After watching the latest edition of Meet The Press, it is obvious that Chuck Todd is nothing more than a right-wing smear-master. He cannot be more transparent about his anti-government, pro-business hypnosis.
The issue of our time is wealth inequity, which really boils down to big government vs. big business. Big government has traditionally been the body guard of the middle-class against the abuses of big business. Government has promoted unions, enforced minimum wage standards, enforced labor standards and has often done the research and engineering that big business has needed to thrive. Big business has generally low-balled wages, destroyed the American healthcare system, trashed the environment and regularly bankrupted the nation.
From start to finish, this week's show was an epic anti-government rant. It is like the script must be approved by Dick Cheney before the show aires. They opened with the Eric Garner murder case. This ended in a full-throated anti-government rant by both Todd and Rick Santelli. http://www.nbcnews.com/....
This was followed by an update on Mary Landreu's defeat in the Loisianna senate race. This story also led to a discussion of the dysfunction in the U.S. Senate.
Another topic was about half of congress being millionares and out of touch with Americans because of high salaries.
This was followed by a segment on President Obama's executive action on immigration reform. The piece featured talking points from: Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Pete Sessions, Lindsey Graham and John Boehner - all Republicans. Believe it or not, Cruz blasted government, too.
This piece segdewayed smoothly into an interview with new Republican governor in Texas, Greg Abbott. Abbott went on still another anti-government tirade on everything from taxes to the Affordable Care Act to general mistrust of government and, of course, a little constitution baloney. Count the times Abbot said constitution.
Within the stories, they mentioned the failed government's roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, the bad (lefty) journalism at Rolling Stone (Home of Matt Taibbi, the great muckraker of Wall Street), and government wanting to change the rules to fit their needs. A positive comment on the job report turned into Rantelli blasting government again saying, "And that's despite most government policy, not because of it." Even a simple conversation about college football became a conversation about solving problems in private "smoke-filled-rooms' - another reference to dirty government.
It should be pointed out that the show easily could be flipped on its head to say big business leaders are out of touch with America for they are far richer than politicians, big business has been in charge of our healthcare forever and it is a disaster because of it. Big business' bad journalism via strat comm journalists has trashed the middle class and the environment. The immigration issue easily could feature the source of the problem - businesses illegally hiring immigrants. Everything bad said about government could fairly be said about big business but Todd, Stephanoupolis and most of the Sunday talkers have picked sides - big business not big government, the rich not the rest.
The best part of Todd's show was his choice of featured "guests." Since it is a little difficult to schedule Ayn Rand these days (Satan took her back from us 32 years ago), they decided to save a chair on the panel for Rick Santelli (also known as Sick Rantelli by Keith Olbermann). This guy is the original Tea-bagger and is credited with naming the anti-government movement as you can see in the following clip. If you look to the right, Santelli is the last man at the end of the line - as far to the right as possible. He is a Milton Freidman kool-aid drinker. The guy has an obsessive-compulsive-disorder involving government hate.
Todd went out of his way to toss Rantelli softballs. Todd ended one of his anti-government rants with, "There's another part of America's population, African Americans, who have a trust in government issue, and in this case, it's law enforcement."
RICK SANTELLI: "Believe me. When you're talking about trust in government, you're preaching to the choir..." Rantelli hammered the anti-government ball out of the park.
The entire show had one pounding message: government is bad.
Since 1980, with the arrival of Reagan, big business has won the propaganda war. In spite of the obvious benefits of big government - as was proven by the New Deal - the capitalists are in charge. Chuck Todd and Meet The Republicans are dead set on keeping alive the idea that government is the problem and not the solution. Sadly, Todd and the Sunday talkers use a bit more subtle attack on government than Fox News, Limbaugh and Glen Beck, but it may be even more effective. They sell themselves as reasonable moderates with pleasant personas, buttressed with nationally-promoted allegedly-centrist shows. The mainstream media is the place where busy Americans go to catch up on the week's news - hosted by "credible" moderators.
There is one hope for the future of America: much more government involvement in everything. This is going to be the platform for Bernie Sanders and other progressive 2016 candidates (Todd interviewed Bernie about two months ago but featured a picture of him with the scary word SOCIALIST as a caption). Todd and Company are determined to trash the progressive message early and often and to delay big government as long as possible.
Todd should refocus his attention on the mother of all of America's problems - wealth inequity and the guilty party - corporate America. Instead, he allies himself with them against the only force that can turn this mess around - big government. Never happen.
Todd and his colleages are a big part of the problem.
You can't make this stuff up.
