How in the hell did we get here? And more to the point: how do we get back out?

[kpete]

Fascist America III: Resistance For The Long Haul
Right-wing populism is riding so high among the middle and working classes right now that there's nothing progressives can say right now that they're likely to believe.
Monday, August 31, 2009

-- by Sara

August, die she must. The town hall freak show is winding down, the media circus is packing the cameras and satellite dishes and hairspray back into the vans, and Congress is soon heading back to the relative safety of DC. Yet, after all the fuss and bother, they're probably no more or less resolved to pass health care reform than they were back in June, when those first delirious fevers rose like clouds of infectious mosquito nymphs hatched from a thick, overheated carpet of soggy astroturf.

Let's hope they succeed at getting it done. But, win or lose, we're crazy to think that the goon squads formed and trained to instigate this summer's health care wars will pack it in just because the silly season is over. Those folks have tasted power, graduated from their introductory courses in Political Bullying 101, shared some camraderie and beer, and felt the heft of their own political muscle. That was fun. Now, what do we do next? Paralyze the school board over evolution in the textbooks? Intimidate the city council into shutting down the immigrants' services center -- or beat up some immigrants, so they'll just stop using it? Vandalize the cars and houses of known liberals? Get one of our own elected sheriff, so he can deputize the rest of us and make our posse official?

Nothin' but good times ahead. Now that they're organized up and had a little practice, the possibilities for further mayhem are limited only by the boundless paranoia and unfettered fantasies of the right-wing mind. Out at our local county fair this past weekend, the GOP booth was festooned with a wide array of buttons, tees, and bumper stickers proclaiming the owner's status as a "Proud Member of the Right-Wing Mob," and other similarly, um, assertively empowered sentiments. Judging from the general belligerence of the collection on offer, that seems to be the GOP's whole political identity now. They're determined to move boldly into 2010 as the party of America's union-, immigrant-, democracy-, and (if necessary) head-busting squadristi -- and they're damn proud of it all, you betcha.

* * *

How in the hell did we get here? And more to the point: how do we get back out?

The first question is depressingly easy. This is precisely where 40 years wandering in the right-wing moral, cultural, and economic wilderness has left us -- and, in fact, where it was always intended to lead us. A liberal democratic society is a complex system that's designed to be very resilient and self-correcting in the face of all kinds of extremism. But the health of that system -- especially its natural immunity to would-be attackers -- ultimately depends on just one factor. It cannot survive without people's ongoing confidence in a functioning political contract.

..........................


more insight (very good, mho, kp):
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2009/08/fascist-america-iii-resistance-for-long.html

[Buzz Clik]

1. I don't believe this is pervasive. Ordinary people see this as rank insanity.

[Bill219]

2. First step...

We need some form of the fairness doctrine back ASAP. It boggles the mind to think that you can outright lie on the radio and television airwaves and are not at all held accountable for it, but if a boob is flashed or someone says the "f" word all hell breaks loose.

Limit ownership of media so you do not have 1 large company owning almost all the stations.

Corporations need to be removed from owning the news altogether. There is too much conflict of interest and concern about profit.

[Jeep789]

4. So true! nt

[sinkingfeeling]

3. We're dealing with a minority of around 23%. We just need to pound the crap out of the

media and any public official that listens and caves to the demands of these crazies.