For the past twenty five years the Republican party has been planning and enacting into law a take down of the middle class. This isn't an accident. Ever since FDR enacted programs that work for all of the people, not just the wealthy few, those who feel entitled have felt threatened by the dissolution of their power over others, mainly the lower classes. Such safety nets have allowed more choices for those in the lower classes in the ability it offered them to empower their selves. (Cont'd)
In fact, it was many of these programs that created the middle class, in turn generating more jobs and more profits for the wealthy. Unfortunately, there are those with wealth who, not worried about their economic situation, only concern themselves with power. I don't know if it's out of fear, greed, or simply because they think they know better than us, but they are not interested in a middle class which has any kind of real power over their own lives or any kind of real influence over politics. I must point out that I do not mean to impugn the will of all people of wealth. There are many who are progressive and probably have had to deal with people like I am referring to. People like the Scaifes, the Norquists, etc.
However, for these people to get their power back they would need to find a way to subvert democracy without breaking the law. They would have to find a way to get people to vote against their own self interests. This would require a multilateral approach that in and of themselves wouldn't look to suspicious on the surface. However, taken together, they create a social version of the Manchurian Candidate. Assassins programmed to dismantle the very system that protected them and their families from those who see them as mere wage slaves.
They began by setting up a number of think tanks that would be used to hone their message in terms that belied what they were really up to. I believe that the dumbing down of America, the dilution of its educational system, has been intentional. This, taken into account with their twisting of certain branches of religion has helped them create a base that will blindly follow them, regardless of the facts. These are the "roots" of their system. This is how they get their message siphoned out to the hardcore believers.
However, all believers need reinforcement. This is created through legislation and through the media. Having also spent the past twenty five years buying up the media, the ownership society can now make sure their message is the dominant message. When their message isn't being broadcast they can entertain the masses with irrelevant distraction. Also, by introducing bills that ban gay marriage, etc., they can feed their followers and show them the "progress" they are making.
The pathology they have sold to their followers is one of capitalism being the core tenet of Democracy and that their morals are the right morals and family values. Unfortunately, their morals appear to be the morals of self repression and hatred. It would also appear that the families they value aren't ours. Lets consider some examples of how their message machine works and the consequences of it's messages are.
Taxes and the economy.
Their message is simple. That's
your money. Why are you letting the government take so much of your money? Now, of course, the reasons the Republicans like to push this meme is the starve the beast theory. If they can reduce the government's revenue it won't have enough to pay for all of those social programs that help the lower classes.
However, there seems to be one thing most people don't get about taxes. Those taxes, many times, are used to help them. Those taxes put books on the shelves in the libraries. Those taxes pave the road they drive on so they can get to work. Those taxes keep them housed and fed in their later years. But the elderly are "others" so I don't have to worry about them, right? Those taxes pay for their children to receive college educations, or at least they used to.
The message few Americans ever receive about the promise of tax cuts is, that every time the Republicans have stated they're going to cut taxes, our taxes have gone up in the lower classes. The ownership societies media only delivers the message, rarely the context, and even less rare, the consequences.
So our taxes are cut and we get the couple hundred dollar check that will most likely be spent inside of a week. Of course, in the mean time, Republicans are drastically cutting federal aid to our state since they can't possibly afford to pay for it with a greatly reduced income. As a result our state economies end up in crisis. Well, the states have programs they have to pay for and the only way to pay for them is to increase revenue. Guess what? Your taxes are going back up! Those state tax increases will also, most likely, erase that federal tax break you received inside of a year.
That's the reality of how Republicans use taxes in politics, aside from the great redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich that accompanies it. So a vote for tax cuts is usually a vote against the future well being of your family and neighbors.
They also teach that the market and capitalism are the heart of our democracy. Apparently the fact that one is a political system and the other is an economic system has never been a red flag to most people especially as they're represented in the mainstream media. All of our politics are now rallied around how well the stock market is doing. We can't pass such and such legislation because it will cause the markets to do "X." As a result, a democracy of people now finds itself subjugated to the amoral dominance of the marketplace and the corporate wealthy elite for whom profit, ROI, are the only core values. Is it really a shock that operating under such a system has resulted in the reduction of the standard of living and a loss of liberties and individual rights?
Family Values and Morality
The Republicans enact more cuts in programs that help families, or make the standards so absurdly difficult to meet, they help very few. Of course, tied in with how they've managed to twist certain branches of religion, if you can't pay for it on your own, then it's because you who are lacking. Never mind that government and corporate policies have allowed your wages to stagnate or fall and that your job was moved overseas through no fault of your own. Never mind that prices are going up so fast you're swimming against an economic riptide without any sign of the shore in view.
