Drunk on greed and power

A friend (not the debate partner) sent me a link, suggesting I would find the article interesting. I started reading it yesterday at about 10:00 pm., but quickly realized I would want to take notes and it was too long to read and comment on before bedtime. Besides, reading and not commenting would only keep me awake. So, here goes.

The article is by Mike Lofgren. He had a 30 year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill and considered himself Republican. But the party has become too crazy. His article documents some of the craziness -- and rottenness.

To start, Lofgren does not say he thinks the Democrats are good. They too are rotten. With all that corporate cash in their hands we've seen how much they really stand up for the little guy (such as: last year's medical bill does not permit negotiation of drug prices, a sweet gift to Big Pharma).

But that's small potatoes compared with what is going on in the GOP.

Let's start with the GOP holding the world economy hostage over raising the debt ceiling. Lofgren reminds us that the person taking the hostage always has the upper hand because they do not care about the welfare of the hostage. In my words now: the GOP and their corporate paymasters are so drunk (wish I had a better word) on greed and power they care absolutely nothing for the rest of the country and the rest of the world.

A GOP committee staff member confided (proudly) to Lofgren why his party was so bent on obstruction and disruption. They were aiming to lower the favorability rating of Congress and once the institution was sabotaged people would turn to the party that had identified itself as being against government. Something like, We're against government! Watch us destroy it! Now that it's gone, you should thank us for our efforts.

Will this work? Quite possibly because most major news media, scared into trying to be "balanced" are quick to blame both parties for the mess. Citizens, thinking that both parties are corrupt and neither represents their interests, stop voting. Those that do vote tend towards the stalwart GOP supporters or the low-info voters, easily confused about what is really going on.

For a party that so worships the Constitution (recently a Michigan GOP candidate for US senate said he should get the nomination because he has read the Constitution and knows the limits it sets on what the federal government is allowed to do), they seem strangely uninterested when various laws undermine their sacred document. That includes the Patriot Act undermining the 4th Amendment and making voting more difficult for large numbers of progressive citizens. Let them vote? No way!

The GOP did have some help in their takeover. The decline of factory jobs hit the white middle class. What did the Dems offer? Nothing. Well, maybe bill titles that reek of wonk-speak. Yes, it is ironic that the party which is full of corporate types busy outsourcing jobs was the one capturing the attention of the workers left without a job. They did it by focusing fear and anger on immigrants and other scapegoats.

The GOP is relentlessly on message, able to do amazing ninja tricks with language. After Wall Street sucked so much money out of the hands of the common person over the last few years, where is popular anger directed (according to media)?

At "Washington spending" - which has increased primarily to provide unemployment compensation, food stamps and Medicaid to those economically damaged by the previous decade's corporate saturnalia. Or the popular rage is harmlessly diverted against pseudo-issues: death panels, birtherism, gay marriage, abortion, and so on, none of which stands to dent the corporate bottom line in the slightest.

Yes, the GOP tactics show their mindset is absolutist and authoritarian, hostile to democratic values of reason, ready with polarizing division, conflict, and the crushing of opposition. But on to their beliefs. There are only three of them. Everything else serves to hide these three, according to Lofgren. I wonder how he missed "lust for power."

* The GOP cares exclusively about its rich contributors. I heard one of the GOP responses to Obama's jobs plan to extend middle class tax cuts beyond December (why did the middle class get a one year extension and the rich got a two year extension?) was a resounding rejection. Yup, the GOP will gladly raise taxes -- on those who aren't rich.

To care for the rich the GOP is spreading smokescreens. "We won't raise anyone's taxes." The rich are job creators (big corporations are sitting on piles of cash, so where are the jobs?). We can't raise taxes on small businesses (if they have a million in income, they aren't small and small business employs only 7% of the labor force). Americans are overtaxed (and how much did General Electric pay last year? Zero). Half of Americans don't pay taxes (well, not income taxes, but they do pay sales and payroll taxes).

* The GOP worships war. It is deeper than the DoD spreading money around Capitol Hill, or than DoD spending provides for (not that many) jobs. It appears to be a neurotic need to demonstrate toughness, and for that one needs an enemy.

The Dems have been too cowardly to reverse this militaristic drive. Lofgren has noticed Dems are actually afraid of the GOP. The left fears, the right hates.

* The GOP is beholden to fundamentalist Christianity. Creationism is still an issue they support. They distrust science and intelligence. That means there is a de facto religious test for the presidency.

It is this religious takeover that provides the foundation for the other two major beliefs. Fundies have long espoused the idea that wealth is a sign of God's favor. Fundies also favor the Old Testament and it's divinely-inspired killing. They also believe in Armageddon and their ability to bring it about through pushing conflict.

Lofgren left government work because of his disgust of the GOP's disregard for democracy. And also because he wanted to receive a pension while he still could.