Day: May 23, 2014

2014–The “Grassroots” Con Job

I guess the best to start is to bring everyone up to date on what is being reported in the MSM about the upcoming 2014 elections…….blah……BLAH…….BLAH and then the every popular….yada….yada….yada…..Benghazi.

Now you know as much as anyone watching the MSM in the recent days………but my fave topic covered by the media is that of the “grassroots”…….every party is scrambling to grab these voters by the scrotum……….but there is a problem with the term…….to me when talking about the grassroots we would be talking about the hopes and desires of the common folk…….but if we look closely at polls that show what the common folk find important is not covered in any of the rhetoric……if true then what is the “grassroots” that people keep mentioning at every turn?

The Tea Party loyal seem to use the term very loosely………they want to portray themselves as the champion of us common folk…….but are they?

Those who align themselves with the Tea Party fancy the phrase “grass roots” to describe their fight with the GOP “establishment.” Sorry, writes EJ Dionne in the Washington Post, but it’s hard to think “grass roots” when billionaire donors are involved. No, what the GOP really has are “two establishment factions spending vast sums to gain the upper hand.” The result is a party moving further and further to the right, where a “political correctness of an extremely conservative kind now rules.” Dionne points to the win of Ben Sasse in the GOP Senate primary in Nebraska as a prime example. Ted Cruz, for one, invoked the phrase “grass roots” to describe why the ultra-conservative Sasse won, despite the $2.4 million in ad spending on his behalf.

Plus, the university president worked in the George W. Bush administration and is hardly an outsider. “So, is this really the grass roots speaking to Washington?” asks Dionne. “Or is it more accurately seen as a cadre of conservative groups, largely working out of Washington, rising up with a ton of cash to persuade voters to listen to them?” GOP voters can expect similar choices in future primaries, thanks to the Supreme Court rulings opening the door to bigger donations. But in the end, they’re simply picking “between two establishments that, in the end, differ little on what they would do with power.” Click for Dionne’s full column.

The scary part is that someone will vote for corporate control….freely.  And even pretend that it is best for all the country and the totality of American peasantry.

Grassroots implies that the common man/woman has its concerns addressed by their elected officials…..sadly this is pure invention……

grassroots is a dog whistle, nowadays, it has nothing to do with reality……….Apparently one can only be considered “grassroots” if one has more money than brains……

A Populist Behind Every Tree

Today I would like to drop out of Hyper-space and into the reality of the nether world of American politics….no matter how hard I try to avoid writing about it…….I cannot escape the pull of the force……..

Okay, in today’s political climate there is not much that the two sides can agree on…….we know there is NO consensus on immigration or healthcare or …….well just about anything……but believe it or not there is an exception to the rule……that’s right…..while you were jumping up and down about Benghazi or keystone of the ACA…….the two sides are closer together on one subject……economic populism.

We need to establish a new group…..economic freedom fighters…..and you can take that any way you would chose……this new found consensus has 6 principles that bind the two sides together…….

This list is from commondreams.org…….written by Robert Reich, the former sec of labor………

…………the rhetoric that’s converging. Populists on the right and left are also coming together around six principles:

1. Cut the biggest Wall Street banks down to a size where they’re no longer too big to fail. Left populists have been advocating this since the Street’s bailout now they’re being joined by populists on the right. David Camp, House Ways and Means Committee chair, recently proposed an extra 3.5 percent quarterly tax on the assets of the biggest Wall Street banks (giving them an incentive to trim down). Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter wants to break up the big banks, as does conservative pundit George Will. “There is nothing conservative about bailing out Wall Street,” says Rand Paul.

2. Resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act, separating investment from commercial banking and thereby preventing companies from gambling with their depositors’ money. Elizabeth Warren has introduced such legislation, and John McCain co-sponsored it. Tea Partiers are strongly supportive, and critical of establishment Republicans for not getting behind  it. “It is disappointing that progressive collectivists are leading the effort for a return to a law that served well for decades,” writes the Tea Party Tribune. “Of course, the establishment political class would never admit that their financial donors and patrons must hinder their unbridled trading strategies.”

3. End corporate welfare – including subsidies to big oil, big agribusiness, big pharma, Wall Street, and the Ex-Im Bank. Populists on the left have long been urging this; right-wing populists are joining in. Republican David Camp’s proposed tax reforms would kill dozens of targeted tax breaks. Says Ted Cruz: “We need to eliminate corporate welfare and crony capitalism.”

4. Stop the National Security Agency from spying on Americans. Bernie Sanders and other populists on the left have led this charge but right-wing populists are close behind. House Republican Justin Amash’s amendment, that would have defunded NSA programs engaging in bulk-data collection, garnered 111 Democrats and 94 Republicans last year, highlighting the new populist divide in both parties. Rand Paul could be channeling Sanders when he warns: “Your rights, especially your right to privacy, is under assault… if you own a cellphone, you’re under surveillance.”

5. Scale back American interventions overseas. Populists on the left have long been uncomfortable with American forays overseas. Rand Paul is leaning in the same direction. Paul also tends toward conspiratorial views about American interventionism. Shortly before he took office he was caught on video claiming that former vice president Dick Cheney pushed the Iraq War because of his ties to Halliburton.

6. Oppose trade agreements crafted by big corporations. Two decades ago Democrats and Republicans enacted the North American Free Trade Agreement. Since then populists in both parties have mounted increasing opposition to such agreements. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, drafted in secret by a handful of major corporations, is facing so strong a backlash from both Democrats and tea party Republicans that it’s nearly dead. “The Tea Party movement does not support the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” says Judson Philips, president of Tea Party Nation. “Special interest and big corporations are being given a seat at the table” while average Americans are excluded.

Since the Right and the left are close to agreeing on these……it would be a great place to start the change that this country desperately needs……….but then the aftermath would be dazzling…..talk about a divide……will be worth the price of the ride………

Your thoughts, please.