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It is important for politicians and activists on the right and far right to pick positions on which they cannot win. This enables a continuing battle, or appearance of same, for the American soul and a continual flood of dollars to whatever cause is rousing people at the moment. A long term goal that is unreachable, but around which millions will rally, is the best kind of goal for Republicans, because they can keep trying and trying and getting credit from their supporters in the process.
We should not worry too much about the outer fringe which wants to strip the national government of almost all functions. Yes, a significant percentage of Republicans and the right have been convinced that all government represents oppression, but I question whether they can back up their positions with careful analysis that does not come, talking point style, from one of the radio big mouths promoting division. The question then should be, \"Oh, yeah? Government is oppression? How does this oppression impact your life?\" In other words, the movement to destroy our government by slow torture appears to be a mile wide and an inch deep. Even many of the Tea Party demonstrators who marched in Washington, DC, over the last year and a half said they want to continue programs like Medicare, which qualifies, in the view of some experts, as socialized medicine.
It is a huge mistake to see what has happened in America over the last two yeasrs as being from true, unaided grassroots efforts. The popular uprising that appears to support the far right views of America has been generated by hundreds of millions of dollars in off the books, outside money poured into the Tea Party groups and created for the moment, anti-incumbent committees. There are very few polls which would indicate, either directly or otherwise, that a majority of Americans favor only extreme positions. Yes, we want our taxes cut, but we want the services we like to continue. Those who believe the national government should do nothing more than national defense and give billions to farmers are in a small minority.
What would the Republicans now in the House and Senate do if they had their complete way and they also believed that giving the Tea Party groups what they say they want would be the way to continued power? The Tea Party people are being used by the Republican establishment and those new House members who've come to Washington, DC, full of hope and determination are now in the process of being coopted into the party to which they have pledged devotion, the Republicans. There are enough Tea Party people to cause trouble, but not enough to get much done. That’s the way it works: it take a long time to build a full coalition.
The Tea Party groups themselves are filled with political newbies who suddenly awoke in 2009 and discovered that a lot of things were happening in the world that they did not like. I ask: Oh, yeah? Where ya been? One major newspaper profiled the rising groups early in 2010 and featured a photo with more gray hair in it than a hair coloring commercial. In other words, while not dominated by those, say, over 60, the Tea Party groups have more than their share of near elderly. Revolutions are seldom carried out by older men and women, revolution, like non-stop sexual encounters, being the proper business of the young. Older voters are typically concerned about what benefits them the most at the moment, which hardly seems revolutionary.
Why are people turning on a government, and thus a long standing national consensus that has brought us the greatest innovative and wealth producing country the world has ever known? Good question, if I do say so myself. The far right movement is fueled by a fear of going back to the days when marginal tax rates were well above fifty percent of income. The very rich want to keep what they have (and get more) and those who support and admire them want to keep what they think they might soon have. The rest of the movement is little more than nostalgia and regret over social and cultural changes of the last fifty years, which cannot be reversed by man nor god. As one observer noted, the conservative movement at times seems nothing more than a grouch against the modern world.
Those who are younger often have little idea how the success and wealth they know in America have been built. We have at least two generations now of voting age who have little or no idea how America got to where it is and some of them are buying into the lie that it was all due to corporations and free enterprise. Social Security, minimum wage, national railroad and airline systems, the Interstate highway system, the development of PCs and the Internet, and Medicare: these are all accomplishments, and perhaps unimportant ones, of the past to many. We've got them now, so who cares if the government played a role? Besides, you have to explain these things and who wants to bother to listen? These days, it is much better to have an opinion first and facts later, if at all.
The Republicans discovered, under the sanctimonious tutelage of Newt Gingrich, that they win by being mean, by opposing everything the Democrats do and by being the eternal opposition. In this stance, they can promise that, ONE DAY, everything will again be right in America, if only.... Conversely, the Republicans concluded that they lose elections by cooperating and looking after the general welfare.
The Democrats, flat footed and outmaneuvered by the Republicans on almost every front, don't know how to handle the new realities. Partly as a result, the blogs and commentaries supporting the Dems have become almost a shrill as the Republicans, with a key difference: the Republican slurs are put out by elected leaders and the unofficial leadership of the party on talk radio and cable news. Big difference. The Democrats are perfectly capable of saying mean things about their opponents, but Republicans and the far right have escalated the rhetoric to the point where a verbal response is insufficient. Only the far out bloogers on the left even try to take on this hopeless task.
Our system of elections is corrupted to the core by massive piles of money and, now, by outside groups that can say and do anything while the candidate they support smirks and looks the other way. We are living in a time when mere corruption of the election process by false advertising and outright lies looks quaint. Some of the most important players, the outside influence groups, aren’t even supposed to be on the field in this game, yet they are intent on taking it over completely.
All of this is possible, in large measure, because most of us don’t have time to be deeply concerned and involved in our elections. Democracy is a gift we accept blithely and without much concern. We usually only get involved when we are riled up about something that hits directly home with our own needs and interests, so the rest of the time we leave politics and government up to the pros. They like it that way. They make millions from our minimal involvement by trying to manipulate the system to their advantage and that of their clients.
We are not, all appearances to the contrary, a nation where sharp divisions of left and right dominate every political decision and action. These are phony divisions in a nation that remains largely non-ideological on specific issues and by both training and habit. We are a nation born in revolution that has managed to accommodate incredible changes by looking for the best in each other even while conflicts rage. We won't go back to HAPPY DAYS on Capitol Hill. In time, voters and others might look to the national government more as something to be shunned and avoided because of its collective inability to move forward. Pragmatism is the primary ideology of Americans. In time the screeching voices of the moment will fade. I hope.
Doug Terry, 1.14.11
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