The Neocon Republicans never learn. They simply do not get it and they will go down to huge defeat in the next election wondering what happened. They have virtual control of the media, especially radio and television. And yet they cannot get out of their own way because of who they are.
Bigotry is an isolated aspect of American character these days. Even those who joke about minorities often would take immediate action if they saw an injustice to a black person or some Mexican immigrant. We have simply come too far in educating a large percentage of the population to the fact that our common “religion,” our morality, involves being fair to each other.
That is why, as strange as it seems, we do indeed still have people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. These two despicable propagandists have made careers out of appealing to the average, or below-average white American male with messages that somehow they are the minority. Using lies and misrepresentations of fact, all these Right Wing commentators…sponsored by the largest and least sympathetic corporations in the country…pretend that they are concerned for the white American male.
For example, the poor beleaguered truck driver is told that his job is being ruined supposedly by Liberals who want Mexican drivers to take over long-hauling or won’t allow oil drilling in order to reduce gasoline prices, or encourage women to take over their jobs. They spin and spin and spin the facts until they are unrecognizable. They take one small piece of truth and surround it with layers of lies until it is impossible…because of their enormous financial support from corporations and lobbying groups…to counter with the truth. Their sponsors own all the largest media delivery systems for reaching out to the public.
Now, however, we have a counter balance. We have the Internet. And truth is flying everywhere. It is not as quick and as emotive as a rabble-rousing fathead like Limbaugh or a brainless fool like Hannity. Of course Hannity and Limbaugh don’t care. They make their literally tens of millions of dollars a year by simply spewing vicious propaganda to keep the people in their place. Meanwhile, their employers, the big corporate interests, grow richer and more powerful every year.
Of course, now that all the Neocon corporate policies from the Bush Right have led to what the Grover Norquists of the world want…a total breakdown of government…these radio and TV propagandists are paid to fight against any recovery. The reason, of course, is that the rich already have their money. Now the job is to keep the middle class from gaining ground and in fact to send them lower on the economic scale so that the spread between the rich and the poor grows… with no middle class…and automatically makes them richer.
By the way, even though this sounds simplistic and too calculated to be true, it is what has happened. The top one percent earn more, own more and the rest of us earn less and own less…not only since the Bush Administration, say the last ten years, but also over the last 30 years. Just remember that the average CEO now makes 400 times what the average worker makes. The Bush tax cuts cost the government over $3.5 trillion that it did not have in the first place. For people who received tax breaks of $43,000 for every million they earned, it was a big shift in their favor. For the average person whose Social Security fund was tapped, or whose Medicare resources were tapped, it is a loss, and in the long run–a probably disaster.
So why do we say that the Neocon politicians who created all this wealth for the rich digging their grave? Sounds like they are doing well. The fact is that so many people have been laid off and cut back and had incomes cut and retirements lost that the average family hears the same old story and it suddenly doesn’t sound the same. The shock of discovering that one day you can be well off and the next day on the street has made people do the one thing that they have so long resisted. Think.
Now the Neocon Republican message of simply resisting improvement in the economy, voting against any progressive policies, labeling as “Socialist” all the efforts to bail the middle class out of the huge mess the Bush Administration put us in–those Right Wing messages ring hollow to someone facing possible bankruptcy. The People have begun to THINK and they no longer support the rabble-rousers. They have begun to figure out that the “400-million-dollar man” –Limbaugh– is a phony and a liar…and is on the side of big corporations, big healthcare, big oil and the big financial groups. These are the special interests that the Bush Administration bailed out to the tune of $750 billion of our money, money that could have been used to help average American families.
Now comes Sotomayor. All the Neocon Right-Wing, big-corporate-lobbying shills, like Newt Gingrich are using this appointment to make more points with their corporate sponsors, who are quite happy with the current Bush-appointed court because it supports almost anything that helps big business. But while Newt may get rich by attacking Sotomayor, the People are beginning to understand his con game and really hate him the way they hate Cheney and the way they have turned away from Republican candidates at all levels.
People don’t ignore racist attacks any more. Not the majority of people. Hispanics are 26% or more of our population. The pride that they have–most of them extremely hard working middle and lower-middle class workers–in this appointment will not be dimmed by dimwitted comments from Fox News or Limbaugh or Gingrich. But on election day they will not forget this insult. And the Internet advocates for fairness will not let them forget.
This is a wonderful woman, a wonderful example of what America can be as a land of opportunity. She will be our next Supreme Court justice. Of that there is absolutely no doubt. All the current sound and fury from the Right signifies nothing. She will be interviewed, passed solidly out of committee and approved by an overwhelming number.
And so the Neocon Republicans in Congress have simply spent days and weeks dealing themselves another enormous political hit in the face, the full extent of which they will not feel until election day.