I get a kick out of Michael Gerson's columns. The man is one of the two best Republican columnist/propagandists. He and David Brooks are the only two who even attempt to speak to non-believers.
There was a time decades ago when George Will attempted this, but he has become a bright hack who indulges in too many exaggerations and misuses of truth.
Gerson seems to be the only Republican who is acquainted with advanced theology and the moral philosophy. He usually bows to some good goals, but simply cannot explain in any detail how any Republican policy eases the suffering of the poor.
His most recent column was important in two respects:
First, he tells us what we already suspected. Republicans oppose new taxes because they will support entitlements. Republicans are Social Darwinists at heart and do not want to see the poor or elderly being too comfortable. Gerson may have more compassion than the rest, but much of his compassion is in lip-service.
He refrained from saying that the tax increases Barack Obama wants will derail the economy. Real economists do not make that claim, and he is too honest to make an argument that has no scholarly support.
Secondly, he cannot handle Obama's resort to fairness arguments because he knows it will be effective. He complains that Obama mentioned "fair" ten times in his Rose Garden speech. Gerson complains that Obama stooped to the arguments we used as children. Gerson is smarter than the other Republican propagandists and probably knows that only the fairness argument has a chance of piercing Republican propaganda and derailing the strategy of blocking economic growth.
The fairness argument is the only one that will work, and Obama should use it every day. There are almost countless examples of unfairness in tax law and public policy--the worst being tax incentives for corporations to export jobs.
This writer has made a careful study of political psychology and has concluded that only the fairness argument has a chance of stemming the outbreak of political fundamentalism we are experiencing. Even our cousins the apes can see unfairness and resent it! In the case of humans, someone has to repeatedly point it out because we are so easily fooled by propaganda and ideology.
Since 2008, the nation has been in the throes of a massive revitalization crisis; people sense there is something wrong and are persuaded it is to fixed by retreating to a mythical, golden past and remedies offered by the Republican Party. Political fundamentalism is an emotional embrace of what seems to be received truth by people who are angry and frightened. The only so-called received ideas that are available are found in the political narrative Ronald Reagan espoused and was refined by Republican politicians and propagandists over the decades.
The beauty of political fundamentalism is that those who embrace it surrender critical judgment and believe something with their whole heart and soul. It does not matter what foolish things its prophets like Bachmann and Perry say; the believer compensates for these slips. They believe with intensity and will even accept cuts in Social Security and Medicare. The GOP needs a deeper economic crisis so that the number of "true believers" expands and they can move against Medicare, Social SEcurity, and other entitlements in 2013.
There is good chance that we will see even more political fundamentalism if the Republicans succeed in pushing the country into another recession. Voters have a way of blaming the president for a bad economy even though it was produced by the policies of Congressional Republicans.
Don't look for the presidential candidates to give away the game about Social Security and entitlements, as foolish Rick Perry did. They won't discuss cutting Social Security, but GOP pundits and shock jocks will make sure deep cuts in entitlements is a big part of the rightist conventional wisdom and that this is seen as essential to turning around the economy.
The reader might recall 2010 when Republican candidates said not a word about cuts but endlessly entoned "Jobs,Jobs,Jobs. Then came 2011. No jobs legislation and nothing but "Cut to Grow talk." How many voters woke up and thought they were sold a bill of goods. Almost none. That is the power of presenting rightist thought as a revitalization movement.
Obama recently pointed out that Republican plans will bring another catastrophy. it will bring catastrophy. It is too late to do much with that argument or to go into details over how the financial system and economy came crashing down in 2007-2008. Its too complicated for most voters, and besides the Democrats lost that debate through their laziness, ineptitude, and cowardice. Obama is best off trying to puncture the bubble of unreality with daily illustrations of the unfairness he wants to remedy.
Republicans have dominated the national discussion for so long that it may be too late to start bursting the world of deception and illusions they have so skilfully created. Many Democrats seem to believe this is true and are keeping their heads down.
Some of the Republican leaders-- and certainly the social scientists they employ-- understand that deepening the economic crisis also ramps up the revitalization crisis. Check out Gerson's novel and you will see that he has a deep understanding of psychology. Manipulating a revitalization crisis is playing with fire, but it could well pay off big time with huge Republican gains in 2012. However, the long term damage to our political system could be incalcuable.
If you doubt the crisis was manipulated, recall that many of the first Tea Baggers were angry at Wall Street. Then note that their representatives stood as a solid phalanx to prevent regulating Wall Street and punishing the wrong-doers.
If the voters were every to grasp that obstructing economic recovery and working to deepen the economic crisis is essentially today's Republican strategy, some would vow to never vote for another Republican. Odds of many grasping what is going on are not great.