In honor of the planned Tea Party protests tomorrow, I decided to finally put down some observations. I find this situation is both tremendously horrifying, inane and just plain stupid.
We begin with the American “Left” and “Right.” These labels are misleading in themselves. When looking at the political strata of the world, Left and Right mean certain things.
- Right-wing, or Conservative, politics support social stratification, classism, tradition, nationalism, aristocracy and, often, monarchy. Generally supporting “free market capitalism.”
- Left-wing politics are in support of egalitarian society. They generally support equality under the law, labor laws, “fair market” and Keynesian economics.
- Ultra-Left is often used to refer to radical socialism, communism, and other far left movements.
In the United States, these terms have been mangled and abused. THERE ARE NO ULTRA-LEFT POLITICIANS IN THE UNITED STATES! That is just the way it is. McCarthyism pretty much destroyed any potential for far-left politics in America for at least a century. The American Right would likely not get on a podium and espouse views of aristocracy, monarchs and reinforcing social stratification. (In fact, Americans generally dislike monarchs, except the butterflies.) That said, there is no “Far Right” wing in American politics, either. I would contend, aside from claiming to support “free market” economics, there is NO Right in American politics. I also would venture to say most of those who claim to support the “free market” do it verbally while not truly believing that no economic interference is acceptable. Think about it. Do Republicans claim they want corporations to run unfettered? Do they want to destroy labor unions, fair trade agreements, fair wage laws? (Maybe they do personally, because they stand to profit, but that would be political suicide.)
So, what are we left with? We are left with center-left moderates who agree to disagree with each other and bicker about minutia. The American Left is no more Left than the Conservative Party in England. If the Obama Administration were true leftists, their actions would have been as follows:
- Instead of bailing out failing automotive companies, General Motors would have been seized by the government and turned into the American People’s Motors. Jobs would have been created to build automobiles. Government technology would have been used to perfect the vehicles. Honestly, with the technology the government has, I’m sure they can make a kick-ass car that would destroy German and Japanese cars in the open market, instead of these antiquated Studebakers the American car companies continue to create.
- Instead of bailing out the banks – the government would have seized the banks. Told them, “you can’t seem to manage this on your own and you fucked up things for the rest of us.” Made it THE Bank of America. Employed thousands of people. Guaranteed small business loans. Set its own interest rates. And given every citizen the opportunity to use their local, government bank/credit union without having to deal with predatory lenders.
- My final example, some people might take issue with, but I propose a true left government would settle the illegal immigration issue once and for all. In reality, who do the illegal immigrants benefit? Who benefits from the drug wars in Mexico? It’s the conservative elite. Middle class white people in Texas who live paycheck to paycheck don’t have an illegal immigrant nanny to watch and raise their children. They aren’t profiting from slave labor conditions that cannot be reported. Illegal immigrants are cheap labor that undermine unions and labor demands. It is the “Right” that wants the illegal immigration to continue, not the left.
So, what’s the point of all this? The point is that all this misinformation results in something that can be very volatile and dangerous – The Tea Party movement. This movement is so similar to the Brown Shirts in Germany that it is frightening. It is too simplistic to state that the Tea Party are simply racists. It is not overly simplistic to state they are reactionary.
Before I go any father, I want to state, I am in no way supporting any Nazi propaganda. These summaries of events are simplistic and in no way are meant to demean anyone.
The Sturmabteilung (Brown Shirts) existed before the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi movement. I do contend that the Tea Party movement is less like the Sturmabteilung and more like the general population, but I really do not know who is “in charge” with the TP movement. It seems to me like it is more then some spontaneous reaction to current situations. There are too many common threads of misinformation.
The Brown Shirts used different tactics than previously to control situations, breaking into smaller groups and infiltrating them to disrupt them. As Europe was feeling it’s Industrial growing pains in the turn of the 20th century, the fear of “Communists” to depose aristocracy was rampant. In the Weimar Republic, they had already seen the Marxists creating havoc in France, England, and so on… they found someone to assure them a bit of security from this chaos. (It should be noted that Germany was a feudal state at this point.) The Brown Shirts created havoc in the streets while shrewd politicians crafted dialogue on nationalist lines about “freedom” and “opportunity,” while really being the fascist movement. I think everyone besides Mahmoud Ahmadinejad knows what happened next.
