"Class warfare is a form of bigotry; it shouldn’t be tolerated any more than we would other forms of bigotry in public life. Most people think of bigotry only in terms of race, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation. But at its core, bigotry simply is intolerance – which all too often leads to singling people out for attack based upon their group identity." [....]
"As the spending-driven debt crisis grows in America and among the 50 states, we would not accept such vilification toward the poor and elderly who consume taxpayer resources. We certainly would not accept such vilification toward the working class or minorities. So why do we tolerate the vilification of those most successful in America?"
-John Tillman, excerpted from 'The Unctuous, Impoverishing Bigotry Of Class Warfare' published in Forbes Magazine October 2012
"They only call it 'Class Warfare' when we fight back."
-Anonymous.
I've mentioned before that I think the Right has been playing a lot of major Loserball this cycle.
Like equating making sure the rich and powerful do their fair share to, say, racism forcing African-Americans to live as violently repressed second-class citizens, or with anti-gay bigotry?
Sheesh.
There has been so much of this kind of stupid fail, and so much own-goaling going on in general, that it would be easy to miss one of the biggest tells that the GOP and the Movement Conservative Right has some real issues they have no real answers for. Everybody in the Movement Conservative food chain is suddenly openly thugging, in unison, like Atwater and Rove didn't spend decades teaching these rich clowns how to ratfuck, dogwhistle, and compartmentalize the black bag shit for a reason. Ham-fistedly threatening employees, voters, and customers they need is not something you put your fingerprints on if that shit is above your paygrade. All levels of the party putting their names on offensive and crudely implied threats to both livelihoods and pocketbooks? Stupid. Desperate. A sign of not only weakness, but of a systemic misunderstanding of how to fix this.
Plausible deniability is big in the Rove/Atwater game. Goons and Golden Spoons may have the same agenda and work towards the same outcome, but they are supposed to have boundaries.
The blurred lines? That's a sign, and a classic poker tell, of frustration and fear.
Spring/Summer 2012. At the time, this just looked weak not what confident people do:
I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections. And whether you agree with me or you agree with President Obama, or whatever your political view, I hope — I hope you pass those along to your employees. Nothing illegal about you talking to your employees about what you believe is best for the business, because I think that will figure into their election decision, their voting decision and of course doing that with your family and your kids as well.
-Mitt Romney, National Federation of Independent Business Conference Call June 7 2012
Nor was this idiocy, for that matter, something a confident person does:
If Obamacare is in fact not repealed, we will find tactics to shallow out any Obamacare costs and core strategies to pass those costs back onto consumers in order to protect our shareholders best interests.
-John Schnatter, CEO and founder of Papa John’s, via Conference Call in August 2012.
Every national election, there's been a little of this. Say, the Dominos Pizza douchebag lets out an angry little fart of indignation before going back to signing checks and staying off the radar.
In 2012, we just about have Ayn Randian Idol.
Something is up when the rich and powerful consistently abandon the safety of Cuban cigars and hundred year old brandy in the parlor behind closed doors to soil their clean hands by signing their names. Threats? That's for the Tea Party, the hired Ratfuckers, the petty little pond scum you rent every two to four years. Or, as some of the Citizen's United Brigade might say in a moment of honesty "the hired help that we don't talk about". When the standard bearer for the GOP, Mitt Romney, who is also a member of the Cuban Cigars and Brandy set (albeit it minus the actual Cuban Cigars and Brandy) starts, well, trolling the working class of the nation, by name? As a part of a chorus of people who are, when they know they are going to win, usually just writing huge checks and smugly waiting for the swearing in ceremony?
I see sweat at the poker table. A twitchy eye. We can beat these fuckers and they know it.
The polls are tightening, we have a lot of work to do to ensure that 2012 is as successful as possible, no doubt. But. Big Picture? Something is up, the Right doesn't get it, and they don't understand what to do to fix it. It's a recurring theme that has been catching my attention this entire cycle from the primaries to the final fight. The Right has been acting like its fundamentally freaked out that just about everything that has always worked in the past is either epic failing or suddenly a lot harder to pull off now. It has stepped on its good moments. Squandered a lot of open shots. Grasped at stupid conspiracy theories instead of making a coherent campaign push. Mega gaffes. Campaigns, from Romney on down, have botched damage controling their gaffes. Let's get real. They need us scared. Worried. Anxious.
