In March, 2010 Cesar Ulloa, a care-giver in an upscale, Calabasas (CA) nursing home, was accused by a co-worker of brutalizing several patients to the point of physical trauma, even death. Ulloa was seen leaping from a chest of drawers onto the chest of an elderly man. He had also been seen striking the head and face of a wheelchair-bound patient with the hands of another patient in an effort to promote a fistfight between the addled, helpless men.
On
In 1955, Martin Luther King, Jr. organized the
Over the decades, committed, non-violent resistance has proven to be an effective, even galvanizing tool in promoting social change, but one that has been repulsive to our political right wing. What we see in our political culture now is a right-wing movement, led by Republicans, to undermine a progressive, social trend in response to the “conservative” movement started by Ronald Reagan and brought to its excessive demise by George W. Bush.
It would appear that the overall strategy hashed out behind closed doors in the Republican National Committee is anything but “passive resistance”. Rather than “working within the system”, or presenting a viable alternate program, their strategy is to foment noisy, even violent discord (essentially anarchy) to the extent that operation of the government is not possible. In so doing, presumably, voters will come to realize that a Democratic administration is incapable of effective leadership. Propelled by what is essentially public extortion, we will return Republicans to power, though they appear to have no credible platform, nor candidates with education, character and history of national service, merely to stop their noisy rabble from disrupting our political process.
Republican strategy appears to be the same as that of our young friend, Cesar Ulloa: conduct and promote violence and discord. Through filibuster in the senate and a sustained program of lies, deceit and manipulation directed at their small group of angry, noisy supporters, Republicans have brought our political process to a stop. While Republicans compare our Democratic president to Adolf Hitler, their noisy, gullible rabble of demonstrators is being encouraged toward violent acts directed at government officials.
Rush (Limbaugh) speaks of “Democrats planning to kill you” (“death panels” (?)) and calls the White House “the enemy camp”. Darling Sarah (Palin) posted on her Facebook site a map of the United States showing a list of House Democrats who voted for healthcare reform, with gun-site crosshairs pointing at their districts, and the comment: “Don’t Retreat, Instead---RELOAD!” RNC Chairman, Michael Steele publicly wished for house majority leader, Nancy Pelosi to appear on the “firing line.”
When brought to task, these politicians do not retreat from their attack, or make any attempt to undermine the groundswell of violence and anger that they’re fomenting. Rather than disavowing it, Palin rationalizes her comment by calling it “just a figure of speech.” We wonder if she knows what that means. “Secular-Socialistic Regime”, now a partisan favorite catch-term, is also a figure of speech, carrying connotations far beyond those that might be carried by using the usual term, “The Obama Administration.”
These techniques: fomenting anger, hostility and violence, impel a boisterous, sometimes gun-toting rabble to pursue the Republican agenda. Assembling an apparatus to disrupt government process, intimidate politicians and silence opposition voices harkens back to the Sturmabteilung (S. A.) in Nazi Germany. These groups make up what are essentially our Republican storm troopers or “brown-shirts.” Yet their provocateurs point at the president and invoke Naziesque images of socialism and dictatorship to describe his policies.
Irony extends beyond that. Our Republican darling in
Influenced by the right-wing noise machine, 24% of Americans now consider themselves part of the “tea party’ movement. Two-thirds of Republicans believe our clearly-centrist president is a “socialist” (an obviously pejorative term that means what?), 57% believe he’s a Muslim (so?), and one forth believe him to be the “anti-Christ”. (Evil incarnate?) This is largely generated by irresponsible and harshly partisan misinformation that is being accepted by a shockingly high percentage of our unsophisticated public. When one party is successful in casting its opposition as “evil”, rational discourse is shut down. The “other side” cannot simply be mistaken; it must be evil, selfish, racist, unpatriotic, immoral, or just stupid.
It’s easy to conclude that the Republican Party has crossed the line between loyal opposition and reckless provocation. We might think that responsible politicians would label some recent excesses as deplorable. Rather, on the floor of the senate, after Ohio Democrat, Steve Driehaus called for civil discourse, his fellow Ohio senator, Republican John Boehner, said Driehaus could be a “dead man” if he voted for healthcare reform. This staggers the imagination, and harkens back to fist fights on the floor of the senate in the mid-19th century.
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that with the departure of George W. Bush in 2008, there were 149 “patriot” (or militia) groups. This number has ballooned to 512 in 2009 with hard times and an African-American president. These groups, along with the “tea partiers” are almost exclusively white. “Serious” threats to members of congress have tripled from 15 in the last 3 months of 2009 to 42 in the first 3 of 2010…this supposedly fueled by anger over a healthcare bill? We think rather not. It’s fueled by bilious lies misrepresenting the nature of the legislation and the Obama administration.
