Reading stories by Rural Democrat and RDemocrat about the lack of media attention to the Whirlpool Rally to protest the outsourcing of more American jobs even though it was well attended and addressed an important economic issue made me wonder why the nonsense spouted by the Tea Party gets wall to wall media coverage and real issues are practically ignored.
What is it about the Tea Party message that makes it easy to communicate? It’s simple, consistent, and mindless. They hate government and taxes. It ties into people’s fears, prejudices, and experiences. Even though the Tea Party has powerful corporate backers, they get "regular people" to be the front men. Their Congress people show up and both feed the crowd and ride the wave. They have media sponsors that carry the message.
You can’t refute the message directly, because no one will listen. Are there alternative simple, consistent, and hopefully not mindless messages that might get some traction? If there is one thing that may be perceived as being as bad as government and taxes, it may be big corporations and bonuses.
Big corporations outsource American jobs to foreign countries to give bonuses to millionaires
Big corporations deny Americans access to affordable health care to give bonuses to millionaires
Big corporations fire older American workers to give bonuses to millionaires
Big corporations gamble with American retirement accounts to give bonuses to millionaires
Big corporations pollute American air, ground, and water to give bonuses to millionaires
Big corporations charge Americans 29% interest on their credit cards to give bonuses to millionaires
Big corporations risk American food and water supplies to give bonuses to millionaires
Big corporations encourage sending Americans to war to give bonuses to millionaires
Big corporations exploit foreclosure of American homes to give bonuses to millionaires
Big corporations privatize American infrastructure to give bonuses to millionaires
We need our elected officials, aka government, to act on our behalf and represent our interests. Unfortunately government of the people, by the people, for the people now means government of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation.
We need to increase taxes on the rich:
To restore gutted pension plans and provide unemployment insurance, health care, and job retraining to Americans hurt by the loss of off shored and downsized jobs.
To provide benefits to our service men and women who have sacrificed for our country.
To pay back Americans who bailed them out after their reckless risk taking nearly brought down the global financial system.
To build the infrastructure for new industries to replace jobs lost and to clean up our natural resources damaged in their pursuit of obscene profits.
Increasing taxes on the rich is not about socialism or income redistribution, it’s about having them share the burden for the damage done to our economy, our country, our communities, and our citizens by their greedy and irresponsible behavior.
There is nothing wrong with getting rich in our free enterprise system, but when many are harmed in the process of enriching the few, it is a matter of justice that some compensation be made to the common good for the losses incurred.
How do you get the media to pay attention to other ideas? How do you get the issues thoughtfully reported? How do you get away from the noise and propaganda? How to you get people to realize they are being taken advantage of for political purposes?