Politics Plus

The question I hear most as I go about my day to day work of bringing news to people, that is admittedly and proudly biased, but also factually honest, is: “How can anyone in their right mind vote for a Republican?”  It’s a good question, given that Republicans govern exclusively for the benefit of millionaires, billionaires, and corporate criminals, and do NOT represent you.  The best answer I can give is that Republicans live in a completely different reality.  For the record, I am not a fan of David Frum, a rather extreme Bushavik, and oppose his views on almost every subject.  But when an opponent gets something right,. integrity demands that I give credit where credit is due, and on this subject, Frum is spot on.

Conservative columnist David Frum, who was speechwriter for former President George W. Bush, blasted Fox News on Sunday for creating an "alternative knowledge system."

In an article published by New York Magazine in late November, Frum had argued that conservative media like Fox News and talk radio "immerse their audience in a total environment of pseudo-facts and pretend information."

In an appearance on CNN Sunday, Frum cited claims made on Fox News that President Barack Obama was proposing a "new Christmas tree tax," something that was found by both The Florida Times-Union and PolitiFact Oregon to be not true… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here’s the video:

Note that Howard Kurtz actually fought to defend the Republican Ministry of propaganda from Frum’s analysis, showing CNN’s Republican bias, albeit less extreme than Faux Noise.

Keith Olbermann reinforced the truth of this in the first segment of last night’s Worst Persons.

So there it is.  People vote Republican, because they have fallen for the hype that their misinformation sources are not only trustworthy, but also the only trustworthy sources of news.  Therefore, their view of the world is completely disconnected from reality.

If you miss Bill Moyers’ show on PBS, you’re not alone.  He was one of the few commentators that was honest, unbiased, and not afraid to expose propaganda for what it is, putting Republicans at a disadvantage.  The following excerpt comes from Bill’s forward to Corporations Are Not People: Why They Have More Rights Than You Do and What You Can Do About It,  a new book by Jeffrey Clements.

Rarely have so few imposed such damage on so many. When five conservative members of the Supreme Court handed for-profit corporations the right to secretly flood political campaigns with tidal waves of cash on the eve of an election, they moved America closer to outright plutocracy, where political power derived from wealth is devoted to the protection of wealth. It is now official: Just as they have adorned our athletic stadiums and multiple places of public assembly with their logos, corporations can officially put their brand on the government of the United States as well as the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the fifty states. 

The decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission giving “artificial entities” the same rights of “free speech” as living, breathing human beings will likely prove as infamous as the Dred Scott ruling of 1857 that opened the unsettled territories of the United States to slavery whether future inhabitants wanted it or not. It took a civil war and another hundred years of enforced segregation and deprivation before the effects of that ruling were finally exorcised from our laws. God spare us civil strife over the pernicious consequences of Citizens United, but unless citizens stand their ground, America will divide even more swiftly into winners and losers with little pity for the latter. Citizens United is but the latest battle in the class war waged for thirty years from the top down by the corporate and political right. Instead of creating a fair and level playing field for all, government would become the agent of the powerful and privileged. Public institutions, laws, and regulations, as well as the ideas, norms, and beliefs that aimed to protect the common good and helped create America’s iconic middle class, would become increasingly vulnerable. The Nobel Laureate economist Robert Solow succinctly summed up the results: “The redistribution of wealth in favor of the wealthy and of power in favor of the powerful.” In the wake of Citizens United, popular resistance is all that can prevent the richest economic interests in the country from buying the democratic process lock, stock, and barrel.

America has a long record of conflict with corporations. Wealth acquired under capitalism is in and of itself no enemy to democracy, but wealth armed with political power — power to choke off opportunities for others to rise, power to subvert public purposes and deny public needs — is a proven danger to the “general welfare” proclaimed in the Preamble to the Constitution as one of the justifications for America’s existence.

In its founding era, Alexander Hamilton created a financial system for our infant republic that mixed subsidies, tariffs, and a central bank to establish a viable economy and sound public credit. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson warned Americans to beware of the political ambitions of that system’s managerial class. Madison feared that the “spirit of speculation” would lead to “a government operating by corrupt influence, substituting the motive of private interest in place of public duty.” Jefferson hoped that “we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and [to] bid defiance to the laws of our country.” Radical ideas? Class warfare? The voters didn’t think so. In 1800, they made Jefferson the third president and then reelected him, and in 1808 they put Madison in the White House for the next eight years… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <AlterNet>

Moyers continues to develop this into a compelling demonstration of the injustice of corporate personhood.  I strongly encourage you to click through to read the rest.

The thing that struck me most is the similarities of Madison and Jefferson to the modern day occupy movement, demonstrating that the occupy movement is more foundational than radical.

Corporations are NOT people!  Money is NOT speech!

Republicans want to raise YOUR taxes.  They have played almost every dirty trick in the book to block extending the payroll tax extension for working Americans, while fighting tooth and nail for tax cuts for the 1% and criminal corporations.  It is co obvious that Republicans are in thrall to the Koch brothers and their ilk that even the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, aka Fox, asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to explain it!

The number two Senate Republican, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl (R), last week decried attempts by Senate Democrats and President Obama to pay for a payroll tax cut extension with a surtax on millionaires. Despite the fact that payroll tax cut extension would keep an extra $1,000 in the pockets of the average American family, and despite the fact that the millionaire surtax would hit relatively few households, Kyl said he could only support extending the tax cut for working Americans if it was accompanied by massive tax cuts for the wealthy.

This morning on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) what he made of characterizations of the GOP as the party that defends millionaires, given that more than half of McConnell’s caucus has repeatedly voted against a tax cut for the middle class. McConnell laughed at the assertion before saying the GOP is “not here to defend high-income people.” As proof, McConnell told Wallace that the Republican plan took such drastic steps as to prevent millionaires from receiving unemployment benefits or food stamps…

 

…McConnell’s assertions seem belied by the facts. Though he insists the payroll tax cut extension will pass, it was the GOP that opposed paying for it through a small surtax on the wealthiest Americans. It was the GOP that opposed any move to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in efforts to reduce the deficit — leading to the first credit downgrade in American history and ultimately dooming the super committee. It was his party that nearly shutdown the government in April over the same issue — even though the wealthiest Americans are paying historically low tax rates.

And while McConnell claims the GOP plan “goes after” millionaires “on the benefits side,” it “goes after” low- and middle-income Americans “on the benefits side” even harder… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

How absurd.  Bought Bitch Mitch should explain just how many of the top 1% collect unemployment or receive food stamps.  That is the hardship that he claims proves Republicans aren’t defending high end people.  I’ll have a load of that for the front lawn!