`Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
`I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, `so I can't take more.'
`You mean you can't take less,' said the Hatter: `it's very easy to take more than nothing.'
`Nobody asked your opinion,' said Alice.
`Who's making personal remarks now?' the Hatter asked triumphantly.- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
I have little doubt that conditions could be building for the rise of a strong nativist fascist political movement in America, and that the FDR-like moves by the Obama Administration will only have a limited time to stay ahead of this threat. However, America has certain inherent safeguards that other more racially pure countries do not, i.e. racial diversity, so it may be tougher to form a majority coalition along such lines. So for now we have a very loud, very angry minority who are being used by wealthy Conservative forces, amplified by these forces, and in all likelihood organized by these forces from the get-go.
I'm referring to the so-called Tea Party movement. This supposed grassroots taxation revolt seems as ridiculous as a Mad Hatter's tea party, since the working class members will receive tax cuts under Obama, and the core protest would seem to be a return to Clinton era tax levels, i.e. a rise of 3% for the highest income bracket. But while more Liberal wags enjoy the self-identification of this group as "teabaggers" due to the street definition of the term, what's really going on is that corporate lobbying groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks are behind this so-called movement. The former is funded by the mega-wealthy Koch Family, while the latter is chaired by former House Majority Leader, Republican Dick Armey, with a corresponding foundation vice-chaired by Steve Forbes.
The proper term is "astroturfing" and as a valued reader pointed out to me in an email, it's been going on since Nixon ran for President without anyone being called on it.
Now Fox "News" is not only providing complete "coverage" of the events with their commentators in-person, but new wingnut darling Glenn Beck is doing a $300 per plate fundraiser for them. (You know, $300 per "grassroots" activist.) One wonders if there are any government protections for legitimate journalistic enterprises that might be possible to strip away from this obvious advocacy organization.
Because what these events are quickly morphing into are more than just tax protests. They are catch-alls for anyone with a gripe against Obama, who feels marginalized because, uh, their side lost this past Presidential election. The ones who claim he wasn't born in the United States despite Obama's birth certificate. The ones who want to burn college books. The ones who appear unhinged in fear that Obama will somehow take their precious guns away:
The right-wing fearmongering is increasing, and one wonders its ultimate purpose. Is all this agitation for hate actually a recruiting mechanism?
Are we entering a Parallax View-type situation?
2 comments:
I believe the guy who coined the term "astroturfing" was Bill Grieder. The first time I recall seeing it was in his book "Who Will Tell the People" from the early '90s, a quite depressing but as it turns out prescient study of, among other things, the manner in which political discourse in this country is systematically polluted by a handful of powerful moneyed interests.
The funding of relentless propaganda by this handful of monumentally wealthy families (Koch, Scaife, Walton, Forbes, Olin, Murdoch, etc) is the reason many people in the US hold counterfactual opinions like: global warming is a myth, the flat tax makes sense, Social Security is going bankrupt, etc, etc, etc. These people are the best imaginable argument for the estate tax, and demonstrate daily the truth of the Founding Fathers' contention that vast concentrations of money were life-threatening to democracy.
Meanwhile, with a little luck maybe Glen Beck will whip the teabaggers into a depraved Jonestown-like frenzy, with a comparable result. It really would be the best thing for both them and us.
Sadly, you nailed.
FOX News is most certainly hoping that someone takes a shot at the President. Who are they kidding?
That is what this is all about, especially the Glenn Beck show.
Richard Poplawski's rampage in Pennsylvania was a test case that made the network smile as they washed their hands in public of any responsibility.
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