ARI EZRA WALDMAN posted on Towleroad a blog post suggesting that a small amount of progress is being made in the Republican party as they appear to be taking their anti-gay rhetoric underground. I responded in the comments that I almost wish the Republican party would hang on to it's overt anti-gay strategy...it was just starting to work to our advantage. But yes, the shift is now towards anti-union as the new state by state strategy (which is really an anti-education message in the sheep's clothing of an anti-tax message). Imagine the US of A as a third world country with really nice resort locations for the rich and powerful. The working poor in what will become affordable domestic corporate factories and the very rich living their golden years basking in the sun on resorts that no one else can afford to use. That is what the corporate loving politicians want. Because they will be the last ones in the US of A with pensions and free healthcare (THEY would never vote against their own best interests). So they, too, will bask in the sun on resorts with the very rich in their waning years. These politicians have tied their personal interests so tightly to the corporate purse strings that even I am left wondering if most of those on the Democratic side of the aisle aren't also so similarly tied. I do believe some of our elected officials start out with the good of the people in mind...at least the non-republican sorts. But the seduction of money and power leads to political blindness and ultimately corruption.
Now we have the right wing corporatists continuing their assault on the general public by systematically feeding them messages of how horrible not only taxes are, but how horrible unions are for demanding "high" pay and pensions for public sector workers, which then, of course, results in "high" taxes. It's a message that is becoming so well ingrained in the public psyche that people will literally vote against their own best interests because they are either too easily led astray or too lazy to do their own research. What are their own best interests? Well, a free quality public education so that their kids and grand kids can also find work and maintain a decent healthy standard of living and contribute to the standard of living of our FREE society. Not interested? How about having a well maintained system of streets and highways (don't let the chuck holes fool you, our roads need work but they are far superior to those in a third world country). Don't care about that either? How about when you're old and need assistance? No more social security or medicare, even though you've paid into them your entire working lifetime? Still don't care? Then, probably no one will care about you or your comfort in your last years on this earth. The privatizing of all of these and other "public services" will result in third world living conditions. There will be the HAVES and the HAVE NOTS. There will NOT be a middle class. This will happen because people are generally VERY short sighted (of course there are exceptions, duh, but not enough of a voting block). It's a known fact that people generally tend to focus on the here and now and have much difficulty thinking about or planning for the future. Having worked in finance for over 20 years, the most common issue I see is buy now on credit because I want it now and I don't have the ready cash. Even when put on a plan, people don't save easily, especially in the last 30 years. Couple that way of thinking with the indoctrination of "NO" or low taxes, which is so insidious, that the remaining members of the middle class are willing to vote against their long term best interests to "save" a few bucks now on taxes. They do this not knowing or somehow not believing that they're giving away their future security to line the pockets of corporate thieves.
So why do these money grubbing corporatists align themselves with the religious right wing nuts? Don't the churches minister to the people after all? Well religious institutions are the best way to get the biggest cache of resources, of course! Corporatists think in terms of resources and, in particular, how to exploit resources to line their own pockets. Religious institutions are a very, very, very large source of voters in a captive audience. For one thing, they congregate weekly to hear messages (purportedly from God, but that's another rant for another day). Why not plant a message of corporate interest in the minds of so many voters all at once. Just start giving donations to churches, etc. and tell them how much you agree with their "holier than thou" messages and while scratching their backs plant the message of how many more sheep will flock to them if they scratch the corporates' backs. And so the unholy alliance of money grubbing corporatists and religious wing nuts was born. Then when the younger generation grew up and began to question the validity of anti-gay stances, the corporatists moved on to their main agenda. Anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-women, etc. messages were just the BAIT to hook a huge voting block. The main goal is and always has been accumulation of money and thus power. The religious right wing nuts are just a means to an end. It's the corporatists and their politician puppets that will attempt to undermine society as we know it, knew it, and hoped it would become. My hope is that the general public will get their collective heads out of the sand and come together to say no to being brainwashed by these messages. Pay attention to the history of mankind. It's always been about power (money being the symbol). Those who threaten the power base are the enemy...especially if they are "different" than those who see themselves as the ones in power. In the US of A, being a person of color, a woman, a homosexual, a financially poor person, an old person, a disabled person, a person of not the predominant faith (or similar in faith)etc. is a threat to the power base if allowed to combine their numbers. So divide and conquer. Pit one against the other and ALWAYS keep your eye on the power (i.e. the money).
