Fear And The Loathsome Individuals Who Profit From It

Here’s something which you have probably seen (or heard) a million or so times, and yet in a manner that was completely out of context:

That was of course Franklin Delano Roosevelt (who is still tied with LBJ as our greatest President) at his first inaugural speech. The line, “nothing to fear but fear itself”, has since taken a life of its own. The speech and the quote were part of the newly elected President’s plan to address the myriad of problems facing the country after the 1929 stock market crash and resulting depression. Sadly in modern times this concept of being “free from fear” has been misappropriated into referencing FDR’s leadership during WWII. As we enter a new year it is important that we look back on the lessons of the 1930′s for several reasons, but specifically this idea that our government’s economic and social priorities must be designed to eliminate “fear” needs to enter the forefront of our minds once again.

Over the holidays I found myself frequently engrossed in the same conversation with friends and family concerning why the Republican Party continually convinces people to vote against their own economic and social interests in order to benefit the wealthiest 1%. The simple answer is that those in the right wing have successfully marketed fear, in its rawest and nastiest form (see also “welfare queens” and “moochers”), towards populations of older white people who are likely to maintain a strong GOP presence in state and federal legislative bodies. The genius behind this marketing is something that the Democrats have emulated on certain baseline issues, but sadly the leadership in both parties have recognized the power behind this strategy and have each chosen to use it in a way to further strengthen class divisions and income inequality. The result of this cynical form of governance is the kabuki idiocy that we see today, when our congress is being unfavorably compared to the worst examples of reality TV.

It’s a crazy time to live in a period where reasonable, evidenced-based arguments concerning the defense of redistributive economic policies are tarred with the slur of “communism”, while the opposition goes unchallenged while spouting screeds that are blatant defenses of Social Darwinism. It is not enough to debase the welfare state as a “failure” (while providing no evidence to support this assertion), instead the “very serious” economists and their associated politicians are going after the entire idea of social insurance and progressive taxation. All the while the dim witted press corps who supposedly acts as a safeguard against those who would intentionally lie to the American public is fixated on whether John Boehner told Harry Reid to go fuck himself.

A real examination into the true intentions of those who are protesting our national debt or the supposed need for “entitlement reform” would expose these people as outright thieves from the upper class. Eliminating social security, establishing a regressive taxation system, re-branding the estate tax as an affront to the constitution, and designating welfare recipients as failures are all calculated measures and evil marketing methods designed to instill a permanent aristocracy whose status and wealth goes unchallenged by members of the other classes. To put it another way, there is a conscious effort to instill fear in us as a way to directly prevent any legislation that would allow for a more broad based economic recovery- a fact that no one in power outside of Tom Harkin and Bernie Sanders have the gaul to bring up.

For a generation now we have been told to abandon the security of a guaranteed defined pension, or to reject the extension of “entitlements” into covering healthcare or income assistance out of the need to make our lives “more efficient”. In reality polices that encouraged individual investment in the stock market, reduced the tax burden for the wealthy, and gradually eliminated the remnants social safety net, were really only “efficient” in the sense that they redistributed the middle class gains of the post war generation back into the hands of the class who had control over our government and society before the advent of the 16th Amendment. We are all victims of a grand campaign of thievery, and to make matters worse we were entirely conflict in the con.

Obama’s plan to avert the more negative aspects of the “fiscal cliff” could have been much worse (especially compared to the other various deals that the President offered to the Speaker). However the most disappointing aspect behind this compromise was the complete abandonment by the Democratic leadership to the ideological and frankly moral defense of the progressive nature of our economic policies of the past. How does someone keep a straight face and tell the country that someone making $400k a year is a member of the middle class? Why does Paris Hilton get to keep 60% of an estate for which she did nothing to earn? Why are the insane cuts to social programs only delayed by two months?

Like many people who voted for the President last November I am certain that I made the right decision, and yet wary of both the his negotiation skills (which are terrible) and his commitment to preserving economic opportunity for the lower class (personally I think he drank the David Brooks kool-aid back at Harvard Law). Given this deficit of trust, it is up to us a supposedly enlightened populous to reject this constant campaign of fear and hate that is designed to have us gamble away our future security and to vote in a way that denies the chance to succeed to other people. Let us finally recognize the impact that class warfare has had on legislation and social conditioning for the last 30 years and consciously refuse to listen to the patronizing messages from asshole CEO’s like Howard Schultz. Our democratic system is the only open-ended apparatus in which each of us as individuals has a more or less guaranteed method of deciding how our society will be shaped. Perhaps it is time to recapture its power instead of simply abdicating that responsibility to those who at one point convinced us that they know how best to govern. If anything the last 12 years should have demonstrated that this trust was misplaced.