Don't notice just how consistently bad this whole election year has been for GOPers.
Remember how we were doomed? The Senate surely lost? Obama having no argument?
Suddenly, this lame shit from last Summer has come on back and with a vengeance, and openly pushed by those who are supposed to be far over the paygrade of the sort of fratboy College Republican shit weasel intern who usually gets broken in via this game. "Gotta go to Kinkos, sir."
Instead of menacing fliers stuffed under windshields in Mega-Church parking lots we have signed confessions of acute political seasickness at their prospects of pulling off a win via the old 1988 meets 2000 style smear and jeer and wait to get crowned BS.
A late September trickle, the Village rolled it's eyes and yawned:
“If we fail as a nation to make the right choice on November 6 and we lose our independence as a company, I don’t want to hear any complaints regarding the fallout that may come...I am asking you to give us one more chance to stay independent by voting in a new President and administration on November 6th. Even then, we still might not be able to remain independent, but it will at least give us a chance. If we don’t, that chance goes away.”
-Arthur L. Allen, ASG Software Solutions head, via email to workers September 2012.
Add a little of this:
To All My Valued Employees,
As most of you know our company, Westgate Resorts, has continued to succeed in spite of a very dismal economy. There is no question that the economy has changed for the worse and we have not seen any improvement over the past four years. In spite of all of the challenges we have faced, the good news is this: The economy doesn’t currently pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is another 4 years of the same Presidential administration. Of course, as your employer, I can’t tell you whom to vote for, and I certainly wouldn’t interfere with your right to vote for whomever you choose. [...]
So where am I going with all this? It’s quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.
So, when you make your decision to vote, ask yourself, which candidate understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn’t? Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of protecting and saving your job.
-Timeshare Billionaire David Siegel, via email, to Westgate Resorts workers October 2012.
And some more of this:
"If we choose to elect candidates who want to spend hundreds of billions in borrowed money on costly new subsidies for a few favored cronies, put unprecedented regulatory burdens on businesses, prevent or delay important new construction projects, and excessively hinder free trade, then many of our more than 50,000 U.S. employees and contractors may suffer the consequences, including higher gasoline prices, runaway inflation, and other ills."
-Koch Industries directive issued to the workforce at subsidiary company Georgia Pacific October 2012
And torrents of this:
Home Depot Founder Bernie Marcus Anti-Obama Swing State Ad October 3 2012.
To go along with the usual low-level flunky kneecappers who usually pimp this shit. Flood.
And let's not forget the Patron Saint of fratboy College Republican shit weasel interns:
"Spread the word! If you run, own or manage a company, tell your employees! What was the CEO this week that said, if Obama is reelected, I may have to let all of you go next year? If Obama’s reelected, if the Democrats take Congress, I may not be able to cover your health insurance next year. If there’s ever a year where people who run, manage, or own their companies are going to energize their employees, it better be this year. We’re up against it."
Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) instructing business owners to threaten employees with the loss of their jobs or their health insurance if Obama wins. Oct 17 2012
Does that sound, at all, like the words of supremely confident men to you? Any of it?
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Charles and David Koch. FreedomFreepi22 and America's Deadbeat Dad Joe Walsh. All fratboy College Republican shit weasel intern-ing together. All singing the same tune at the nudie bar, eying the Shot Girl, openly together as peers at last, like fratboy College Republican shit weasel intern Billionaires, Lawmakers, Internet Trolls, and Kings. Down where every Liberal and Democratic activist could only dream they could be so freaked out to be. Together. I wonder if Joe Walsh will try and ask to see some pictures so he can figure out if he should hit on one of their daughters in case this "Congress shit" doesn't pan out. (Options!)
