Intro: "Rep. Michele Bachmann's creativity is unrivaled in contemporary politics. Consider her remarks yesterday to a gathering of the Republican Leadership Conference.... Bachmann's principal problem is that she combines the worst of two important traits: she's strikingly ignorant about public policy and she's paranoid to the point of delusion."
Michele Bachmann suggested that President Obama secretly wanted Medicare to go bankrupt so retirees would be forced to enroll in 'Obamacare.' (photo: AP)
Bachmann's Latest Conspiracy Theory Is a Doozy
18 June 11
ep. Michele Bachmann's (R-Minn.) creativity is unrivaled in contemporary politics. Consider her remarks yesterday to a gathering of the Republican Leadership Conference.
Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, the latest candidate to join the Republican presidential campaign, suggested Friday that President Obama secretly wanted Medicare to go bankrupt so retirees would be forced to enroll in the new national health care law.
"This hasn't been talked about very much - the president's plan for senior citizens is Obamacare," Ms. Bachmann told party activists here. She added, "I think very likely what the president intends is that Medicare will go broke and ultimately that answer will be Obamacare for senior citizens."
Bachmann's principal problem is that she combines the worst of two important traits: she's strikingly ignorant about public policy and she's paranoid to the point of delusion.
It's these qualities that lead Bachmann to come up with such odd theories. In this case, the unhinged Minnesotan believes President Obama is secretly trying to eliminate Medicare, forcing seniors into the Affordable Care Act. Is there any evidence at all to support this? Of course not, but that's not important right now.
In practical terms, Bachmann apparently thinks the president is secretly right-wing - she believes Obama wants to end the existing system of socialized medicine for seniors, and force these millions of seniors into the private insurance market.
Of course, there is a group of people who actually support such an approach. They're called "House Republicans." Indeed, the House GOP budget plan - written by Paul Ryan and endorsed by none other than Michele Bachmann - seeks to end Medicare and convert the program into an ACA-style system. Bachmann's conspiracy theory is that Obama secretly agrees with her far-right colleagues.
This isn't just wrong; it's mad-as-a-hatter crazy.
Bachmann's ability to come up with remarkable conspiracy theories has always impressed me. Remember the time the right-wing presidential candidate argued that the U.S. Census may lead to "internment camps"? How about when she warned of a "one-world currency" because she got confused about what a global reserve currency is? Or maybe the time she thought the "Lion King" was secretly gay propaganda? How about the time she said a bipartisan national service bill could lead to "re-education camps"?
This new one, though, is probably my favorite to date. Anytime a right-wing lawmaker talks to a right-wing audience and thinks it's wise to attack President Obama as secretly on their side, it deserves some kind of award.
Steve Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog, Political Animal.
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What USED to be called the Democratic Party, now stands for what Dwight Eisenhower would have described as the Republican Party.
I'll bet good ole "Ike" is spinning in his grave over how his beloved nation has been stolen by the same kind of guys that he and so many other Americans fought against during WWII.
There is much that is semi-fascist in Republican ideology today. But some which differs. The commitment to "individual liberty" can be dismissed as hypocritical or conditional, but it is often deeply felt. Perhaps those differences will be reconciled with the right charismatic leader and the result will be fascism. But not yet.
Mussolini's quote about Fascism being "corporatism" is often misunderstood on the left. "Corporatism" in political theory means something different than "domination by the corporations." Folks should Google it.
"Fascism" is a useful concept for understanding what is going on, but, IMO, we lose necessary clarity if we allow our emotional hostility to Republicans and repressive, pro-corporate policies to cloud our analysis.
And yes, both the Republicans and MOST Democrats ARE imperialists, who believe the US has the right (or "responsibility") to dominate the world and dictate what goes on in every little country around the globe.
I don't think that the men, women and children that are going to be hungrier, homeless, unemployed, uneducated,and sick are just experiencing emotional hostility! What has happened to the country since Ray-gun and before, certainly with the killing of JFK and the escalation of the viet Nam War, has been an assault upon the people and principles of what was once a great country with the possibility of fullfilling it's dreams as a democracy. Now we are just slaves to the nightmare being imposed upon us.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
Mussolini, like Hitler, came to and maintained power thanks to the backing of wealthy business interests who benefitted greatly from fascism. Without that support, both dictators would have gone nowhere. Similarly, without the backing of corporations, the GOP would today be mainly a regional party in the south, with few elected officials elsewhere.
I do have an 'emotional hostility' to those who are trying to destroy America and turn it into a fascistic corporate state; if it clouds my analysis, so be it. Too many Americans have died or come home permanently disabled fighting for our freedom and our rights to see this as purely an intellectual exercise. I think one of the problems liberals and progressives have had in the past 40 years is that they tend to be too dispassionate about what we stand for, and it often comes off as if we don't care that much. This isn't a college debating society, it's the future of the country we live in and we should honor our ancestors by trying to preserve what we have inherited. That requires not only intelligence and honesty, but passion as well.
It's very obvious, RSJ, that these are Koch-creep agents trying to influence voters any way they can! It's funny, how all of the new bloggers turn up here with anti-Obama statements that sound EXACTLY LIKE the repugs' LYING POINTS! To add insult to injury, non-repugs usually make it difficult or even impossible to invade their blogsite. When are you ridiculous "teabaggers going to get a clue? AM-SCRAY YESTERDAY!!! Your content gives you away!