Gamma Omicron Pi: The Republican Fraternity

For a someone who would like to entertain the idea that I understand political issues enough to blog about them, understanding the other side is beyond essential. Sadly in attempting to comprehend their actions and ethos, I concluded that they are in fact not a reasonable group of people who happen to hold different political views than mine. Instead this exercise in understanding just reinforced what I had always feared about modern “conservatism”. The Republican Party is little more than the fraternity full of hostile children that you avoided at all costs in college. Their increasingly vicious policy platforms and campaign strategies derive from and represent the worst elements of the American Greek System , and they and the entire country has suffered as a result of their embrace of masculine fascism.

The effect of post 1960′s college experience is at least mostly responsible for this dominate dynamic inside of the party. Ever since Animal House became part of the cannon of silly comedies for adolescent males, we have celebrated juvenile sociopathy as a legitimate part of life for those privileged enough to go to college (and are white males). This celebration of those who are willing to inflict massive amounts of pain while ignoring the rights of other people also coincided with reactionary conservatism. The leaders of the GOP seized this opportunity to recruit the new generation of elite conservative activists, and have never regretted the decision since.

One could see the evolution starting with Barry Goldwater’s appeal to the disaffected young white men of the country in 1964. This was followed by Nixon’s recruitment of legitimate asshole like Roger Stone or G.Gordon Liddy who headed his famed “plumbers”, who adopted campus pranks into the sort of political malfeasance that would ensure Republican control of Washington. However it was Reagan’s embrace of the new generation of demogmuogic rouges like Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, and Ralph Reed that truly solidified the “fraternization” of the GOP . Once these men were provided with the resources and access of a truly weak-minded President like Reagan, they were free to do whatever they desired under the facade of a legitimate political institution. Whereas the Democrats consciously knee-capped liberal movements like the Yippies or SDS, the GOP was more than willing to entrust their political futures to the rampaging psychopaths who once headed the College Republican clubs across the country.

Once these energetic (yet intrinsically evil) dudes started to assume titles like “chief campaign strategist” or “senior policy advisor” the ideology of the most privileged group of juvenile delinquents that have ever existed in this country started to become the official platform of the Republican party. The decisions for the party of the patricians and aristocracy were now being dictated by the political equivalent of the soulless pledgemaster and the date-rapist chapter president. To make things even worse, the elite members of the media refused to chastise these men for their willingness to abuse the democratic process and instead praised their “tough” politicking and “disciplined” campaigning. We were being lead by a group of people who openly mocked the idea of a social contract, and the media was so blinded by their charisma that their deeds were reported as “hijinks” instead of “political terrorism”.

The parallels between the endemic sadism and horrendous classism within the “Greek” system and the current Republican platform are pretty striking. An individual who would think that a “team building” exercise should take the form of forced binge drinking or would subject their fellow “brothers” to a hell week of sleeping in a confined space would probably think nothing of water boarding a suspected terrorist or forcing them into a “stress position”. A person whose parents not only paid for their admission into the most exclusive institutions of higher education in the country, but who also ponied-up for their child’s private drinking club cum-fraternity cannot be expected to understand the complexities involved in being a member of the working poor. An individual who is trained to think of women on a scale of disposable hook-ups on one end and trophy wives on the other will never see women as anything more than “sluts” seeking a payout.

The current vitriol against powerful liberals also makes sense when viewing the GOP as a Frat instead of a political party. The ascendency of someone as accomplished as Barack Obama, as effortlessly charming as Bill Clinton, or as demonstrably tough as Sandra Fluke drives members of the Republican fraternity insane. Democracy is after all, simply a popularity consequence with tangible consequences. For a group of people that see utilizing resentment as a the single greatest tool for maintaining power, and are defined by their cynicism, someone who becomes popular by professing a more accepting and inclusive message (while personifying a more hopeful existence) must be destroyed. Now that the Republican Frat has wielded the reigns of power for a generation, they have no intent of ceding that level of influence to those who are not intrinsically “worthy” or did not “earn” this privilege in a manner that is less horrendous than their path. The rhetoric and tactics that are used to continually defame liberalism are not unique to politics, rather they are endemic within a certain class of people who are used to receiving a particular level of respect from the “lesser” people within the institutions that they expect to control.

