fanaticism or zealousness. Intelligence without passion is boring, and doesn't move people. We are out of balance.
Don't worry about the Tea Party because we've already done it to ourselves. Everybody turned chickenshit after 9/11 (so much for the home of the brave) and decided that Big Brother's boot forever stomping on their faces was better than taking the miniscule risk of getting blown up by Al Qaeda. It wasn't the Tea Party that killed America, it was cowardice. Folks wanted to make the USA safe for reality TV, football, hot dogs, apple pie, Chevrolet and ED medications.
In their demand, reactionaries will always be unsatisfied. No matter what party holds office, no matter what legislative agenda is enacted, they will not believe their power sufficient. They will think of themselves as deprived, yet we will think of them as winners, because they persist. They never view their position as settled. For reactionaries, electoral victory or defeat is equally a starting point.
All this just means that the progressive project has no end. If reactionaries feel that they’ve won too little power, so progressives should feel that we’ve won too little social justice. We, too, should always see ourselves at a starting point — setbacks and accomplishments merely provisional, the status quo unacceptable. Turns out that continual dissatisfaction is the only form that winning can take.
Unfortunately, the Iron Triangle of Big Money, Big Hair (the religious right) and the Neocons had not given up their fight for an American aristocracy, bedroom police and the military domination of the planet. Fanatics never give up and authoritarians never stop seeking Fearless Leader.
Consequently, liberals need to get back into the fight, stop turning the other cheek and confront these reactionary forces whenever and wherever they appear. No more Mr. Nice Guy, pushover, Caspar Milquetoast, let's hold hands and sing Kumbaya liberals. Speak up and speak out! Confront ignorance and stupidity wherever it's found.
As Shorey 13 says, they're "the ideal potting soil for demagogues" - and, given their outsize fears in search of a pretext, for latterday fascists. Thank you, Phillybuster, for making that clear.
So long as people continue to ignore the real issues, refuse to educate themselves and drink the Kool-Aid, the prospects for a happy ending continue to fade.
fascism: a philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism.
Does this ring any bells?
I would add that the role of the Church in a fascist state is to convince citizens that fascism and faith are one. This is the role of right wing Chrisitanity and the Catholic Church in this country.
Mussolini came to power through the combined efforts of business and political leaders. He was elected to parliament in 1921 (in a completely democratic election) and was appointed Prime Mininster in 1922. He subsequently turned the Italian democracy into a dictatorship and allied himself with Adolf Hitler in WWII.
Furthermore, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933 by President Paul von Hindenburg at the urging of several influential politicians and industrialists. In March 1933, Hitler's Nazi party won a plurality in the elections thus allowing Hitler to lead a coalition government that he subsequently converted into a dictatorship.
Bear in mind the old addage that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Corporations given power over citizens constitutes the most dangerous enemy a democracy will ever face.
Also bear in mind two other famous quotes "There is no enemy greater than the enemy within" and Pogo's famous quote "We have met the enemy and he is us".
The Republican Party jettisoned Lincoln a long time ago and has become the party of Joe McCarthy and Rupert Murdoch. No matter how passionate and organized the right may be, I don't see broad appeal there. Especially when we're bogged down in more pointless wars, 90% of us are poor and young women are dying in bloody abortions again. I would certainly like to believe that a large majority would put a stop to it.
Governments murder thousands, even millions of people for no reason whatsoever. Examples: The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 -- or World War I, a war about nothing, which set the stage for Hitler and World War II. Don't support governments or worship them.
Corporations are worse. They have corrupted governments, and are the driving force for wars. Traditionally they let governments pull the triggers, but are doing it more and more themselves. And they create poverty, so that the the Congress-corrup ting class can feel better about their lives in comparison.
Millions of peoples' lives are not working. Some of them find their outlet in hate, usually targeting victims du jour.
Somehow we must build new, more grassroots institutions that serve human needs and purposes -- including finding friends and partners, finding a livelihood, and controlling the corporate and government machines of death.
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