What They're Feeding Me

We are each a little person in a great big world. The competing values systems swirling around us are all reflections of this dichotomy. Is there a synthesis of personal values versus societal concerns? Will our brains ever reason themselves into personally pursuing a better society? Or are we stuck with the society we have, full of people who are all in it only for themselves?

All these self-interested people are on a suicide-trip over a cliff. Can they be saved, and brought into the fold of society?

The self-serving society is in a suicide-trip over a cliff. Can it be saved, brought into the service of all people?

This cycle is a doomsday machine. We live as though we have five globes to consume and pollute. We have one. It’s sad to watch.

Polarization and division is what Americans currently think is cool. More precisely, Americans are increasingly self-identified in opposition to something else. Left or right, both halves of the divide are running from the center. For evidence, see the popularity of Glenn Beck and Mike Malloy. Glenn Beck is proud not to be like Mike Malloy, Mike Malloy is proud not to be Glenn Beck. Of particular importance here is that the “Glenn Beck” in Mike Malloy’s head is not really Glenn Beck. Americans are divided because of Straw Dog opponents. It’s now considered hip to believe in a demonized portrayal of ones’ political opposites.

Straw Dog opponents are the ideas of the enemy that always come up in a time of war or conflict. Examples include the rat-like depictions of the Japanese during WWII, or the Bush Wars’ obsession with towel-headed, freedom-hating terrorists. Because each half of America views the other half as an enemy, they depict one another in the starkest, least-realistic terms to incite their own half to ruthless action against them.

George W. Bush deeply divided America. He was arguably more partisan than any President since Reagan. His policies were designed to placate his base alone, which expanded greatly immediately after 9/11 scared the bejesus out of America. America and much of the world unified behind the President for forty-five seconds and then roughly half the world noticed he was violating international law and Constitutional rights and jumped ship. By breaking the law, George W. Bush destroyed the unity 9/11 afforded our nation.

Obama was elected on the promise of unification. His shining moment in the spotlight at the 2004 DNC was when he said “there isn’t a red America and a blue America, there’s a United States of America.” He was supposed to take us into a new era, one where problems disappeared. Obama won because he wasn’t George W. Bush.

Unity is exactly what neither half of the Bush-divided America craves. Obama can talk all he wants about unity, but unity isn’t going to lay to rest the abortion debate, or the torture debate, or the immigration debate, or the Gitmo debate, or the health insurance reform debate, or the gay rights debate. Unity now would require that both sides were in the same argument, and they’re not. One half of our society is arguing against the rule of law, the other for the rule of law, but neither half will admit as much. The debate is clouded in misinformation.

Until the wild, baseless claims about either opposition party stop, America will devolve further into militarism. The Tea Party is the most obvious omen of what is to come. There has never been an entity in our politics so mis-informed, one so willing to believe spin as fact, or one so violent. The Republican spin on Democratic plans has become a reality in their minds which gives permission for brick-throwing, the cutting of gas lines, and threatening phone calls and emails. Tea Partiers have received permission to break the law. Republicans have given it, through the use of rhetoric questioning the legitimacy of Obama’s Presidency, claims that the Democrats’ plans are “socialism” or “fascism.” By claiming Democrats have already broken the law, illegal means of attacking them are meant to seem justified.

Because Obama was elected to unify, it is in the political interest of his opposition to divide. Thus, the most useful form of division, creating a Straw Dog opponent, is all that Obama’s opposition can do. Obama is a populist, and most of his plans when given a serious look are hard to argue against, at least in principle. The only option his opposition has is to argue against an opponent that doesn’t exist, the Socialist, Marxist, Fascist Obama.

The question remains: will the opposition to the Obama agenda argue with Obama, or with a Straw Dog? Will Republicans campaign in 2010 on reform of the health care bill, or on “repeal of the government takeover” (which doesn’t exist)? Every Straw Dog argument serves to divide us further. It is in the interest of American Domestic Peace to have a real, civil debate. Democracy does not come about through violence, intimidation, or coercion. We must hang together, or surely we will all hang separately.