The narrative of the modern Republican party usually ignores the important role that its young professional instigators played in promoting the now dominant political philosophies regarding social spending, international policy, and civil rights. Those individuals who are more or less responsible for the current party trajectory usually prefer to remain hidden from the wider public (with some notable exceptions), but their work must be recognized if we have any hope of undoing the damage that they have caused. Deconstructing the “great man” myth behind Nixon, Reagan, and Bush will aid liberals in realizing that the current Republican “elites” are little more than juvenile pranksters with entitlement complexes. We are not dealing with a political party, we are dealing with spoiled rich kids working to keep their daddy’s friends in power.

Lying Sack Of Shit Paul Ryan Lies About Sub Three Hour Marathon

Jesus Randian Christ this guy could not have been intelligently designed to be more disgusting to me. It seems that Paul Ryan, beyond just lying about his past record on the stimulus, his love of Ayn Rand, and his virtually anything he said in his acceptance speech, is also a no-good lying SOB about my favorite hobby- running. As Runners World reports:

In the interview, after Ryan told Hewitt that he ran in high school, Hewitt asked if Ryan still runs. Ryan replied, “Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or less.” When Hewitt asked Ryan what his personal best is, Ryan replied, “Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.”

Runner’s World has been unable to find any marathon results by Ryan. Requests for more information from Ryan’s Washington and Wisconsin offices, and from the Romney-Paul campaign, have so far gone unanswered.

This is just sad. In the internet age, virtually all race records are immediately posted within hours of any event that you run and stay there forever. If you google me for example, all that you will find are my running times, and not whatever nasty things I have said on the internet (suck on that future employers!). There is a fine line between rounding off a good race time and outright making up an athletic achievement that takes people a lifetime to accomplish. For some context, a sub 3:00 hour time would qualify Ryan for the Boston Marathon by about 20 minutes and would mean that he would consistently win his age group in whatever race he participated in, accomplishments that people tend to memorialize.

Also, why in the fuck is Runners World doing better investigative reporting than any other news outlet in the country? When Chris Christie runs in 2016 (for office, he will never actually run with his legs), is the fact that he is a corrupt egomaniac going to be exposed by Bon Appetit? Will Cat Fancy be the magazine that destroys Condoleezza Rice’s record international issues by pointing out that she is a horrible war-mongering monster?

This shit is just sad.

How Could Latino Voters Prefer Obama Over Romney By 35 Points?

News like this is probably not welcome in swing states like Colorado:

Nearly 65 percent of Latino voters polled in an NBC/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo survey released Wednesday said they plan to back Obama in November compared to about 30 percent who intend to vote for Romney.

Obama, who won the vast majority of Latino voters in 2008, has possessed a substantial lead with Hispanic voters since the Spring, when Romney emerged as the presumptive GOP nominee. Spanish-language ads questioning the way that Obama has managed the economy; others featuring Romney’s Spanish-language-fluent son Craig Romney, the senior Romney’s business experience and family life have not proven effective in pulling Latino voters into the Romney camp, polls indicate.

Wait, you mean shoving the Tito Jackson of the Romney clan to patronize to viewers of spanish language television has not swayed any of those voters into voting Republican? I am fucking shocked.

As the article points out, this job of wooing latino voters would not be so godamned hard (particularly given the Obama administration’s love of deporting folks) if the Republican’s had not decided to be 21st century Know-Nothing Party. It was not too long ago that George Bush was able to capture almost 50% of the latino voter refusing to talk about the immigration issue much and by recording his OWN spanish language commercial. Romney on the other hand, has been busy endorsing the ethnic cleansing ideas proposed by assholes like Kris Kobach in between his usual stump speech regarding how he plans to shred the publicly accessible forms of opportunity that allowed previous groups of immigrants to live the American Dream.

So what is the Romney campaign doing to turn the tide against this trend that could easily doom them come November? Well this is probably not a good start:

Joe Arpaio is headed to Tampa to hang out with elephants, both figuratively and literally.