To find an historical parallel, we must go back to the ‘60s when radical, left-wing groups such as the Black Panthers and the
It’s difficult to fathom where the GOP thinks this strategy will carry them. At what point do rational, (true) patriots abandon the party, leaving it to its noisy, fringe element? In a recent development, former Republican poster-boy, Charlie Crist, governor of
But the alarming part of this scenario is that bolstered by the Supreme Court, the Republican Party may continue to dictate dialogue and policy even in the face of national rejection. See On the Supreme Court.
It is not, and has never been the design or intent of the editorial staff at Robbinsense to present a political screed, joining the cascade of partisan noise that dominates our national dialogue. We have made every effort to see issues from all angles. But the intensity of the political noise that’s consuming our political dialogue during what is perhaps our greatest crisis since WW II cries out for inspection.
“Politics of discord” is about the worst elements in our body politic, and it’s generated by a dysfunctional election system, driven by money. Of our two major parties, common knowledge tells us that both are guilty of the same elements of dysfunction. But to this observer, the Republican Party has taken the politics of discord to a level that threatens our nation.
Even after our financial melt-down, Republicans continue to sing the praises of the free market: lower taxes, shrink government and let the market guide us. When in power, however, rather than shrink government, both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush emasculated it and expanded it to a bloated mess. Market forces are not capable of guiding us upon a path of an equitable society. Market forces, like corporations are directed by people---rich, powerful people for whom five, fifty or even a hundred million dollars is inadequate. Free-market forces have turned these people into billionaires. Our enormous economy has been commandeered by the powerful to funnel money from the poor and middle class toward themselves. Inflation-adjusted wages for the middle and lower classes are significantly down since commencement of the Republican "conservative" movement in 1981, while accumulation of wealth among the prosperous classes has skyrocketed. There’s no end to the greed.
Our last three decades have been dominated by “conservative” government and guided by a drive toward deregulation by the likes of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Alan Greenspan. Even Bill Clinton to some extent participated in the deregulation mania. These policies have brought us to the brink of financial collapse and social disintegration. The heart of our democracy lies in the middle class. But as our disparity in wealth soars and our wealthy class amasses fortunes, our middle class is sinking into poverty.
The irony of our present situation is that the voice of this sinking, angry middle class has been commandeered by the Republican Party to do its bidding, even though it advocates continuation of all that is causing this mess and intends to do nothing to change course! The Republican right wing, along with its media stars (Rush, Bill, Ann, Glenn, Sarah, etc.) direct our national course with brilliant manipulation of ignorant people through the use of lies, smoke and “defining the agenda”. Such catch-phrases as “death taxes”, “liberal media”, “death panels”, “socialism”, and now “secular-socialist regime” capture the fancy of our great middle classes, which have been softened up and conditioned for manipulation by advertising gimmickry.
For the Republicans this is not about assembling good government; it’s about causing, then denouncing bad government. This party has made an art-form of manipulating misinformed people to elect them to office from which they unravel the very structure of government. It’s about getting elected---using our stupidity against us. It’s about power and the monetary rewards of holding office in a dysfunctional system.
Evidence abounds that the Democrats are largely guilty of the same abuse of this system, but their apparatus and focus is second-rate. We may tell ourselves smugly that the politics of discord doesn’t work---Republicans will self-destruct and fall from grace. But evidence shows otherwise. During the
The strategy to control the presidency is the same. Republicans justify a coordinated attack on President Obama by recalling the public ridicule and lament directed at George W. Bush during his eight-year tenure. But the chorus of criticism directed at President Bush was a spontaneous, grass-roots response to blatantly bad government and his embarrassing lack of grace. In contrast, Mr. Obama is an eloquent and dignified man…a centrist by any rational measure. The harsh criticism directed at Obama is not a spontaneous outcry from the people---it’s being orchestrated by the Republican Party. It’s come down to the appearance of undignified senators standing on the balcony of the capitol, waving their arms to fan the ardor of passionate protesters. (Even the Nazis refused to stoop this low. Neither Hitler’s lieutenants nor the SS had any public contact with the SA, led by Ernst Rohm. After Hitler assumed total power, he killed Rohm and disbanded the apparatus of the S. A.) Our protesters are not responding to Mr. Obama’s policy proposals or stupid remarks, they’re responding to the lies and distortions of brilliant demagoguery generated and repeated over and over from Republican Party apparatus.
It’s possible that Republicans will succeed in stymieing President Obama’s leadership to the extent that our country will wallow on for three more years. Mr. Obama seemed to have learned the lesson of his “bi-partisan effort” during the healthcare debate. We at Robbinsense suggest that he abandon gestures of bi-partisanship and move directly toward the change that we need with the resources that stand behind him. We hope that the American people will stand up and shoulder some of that load. Among other things, we must start a citizen movement to reverse “Citizens United” and get serious about campaign reform.
We still get chills when hearing Mr. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. But it appears that “…government of the people, by the people, for the people...” has perished from our land. Today we have government by Wall Street for the corporations and moneyed elite. Take a stand.
C. A.. Jones is a Robbinsense staff writer
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