When it comes to the few, and I do mean very few, right things that Obama has done, like Obamacare and appointing Elizabeth Warren to temporarily run the CFPB, he only goes halfway.
Under reconciliation at the time, which only requires a simple majority vote of the Senate (51 votes), Obama had the votes in both houses of Congress to pass a single-payer healthcare Bill, completely leaving out the private-for-profit health insurance companies, but he didn't.
As far as Elizabeth Warren is concerned, she has yet to be confirmed by a now more hostile Senate than existed prior to the 2010 midterm elections. She and the CFPB have yet to grow any real teeth. Whether Obama does these things this way by design or because he's simply a weak and ineffective president, I don't know, but I do lean towards the former.
The Democratic Leadership Council may have dissolved, but that is at least in part, because their mission has been taken on by much of the top Democratic leadership. There is an uneasy tension in a society which tries to be both "democratic" and capitalist. As capitalism concentrates economic power more and more and as the political process is dominated by that economic power, both parties will tend to represent the corporate agenda. When the Democrats reprresent the interests of working and middle class people, it is a result of the relatively RARE periods that public opinion is energized into strong social movements with relatively clear demands. The Dems will then compromise with those movements in ways the Republicans will not. The GOP, meanwhile, tries to co-opt rightwing irrational populist movements, movements they often finance, to gain more votes for their version of the corporate agenda.
So not only "Republicans" are imperialist and pro-corporate.
both support Patriot Act (police state)
both support Wars (on Libya she is more liberal than president).
If US could elect stupid Reagan - all is possible.
THe Republicans vote for legislation to get rid of Medicare, then blame it on Obama and the Democrats? Priceless!
So, Ms. Bachmann is projecting. She is ascribing to another those features which are actually present but not made explicit, in herself.
This is an extremely common process. When you understand the principle you'll see it ALL OVER THE PLACE. I do it. You do it. They do it.
The challenge, of course, is to see it in yourself, and not continue to repeat the error, and not to insist that this is actually how the other person really is, but to instead take full responsibility for your own processes; to take ownership of your own "stuff". Taking ownership and personal responsibility for the self is something for which politicians as a whole are not particularly well known, as I'm sure many readers of this site are well aware.
She is so wacky that the Republicans will drop her.
Consequently, We The People are generally afraid - some are becoming desperate & restive -as we watch the destruction of the gains and progress wrought in the early 20th Century by organized labor and progressive government.
In 2008, We The People joined hands to elect Obama because he promised changes that have, thus far, been stymied by legislators allied with Corporate America. We see ourselves as defenseless against (for example) ethanol-induced food-price inflation and speculator-driven increases at the gas pumps - which hit fixed income retirees the hardest. .
Is it any wonder then that the Tea Party -- represented by Michelle Bachman and the Sharon Angle's -- attracts followers from our growing number of frustrated, over-propagandized, desperate/disillusioned/disaffected Americans?
We looked at Obama and misread his cultural style, intelligence and history assuming that behind that vague rhetoric was a progressive, sophisticated former "community organizer who remained a sort of European-style social democrat. The right read the same signs and ALSO concluded he was more left-of-center than he really is.
Obama is a CENTRIST, which to me, means he does not deviate from policies he believes are in the long-term, rational self-interest of the corporate elite which owns this country.
I agree the rise of the Tea Party is very similar to the conditions which have given rise to "brownshirt" or "blackshirt" rightwing populist movements in other periods: the collapse of the middle class, an attack on the national dignity (9-11) and serious crises (economic and ecological) which amplify apocalyptic fears and create a willingness to reach for radical, intemperate answers.
If the left cannot come up with an alternative popular vision and program, the future is grim.
Obama and his health care team have repeatedly stated their preference for a single-payer system. But they all know that such a system could never be passed legislatively. I think it reasonable to suppose that Obama and his team felt that the best way to reach their preferred policy would be to let the legislature come up with something (which like all committee products was bound to be byzantine and unworkable), allow it to fail, and then come in and save the day with a single-payer system.
There is plenty of actual evidence for this hypothesis being true: Obama stating that the current bill is merely a "first step", Dennis Kucinich backing off on his objections to the bill after he had spoken privately with Obama, Obama's refusal to be involved in the details of the legislation, stupidly unworkable details included in the legislation, refusal to include any real measures that control costs, etc.
I don't much like Bachman but I think that she is essentially correct on this point.
Lee Nason
New Bedford, Massachusetts
So you should realize that her "theory" is backassward. If Obama truly wants single-payer," (which I doubt), he wants Medicare to be SUCCESSFUL and serve as a rationale for its expansion. Bachman is crazy. But you are just mixed up in your train of logic here.
Do you know what you're talking about? Medicare isn't socialized medicine. Medicare is a single-payer system that works very well. Too bad everyone can't get Medicare and put the health "insurance" companies out of business.
During those 60 years those insurance companies have built political power that resists any reform.
I think Obama is doing the best he can in the circumstances and his 'steps' are toward single payer care.
" 'Freedom, Freedom, Hurrah for Freedom. Freedom for you and for me and for Everybody", cried the Elephant as he trampled among the Chickens ! ' "
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