"Citizens" United and the US future...

[pieces o nine]

I've been watching the returns in Wisconsin [the recall initiative against evil Koch Brothers minion Governor Scott Walker(R)] and am appalled that with about a third of the votes counted, it looks like he is going to keep his office. I think this is deeply significant because Wisconsin entered the Union as stalwart anti-slavery. The conviction that a man (or woman) is worth his/her wages is part and parcel of the state's history; Republican Governor Robert La Follette proudly ran as a progressive, continuing the defining themes of worker's rights and a strong middle class, with some of those ideas inspiring national legislation. For a century the memory -- and legacy -- of  "Fightin' Bob" La Follette has been revered and protected on both sides of the aisle: that the very wealthy have always and will always be able to take care of themselves; that the law must protect working men and women. Revered and protected, that is, right up until obscene amounts of money began flooding the state's political and legislative systems to remake it into a far right poster child.

Cue Walker on little rat feet, talking the tea-bagger walk. After winning the election he took a hard, hard turn to the right to began systematically stripping union rights and demonizing public school teachers, nurses, and firefighters -- with enthusiastic, sleazy support from intellectual giants such as Rush Limbaugh. He's created a massive deficit which he keeps insisting is a massive surplus; he's another 100% anti-choice, abstinence-only, OK for pharmacists to not fill prescriptions they don't like, creationist. He's the only sitting governor with a publicly acknowledged criminal defense fund.  Here's his 'visionary' short list.

His extreme tactics have emboldened a series of new repub governors across the nation to enact similar extreme measures to disenfranchise significant sectors of legal voters and destroy unions, with the ultimate goal of eliminating the Democrats as a viable political party in the foreseeable future, leaving the worst impulses of uber conservative whims unchallenged. (Because Christian Europe in feudal Dark Ages was such a shining pinnacle of human achievement, I guess.) Back in the day I voted in Wisconsin elections by candidate's individual merits, with little concern for party affiliation. That has since become an impossibility for anyone, anywhere, of any political persuasion.

I am deeply, deeply concerned about this fall's presidential election -- and the projected outcome of the Wisconsin recall is doing nothing to allay that concern. Despite collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures above and beyond the total needed to initiate the recall process, the *real* citizens have apparently not been able to win the day against Citizens United and its hundreds of millions in pocket cash to purchase individual state elections, as authorized by SCOTUS. Tomorrow Walker and others of his ilk will redouble their efforts against the "99%", confident that money trumps democracy, here in the Greatest Nation in the World™.

* is stunned, appalled, and untaddily livid *       

[Griffin NoName]

I don't tend to follow US politics at the level you are addressing, but this sounds terrifying.

That's assuming you don't mean THIS Scott Walker, who I was nuts about as a teenager........ and especially this song

[youtube=425,350]0q6YWDm0GSU[/youtube]

Hope this seminal song cheers you up!!

It seems all the progress we have made through the second half of the 20th century is just being dumped overboard. It is hard to comprehend except in terms of greed, ignorance and bigotry.

[Aggie]

Although we have nothing of the extremes you suffer down south, I am horrified at watching Harper's Conservatives continue to strip the heart out of socialism up here, to pay for fighter jets we don't need*.

_{*with the US as a neighbour, the only country we need to fear military force from... is the US.}


My definition of successful government is improving (or at least maintaining) quality of life for as much of the population as possible.  We seem to be in an era that disregards such ideas completely, where the powers that be are quite happy to actively reduce the quality of life for their citizens.  For what?  To make the super-rich richer? 

[Roland Deschain]

That's a disgusting list of things for any politician, and comes as no surprise on top of what you wrote on his views. It never ceases to amaze me how the majority continually sit on their backsides and allow people like this to become an elite ruling class using the rest of us as their personal toilet. It all harks back to feudalism, which is exactly what the USA was formed to stop. The enlightened and educated were the ruling classes in the US back then, and although they weren't enlightened by today's moral standards, they were the best of the bunch at the time.

Oh how they would weep if they could see the US now, with its private banking systems, ignorant politicians backed by greedy corporations, being voted in by ignorant voters, and the poor and the needy being used as a toilet and a political tool. A lot of ordinary people should get very angry, and demonstrate non-stop until someone takes notice (or soils themselves). The people should not be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of its people.

My sincere condolences to you, PoN.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I was actually following this... individual, considering that FL's governor* isn't too far from Mr. Walker. What is worrying is that the election wasn't even close, and while I get that he outspent the major 3:1 the people still decided to keep him in, which means that either the state likes the stuff or enough people doesn't care at all.

*not particularly popular right now, but then again this is the exCEO of a company previously convicted of insurance fraud...

