Most Americans Against Spending Cuts to Social Programs

Pew Poll: Majority Sentiment Clear, "Leave Our Social Programs Alone!"

The Lowest Common Denominator

 I think it is fascinating that Joe the plumber, intellectual pea brain, was the keynote speaker at the tea party anti-union rally in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday.  What does that say about this group?  What is up with that anyway?  Why would a group of political activists pick such a pea brain for their inspiration?  Let’s think about that for a moment.  Well, it is the same group that picked a self-proclaimed witch who told three separate lies about colleges she went to; candidates who believe that Dearborn, Michigan is governed by Shari'a Law; that Mexican drug cartels were beheading people in the Arizona desert; and who, while criticizing an opponent for opposing the teaching of creationism in the schools, did not know that the establishment clause is in the constitution.  These are the same people who insist on carrying guns to presidential campaign rallies and into the local statehouses, just to prove they can.  These are the same people who, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, believe that the president was not born in this country.  This is the lowest common denominator approach to politics.  Instead of electing the best and brightest to solve our nation’s problems and steer us into the future, tea partiers gravitate toward the least experienced, least intelligent, least educated, least talented candidate.  They are impressed by the candidate's ordinariness and average to below average abilities.  It is important to tea partiers that they  would feel comfortable having a cup of coffee with their candidate and that they can identify with the candidate.  They want someone just like them.  Someone they can relate to.  

A Movement

Reuters reports that the 55,000 people attended the protest rally against the governor's attempt to destroy the public employee unions Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin and that of those 55,000 attendees, only 5000 were tea partiers, who were brought in on 10 buses to protest the protesters.  (Bussed in, hmmm . . . kind of reminds me of November 2000 Bush Gore election when protesters were being boarded onto buses in Atlanta, bound for Florida to intimidate election officials down there.)  On Friday, 30,000 people were present in Madison to protest the governor’s plan.  I recall all the media attention that the tea partiers received  in their early days when only 17, 25, 60, but never more than 100 people, would show up at tea party rallies.  Despite the small crowds, the media dubbed it a movement, and became so obsessed with it that their coverage actually created a movement.  Without the obsessive media coverage, none of those people would have bothered to attend those rallies.

So, why hasn’t the media declared this a revolution, revolt or populist uprising?

Why GOP Governors Want to Break the Unions

There is nothing altruistic about it.  Although Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker claims that the state is in crisis and needs the money it stands to gain from this action, he neglects to explain that the previous Democratic governor left office with a surplus in the state treasury.  In less than two months in office, Walker has burned through the surplus left by the previous governor.  He has also created a budget shortfall by giving out tax cuts to the wealthy.  Had he not given out those tax cuts, there would be no shortfall.  So, why is he is blaming public employees unions for the budget shortfall?  Because the Democrats out raised the Republicans in 2006 and 2008 campaign contributions and the big three public employee unions were the biggest donor groups to the Democrats.  And the Democrats won those two years.  By eliminating public employees’ collective bargaining rights, you eliminate the unions or at the very least, the large amounts of money that they have available to donate to Democrats.  The GOP will continue to rake in obscene amounts of money in corporate donations.  Without the union money, the Democrats will not win.  That is why GOP governors Florida, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and are elbowing their way down this path. 

Time to Change the Channel

I find myself watching Fox news tonight.  I don't know why-it's on and I don't want to think about what else to watch.  First, there was Sean Hannity, followed by Greta Van Susteren, both engaging in fear mongering, suggesting over and over again that the Muslim Brotherhood is going to take control of Egypt and other countries in the middle east.  Now, Glenn Beck declares that the revolution in Egypt is a communist plot by Obama's friends . . . What kind of nuts do they have over there at Fox?! And why do the nuts even have a platform to perform on? 

Civility Movement May Be Lost on Right Wing

In the days that followed the Tuscon shootings, I  listened to the media talk about the ugly, violent rhetoric that has permeated the airwaves these last couple of years.  The thing that irked me about these discussions is that one of the republican panelists almost always said something to the effect of "Let's face it, both sides are guilty of this," a statement that with one exception, was accepted by the host at face value.  My response is "No, let's not face it, both sides are not guilty."   We can think of many dozens of examples of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and others not only spreading lies to incite the right wing, but also inviting  sedition, revolution and violence. The right wing has only cited one example to support their claim that democrats do it, too-Alan Grayson's speech on health care reform in which he explained the republican plan for health care.  There was nothing incendiary about that speech.  Democratic party politicians are always civil.  With the notable exception of Randi Rhodes, most liberal talk show hosts have, for the most part, been civilized in their discussions.  

Someone pointed me to a website, http://www.nolabels.org/, which is a group of moderate republicans and moderate democrats who want to support a more bi-partisan, civilized way of governing.  This sounds like a great idea if they can influence the right wing to stop their crazy talk and lies.  I joined this group, but with a mindful eye on the right wing and what they do to tone down their talk.  I have always believed that the democrats are too nice and not sufficiently assertive; and that the party has suffered for this.  I am not confident that the the right wing is going to be tamed by No Labels and other such groups.  I hope that I am wrong.