What I say here obviously doesn’t count for a hill of beans. Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, on the other hand, knows the nitty-gritty, down and dirty details of politics and naked capitalism sleeping together. So go read her Dave Johnson’s post at her blog November 24th post if you haven’t already. Here’s a taste:
Today’s Washington Post has punch two of a one-two punch. Punch one was the Simpson/Bowles “plan” to cut Social Security, cut middle-class tax breaks and programs (and dramatically cut taxes on the rich.) Punch two is pushing this plan hard with headlines claiming this solution is actually popular, while shutting out voices who explain why we shouldn’t do this. This is full-on Shock Doctrine, wait for an emergency like the terrible recession so people are in shock and want solutions, and then change everything so fast they can’t respond while telling them how this is good for them.
She then goes on to list all the polls that show that no, Americans by large majorities don’t want social security touched as part of a deficit solution. And then she explains why the media keeps pushing the cow manure lies that we actually love what we hate:
The public hates it but the elites are pushing ahead with their campaign anyway. If you remember the “run up” to the Iraq War, opposing voices were simply shut out of the discussion. All the “serious people” were explaining why we had no choice but to invade Iraq. And all the headlines were about the terrible threat that Iraq posed to our very existence. Seriously, it wasn’t just stories about how Iraq was going to drop a nuke on us any second now. Do you remember the smallpox scare?, where you couldn’t listen to the radio, read a newspaper or watch TV without hearing about all the terrible ways Iraq was going to attack us?
The Simpson/Bowles plan is part of a pre-arranged agenda to gut the middle class and further enrich the wealthy. The media machine is working to convince DC politicians that the public wants this done. They scare people with headlines about the terrifying things that will happen because of deficits. The only viewpoints you hear are the cutters and gutters. Those presenting the ideas the public favors — like the plan offered by Deficit Commission member Rep. Jan Schakowsky that cuts the deficit but actually strengthens Social Security — are not heard. And keep telling people how popular and necessary this is.
By the way, who appointed the Catfood Commission anyway?