Arizona’s Maricopa County sheriff, a leading proponent of strict immigration laws, is slated to address GOP delegates during the Republican National Convention — but not at the convention itself. Instead, his Aug. 30 gig will take place near an elephant enclosure at the Lowry Park Zoo, according to a statement by the Arizona GOP.

“He’s wildly popular not just in Maricopa County but throughout the state and the country,” Arizona GOP Chairman Tom Morrissey said in a statement. “He’s done a lot of for the Republican Party already and we’re overjoyed that as always he is willing to join us as we visit some of our ‘fellow elephants’ while in Tampa.”

The circus continues.

All Abortions Are Necessary

For those of us who believe in the fundamental right to privacy Todd Akin, Paul Ryan, and Bob McDonnell have each provided a strong lesson in how to properly defend issues relating to reproductive health. From now we need to stop distinguishing between different groups of people who “deserve” certain medical procedures. There is no common ground on which proponents of access to contraception and abortion services can meet and agree with the other side. “Safe, legal, and rare” as a political strategy has proven to be ineffective in stopping the zealots. Appeasement is over, and it is time to go on the offensive in assuring this essential aspect of individual liberty.

Akin’s asinine idea concerning the fecundity of rape victims is just the latest example of the decades long Republican resistance to allowing this particular group of women access to abortion services. The “no exceptions” idea has been on the national Republican platform since 1976. The desire to force women into giving birth was never analyzed by conservatives. Their position has always been about control, and their zealotry has only metastasized into even more disgusting versions of extremism, including the justification and facilitation of outright terrorism.

Democrats on the other hand decided, perhaps in the hopes of stemming the rising levels of violence from the other side, to equivocate. However by agreeing to sacrifice the singular legal and moral position from which the right to an abortion was established (the right to privacy for all), we in effect divided those who seek abortions into separate and unequal camps. On one side there were women who deserved to exercise the right to choose, and then there were the “others” whose reasons for terminating a pregnancy were not seen as valuable or morally defensible for some untold reason (i.e. they are poor or happen to engage in a lifestyle which we disapproved of).

By placating to the prejudices and adopting the insane line of thinking as the other side we allowed the worst elements of the festering extremism within the right wing to become an acceptable political position in the 21st century. By refusing to properly defend the morality inherent in preserving the right to choose, we enabled the “moderate” position to continually shift rightward. As a result, access to abortion is becoming increasingly rare in many parts of this country, to the point that the unsafe back-alley procedures of the past are now once again becoming the only options for many women suffering from an unwanted pregnancy.

This line of thinking ends now. The right to decide to undergo an abortion needs to be reaffirmed by the Democratic party with no reservations, with no exceptions, and with no further need to justify our position. Access to abortion is part of a basic human right to proper healthcare, and it is further guaranteed by the 14th Amendment’s right to privacy. There is no ambiguity in this stance, and there is no need to expound or debate the nuances within this assertion. Furthermore a pregnant rape victim might be more sympathetic for some people who would otherwise oppose abortion, but they should be treated the same under the law as a person who became pregnant as a result of consensual sex. All that matters is whether or not individual who is pregnant consents to the procedure to end their pregnancy.

This position is not only easier to defend constitutionally in the judicial system, it is also a sounder electoral strategy for progressives. While the other side features raving psychopaths like Randall Terry, buffoons like Todd Akin, and terrorists like Eric Robert Rudolph, the people defending the right to abortion include well reasoned individuals who tend to justify their opinions using actual science, basic forms of empathy, and common sense. As a society we should finally admit that raising a child is not an absolutely wonderful “blessing” for everyone who becomes pregnant. We should encourage adoption, contraception, and “planning”, but for the sake of a child’s life and proper development we should also refuse to stigmatize those who choose not undertake the commitment necessary to raise a child.

Allies of the abortion rights movement need to seize this opportunity provided to us by the lunatics trying to justify forced birth in a society that celebrates our Bill of Rights. Equivocation was a worthless endeavor, as it allowed the division and weakening of the popular consensus and legal basis necessary to support our position. This year supporters of this right need to be present themselves as morally righteous and politically certain in campaigning for an expansion of abortion services across the country. At this point we really have nothing left to lose, and the weakness within the other side is becoming more obvious everyday. There is a war on women, and it is time to declare that we will accept nothing less than a total victory over those who wish to keep 51% of this country as 2nd class citizens.