Let’s examine the situation of Germany prior to the rise of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. They were in a situation of economic dire straits. The people of Germany were literally starving economically and they had just been crushed in a war. They were also forced into a world in which the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, with little means of production.
Now we have the United States, who has practically fallen into the economic well. People are losing their homes left and right. The US has been attacked and tragically injured by foreigners and continues to wage unending war. The United States is falling behind in the Technology Revolution.
And then comes the rallying cry! “It’s other people’s fault!” “They don’t look like us!” “Limited government and more freedom!” These are all the things the German people were screaming as the Nazi party enacted a campaign of fascism and brutality across Europe. The scary thing about it, is that Hitler was a nobody with no future, and his followers were few. Hitler was probably as respected as Sarah Palin at prior to his appointment as Chancellor of Germany.
So, my point is… The Tea Party is dangerous.
They are not dangerous because they oppose taxes and “big government.” They are dangerous because they encapsulate everything dark about America. These are people getting government stipend checks, complaining about the government giving people stipend checks. They are racist. They are ignorant. They are nationalistic. But its much more complex then just one of these things: they are the foot soldiers of fascism.
Let’s not be too mean, though. Sympathy and empathy are what makes us better. These people are scared. They have been left behind by the world. WWII was the height of industrial production for the United States. No one could produce more, faster, than the United States. Manufacturing jobs could be obtained without a higher education and could provide means to raise a family. Technology moved so fast, it became cheaper to manufacture in other places. (Again, this is overly simplistic) Education became a necessity in America and brown people became citizens. Now we have a brown skinned president and a phone that can react to touch. We can read editorials from a newspaper in Moscow or Beijing the same day it was published.
The world got smaller and the American fascist movement was born.
You know I never read this post before. It’s rather breathtaking actually. But without the benefit of ever having been confronted with facts before, you were just so how shall I put it… so leftist ‘fresh’, naive, and vile of course.
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It is a post in which you blatantly identified Tea Partiers as Nazis and racists just for good measure. I’m sure that somehow in your twisted logic that wasn’t even an ad hominem attack. Right? And it was hardly full of vitriol of course because, as you say, the right is just so much worse in that regard. Right?——————–
Then there’s the bit about a some mysterious unspecified ‘stipend’ the TP’ers receive. With 47% of potential earners now not paying taxes (and no concentration of TP’ers in that group) it’s kind of difficult to imagine what you might have been thinking back then. (Btw it is now officially 47 – not the 37 you bandied about in connection with a CNN story. We could bet… never mind)
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There’s just so much here in your ‘unleashed state’ that could be exposed for being an ignorant lie. But I suppose that it isn’t fair to call it a lie because you probably actually believed this stuff back then (just kidding, I know you still do).
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So I’ll just confine myself to a tiny ‘issue’. That one being the bit about immigration. Now is it possible that when the amnesty bill came up during the reign of Bush- maybe you remember- the one that McCain was all hot to trot for – is it possible that you were in hibernation?
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For if you weren’t in hibernation, notwithstanding the fact that yes, there were some ‘cheap labor’ repubbies, you would have had to have known that the bill was defeated only because the right in America, rose up with incredible fervor to defeat the overwhelmingly Democratic push for amnesty in congress. Yet here with unbelievable ‘freshness’ you asserted “It is the “Right” that wants the illegal immigration to continue, not the left.”
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Did you ever learn the truth subsequently? And now with Obama literally in campaign mode currying favor with Hispanics, arguing for illegal immigration (all the time knowing that an anti-illegal republican House is just laughing as he nakedly panders to Latinos)… well now did you recognize just how silly and ignorant your assertion was/is?
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Hopefully not. For it seems good that you are once again in political hibernation. Hopefully you are being industrious in the world, learning the value of a dollar, realizing that you don’t want it stolen from you to be given to the 47% who, in not meaningfully contributing to society, are undeserving of the franchise.
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Don’t give what I say a thought- for I know that you are too much of an ideologue to be affected by the reality of what you might be experiencing.
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Just wanted to say Hi (and have a bit of fun ).
