Bookstores are chock full of titles written by an endless array of right wing authors who seem to be full of perpetual rage. Their calling is exposing the treason and disloyalty of the socialists, communists, and terrorists currently posing as the President and Democratic members of Congress. The days of debating the "loyal opposition" are long gone. In the battle of love vs hate, the right is sure of one thing: Hate and rage win. Thus we need to have the derogatory adjectives to justify the feigned rage and anger. The Democrats may be the opposition. But, if you listen to right wing talk radio or Fox News they are not considered loyal.
Aside from winning elections and controlling government spending, there's profit to be made touting patriotic values and our "Christian heritage." Glen Beck's tears, are tears of gold as he weeps his way to banking the huge deposits created by book sales and now "Beck University" tuition payments bestowed by his duped supporters and delusional groupies.
There's another factor too. It's a spin-off of the old clichà © that "politics is war by other means." That is how GOP politicians, the professional Tea Party profiteers, and millionaire talk show hosts like Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck see things. This is war. As "warriors" in this struggle to preserve their fictional American paradise (it only exists in the mind of Ayn Rand's characters) they believe all's fair in love and war.
As the gentlemen went through his talking points he came upon an aerial photo of the building that housed the Chamber's offices in Washington. The photo also showed the U. S. Capitol. The fellow pointed out how close the Chamber was to the capitol. He said it was important for them to be close because they are in constant contact with legislators and their staff. The Chamber stays on top of things and fights to protect the interest of business owners like me. He mentioned opposing increases in the minimum wage.
He pointed toward another building in the photo. As he was pointing he asked if I knew what that building was. I said I didn't know. He said, "that's the enemy's headquarters. That's another reason why we're so close to the capitol. That's the headquarters of the AFL-CIO."
I was, to say the least, stunned by the approach. I guess the assumption is that anyone in business just has to be anti-union. Obviously he thought the appeal to my probable fear of unions, might produce a membership sale. It didn't. I simply ended the meeting. I told him many of my customers were union members. I said I didn't feel that membership in an organization that considered those people "enemies" was right for me or my business.
The lesson I learned that day was that people on the far right haven't changed much since the 1950s. Back then Joe McCarthy got the ball rolling by leading the charge to brand anyone slightly to the left of Senator Robert Taft a commie or commie sympathizer. And, just as today, a publisher named Regnery was churning out many of the books claiming to expose treason almost anywhere they could find a government official with a "D" after his or her name.
The Dick Armey types rake in the loot from the private sector by selling a fake-freedom that never did exist. Along with Armey, corporate flunkies in Congress like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner know what they are doing and who they are doing it for. They support a form of freedom that believes corporations are people. As such, anything with Inc, Corp, or LLC after it, deserves treatment as a real person. In fact, they truly believe these man-made fake-persons are worthy of special treatment because they are the "real producers."
At best the rest of us are simple cogs in a corporate machine who can easily be replaced. At worst we are enemies not to be trusted. We need to be kept under surveillance lest we get "upity" and gum up their plans to deliver more trillions of wealth from nearly everyone to those globalist gangsters who run the show at the top.
The real losers in all this are not the liberals or lefties. We endure disappointments on the days when Obama, and Harry, or Nancy seem too eager to cut a deal with the corporate and financial power structure from whom they seek campaign cash. We don't like it. But, we're on to their game.
The real losers are those grass-roots, born again righties who actually believe that Palin, Armey, McConnell, McCain, Beck, or Hannity, to name a few, give a rat's ass about them or their so-called values. Think about it for a second.
As they cry for restoration of their freedom they organize to take their country back. "But from whom," I ask? Who's really winning? Surely it's not the government. Can't be the government because the righties themselves tell us everyday government's a failure. Who has more power? The feds or Google? Who control's what credit you get? The government or three privately owned credit bureaus?
Worried about a national ID card and fears of Orwell's 1984? You fool. Your cell phone and web browser give private companies and the government more information about you than Orwell ever could have imagined.
The global corporations who have power and accumulate huge amounts of wealth run the show. They do it here and around the globe. They can buy any politician they need. If they need a clergyman to add a godly seal of approval to their schemes, they can by them too. If any of these bastions of morality go astray, they suddenly discover God, ask for forgiveness, and go on as if nothing happened. If that doesn't work they become lobbyists.
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