Phil Kerpen: The Face of Patriotism, Pee-Wee Style
Now, readers should know that I ascribe to the age-old maxim, "Keep your friends close; keep your enemies even closer." Under the aegis of that advice then, I decided to subscribe to a couple of Right-Wing email servers. Here's how one of them is characterizing what we more Left-thinking bolsheviks generally think of as "preserving internet neutrality." This is part of an email from Response Action Network and some guy who allegedly signed off on the email as "Phil Kerpen, President, American Commitment," who, by way of the above photo he's published on his "syndicated column," would probably be better employed as an understudy for Pee-Wee Herman. Anyway, Kerpen asserts that if the FCC denies corporations the opportunity to create "internet fast lanes" then:
Government bureaucrats could tie the Internet up in red tape, censor content, decide who can use the Internet, how to use it and when and more. If they succeed, it will:
* End competition between Internet companies to win customers and set pricing.
* Destroy the engine of innovation that has made the Internet what it is today.
* Drive out the very risk-taking entrepreneurs that have invested billions to get us this far. And,
* Erase your Internet freedoms, upend your right to privacy, censor the content you view on Internet, seize control of e-commerce, keep records of the sites you visit and when, track what you read and for how long and so much more!
This unprecedented federal takeover strikes to [sic] the very heart of Internet freedom — and that's why I need you to add your voice to American Commitment's petition right away.
Because if the FCC forces your Internet provider to transform itself into a "public utility" get ready for these additional nightmares.
* (Public sector unions going on strike for higher wages, fat benefit packages, platinum health care plans and "Golden Parachute" retirement packages - all at your expense.
* Public Interest Regulation forcing your favorite websites to give "equal time" to political views you find offensive. And;
* Nickel and Dime charges that all monopolies use including fees for service repair, "cost recovery," pay-by-phone penalties and more.
I am continually surprised by the ephemeral ebulliences that paranoia lends to the imagination. The material quoted above is only a portion of American Commitment's email via Response Action Network. More troubling to me is the fact that American Commitment is not alone. Their email is representative of why critiquing the Right is sometimes very difficult--their frequent rhetorical barrages masquerade as thinking while running amok with nefarious plots and untold conspiracies. The observation helps explain, somewhat, the successes enjoyed by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News. In some way, studying why these kinds of tactics succeed as well as they do proves fascinating, even if the conclusions drawn about the citizenry are less than flattering.
The fact is that American Commitment's email is representative of a much more extensive network of Right-Wing organizers. American Commitment's email underscores, by way of their own petition drive, that these imaginative groups lobby strongly for the unlikely realities they tend to invent and support. This is true for all kinds of groups, be it the push against "Obamacare" by the Koch brother's Americans for Prosperity or the National Association for Gun Rights' characterization of Senate Joint Resolution 19 [Limiting Political Contributions] as an "amendment to muzzle free speech" and thereby curtail every Patriot's Second Amendment rights.
I don't know about what you go through or how you deal with the "opposition," but some days I just want to give up the fight. I often wonder what President Obama thinks and feels as he looks in the mirror and prepares for yet another day in the begrudging carnival that Washington D.C. has become. I recently deleted my Facebook page. I had been posting there with a view toward advocacy and consciousness raising. The acrimony--the absolute venom--that passed as commentary sometimes startled me. Honest debate has been squelched by ideological shouting and substanceless attacks. Perhaps it has always been so. Perhaps.