If corporations are people with a first amendment right, are they also people with a second amendment right? Because if that’s the case, what’s to prevent the Supreme Court from striking down the gun ban and Wal-Mart from posting armed guards ala Israel? I don’t want that, even though I’ve joked about it on stage. Open-carry societies are Mad Max. This is no longer the Wild West. If we were to try and tax a corporation more, what’s to prevent them from funding an army to prevent that taxation, if it works out as part of a cost-benefit analysis? This is why Blackwater (Xe) is dangerous. Brought to you by private no-bid contracts under the Bush Administration.

Bill O’Reilly, interviewed Sarah Palin on Fox News. Fox News is the propaganda arm of the GOP, the President of Fox is a former GOP Congressman, who feeds GOP talking points to the hosts and writers. Asked if she believes the President is not an American, the former half-term Governor says, “No. And those wild conspiracy theories about our own government I think shouldn’t have a part of the dialogue of the debate.” When pressed to clarify (O’Reilly should be asking her totally different questions), Palin then says “I see the danger of more of the same of the mainstream media wanting to paint Tea Partiers as radical wacko conspiracy theorists.”

The danger is the media, not the birthers. Simultaneously speaking out of both sides of her mouth, Sarah says conspiracy theories are both not fine and fine, just like Rush Limbaugh and Rahm Emmanuel using the same word to describe the same people. One is fine, one is not fine. You would question her morals, but then you’d remember that she uses her disabled son as a campaign tool:

Sarah Palin is pushing herself away from the Truthers and toward the Birthers. There are Truthers in both parties, but there are Birthers in only one. The Truthers in the Democratic Party would likely never again vote for any GOP candidate, but the Birthers are already definitely Republicans. It makes no political sense for a Republican to be a Truther. Get all that?

Truthers inevitably blame Bush or Cheney for being responsible for 9/11, or negligent (which is evident via the public record.) Ronald Reagan had a rule about not blaming other Republicans, which is why the modern Republican Party is the zombie corpse of Reagan, marching in lockstep. There is little to no public infighting in the GOP. Everyone must eventually apologize to Rush Limbaugh, the still-echoing voice of Ronald Reagan on the radio. Democrats rarely agree unanimously, which paces Democratic legislation’s eventual passage.

Populism against the Democrats in the name of down-home racist anger, and war, is Patriotic Christianity. It’s what you get when you listen to Rush, watch Fox, and believe Sarah. The highest-paid people in this country’s media are baiting one half of our political system every day. They use keywords like “freedom” and “liberty” and “God” but remain substance-free in their own policy ideas, and instead focus on Demonizing the Democrats. Eventually the name becomes Demoncrat and you’ll never vote for your own interests again because of wedge issues like gay rights and abortion and secession (which will never happen). Fox, Sarah and Rush are all part of the GOP noise machine, a bizarre political theater where lies are okay because it’s for Reagan. Media is the solution to this festival of untruth. Better to train a camera on every one of these Patriotic Christians and expose them for the Treasonous Nihilists they are. Demand Question Time.

Todd Palin, known secessionist, was the real governor of Alaska, not Sarah Palin, whose recently revealed emails show a shocking, highly-suspect and possibly illegal chain-of-command in which Todd was responsible for high-level duties and the transmission of information marked “CONFIDENTIAL.” Charges are not yet filed. During Sarah’s unsuccessful bid for the Vice Presidency it was revealed that Todd was a member of a secessionist local party in Alaska. She tried to cover it up, and also failed at that. Secession is an utmost disrespect for the law of the land.

Today Sarah will be speaking at the Tea Party Convention, where you can buy a precious-jewel-encrusted Tea Bag from a man who is complaining about “paying through the nose” for government.