Don't worry about Chuck Todd, Mark Halperin, or Luke Russert bringing you down. Don't worry about the latest polls, whatever they say. Keep digging. The GOP's best days only happened because our guy had a bad day, and you have to wonder if that high point would have been muted if we'd all collectively kept our shit a lot better. (And that is about as close to non-Centrist Punching as this Dirty Fucking Hippy will probably ever give you.) Now that Obama-Biden has gone from 0-1 to being up 2-1 in clear debate victories I see more signs that the GOP can be beat. Nothing is in the bag, but a whole lot of things have gone wrong for the guys with every advantage. Obama, 53-55 Democratic Senators, and a huge narrowing of the House gap. It's right there if we don't let them get in our heads.
If you see a diary trying to get you freaking out, skip the motherfucker. Useless.
If somebody is trying to get you off point, off kilter, off your game, ignore them.
Nothing is more important that winning, and getting everybody you can to the polls.
There's a real 'grasping at straws' flavor to Movement Conservatism's dark playbook these days. If the current GOP was a Mob hitman, you'd have to be afraid if you'd hired him that he'd leave a hair sample and a fingerprint-laden confession with his address on it right on top of the body.
Joe Walsh and Charles and David Koch are spouting the same talking points.
What's next? Richard Mellon Scaife and Orly Taitz making joint appearances?
From Hack RW Apologists for RW Professional Liars unable to even muster up the bare minimum facade of a game face required to sell that Willard won a fight he clearly lost. To the RomneyBot feeling he had no choice but to pick talking P-90X sixpack Small Ryan. The lame GOP convention in Tampa, ordering wingnut governors to stop crowing about good news at the state level because 'we are doomed' is the top ticket meme, creating rigged replacement pols to pushback on bad polling news, Whining about the refs, early and often, at the slightest setback, and saying that anything that helps Obama is damning evidence of a massive lefty conspiracies. Reporters. Pollsters. Government Agencies. Voters. Everyone's ripe to be in on the latest "Libspiracy" to explain FauxFreeper '12 not being able to bullshit his way into NextReagan.
I continue to strongly believe that the Movement Conservative political juggernaut is starting to run into some unmistakable signs of serious trouble because of how ruffled they're all behaving.
Demographics are making them dinosaurs, like the ones their flat-Earther base either doesn't think ever existed, or were really fallen angel demon bones, or were ridden by Jesus into Galilee.
Even their one win was stepped on by no post-win rally and a quick return to Conspiracy Theory Loserball. Ryan got TKOed by Biden. Romney lost the second debate, so now the Right is pathetically grousing about how the rules, or the questions, or the format, or even how moderator was to blame. Dopey Darrell Issa probably got a buch of people killed this Friday by document dumping the names of local people working with the US in Libya in his zeal to pathetically try to re-gin up an Obama Libya scandal. Idiots. They have a huge problem that they don't understand, that they don't have an answer for, and even if they did understand it, they are so busy doubling down on what has worked in the past and whining louder and louder they are getting innocent people hurt.
How do we know that the Right is really worried about 2012, and the future?
Wingnut hacks are comparing criticizing rich people to racism, wingnut office-holders are outing undercover foreign nationals working with US intelligence and the military, and the lot of them are grasping at straws because the strawmen versions of the Democrats they had been planning on taking down didn't show up to be stuck down like carnival shooting gallery ducks. So they look weak, act like fake tough guys, and when it's all weaksauce they go double down.
Like being reduced to the bottom-feeding tactic of crackling the knuckles of their soft as a newborn baby's ass hands and subtly (and not-so-subtly) threatening people's jobs, their ability of their families to get by, hell, even their ability to buy shitty-ass cardboard chain pizza for the same shitty-ass cardboard chain pizza price, which is already way more than it's really worth. If they "vote the wrong way". Like in their own best interests. Mr. Burns as Rocco the Legbreaker.
It'd be a shame if something... bad were to... y'know happen to you or your family.
Look at the signs. They are everywhere and the Right's glib answers to them are not.
We have absolutely nothing to fear except regretting not leaving it all out on the field.