Index

How Did We Get Here?

American business caused this, and now their wholly-owned GQP is trying to contain it.

The former Republican party has now gone entirely fascist and post-truth. Their power comes from the losers in the post-industrial society.

These people cling to old religious fairy tales and new fascist lies. The sad part is that those lies and fairy tales are all they have left. How did these people get into the shape they are in? What happened to the American dream of living a better life? Every time immigrants or other minorities come up, they get frightened and throw a fit. Why are they so easily scared?

First off, let’s look at who I am talking about. The “base” are the people who once would have held good-paying unionized factory jobs. They were once “conservatives,” with so-called Christian beliefs and at least a little moral sense. They thought they were entitled to their jobs, pay, and comfort. Those things are gone.

The MBA-driven financialization of American companies destroyed their jobs and their hopes. Jack Welch set the pace and the attitude, and his “success” killed General Electric and took the rest of the American working class with it. The policies their pawns have been implementing since at least Ronnie Raygun include eliminating:

• Public education and services
• Displaced worker and unemployment benefits
• Environmental requirements
• Any and all business regulations of any sort
• Unions
• Worker safety, wages, hours, and benefits requirements
• Where possible, the workers themselves.

The GQP’s stooges are trying to destroy anything that reduces profits for the biggest businesses. They don’t care who else it hurts. They don’t want to pay for the damage they do. The angry “base” is one obvious result.

The GQP “Southern Strategy” managed to turn the (intentional) failure of the entitlement fairy tale into anger at “the government.” They merged the former blue-collar workers with their southern trailer-trash brethren. GQP candidates told the lies that they wanted to hear and got elected. The mob put Ronnie Raygun into the Whitehouse and made the GQP the party of “post-truth” politics. The Nazis and KKK came along for the ride.

The evangelical sects these people were part of were happy to help things along. The changes in the larger society were (and continue to be) threatening to their existence. Their easily conned “flocks” were more than happy to look back to the ancient fairy tales the churches sold. “Progress” in the rest of society held little or nothing for them. The “churches” willingly exchanged their heavenly messages for more down-to-earth power grabs.

More recently, the orange toddler’s expert rabble-rousing turned them into a destructive force. False “culture wars” and ridiculous “owning the libs” garbage blaring from the internet and Faux Noise keeps them stirred up. This force is now so strong it threatens to sweep away the last vestiges of American democracy.

Now, what the hell do we do?