“A lie travels halfway around the earth, while the truth is putting its pants on.”
No, not Donald Trump’s big lie about the election being stolen. The lies put out by the right-wing media about democrats over the last thirty years. They have done a masterful job of character assassination of the democratic party worthy of Joseph Goebbels for Hilter in 1933. It started, arguably with Rush Limbaugh around 1975 or so, distorting the facts of political history, the character of prominent democrats, and the policies of the democratic party. Frequently telling out and out lies in an attempt to paint all democrats as inept socialists, equating them to Godless communists. Mud that has stuck to this day. Of course, Limbaugh wasn’t alone. His mantle was taken up by other right-wing talk shows such as Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Pat Buchannan and more recently, Steve Bannon, who almost single handedly got Trump elected. Following Hitler's playbook, “shout a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.” Bannon ranted nonsense to millions of gullible people anxious to be part of a “tribe.” A cult if you well much like James Jones, David Koresh or Charles Manson. The republicans and particularly, the right wing has brainwashed naïve people so well that many devout believers will probably drink the poisoned Kool aid if trump tells them too. Lies that have brought our democracy to the brink of disaster. One is reminded of the 1954 McCarthy hearings, in which Joseph Welch famously retorted, “Senator McCarthy, have you no sense of decency?”
When Barack Obama got elected president, a black man, the republican party went berserk and came up with a strategy to regain power. They would be as obstructionist as possible so nothing would get done in congress and blame it on the democrats. It proved to be a golden strategy. Organized by the Federalist Society and other ultra conservative groups, and funded by billionaires like the Koch brothers, they spoon fed lies about democratic policies to millions of uneducated and ill-informed people and finally elected a likeminded racist egomaniac for president. What are they teaching kids in high school these days? Certainly not political science, history, or economics. Or has somebody put stupid pills in the drinking water? Most historians agree, the right wing conservative mentality originated in the antebellum south. A mindset of plantation owners who had grown rich on the backs of slave labor, encouraged, and sponsored by the christen church, they had come to believe that their way of life was a God given right. They put on moral blinders and trumped up the logic that it was “states” rights to choose between slavery and capital ownership, not the federal government. A battle that still rages on to this day. The one tool they needed, and the most important to their success was unregulated, tariff free (laissez faire) capitalism. The cornerstone of the conservative platform. Slavery was made illegal in 1833, but it wasn’t until the north imposed tariffs on the southern plantations owners that incensed the south to do the unthinkable. Take up arms against the federal government. Virginia succeeded from the union and the rest is history. It’s remarkable how close the same idealism is today, dividing our country to a heated point that is dangerously close to ignition. One man did (and still does) hold the match. Donald Trump. Trump may be a clown, a conman, a narcissistic egomaniac but for some strange reason, a lot of elected republicans bow and kiss his ass. Believing in his lies, big and small. These are the people I worry about, not the proud boys, oath keepers or other likeminded groups, for if they actually take up arms and start killing in the streets, it will be a bloodbath…and not favorably on their side. MAGA republicans, it seems, have no limits to their lust for power. They are even willing to change state laws to game the electoral college system. In effect, stomping the last pretense out of our countries claim to be a democracy.
The republican party has in my lifetime (and I’m old enough to have voted for Adli Stevenson.) has always been the protectorate of the business class, while the Democratic party has traditionally been for the working man. Protecting workers’ rights, enabling labor unions and fair practices of wages, medical insurance, and workers’ rights, etc. The balance worked well up until Clinton got elected and went more centralist, leaving the party of FDR in the dust. The republicans had been chipping away at laws protecting workers rights for years, particularly the labor unions, and democrats for the most part in an attempt to placate the republicans rolled over and showed their belly. As a democratic strategy, whose bright idea was that? When Reagan won over a substantial percentage of democrats through his smoke and mirrors economic policies (Trinkle down economics, by Arthur Laffer) the damage was done. By giving tax breaks and financial loopholes to the rich, Regan economists believed the excess profits would “trickle” down to the middle/lower classes, thus creating a more equitable balance between the rich and poor. It was a noble sentiment, but it never worked. What the rich did with their newfound wealth was reinvest, not allow monies to twinkle down anywhere. It set the stage for the 2008 collapse. Which allowed Barrack Obama to get elected president. Obama bailed us out of that crisis, but the problem is and continues to be that ultra conservatives took over the reins of economic policy, and under trump put it on steroids. Laffer economics is destroying the middle class, creating the largest gap between the rich and poor in history. Annihilating the working poor, creating mass homelessness to rivel the poorest 3rd world countries, and raping the world of resources going to the largest corporations instead of to helping mankind. John Maynard Keynes himself warned the governments of the world (at the 1947 Bretton Woods consortium) of exactly the havoc corporations could cause if unchecked. The United States in its blind devotion to capitalism didn’t listen.
