I just got back from visiting friends and family in MI which was home for most of my life. Much was the same but it struck me just how effectively the right-wing noise machine was working.
My home town of Flint, MI, is a tough blue collar-autoworker-union town. It was very prosperous during GM's heyday. The city became racially polarized when affirmative action took hold in the early 70s. Blacks and to a lesser extent women caused major social divisions as the police, fire, city hall, and factories became integrated. Racism intensified which accounted for George Wallace's victory in the 1972 primary which four years earlier had gone to Jesse Jackson.
That was for a quick background. On my recent visit I spoke with friends and relatives closely associated with the dying GM auto factories. Huge numbers of Buick workers had just accepted a buy-out dwindling the once massive factory population down to about 9K.
The once thriving city I grew up in was a shell of itself, parts of the city look like a third world country. It is a sad story experienced too many times across our country.
Now I am getting to my point. I didn't realize living in SoCal, just how effective Rove has been with his latest wedge issue- Mexican immigration. I lightly pointed out to some of my friends and relatives who in the past have held what I would call racist views, that Blacks seem to have been given a reprieve. Now, these same people went on and on about "illegal immigration," and people that can't speak English, basically parroting the Republican/Rove talking points which I am guessing comes direct from Fox news which they are all too inclined to watch.
I pointed out how unions should be on the side of Mexican workers that are being exploited by companies for cheap labor. That was met with ridicule and more Rove talking points about "can't speak English." I see this everyday in SoCal especially in our last CA-50 election where immigration was issue one. But Flint is the home of the Sit-Down Strike of 1936; it is a natural base for Democrats.
I came away disenchanted with our country and its politics. These are otherwise hardworking good people that are being manipulated by cheap politicians and their backers and their media outlets Fox News, Clear Channel and fiery right-wing radio zealots. That is not going to end soon.
Further, I can't see how this will be reversed with any given election. We have been in this right-wing/religious coup since Reagan and it could not have happened without the MSM facilitating these people. Otherwise fringe and fanatical people who once would never appear on the MSM are portrayed as legitimate sources of opinion. They have inflamed and divided the country with one wedge issue after another.
Sorry I don't have an optimistic story. But this is America 2006 and it ain't a pretty picture. Political ignorance is rampant. That ignorance is at the point where our democracy cannot function. It was always the case that the weight of name recognition was enough to get elected but that is now coupled with vast amounts of money as the criteria for becoming a candidate. Our elections are nothing more than a media marketing campaign.
I don't see a way out. We have four solidly far-right Supreme Court justices who will be making counter productive decision for the next two decades. Congress is rigidly controlled by corporate interests. Added to that, the military industrial complex has become the reality Eisenhower envisioned only on steroids. We have become a highly militaristic culture which only adds weight to the far-right's authoritative instincts. None of this can be unraveled easily.
Karl Rove has done it again with the help of the MSM.