Focusing on this biological truth, the G.O.P. poured billions into think tanks in order to perfect its messages and effectively target voters’ negative emotions.

As media consolidation was accomplished, tens of thousands of media outlets repeated G.O.P. talking points with little or no opposing views to balance them. The result is that our nation, as a whole, has been deliberately and methodically moved to the political right. This includes the democratic party.

Frankly, I don’t see that we have a real left wing in this country. We have only center, right and radical right. Look at what “left wing” means in other nations and you will see that we don’t have one.

So the Democrats siding with Republicans on the bailout really should be no surprise to anyone.

The G.O.P. moved the nation to the right by appealing to the worst in people – selfishness, fears and loathing – since this is almost always more effective than appealing to the best in people and promoting fearlessness.

It always stokes specific and concrete fears: fear of taxes, fear of crime, fear of minorities competing for jobs, fear of women competing for jobs, fear of other nations, and fear of lawlessness. The G.O.P. has even managed to associate freedom of choice – free will which is God’s greatest gift to us – with “godlessness”.

The icing on the cake has been how the G.O.P. has legitimized the argument that belief in God is incompatible with respect for science.

What can progressives do?

Take a page from the Republican play book.

Invest in think tanks.

Buy media outlets.

Craft more effective messages that appeal to people’s better natures. Repeat messages of hope and possibility more than the opposition can repeat its repressive, depressing or dividing dirges.

Yet don’t expect to undo forty years of concentrated effort with one bold stroke. This will not be a sprint, but multiple marathons.

Bill Moyers believes the system is broken and cannot be fixed. We are, after all, a republic not a democracy.

Our system was constructed so that the wealthy and well-educated would govern, not the common people. Today a person needs – at minimum – one million dollars to mount a campaign for a seat in the House of Representatives. Nearly all Congressional representatives are beholden to corporate lobbyists for re-election. Plus, in the last couple of decades voting district division has become surgical so that entire elections can be swung by very few votes.

So Moyers may be correct.

It’s clear to me that we need two major changes, neither of which is likely to be supported by the electorate using the old tools of logical argument and persuasion.

Yet no one has figured out how to effectively convey the logic and value inherent in either one into an emotion-activating ten-second soundbite that can be replayed a million times to counteract the opposition’s soundbites that will certainly scream “tax hike!”

1) Publicly fund all elections to eliminate the influence of big money and get Congress thinking and working instead of attending lunches and fund raising. This is the aim of the “Just 6 Dollars” campaign.

http://www.just6dollars.org/splash/

2) Public schools must be equally funded instead of being dependent upon variable tax bases.

The inequality in U.S. schools is based upon unequal funding. Unequal funding results in unequal education, poor success rates, drop outs and illiteracy.

http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/30B3C1B3-3DA6-4809-AFB9-2DAACF11CF88/0/funding2004.pdf

These failures, in turn, result in compelling arguments to further de-fund public schools and make it even more impossible to educate poor children.

The G.O.P. goal, if anyone is unaware of it, is complete privatization and the death of public schools. This way it can turn back the clock so that to be poor once again means you never learn to read. Inability to read a ballot would be a convenient way for the G.O.P. to eliminate more poor voters.

Meanwhile the potential of our citizens is squandered for lack of education and opportunity which, in turn, leads to poverty, low voter turn out and an inability to get better schools.

Obama’s great gift is his ability to inspire people. He might be able to turn us around, should we give him a mandate.

Yet each of us will need to take responsibility for electing better representatives and helping to reform government.

Should we decide it’s too much work or too expensive, Obama will be just another president rather than a catalyst for real change.

The result is that we will, likely, have an even more corrupt system a hundred years from now.

Now if you’re single… heh heh

It’s the part of the American political process that has always baffled me. Everyone loathes politicians, and no one thinks there’s anything that can be done about it. If that’s so, this isn’t a democracy.

There’s a line between cynicism and apathy. Unless you think that real actual people CAN take back one of the major parties – cause from the Reforms to the Greens, I think it’s pretty clear that a third party can’t survive the climate or the skewed rules. That being said, you’ve given me an idea for a future post. So I hope you stick around long enough to read it. ;)

Don’t want to be called a worthless bunch of spineless fucks? Stop *being* a worthless bunch of spineless fucks.

Sept 18: HSBC (Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corp) expresses interest in buying out Morgan-Stanley. Sept 19: Oh, nevermind, the news says they’re not interested anymore. (What probably happened: US gov’t stepped in before HSBC could make a bid.) Sept 20: Panic ensues behind the scenes while the media keeps quiet about the China angle, and by Sept 24: Bailout plan – why $700b? It’s enough to outbid any foreign bank. Wall Street hasn’t just fucked us financially. They’ve put us in a situation where the financial sector could be overrun by foreign companies. That’s why the government is in such a panic.

Of course, they don’t want us to panic, which is why the media isn’t talking about it. The hope is that if the bailout can increase consumer confidence, we’ll spend-spend-spend during the holidays like good little Americans and the economy will get a boost, hopefully enough to carry us through January when the new administration will inevitably have to raise taxes in spite of all the bullshit campaign promises. Or they won’t raise taxes, and we’ll either keep printing money to drive the value of the dollar into oblivion, or keep borrowing from foreign countries until they can use our debt as leverage to force our hand in politics. Either way, the Bush administration is doing whatever they can to push the mess off onto the shoulders of the next President.

Maybe we can actually stop the Iraq war from bleeding so much money out of our economy with no return investment; Regulate the financial institutions so they can’t keep misleading consumers and using unethical practices that screw up the market; Put money into education and R&D so we can become the leader in alternative energy and be more competitive in other technical fields; and maybe… just maybe, the US can manage to become its old innovative, productive self again.