If you can't afford to pay for your children's education, if you can't afford healthcare, if you can't put enough food on your "family" while working three jobs, then it's your fault. That's their idea of "Family Values."
Of course, then there is their legislation. By twisting the ideals of a loving Christian God into a sadistic unforgiving god, they can now camouflage their hate and bigotry as "morals." They also do so by creating morals that personally don't cost them anything up front. Anti-abortion, hating gays for being gay, making families suffer as loved ones linger on life support, even though they're long gone. Love has never been a part of their message. All of their "Core" moral fights force them to not sacrifice anything, especially anything that would cost them more in the long run.
They always argue for the non-living, those who can't speak for themselves. They rarely argue for those who have mouths but are never heard. Stem cells, a fetus, those lingering on life support. They create intrusive arguments over personal, private, beliefs that only individuals/families can decide for themselves.
You never see them worrying about all of the homeless children in this country. You never see them worrying about the poor. You never see them worrying about the ever growing gulf between wages of the CEO's and the workers. They, as a group, don't want to care for anything that will actually cost them anything. They are arguments that aren't offered in the true spirit of understanding. They are only brought up to create a divide, to manufacture herds of "Us" and "Them."
Communicate and Educate
When this first started happening I think many of us just wrote them off as those loony wingers. However, regardless of whether or not we agree with them, they do have power and they are affecting us for the worst. I honestly don't think a lot of them are evil, I think that a lot of them have been taught to hate, taught to hate the other. Of course, many here have pointed out that people like this have always been with us and, to a certain extent, I think they're right. However, I think we see more of this as a result of what has been done to our educational and some of our religious systems.
Where does this lead? Well, we can let it continue to fester and grow, this whole "Us" and "Them" mentality, which I myself am just as guilty of. I'm not saying we roll over and pretend everything is alright as well. We have to be willing to call a spade a spade. But to ignore it is to eventually stop talking to each other. Where people stop talking to each other is where wars begin. It also shows the Ownership Societies strategy of divide and conquer is working.
As such, we must educate where we can. We must also hold those who seek to divide us responsible for their actions. I don't offer any simple solutions or any panaceas. I say that in reference to the empathy squeeze. As it all comes back to, progressives have been losing the battle because we don't communicate and we don't educate or haven't been successful in getting that message out.
The Ownership Society has spent a lot of time and money communicating and indoctrinating. Howard Dean recognizes that and has begun working on it which is why he has been heading to all of the red states. If we can motivate democrats in those states to start educating their neighbors about what we really stand for, not what the Ownership Society says we stand for, that will be a great start. The people there aren't evil, in the classic sense, and they don't necessarily hate "us" on the left. They don't know us. They've been taught to hate us. The people teaching them to do so are the ones I would consider evil.
We need to point out that caring for others is caring for yourself and your family, because there is a good chance that at least once in your life you will be the "them", the down and out. They aren't new messages, just "lost" messages. They are messages you don't need religion to understand, only humanity. We have to teach them that treating gays as less than human isn't moral, it's hateful.
This is why we demand Democrats stand and fight for our beliefs. This is why we are mad when they submit to the right wing echo chamber when they speak truth to power. We care. We want to let everyone else know we care. We want to let everyone else know its "OK" to care; we won't think you're a wimp because of it, in fact, quite the opposite.
We must also point out, to many of those on the right, that politically speaking they're just being used. As such, I think we must point out how they are literally being used to destroy their own family's future, as can be seen by much of the legislation pushed by those they support, such as unfunded NCLB, cuts in tuition aid while the costs continue to rise, etc. We have to point out that "they" are hurting their own families.
We must also get back to governing as a country of laws that exists to promote democracy within, not a country of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation. As a nation our core value is not capitalism, it's a democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people.
So let's seize back control of the message machine or develop our own, it's obviously started with Air America, Howard Dean organizing in the Republican majority states, many of what I consider the true progressive/Christian churches, and hopefully with Wes Clark on Fox news. Let's get a real message of love and compassion back out to the people and work on bringing them into the fold. Not just the message of greed and selfishness that is so rewarded today by the Ownership Society before it finishes using the middle class to destroy itself. Our strength is that truth is on our side. We just have to find a way to get the good people who don't know any better the message. Based on the latest polls, it would appear reality is joining us in that fight. The Ownership Society doesn't have the power to keep reality in check, at least not completely. They do control the veil well though. That's what part II is about.
Also, thanks to TeacherKen for inspiring me to write this diary.