Secession was the first priority of rhetoric-backed Governor from the state of Texas, Rick Perry. While repeating the big lie about banker-friendly economics, Perry has the unhealthiest state in the Nation, some of the wealthiest corporations, and very low corporate taxes. He doesn’t wanna pay for health care, or much else, and he’s going to secede. He’s lying to convince people to vote against the economic interest of the majority for the sake of a very few people. “Buy a $75 platinum teabag? You never know when the dollar might collapse.” Fearmonger.

Before any of us knew who Sarah was, she was an anonymous Alaskan mayor elected to serve those people using the very same rhetoric in a very red state. She feels that her candidacy for Vice President was “God’s plan” for her. Those very words are the Rhetoric of Reagan.

It means nothing. The more you repeat it, the better it sounds. It is the big lie. Although there are benefits to concepts like “low taxes” and “free markets” in actual economics, the pretend economics that big liars sells is populism, but not true. “I will lower taxes, and markets will be free,” Reagan will say, “and let the government get out of the way.” Prices skyrocket and wages stagnate. The mercury content in our fish is making children sick, the runoff from the chemical weapons we tested in Puerto Rico causes bizarre birth defects, the air in some major cities is mostly smoke so we keep the kids indoors those days. If you want post-industrial wasteland, we are already it. We love disaster porn like 2012 and The Road and Wall-E. The highest grossing movie of all time, Avatar, is a cartoon fantasy about genocide. We barely know what the Wi-Fi and the 3G signals are doing to our ears and our crotches. Palin’s keynote to rally the Teabag Secessionist Militant Movement will offer a full-throated defense of the pervasiveness of the chemicals that caused her to have a child with Downs Syndrome.

Reagan will say “I believe in God and Country.” The two are intertwined. The idea is to talk about Christianity as though it gives you a divine mandate for office. “I believe God wants his leaders to look like me and think like me.” Reagan has swagger, yet is humble. He uses funny stories to sound like an everyman. To directly quote Sarah Palin’s office-fleeing fail speech: “Let me go back to a comfortable analogy for me – sports.”

The Big Lie is that the “government is the problem.” Why would you elect a person to an office they don’t respect? Reagan will project annoyance at a nation left to us by wiser folks than any of us dummies. Reagan will claim a down-home attitude, at its heart the nationalist impulse. It will be the crucial test of Sarah Palin’s Shadow Presidency if she makes any sort of “decisions,” in her Shadow State of the Union, since she holds no office currently. If she says “we should destroy the government” who is she suggesting do this? Teabaggers in the room, people watching aghast on Fox News? Sponsors are paying her $100,000. She’s helping the wealthy keep so much more. Perhaps they will “secede” in name only, simply start their own social contract and move to Texas or something. They want to destroy a democracy that the world admires for the selfish interests of the wealthy. They believe they can achieve massive wealth, or their children might, so they’d better keep corporate taxes low.

The words don’t matter. Sarah has yet to speak but it might as well be over. Fox News is the only cable network allowed access (who is shocked?) and a recent poll said they are “most trusted” in America. How about that, they pulled it off. The coverage of Palin’s speech will be more adorable than the Puppy Bowl.

Watch at your peril, the words will rend your soul from your flesh and you will be doomed to a life believing that the bankers are our friends and need to be protected. Some of the big moneymakers need fired and possibly arrested, but Sarah is going to defend them under the blanket term of “business” or possibly “markets.” The big lie will be repeated endlessly: the government is your enemy. This is primarily why people don’t vote, is the Big Lie. They are scared of government. If only the people would realize they could get the government they all secretly agree they want, a fiscally conservative but socially liberal one where all of us can be our religion or sexuality and smoke our dope and stroke our gun. If all of us voted, we’d have that government. Health care saves money and makes sense to everyone but the Teabaggers, who believe the lie. The big lie turns the people into cynics. “What’s the point of voting?” they will say. Then Reagan will come along and inspire them to do something stupid, like vote in favor of the lie.