A CEO, a tea party member, and a union worker are all sitting at a table when ...

[pampango]

a plate with a dozen cookies arrives. Before anyone else can make a move, the CEO reaches out to rake in eleven of the cookies. When the other two look at him in surprise, the CEO locks eyes with the tea party member. "You better watch him," the executive says with a nod toward the union worker. "He wants a piece of your cookie."

It's funny for the same reason most good jokes are funny, because it contains a strong element of truth. This little game, pitting one group of working class voters against another, isn't just a trick, it's the trick.

The engine of this schism is always powered by the same forces: fear and envy. There's always someone out there to be the "other," someone whose cultural values don't line up with yours. Someone who is getting a better deal than you.

For America, the tea party movement is just an update of a very old script. You could see the same forces at work in 1843, as factionalism split the Whig Party and produced a third party movement.

What powered the movement? Most of the energy came from a source that's still highly potent today: demonization of immigrants. The leaders of the movement (which soon changed its name to the American Nativist Party and then just the American Party) warned that the uncontrolled wave of immigration was destroying what made America great. They were insular, odd, and dangerous; unwilling to adopt American customs and values. They were shiftless, without the productive and creative spark of Americans, but at the same time they were willing to work so cheaply that they threatened to steal jobs from American workers.

These immigrants were other. ... Despite these un-American tendencies, traitorous and corrupt politicians had been elected who were beholding to these immigrants. These America-hating politicians refused to pass tough federal laws to clamp down on immigration. They even argued that state and local laws limiting immigrant's rights were unconstitutional. They tolerated or encouraged their new philosophy. Some even embraced it. In response, the American Party platform mandated English as the official language and restricted the government from printing documents in other languages, it sharply limited immigration and raised the requirements for citizenship, and it limited all political offices (including school teachers) to native born Americans.

The wave of dangerous immigrants came from Ireland and Germany. The anti-American philosophy they propagated was Roman Catholicism.

Instead, those at the top have always found it easy to get people to champion their cause. There's always a group that feels wounded, angry and neglected. This group is susceptible to being told that they're better than some other group, that some other group is getting a better deal, that some other group deserves to be put in its place. It doesn't matter if that group is called Irish or Italian, Black or Hispanic, Union members or government workers. Anyone can be painted as a threat with enough hot air and yellow journalism. Anyone (can be the other).

In the heyday of the American Republican Party, members developed a not-so-secret phrase. Asked what they knew about party activities, they were taught to respond "I know nothing." Because of this, members of the group soon carried the name "Know-Nothings."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/06/953112/-Why-its-okay-to-hate-union-workers


The flood of Irish immigrants to the United States in the 1840s unleashed a strong backlash of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic feeling, and fueled the rise of the Nativist “know Nothing” political party. In this anti-Catholic cartoon, Pope Pius XI offers to take charge of America’s spiritual welfare and temporal estate, “so that you need not be troubled with the care of them in future; we will say your prayers and spend your money, while you live, and bury you in the Potters Field, when you die.” Standing under the American flag, Brother Jonathan tells him “you cant put 'the mark of the Beast' on Americans" as Young America, Bible in hand, says “we can take care of our own worldly affairs, and are determind to ‘Know nothing’ but this book, to guide us in spiritual things."

[Ian David]

1. ...

[guitar man]

2. Then the teabagger turns to the union guy

And says "hey, if we give the rich guy this last cookie, he'll knock some crumbs off the table for us.... no, he really will this time, he promised !"

;)

[baldguy]

3. Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.

[pampango]

4. Workers uniting is the logical strategy, but the right's portrayal of "us (good Americans)" vs.

"them (bad foreigners)" seems to be very effective.

On the left we have largely gotten over the "us vs. them" mentality when it comes to race, gender, and sexual orientation. We realize that we're all in this together and it does not good to pit minorities vs. whites, men vs. women, or gays vs. straights in a fight over the 12th doughnut. But when it comes to nationality all bets are off. We often don't seek unity with other nations' workers, but protection from them.

[socialist_n_TN]

5. This is not a new game.........

I've been reading and rereading some books and articles by and about Leon Trotsky lately. It's the first time I've actually delved into this since 1970 or so and I am AMAZED at how much what he writes about in his time (early 20th Century) is being played out today. In some case he describes things and reasons for thing thaat I could say word for word TODAY and everybody would recognize it.

Division is an old conspiracy to keep the capitalists on top. It's actually the ONLY way they can do it.