In 1814, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains." Jefferson was speaking about what are the executives of today's corporations, the corporatists. They are not the least interested in anything relevant to the United States or American values of justice or civil rights or otherwise. Nor are they much interested in the Democratic Party or the Republican party or any other political party except that which will consistently, reliably and most effectively do their bidding. It is pure happenstance that that party is the Republican Party . . . primarily. Though they hedge their bets also with the Democratic Party.
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It's the federal judiciary, most particularly . . . no, quintessentially, it's all about THE SUPREME COURT. It, and it alone, decides EVERYTHING that will matter to the corporatist.
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Evidently, based on the percentage of Americans who have steadfastly voted GOP, those that every current political survey suggest are strongly inclined to do so this coming November, and the shrieking wild chimpanzees who mindlessly have been racing through the dense underbrush of their minds, more than half of the electorate have been blind to the ambush tactics.
It's been a long time since anything the Right was to should have made any sense to the vast majority of Americans who have been bleeding for decades at its savagery. But . . . duhh. I dunno what to make of such magnificent manifestations of lemming ignorance. After a while, "ignorance" cannot explain it, only stupidity can. It's now been more than simply after a while. After a while was at least a decade ago.
Or, insert here another apt analogy: a shell game. You know, pick which of three shells the pea is hidden beneath. Except in this instance the shells are crystal-clear glasses, and there's no pea. The Right moves the glasses around and around the table, then it tells you to pick which glass the pea is under. The average American points to one of the glasses. The Right then lifts the glass, "Oh, you're so smart: you win again -- Now you get to pay me some more. Isn't this fun?"
And the Republican voting American gleefully nods in agreement. Or, if one of his progressive acquaintances interjects, to tell the Republican voter he's being taken to the cleaners, to pick up not his clothes, but those of the one of the Right's hierarchy, the conservative then shouts to the voter, "don't listen to him, he's one of them America-hating, socialist Liberals." And the Republican voter, ventriloquist-dummy like, picks up the rant, along with someone else's freshly cleaned Armani suits . . . after dipping into his own threadbare pockets to pay the cleaning tab.
But let me explain how the Right has been playing the game, or, rather how it has been playing Republican voters for chumps.
The first challenge was to locate a potential solid political base that was seething with anger, anger that could be channeled narrowly, focused, energized, then coopted. When the US Supreme Court held in Brown v Board that "separate but equal was inherently unequal," and when the federal courts concluded that bussing to achieve integration was an efficacious remedy, and when Johnson signed the Voting and Civil Rights Acts, Southern Whites became such an ideal base. Exactly as were the average Germans who, in the 30s were told their every complaint was legitimate and that the travails they had been forced, against their will, to endure were traceable to the Jews who controlled the banking industry, so to were southern Whites schooled to the notion that the source of their seething anger was a "big gov-mint" and a meddling court system that were controlled by northern liberals.
Challenge 1, locate a base -- check.
But a base must be led. That leads to the second challenge, Challenge 2: locating then installing a kindred soul into the presidency. That's because it is the president who nominates all those who will have life tenure in the federal courts, including those who will sit on the Supreme Court. Senators do confirm the nominees. But they can be bought, or can by other means be persuaded to step from the path of confirmation.
Ronald Reagan was never a truly wealthy man. Nor did he ever wield much corporate power. He was, however a willing stooge for the corporatists whose interests have ever been exclusively to the ongoing accretion of crushing power.
Challenge 2, locate then install a kindred soul -- check.
Next comes the challenge, Challenge 3: the need to see a majority insinuated into the federal judiciary judges who are aligned with the corporatists long-term objectives. Having a President Reagan, followed by President George H. W. Bush, and then a President George W. Bush elected made this challenge the easiest of all to meet. And each of the justices nominated agreed that a contribution of money, what used to be called a bribe, wasn't at all a bribe. It was simply "free speech" in another form.
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