Now we are engaged in a civil war again, but perhaps it’s a misnomer to call it a civil war because it’s gone way past simple racism, although eliminating people of color out of significant roles in society is one of the right wings stated agendas. Call it fascism against democracy. Call it conservatives against liberals. Call it the wealthy against the poor, and lest you don’t know your history, I remind you of the Russian and French revolutions, both of which happened because of the disparity between the rich and the poor. In fact, every upraising in history has happened because of perceived unfairness in the governing system. Some were successful to some degree; most were crushed in bloodbaths not written about. History is written by the winners, and the winners were rarely the good guys. To all of you thinking, it can’t happen here. Get woke and pay attention. It IS happening here. As MAGA republicans takes control of the GOP, and erase whatever moral core the party once possessed, they are looking increasingly like 1920’s Germany. The GOP is following an age old strategy direct from Machiavelli and adopted by Hilter. Divide and conquer. In 1921-23 Hilter was ranting on soap boxes in town squares. Then came the beer hall putsch (brawl) in 1923 and he was arrested and sent to prison. There he wrote Mien Kamp (My Struggle) a blueprint for gaining power. He blamed all of Germany’s problems on the Jews. It was beside the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was the main culprit in Germanys problems, (because it put so much cost on reparations) Hilter saw the anger and pain around him and took advantage. By genius or just plain damn luck, he tapped into the people's anguish and created a nationalist movement unapparelled to this day. At least until Trump came along and copied his strategy of lying and showmanship. Trump knew that by inflaming the people with violet rhetoric, he could achieve two things. Bask in the attention of worshipers and loosen their pocketbooks. He knew hours after the election, he had lost, but he continued to push the lie to con fans out of money. Simple as that. There has been numerous witnesses in Trumps inner circle who can and did attest to that. One is reminded of Mark Twain's famous quote “No amount of evidence will ever convince an idiot.”
Along came The Tea Party around 2009, and they took the obstructionist strategy to the next level. Their way or the highway, and conservative republicans jumped on the band wagon. They put their ideology first over the good of the country, come hell or high water. Elected officials, supposedly intelligent educated men (and women) of good will and intentions writing and/or supporting bills to promote right wing causes. When did integrity and character stop mattering to people? The water is rising folks, and it’s now higher than any in my lifetime. The civil war taking place now is the MAGA republicans against the democrats, and they’re not taking prisoners. As Republicans glee over the suffering they are causing, they have created a chasm that cannot end well for anybody except the ultra-wealthy. They love it when “blood runs in the streets,” for that is when there is abundant financial opportunities. America is not yet a place where anyone can make it; The system doesn’t work for everyone; The ultra-wealthy have too much of a strangle hold on the design of our economy. But I for one don’t want to see it torn down and replaced by an ultra-conservative fascist dictatorship. Particularly with Trump at the helm. A power mad egocentric narcissist. A five year old in an adult body, who throws temper tantrums if he doesn’t get what he wants…and worse, destroys careers of everybody who oppose him. This Novembers midterms is shaping up to be one of the most important elections in modern history. A major battle in the civil war. Gettysburg at the ballot box, and the future of democracy in America is at stake.
Gerald Boltz
https://tinyurl.com/geraldboltz