The BIG Picture? The real one? I got it. Right here.
Booman’s latest post?
The Republicans of Louisiana just nominated David Vitter to be their U.S. Senator for another six years. He got 88% of the vote. How’s that for family values? Cheat on your wife and have a prostitute dress you up in a diaper, and the social conservatives give you 88% of their votes.
—snip—
Also, in Louisiana’s Third District, it appears that another teabagger beat the GOP Establishment’s chosen candidate. Teabagger
—snip—
So, the insanity continues with no break in sight.
I am going to say it again.
The Teabagger reaction to the ongoing failure of this government to put America on a good, solid societal and financial footing…for going on half a century, really…is not “insanity”, and using words like that to describe it is counterproductive and dangerous. Demonizing the Tea Partiers is as stupid as their own demonizing of the center and left.
Let us take General Motors as an example of the failure of the entire system.
Fact is, the last decade in which GM made the best cars in the world was the 1960s.
From then on it has been straight downhill. Now you might make the argument that the company has recovered its balance to some degree in the last several years and is once again making competitive automobiles…I wouldn’t argue too much with that idea, myself…but it has been a long time since 1970.
A long time.
Been down so long it looks like up to me, as Richard Manuel so presciently wrote.
As above, so below.
In both directions.
Read on.
The entire industrial infrastructure of the country has collapsed. Instead of making things, we now basically buy things that other countries make. That is simply foolish, and it did not have to happen.
The government failed us. All government, all parties. Left, right and center. From righty Reagan to lefty Obama. (I know…he’s only had two years. Well…he ain’t gonna get much more than that if November topples the House majority. From then on he’ll be Jimmy Carter II. Watch. He may as well just pack it in and start writing his book, `cuz he ain’t gonna get much else done if that happens.)
As the money flowed out of the country, the day-to-day infrastructure also collapsed. Bridges, roads, railroads, airports, mass transit…they are broken, Booman. Broken, with neither the money nor apparently the will to fix them. For example, it was simpler, cheaper and quicker in 1963 to travel from Ithaca, NY to NYC than it is today. Cheaper in terms of real money, leaving out inflation. You simply paid a flat fee and got on a bus or climbed into a car and drove. It cost relative pennies to do so. I used to do it all the time as a semi-broke college student with no financial stress whatsoever. Traffic was almost never a problem except for an occasional accident, and those kinds of traffic jams never lasted much more than a half hour.
Today?
Fuggedaboudit.
I have traveled to Ithaca several times recently, both by bus and in a car. The bus can cost upwards of $50 unless you really dig into the system to find a few well-hidden bargains, and by bus or car any time from early morning until around 10 PM the chances of getting stuck in an hour plus traffic jam or two are very good. Hell, about 6 hours a day just crossing the Tappan Zee bridge can be a traffic nightmare, and compared to taking the George Washington Bridge or venturing into the Jersey Turnpike/Lincoln Tunnel mess the Tappan Zee is the best bet.
Now a case can be made that all of this stems from the failure of the United States to either successfully win its Blood For Oil Wars or back up offa the petroleum feed trough and get its own energy system working well. I wouldn’t argue with that, either.
But I have no doubt that most of the people who are populating the Tea Party rallies are not aware of much past the plain fact that their lives are becoming increasingly more difficult in almost every way. More work for less (real, usable) money, more money for less goods, more effort for less results…the works.
However… they’re not insane.
They are just not particularly smart. They live on the middle of the IQ curve, most of them.
You know…like the majority of people? By definition of the word “middle?”
Their lives suck and they don’t understand what happened.
Plus…they are in a media-induced hypnotrance. Been in one, most of them. since they were about 2 years old.
From Cheerios and Pop Tarts to AstraZeneca and Capitol One in 40 or 50 or 60 short years.
Buy it, eat it, take it. You’ll look better and you’ll get laid more.
Only…it ain’t working.
And they are getting mad.
They are not insane.
Just misled. And fast asleep as well. A sleep induced by their leaders. Quite consciously. Bet on it.
Now…are their leaders “insane?”
Some of them, maybe.
The front men/front women.
Some of them.
But the real movers and shakers?
Like the Koch brothers?
Not many.
Unless you consider the word “insanity” to include having little or no real regard for the ongoing welfare of your fellow humans…another argument with which I would have little trouble agreeing…then the answer is no. They are not insane. They are simply out to dominate by any means necessary in order to profit themselves.
Short-sighted?
I suppose, although the history of mankind seems to give that general act a passing grade in terms of survival. They have been with us for millenia, these kinds of users, so maybe they are not so short-sighted as we may think.
They have won more than they have lost.
So far.
Have conditions changed since the nuclear revolution altered warfare to include the distinct possibility of human extinction and the ongoing ecological breakdown changed the way that we must think about how we use the earth? Will the “short-sightedness” of these users end human history?
Yes, I believe that this is the crux of all of our problems.
The old ways…the ways of princes and oligarchs, kings and warlords…will not work much longer.
I was once caught in a massive traffic jam in the NYC->DC corridor. Before GPS, before cell phones. After about half an hour of standstill, I got out and started talking with the trucker next to me. He had a CB and I asked him if he knew what was happening to cause this traffic. He laconically replied “Too many cars, not enough road.”
Yup.
Too many people, not enough earth if we’re not very, very careful.
Sooner rather than later, I am afraid.
So here we are, Booman and friends.
We have maybe a year or so to stem this rightward tide. After that?
Hmmmm…President Sarah?
Vice President/Cheney-like controller Newt?
A distinct possibility.
UH oh!!!
Get out the survival gear, Madge, we’re headed for the bottom!!!
So what do we do?
We insult these people.
Call them insane.
They are not insane.
They are just “normal.”
On the simplest and most basic of level of a democracy it is the majority of voters define who runs the government. That’s how it works. Mostly.
“Normal” is the majority.
By simple definition, once again.
Are there more of them than there are of us?
Bet on it, Boo.
Bet on it.
Gotta reach them, Booman. Reach them with the truth of the matter. They are being used, and the way that they are being used is dangerous both to their own survival and to the survival of the human race as a whole. We need to counter their programming. Not call them names.
Just sayin’…
They’re people, Booman.
Treat them like people.
Or…they are gonna kick some ass.
Watch.
