Republicans: Representing 90% of the Wealth or 90% of the People?
Posted: Monday, August 15, 2011
by Walter Rhett
Charleston Perlo
Political science has long since given way to public theatre in Presidental elections. Facts no longer matter, only stage craft. Buried in American mythology and story building is the legendary bad guy, who, according to the backstory, is pushed into an unintenable position by the need to restore order and secure the peace. An existential loner, a warrior-philosopher, the bad guy breaks convention. In bad times, bad guys are the popular craze. Never mind the GOP candidates are vying to fix what they had a major hand in breaking.
All the GOP candidates abandon cultural literacy for the American way. So xenophobia is in. Black presidents are out. A growth economy is the major canard of their false promise, so like mythic and movie bad guys, they benefit from their betrayal. In fact, betrayal goes hand in hand with how bad guys operate. Romney betrays his health care plan and calls the President's legislative achievements, "dog food." Bachmann rewrites history, denies consequences, and appeals directly to bias by blaming the victims rather than fixing the cause. Cain is a pizza hustler and spirit guy who masquerades as a problem solver who couldn't be the White House social secretary, given his biases. He digs deeper holes weekly. Pawlenty seems to be a bad guy wannabe. Once radical, Ron Paul now seems mainstream, especially his widely applauded anti-war positions. Gingrich has more gangsta than sense. His platform talks in the perfidy of colonial masters. Perry runs Texas as America's largest work farm; his new jobs pay low wages, lack benefits or advancement, and follow the model of post-war Levittown.
What the entire bad gang is selling in the name of growth is the same as it always is for bad guys: extraction. They are all vying for the right to set up an economy of extraction. They want to extract financial and physical assets and hand the spoils to powerful friends. They want to extract trust and reason and replace it with fear. Fear makes us turn for protection to the bad gang. The gang demonstrates it has no restraint, so we should cooperate. Ironically, after intimidating everybody, bad guys like to use force to keep things calm.
They also want to extract programs that are a part of the American social contract. They want to extract profits and power from the hands of the dwindling middle class. They say they want growth. But each plan and action is built on extraction. They want you to have what's left.
Republicans think representing 90 percent of the wealth is representing 90 percent of the people.
All the GOP candidates abandon cultural literacy for the American way. So xenophobia is in. Black presidents are out. A growth economy is the major canard of their false promise, so like mythic and movie bad guys, they benefit from their betrayal. In fact, betrayal goes hand in hand with how bad guys operate. Romney betrays his health care plan and calls the President's legislative achievements, "dog food." Bachmann rewrites history, denies consequences, and appeals directly to bias by blaming the victims rather than fixing the cause. Cain is a pizza hustler and spirit guy who masquerades as a problem solver who couldn't be the White House social secretary, given his biases. He digs deeper holes weekly. Pawlenty seems to be a bad guy wannabe. Once radical, Ron Paul now seems mainstream, especially his widely applauded anti-war positions. Gingrich has more gangsta than sense. His platform talks in the perfidy of colonial masters. Perry runs Texas as America's largest work farm; his new jobs pay low wages, lack benefits or advancement, and follow the model of post-war Levittown.
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- Levitt and Sons built housing, Belair, MD, circa1957. LOC
What the entire bad gang is selling in the name of growth is the same as it always is for bad guys: extraction. They are all vying for the right to set up an economy of extraction. They want to extract financial and physical assets and hand the spoils to powerful friends. They want to extract trust and reason and replace it with fear. Fear makes us turn for protection to the bad gang. The gang demonstrates it has no restraint, so we should cooperate. Ironically, after intimidating everybody, bad guys like to use force to keep things calm.
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- Steam Shovels, Cherokee County, KS, 1936. LOC.
They also want to extract programs that are a part of the American social contract. They want to extract profits and power from the hands of the dwindling middle class. They say they want growth. But each plan and action is built on extraction. They want you to have what's left.
Republicans think representing 90 percent of the wealth is representing 90 percent of the people.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)"I cringe that a party has thumbed its nose at the 90% of us, offering us prayer vigils instead of meaningful reforms, and taking away all the earmarks of a Great Society in order to protect that 10% from having to spend a dime on the very society they reap benefits from."
Posting this great sentence on my twitter account! Thanks! (I loved the staged cowboy pix, ala Reagan.)
Love the pix. Love the lingo. I need to hear more of you about "extraction", not just today, but as a description of government activity. This is very intriguing to me. I will keep on reading you. If you have Gregory enhancing your stands, you have an ally of common sense and profundity.
Yours,
Christofer
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