Today I read a letter to the editor that was filled with hysterical, insane political clap-trap. It was written by one of those 'Tea Party patriots'. At first, I was baffled by how he could possibly believe such absurd and ridiculous lies about President Obama and the Democratic Party. But then I realized:
These Tea Party 'patriots' have been taken in by focus group tested, fear inducing, fabrications about President Obama and the Democratic Party. They have placed their trust in 'conservative'/Tea Party promoters who have abused that trust and, at the direction of their rightwing billionaire benefactors, deceived and misdirected their listeners.
Conservatisms is about resisting change and looking to the past for answers.
'Conservative' Tea Party promoters have taken the worst vices of our past, cronyism, corruption, bigotry, classism and rebranded them to be sold to the Tea Party as virtues. They have cherry picked bit and pieces from our past to paint a picture of a narrow-minded, selfish, self-centered American history.
To lure in their victims, these 'conservative'/Tea Party promoters pour out a never ending deluge of dire warning and conspiracy theories. That's because they trade in fear. They enthrall their listeners with stories of threats to everything they hold dear. They terrify them with tales of impending doom and having reduced their listeners to mindless terror, they then supply them with an enemy to fear and hate.
And the enemy they supply their terrified devotee's? Democrats, liberals, progressives, Obama! Never mind that what they say about these supposed enemies is pure fabrication, they have already frightened their listeners into unthinking submission. Whatever they say is taken as gospel and anything that contradicts that must not be considered. And that fearful, closed-mindedness is exactly what these 'conservative'/Tea Party promoters are aiming for.
These 'conservative'/Tea Party promoters don't want the kind of rational dialogue that is necessary to maintain a democracy. They want to tear down democracy and usher in a plutocracy, run by their rightwing billionaire benefactors.
I've been watching the tension between the right and left lately, and I've noticed that both sides are saying the same thing about the other, in one form or fashion.
ReplyDeletefor example, the right accuses the left of corporatism, cronyism, bigotry, etc. and then points to the manipulation of the "free" market as evidence.
To the right, the left are just as much useful idiots of the media and their power-holder representatives as the left claims the right are of some hidden billionaire propaganda machine.
I'm just pointing it all out. I'd be interested in what you have to say. I promise I'm not trolling or trying to be offensive.