Friday, October 29, 2010
THE DUMB HAD BETTER BE TOUGH
Just a few days ago, I received a cartoon via e-mail from my son. It pictured a scruffy-looking, tea party type hunter in a sweat shirt holding a dead bear cub high in one hand and mugging for the camera. In the background coming over the stack of logs behind this hunter was an adult grizzly bear. The caption read, “If you’re gonna be dumb, you’d better be tough.”
Although this was not intended to be a political cartoon, and the hunter was not really supposed to be representative of the unruly tea party crowd, it was so much on target that one could not help forging an analogy.
In particular, that hunter who thinks he has a trophy worth photographing so represents this year’s crop of ignorant voters who are so confident that they have a winning strategy and winning candidates everywhere. These candidates, supposedly representative of the regular guy, even if backed by corporate and billionaire money, are supposed to “take our government back” for those tea party folk. And, they have some of the craziest, screwball, nut cases for candidates one could imagine.
In any other year these candidate heroes, as well as those parading celebrities of the tea party, would simply be laughed out of town. But not this year. We wonder why?
Probably Mr. Obama’s biggest problem with many of those folk is that he is black. A second problem is that he is a democrat. Third, he is progressive and he wants to change the way the country has been run to benefit business, banks, and corporations, and make it more responsive to the people. All these combine to incite big money from the business types who have had free rein in the country for the last eight years, and entirely too much influence for the last fifty years.
With the sinking of the economy and job market, in spite of valiant efforts of the president and his party to save these, there has been enough general dissatisfaction to make a large segment of the public vulnerable to seductive slogans vilifying the president and tolerant of vicious words pillorying him and his good efforts. There was a right wing fringe rabble ready to take advantage of those feeling the economic pinch, but who have failed to reason well about the cause.
All this right wing rabble needed was a few good slogans, the financing from a few billionaires, and the coordinative work of some political pros from the republican party to bring this “grass-roots” movement into the limelight. Aided by the right wing radio talk shows and Fox News channel the group had much more publicity than it deserved. Mainstream media always apishly pick up on anything that is different and attracts attention in some controversial way.
So, there we have it. The rabble turns into a faux populist movement and the ignorant and the gullible jump onto the bandwagon.
Some of us recall the movements of the sixties and the seventies of the last century. “Don’t trust anyone over 30,” was the cry. Obviously, that excluded anyone with any experience at all with anything.
The cry of this movement has been, “Don’t trust any career politician!” Don’t trust intellectuals!” Those include people with college degrees, in research and analysis, or with expertise of accumulated knowledge in various areas of endeavor. “Don’t trust the elite!” “Put the man-on-the-street in charge!” “It’s time they listened to us, we’ll tell them!” “I’m just like you, vote for me!”
And, sure enough, we have a bunch of candidates wearing the republican label who just fell out of the political tree and onto the turnip wagon. Some of these are as nutty as fruitcakes, and know just about as much about governing as George Bush’s White House mutt. These people, along with the entourage of negative republicans who just can’t say “Yes,” possibly may make up a ruling and obstructive coalition of congresspersons and senators in the new Congress.
What a fiasco that would be!
This writer once had a philosophy professor at O.S.U. who boldly declared, “I am not a believer that from pooled ignorance springs forth knowledge.” Neither am I, Professor Scherich.
The voters would do well to look for the brightest, best educated, most knowledgeable, and most experienced candidates among us who believe in government for the people versus government for special interests and corporations, and who are best qualified to lead good government for this nation.
We should not be looking for candidates whose crowd of supporters carry the American flag upside down, who put racial slurs on their signs, who speak of “second-amendment solutions” against our democratically elected government, who dredge up and misapply evil names like “Nazi” or “Hitler,” who vow to wreck our security systems and safety nets, and who don’t know a government run health program (Medicare) from health insurance company regulation (recent health bill).
If you vote to put ignorance in charge and cast out knowledge and experience, then beware of the consequences. Let the corporations and the billionaires buy this election with paid propaganda and you pervert your vote.
But if you are going to be dumb, you had better be tough. And, so had we all.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
Although this was not intended to be a political cartoon, and the hunter was not really supposed to be representative of the unruly tea party crowd, it was so much on target that one could not help forging an analogy.
In particular, that hunter who thinks he has a trophy worth photographing so represents this year’s crop of ignorant voters who are so confident that they have a winning strategy and winning candidates everywhere. These candidates, supposedly representative of the regular guy, even if backed by corporate and billionaire money, are supposed to “take our government back” for those tea party folk. And, they have some of the craziest, screwball, nut cases for candidates one could imagine.
In any other year these candidate heroes, as well as those parading celebrities of the tea party, would simply be laughed out of town. But not this year. We wonder why?
Probably Mr. Obama’s biggest problem with many of those folk is that he is black. A second problem is that he is a democrat. Third, he is progressive and he wants to change the way the country has been run to benefit business, banks, and corporations, and make it more responsive to the people. All these combine to incite big money from the business types who have had free rein in the country for the last eight years, and entirely too much influence for the last fifty years.
With the sinking of the economy and job market, in spite of valiant efforts of the president and his party to save these, there has been enough general dissatisfaction to make a large segment of the public vulnerable to seductive slogans vilifying the president and tolerant of vicious words pillorying him and his good efforts. There was a right wing fringe rabble ready to take advantage of those feeling the economic pinch, but who have failed to reason well about the cause.
All this right wing rabble needed was a few good slogans, the financing from a few billionaires, and the coordinative work of some political pros from the republican party to bring this “grass-roots” movement into the limelight. Aided by the right wing radio talk shows and Fox News channel the group had much more publicity than it deserved. Mainstream media always apishly pick up on anything that is different and attracts attention in some controversial way.
So, there we have it. The rabble turns into a faux populist movement and the ignorant and the gullible jump onto the bandwagon.
Some of us recall the movements of the sixties and the seventies of the last century. “Don’t trust anyone over 30,” was the cry. Obviously, that excluded anyone with any experience at all with anything.
The cry of this movement has been, “Don’t trust any career politician!” Don’t trust intellectuals!” Those include people with college degrees, in research and analysis, or with expertise of accumulated knowledge in various areas of endeavor. “Don’t trust the elite!” “Put the man-on-the-street in charge!” “It’s time they listened to us, we’ll tell them!” “I’m just like you, vote for me!”
And, sure enough, we have a bunch of candidates wearing the republican label who just fell out of the political tree and onto the turnip wagon. Some of these are as nutty as fruitcakes, and know just about as much about governing as George Bush’s White House mutt. These people, along with the entourage of negative republicans who just can’t say “Yes,” possibly may make up a ruling and obstructive coalition of congresspersons and senators in the new Congress.
What a fiasco that would be!
This writer once had a philosophy professor at O.S.U. who boldly declared, “I am not a believer that from pooled ignorance springs forth knowledge.” Neither am I, Professor Scherich.
The voters would do well to look for the brightest, best educated, most knowledgeable, and most experienced candidates among us who believe in government for the people versus government for special interests and corporations, and who are best qualified to lead good government for this nation.
We should not be looking for candidates whose crowd of supporters carry the American flag upside down, who put racial slurs on their signs, who speak of “second-amendment solutions” against our democratically elected government, who dredge up and misapply evil names like “Nazi” or “Hitler,” who vow to wreck our security systems and safety nets, and who don’t know a government run health program (Medicare) from health insurance company regulation (recent health bill).
If you vote to put ignorance in charge and cast out knowledge and experience, then beware of the consequences. Let the corporations and the billionaires buy this election with paid propaganda and you pervert your vote.
But if you are going to be dumb, you had better be tough. And, so had we all.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
