Saturday, October 30, 2010

The Audacity of Republican Lies

So here we are on the verge of a mid term election and the media (pundits) spends it's time speculating and joking about the probability of who will win. They love the "excitement" of the tote board election mentality. Is the Fourth Estate not charged with the responsibility to objectively create informed public opinion as a part of the political check and balance system established to protect Democracy?
President Carter told Bill Mahr that he has never seen such a polarization of the United states, and the talking heads discuss how Obama will have to get along with Republicans. How do you get along with supposed fellow Americans who only want to get their power back to "reduce the size of government," and "lower taxes" for the highest income earners, because taxes have been lowered for everyone else? How do you establish a dialogue of understanding with people who lie about "death panels" and misrepresent economic realities by still arguing for the validity of: "trickle down," along with deregulation and the free enterprise, of self-correcting markets based on the postulate that the "market is rational?" How do you do this when our "Great Recession" was clearly caused by all of this and more. How do you objectively create informed public opinion by allowing all the liars to advertise their lies and by allowing all the secrete funding of campaigns as supported by the recent Supreme Court ruling?
And how does it make sense to be so against any improvement in health care? It does for the monopolistic (ologopolistic) health carriers.
I know that the answer to all of these questions is to acknowledge that Financial Darwinism is the problem. Financial Darwinists want all the biggest and wealthiest companies and people to make as much money as possible and do not care if it is at the expense of the American democratic design ethic which is to provide a society that is - "by the people and for the people." Today, only 55 years after our country truely emerged from the "Great Depression," we are back in the 20's - only it is worse. Mass media has become a relentless propoganda machine fueled by the ultra rich. Greed is good. Education is on the decline. And to avoid the devastation of "new" economic theories from the 80s, which are essentially laissez-faire based theories - all the political lies must be recognized as Social Darwinism/Financial Darwinistic Propoganda.
The media is on a tight rope. Only a few individuals have the guts, the insight or are allowed to express the truth, which is self-evident. It's a good thing that Chris Mathews, Ed and Keith are still on TV, and Krugman is still in the Times, but where is everyone else? ?
Today, October 30th, all the talking heads talk about is the threat of cargo jet packages, but what about the danger of allowing the party that voted against Social Security and Medicare, and the people who within the last 10 years pushed for deregulation (the tearing down of barriers errected to protect us from Greed in the aftermath of the depression) gain more control over our mutual and simbiotic destiny? What about giving more power to people against health care and financial reform? What about electing individuals - who are for: Mega Health Carriers, Mega Bank Holding Companies; and against Gov spending to create jobs, against making banks lend to small businesses, against regulations to protect us from Greed as well as against Jefferson's idea that the "role of government is to protect the Public?"
What about pointing out the evils of propoganda based on absolute lies and half truths to get the masses to act like pawns supporting what is best for the ultra rich. And what about Democrats who do not know how to stand up for the truth or the imperfect Health Care bill? What about our Supreme Court that is now firmly in the corner of Financial Darwinists! So today let's talk about how historic it will be if Dems lose 60 seats, and agree that nothing will get done if the T party and the Repubs gain control of the house. Two years of doing nothing in the name of political philosophy while so many of their fellow Americans suffer in the shadows of 17% real unemployment.