This entry was written over a year ago. I really do not think it was very far off. I guess it is possible that the lack of clarity was of my own doing… I did not fully clarify ever time I mentioned “Left” if I meant American Left or true Left… so I concede that may have been confusing.
This was not an ad hominem attack against the Tea Party. I compared the Tea Party with the early Nazi Party and I gave supporting reasons as to why I made these claims. Most of them turned out to be pretty accurate.
I suggest a re-reading of the entry. The glorious apostle, Glenn Beck, named his last book after the theory that abuses the Argument of Moderation to shift political discourse in a farther direction. All I did was claim this was happening… and compared the Tea Party with the Far Right in Europe.
In this context, I stand by everything I wrote a year ago. A true Ultra Left Radical would look at immigration much differently. Illegal migrant labor undermines bargaining ability of Labour Movements. (For example: Ceasar Chavez was critical of illegal labor.)
I also assert that THERE IS NO FAR LEFT IN AMERICAN POLITICS. (Or, at least, that it is minimal.) What is the point of this? That you agree with me? It seems this way.
I’m not sure if you can hear my sign through the screen, but it was pretty loud. Why do I give a turd that President Obama is trying to pander to the Latino vote, first of all? Especially in an entry where I claim that Obama is moderate, at best… and that there is no powerful representation of the Left in American politics? It really just reinforces my claim that the American Left and Right are just two sides of the same coin.
A farther reality is that Latino American voters typically lean Republican, but the vitriol being used by Tea Party Republicans borders so far into racism that it is (and has been) pushing away Latin voters. Chicano Americans, for example, are typically Catholic, and support Pro-Life policies, as well as free market economic policies and limited government interference. But when they are faced with the possibility of having to “prove” their citizenship because of their skin colour or last name, it becomes much more complicated.
The claim that no one in the Tea Party receives government subsidized income is dishonest, at best. I can no more accept this claim without some serious evidence than I can accept that gravity is the result of Divine presence.
As far as people not paying taxes… an important part of that picture that is not mentioned is WHY they pay no taxes…maybe it is because of the disparities in income. To make claims that they contribute nothing to society is also dishonest, at best. Personally, I appreciate my plumber, my cable installer, the person who makes my sandwich, pizza, burrito, or falafel… many of these people make minimal wages. Just because someone is underemployed does not make them a burden on society, or mean they do not contribute. Without all of these “contributionless individuals” – how would 400 people have more than half of the rest of the nation?
I have been busy with other things, mostly. But I must admit, I am also becoming bored with the state of American politics. Every day seems to be more of the same… so, I have turned my attention to a few other areas.
As far as the value of a dollar… I am well aware:
As of 2011-05-18 08:05 UTC the value of the dollar is €0.70128 and £0.61639. Thankfully, I am not consumed with consumption of stuff, nor heavily invested in the value of the American Dollar.
The Value of the Dollar is also R6.92260 but I’m not too worried, as the cost of living is much more reasonable.
Personally, I am completely content with letting Americans have the political environment they ask for and seemingly deserve. I’m sure I am not the only one . . .
. . .even Freud left Austria.
I do have to backtrack a bit on this one, though:
I may have been a bit erroneous here. Maybe I just gave too much credit.
It seems that the New Right does want corporations to run unfettered with total domination of the American public. After Citizens United and subsequent rulings… it is really starting to look this way. And this was almost a year before the Wisconsin debacle… in which we saw that the New Right wants to decimate Labor Unions and Fair Wage Laws… and it was not political suicide. So I was wrong about that…
I guess there is a real Far Right in American politics… and that the GOP has become much more like the Tories than I had assumed. It seems that we are actually much closer to the glorious plutocracy than I had ever imagined… and that the state of American politics is much farther Right than I had assumed a year ago. So – I do admit when I’m wrong, no matter how sad it is that it is true.
“A farther reality is that Latino American voters typically lean Republican”
Aside from Cubans and on the issue of homosexuality this is an outright provable falsehood. Except in the most rare race, Latinos vote 60/40 in favor of the Democrat. It’s a shame for you that there is no way that you will allow yourself to be held accountable for your false statements. I say that it is a shame for you because you have no way of exiting your self created false world.