[Opsa]

It is a horrible shame that this stuff is going on, and I wish I knew what to do about it. Exposing it and discussing are steps in the right direction and I don't think it's untaddy at all. A Toadfish has loads of teeth and is not hesitant to use them when threatened.

This kind of political behavior is a threat.

[pieces o nine]

I expected the vote to be closer than it 'should' be, but truly expected him to be recalled. After hearing some of the comments from ordinary, working people who supported Gov. Walker, I think now that it's much the same situation as in this house. There are three people here who have benefited from either government-run programs or liberal-backed policies all their lives. Indeed, at least one of them literally owes his life to- and is still relying heavily on- them.

And yet, those two residents routinely forget how much they owe to progressive and liberal programs and initiatives, and instead loudly proclaim the independence of farmers and ranchers (*coff* subsidies *coff*), the inherent higher worth of "successful business people" (*coff* subsidies *coff*) and the ... Glory ... of war without end, amen (local AFB is a significant economic player). Whenever a business person, government figure, or other authority limits or blocks their access to one of the programs or initiatives they value, there is a wailing and gnashing of teeth. Also, inexplicably, these repub-driven restrictions are *always* blamed -- vehemently -- on "Big Government Liberals", because they Hate America and Hate our Freedoms. I know, it doesn't make any sense to me, either.

And yet, both will go to the polls in this election cycle and vote a straight ticket for the most conservative candidates they can find at every level, loudly praising their own fiscal responsibility and superior morals for doing so. These are the same candidates who are *openly* campaigning to destroy one's career field (and pension!), the other's means to finish his education (and expect 'learning disability' accommodations throughout planned career path), and the possibility of *any* health care for all three of us. But both are dazzled by American flag lapel pins, public Pledges of Allegiance, Orwellian catch-phrases,"anti-Sciencism" rhetoric, and Biblical Values.

When confronted by their own newest incarnations of Gov. Walker, their minds work overtime repressing the reality of what they have done, focusing instead on their respective personal hopes of inheriting/earning enough money to enter the 'upper class' and thereby benefit from the perks being heaped upon that tiny minority. This outcome is extremely unlikely, but even if it came to pass, it turns my stomach to see people I've known all our lives operating from such naked "I vote against my own interests because ... um ... because I've got mine -- So screw you!!!" impulses.

Considering the range of people I met back in WI, it seems apparent that Gov. Walker's "divide and conquer" game plan -- even when exposed on numerous occasions -- was horribly effective. A majority voted against their own best interests and those of their neighbors because they wanted so very much to believe that *physical reality* can be voted into conformity with their favorite myths, and that the Koch brothers actually want the hoi polloi to join them at the top of the socio-economic pyramid. Such ... delusional ... beliefs are staggering.

[Roland Deschain]

That's pretty much it in a nutshell, albeit a rather large nutshell, PoN. A candidate appears to pay lip service to their beliefs, and so they have to vote for them with no thought given to anything else. It's double-think on an enormous scale; something that would have made Orwell spit out his cereal*.

I think at the heart of some of it is "The American Dream", and its promises of wealth, health, and contentment. It's about time the dream was killed off, as it has been hijacked by greed, and an "I'm alright, Jack" attitude. I don't think i'll ever understand the wave of fundamentalist conservatism sweeping the US, although it may well have something to do with the liberalism that has come about in the last century, being a backlash to that.

People continually swallow the lies and propaganda put out by corporate mouthpieces in office. This is terribly conspiratorial, but it's big business (ie - banks and corporations) who pay for this, spreading their filth throughout politics, and poisoning it as they do the land. People are mostly bred to be lazy thinkers, to sit back and carp on about how great their chosen politician is, while being metaphorically penetrated with their full consent, only because the politician happens to belong to their religion.

When I vote, I vote based upon a number of issues. Mostly I have to compromise between a decent candidate and a poor party, or vice versa, or have to compromise on some issues because the party/candidate supports others. There are a number of rich and powerful men (it's mostly men) laughing at the stupidity of the proletariat right now, and they have been doing so for a very long time.

*One must, of course, assume 'ole Georgie boy would be at breakfast at the time, and eating cereal. Besides, it's less messy than cream of mushroom soup, or steak.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

One must, of course, assume 'ole Georgie boy would be at breakfast at the time, and eating cereal. Besides, it's less messy than cream of mushroom soup, or steak.

Was he well off enough to have steak for breakfast? 

[Swatopluk]

I think that was at some time part of a typical English breakfast (at least from the middle class upwards). Porride was actuallya latecomer.
At the time orwell wrote 1984, it would probably have been the latter. During his time as a colonial officer the former would not have been that unlikely. Not that it would have been a wise choice in the tropics to start the day with large peices of beef but the British had a lot of foolish customs that had to be followed. His "To shoot an elephant" takes a less than sentimental look on this (not on the breakfast stuff though iirc).