Oddly enough, for all their talk of self-reliance, the right is happiest with a populace that feels disempowered, that then finds a (false) sense of empowerment in supporting the jingoists. The right wants us to feel that we really can't do anything--but, never mind: they'll do it for us.
What an elitist, anti-American attitude! Yet they are the ones who shout patriotism, who claim they are the real supports of the good old U.S. of A.
Yesterday, I was talking to a man nearing retirement age. He was complaining about the lack of initiative and an unwillingness to go the extra mile that he sees among younger workers. He's a mechanic: when he works on a car, he looks at every part of it, even beyond what he has been asked to repair. If he sees a problem and it is simple and cheap to fix, he even fixes it and doesn't charge. Of course, if it is a bigger problem, he alerts the customer.
Younger workers laugh at him. "It's not your problem, pop." He grumbles, goes about his work, and, when the others need help, lends a hand--even if not "told" to.
You'd think, given the stereotypes, that he'd be a right-winger. Guess what? He's not--and there are millions like him, people who want to be empowered, who want to be allowed to look about, see the problems, and come up with solutions. People who do not want to be told what to believe, who are not blind followers.
He, like these others, hates the manipulation he sees all over the media, the false objectivity, the claims of "fair and balanced" (which, he knows, should be approached like someone claiming they always tell the truth: if they did, they wouldn't need to make the claim), the sanctimony.
This is a man who was born during WWII, who grew up within the safety-net of the New Deal, who now sees that safety-net being dismantled under the battle cry of "self reliance."
He understands, however, something that his younger, right-wing co-workers do not: it is the fact of the safety-net that has allowed him to reach out with confidence and help others--and he understands the greater value and satisfaction of that. He also knows that, if he falls, there is a net beneath. And that knowledge is not "faith based," but is backed by a system that has produced a sustainable, rich society.
He hates these right-wingers who are trying to scare him out of his confidence at the same time they pretend to believe that they think the individual can be more safely relied upon that the society as a whole.
I've written this quickly--and I think there's more to it. What I would like to see are comments on how others view this, the question of disempowerment while claiming empowerment that this man (and I) see around us today, coming particularly from a right wing that may be even more bankrupt than we'd previously imagined.
I mean, I once actually did think they really believed in things like "personal accounts" for retirement. That they did think the individual can make the best decisions. The actions of the past few years--right through Gannongate and other attempts to manipulate rather than inform--have certainly shattered that illusion!