This was not a lie…and a great example of abusing context. I stated that Latino American voters “typically LEAN Republican.” I did not say they voted Republican. Nowhere did I state this… in fact, I stated the opposite. To claim that because Latinos vote in favor of Democrats that I am lying is erroneous.
When you look at many Latino cultures, you see many Conservative values… pro-Life, strong “family values” orientation, limited government, low taxation…and a strong belief that hard work and determination are (or should be) determining factors in success.
Just because the Chicano Movement and La Raza are the most vocal, does not mean they are the numerical majority.
I stated, in actuality, that the racist anti-immigrant rants of the New Right have isolated Latino voters.
Also, I am pretty sure most Cubans are not very supportive of American Conservative policies… but Cuban-Americans probably are highly supportive. Contrary to popular (American) belief, not all Cubans loathe their current state… (although, without Castro, there is a lot of conjecture on the direction Cuba is going to take.)
Can we keep the baseless accusations to a minimum? (It would have been more accurate to state that my claim is counterfactual, which I would concede.)
Adam Baum said “the opposite is true” meaning he told us that Latinos vote more Democratic than Republican. The weak evidence that he said something like this, is his statement that tea party Republicans are pushing away right leaning Latino voters. Now for that statement to have any truth in it, Latino voters would had to have favored Republicans previous to the Tea Party. That, of course, is patently false. Latinos have favored Democrats at least as far back as when LBJ initiated his many incentives to become a welfare recipient(50% of Hispanic households, the highest rate of any major population group,use some form of welfare). ———————-
Those facts also nullify Adam’s assertion that Latinos support free market economic policies and limited government interference.
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With respect to Cubans – he once again boldly expresses ignorance. Like the Vietnamese, Taiwanese, eastern European, as are all refugees from Communism, they are the only consistent Republican voting minorities in the U.S.. Unfortunately with each succeeding generation the minority grows more distant from the evil source, i.e. becomes brainwashed in the ‘education’ system, and its conservatism diminishes. It seems that only first hand contact with Communism can truly immunize the brain against the lies spoken here.
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Finally for today: I had said in a previous comment that there were no CONCENTRATIONS of Tea Partiers among those who pay no taxes. In Adam’s inimitable style of misstating what his political foes say, he writes “the claim that no one in the Tea Party receives government subsidized income is dishonest, at best”.
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Let it be recorded that Adam Baum seems to be incapable of distinguishing between the concepts of ‘no concentration’ and ‘no individual’.
Twisting words and implying intent that cannot be found serves what function? All I stated was that the xenophobic vitriol of the American Conservative Agenda isolates Latino voters. And I have repeatedly pointed out that the Tea Party has the most anti-migrant vitriol. The assertion that people who receive government assistance could not possibly support limited government is a fallacious leap… (And I do not even know where this “50% of Hispanic households, the highest rate of any major population group,use some form of welfare” statistic is pulled from or how true it is – for all I know it is true, but I’m not sure if the numbers for Medicare that go to Whites is lower, or not.)
Also: Two people is a concentration.
“Twisting words and implying intent that cannot be found serves what function?”
Perhaps you are referring to those who imply racism on the part of people who believe in more limited government than Marxists do? —————————–
What function you ask does it serve? Obviously – to make vile ad hominem attacks where none are deserved.
I have explained, ad nauseam, why I find racist implications in the New Right, Conservative and Tea Party movements. 99% of American politicians believe in a more limited government than most Marxists, but I have no indicated that racism is implied in all of their arguments. I have also pointed out that a large majority of the New Right are religious zealots, fascists and reactionary… and explained why I find this to be the case.
There are many Conservatives that promote limited government that I have not found to have racist arguments. (Granted, there are few in a nation that has racism entangled with the social and political structures.)
Also… as a point of fact… I am not twisting words when I make these claims. Many of the Lawrence Auster followers have been citing that same study as “proof” that Black People are detrimental to the longevity of White People… when the study only states that poverty is not the root cause.
I am still waiting on examples of how President Obama is a Radical Leftist, Marxist, Socialist, or is any thing Left of center… other than the fact he is not White and does not have an Anglo name. (“Obamacare” is no more evidence of this than Universal Health Care is proof that England, France, Canada, Germany or Spain are Communist.)