The state of "Conservative" Discourse in The Age of Reform

A post on Obsidian Wings sees poster Brett Bellmore regurgitating the usual fact-free hash of GOP contempt for the lower classes ($100,000/year & below, I'm guessing) reminds me too clearly of the gender wars of the Sixties and Seventies. I remember the phenomena of consciousness-raising and radicalization. I believe part of the disintegration of the GOP is due directly to the effects of their talking points on the non-wealthy & non-deranged in the audience.

What Bellmore, Malkin, Limbaugh, Cantor, ad nauseam are doing is creating an environment in which large parts of Nixon's "Silent Majority" are being radicalized (ie, disillusioned, politically activated) by the transparent service that the "conservatives" are providing to their lords and masters at such very great cost to what is sneeringly called "The Public".

The Wall Street bailout - entirely at the hands, you'll recall, of the Bush-Goldman-AIG cabal - has raised the national awareness of just how willing our "leaders" are to screw us out of everything in order to assure that the noble class in this country suffers not at all. Sensitized by such blatant indifference to ordinary people, ordinary people are catching on in droves to the reality that they are a commodity food-source, not really citizens any longer, but consumers who are themselves consumed in turn.

"Clever" remarks by Mr. Bellmore and his 'betters' fight this trend of awakening, but the ground they are losing is made plain in the erosion of their support among the voters. Nasty turns of phrase can only do so much in the face of a realization that only 10% of the nation actually approves of the 1% devouring the 99%.

Brett makes himself - and his "positions" - ridiculous by ignoring a reality that no-one can remain blind to.

"The Million-Mook March"

The Atlanta newspapers have posted a link to photos of yesterday's 'Million Mook March', which took place right under the jowls of the state capitol building:

http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/metro/atlanta/tea-party-protest/

The estimates I've heard so far suggest as many as 250,000 individuals took part in the "festivities" nation-wide. I don't know the source of this figure. If it is in fact from the shout-monkey right, then 100,000 or less would be more believable. (The audio of Neil Cavuto leaping from a private crowd estimate of 5000 to an on-stage estimate of 15,000 would have been more entertaining had it been less cynical)

My heart goes out to all those precious over-taxed babies who were able to take the time away from their offices and desks and employees and drive from all over the state to watch a bunch of cynical blowhards sell-out our national birthright in exchange for a pot of message...and pretty thin soup, at that.

I recognize a lot of these faces, in bulk if not in specific: I've known these people all my life, and they're just as nice as they can be. To your face. Mean as a snake otherwise, like as not. Little more than wealthy & well-connected suburbanites urging largesse for themselves, their companies and their investments at public expense. Look closely: this is a disappearing species - not true apex predators like the Rockefellers, DuPonts, Bushs, etc (most of these tarred as "liberal" for some unfathomable notion), but wanna-bes; individuals so wedded to their dreams of wealth that they'll defend their avatars (the flesh-and-blood rich) against reason, against logic, against fact, against history - against their own manifest self-interest, if it come to that.

And, just because I know my friends...I know there are some who will bash anyone and anything once the tar of "OMG TAXXES!!!1" has been applied. For them, a few words about taxes, qua taxes: Taxes pay for contract enforcement, fire departments, sewers and sewage treatment, food safety inspection, civil and military defense, forest rangers, 911, and the interstates. Take away taxes, you take away these things - and many thousands of other things that I would then have to figure out how to arrange for myself (food safety? sewage treatment? interstates?), contract for separately (contract enforcement? forest rangers?), or do without entirely (emergency services of every kind?).

There is a segment of the population that says let the private sector provide these things; however, the private sector has not exactly proven itself in the public-services/utilities department. When everything is a la carte, shoddy products, dishonest marketing, and all-the-traffic-will-bear pricing impose financial and safety burdens that are (I submit) far beyond the weight of the taxes we currently shoulder in this country.

It is the libertarian conundrum: how to provide the scale and quality and availability of infrastructure and services that modern society requires to function without passing the hat on the one hand (taxes) or getting in debt to a loan-shark (unregulated private business) on the other. This issue didn't bounce me out of being a libertarian, but it's certainly an uncomfortable thing for an honest libertarian to contemplate. Too bad these days, libertarian has come to mean 'knuckle-dragging, people-hating, money-loving, demagoguing fear-monger' (also known variously as "Mike the Savage Weiner", or "Crocodile-Tears Dundee").

A little too 'Ruby Ridge' to actually play well with others, if you know what I mean.

Mau-Mauing the flak generators, one stealth-zombie at a time!

I get pretty serious about my analysis & event prognostication.

So much so, I fear it's no longer appropriate for the less-serious, less-weighty context in which it began to erupt;  therefore I've decided to supply the growing magma chamber with its own pipe to the surface - a new volcano, from which to spew forth the things I don't want lost in the clutter of social blogging.

So:  secure your tray, put all loose items in the overhead bin, return  your seat-back to the upright position, make sure the belt fits snug across your hips, and be sure to keep your hands and feet *inside* the vehicle at all times...I may not be Margot Channing, but it *WILL* be a bumpy ride!