(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Our Oxymoronic Age who you gonna believe? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-09-17
Our Oxymoronic Age
Our current times could be assigned many names, Trumpism, Nouveau Fascism, Age of Q, Conspiracy World, The New Secessionists, Our Darker Angels, Greed Gloating and Grievance, Rollover A. Lincoln, or simply What’s Wrong with These People (add F’ng if you must). Even though we lack Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, we do have Fox News. Conservative, Neo-Liberal, Traditional Values, and Anti-Communist defined the GOP before the Reagan presidency. The terms are still used but have lost their meaning. News network pundits rely on both-siderism. They have moved the term conservative and traditional values to many individuals or groups who share little with the earlier Republicans who felt defined by the terms. Elected Republicans in Congress and at state and local levels quote, retell, and spin stories not unlike those found in the writings of D.C. Stephenson the 1920’s KKK leader. GOP politicians fill our political discourse with old tropes, Lost Cause history, and new untethered from reality memes (Jewish Space Lasers). Members of the media call Margorie Taylor Greene, Chip Roy, Matt Gaetz and others, conservative. The analysts do not call their proposals extremist, cultish, or far beyond mainstream. Current reporting keeps using the same terms of those in opposition to the Democratic Party. It disguises the change to radical undemocratic and often un-American proposals. The modern Republican Party still has the sign out front, the Party of Lincoln, but fly battle flags of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and defend Confederate statues. The GOP’s leading members in Congress spread Russian propaganda. The party of Trump is neither the party of Reagan nor Lincoln.
GOP profess to believe in lies
Power is the only motivation for the GOP. All deeds are attempts at gaining power and keeping it, by any means necessary. Nixon’s GOP began the Southern strategy. All the Dixiecrats came to the Republican Party bringing segregation now, segregation forever. Reagan’s GOP brought evangelicals and gun nuts. The culture wars that began in the 1960’s now had organized agitators. The fight against the Equal Rights Amendment bringing the fear of sexual mores changing. The changes happened without the amendment passing. The culture war added a theological crusade in an effort to motivate voters. The ever more dire narratives drive Republicans to embrace extremism. Our society has suffered from the plague of the newts and the bloviating of the bullrushes. These fill alternative media and have created a separate subculture. The subculture is built on alienation, grievance, and fear. The power players use this subculture as a weapon. While not sharing the interests of those in its ranks they exploit the animus. The country club set supports the growing influence of the riff-raff. Corporate largesse can cover many sins resulting in more profit. Their coffers fill ever higher without taxes and regulation. The political elites thought themselves in control; they were driving the wagons. The power players would never allow the deplorables to control the party or the government. Then came the Trump, never a more transparent tinhorn, who held a magic wand to stir the pot of troubled souls into a personal political movement.
A dangerous animus for violence when it is an election
I will add two misquotes, what are pithy statements but rewrites of less punchy originals. ‘The business of America is business’, ‘What is good for GM is good for America,’ this was the Republican party before 1968. Now the country club set has lost control of the reins and the stagecoach is a runaway. Only the old hangers on play golf, a modern Republican convention needs an American beer like Modelo. An appeal to the current party needs a large grill with some burnt dead meat, deep fryer for the fries (anything can be deep fried), then after the sheets to the wind are at three hold a big axe throwing contest. Organize a gun show at one pavilion and a prosperity gospel revival at another then you will capture the real American party. RINOs are not welcome anymore. Trump’s party is in opposition to knowledge and science. They pride themselves in loud proclamations of their own ignorance. Policies designed to be in support of the common good possess no virtue for this group. They fear losing out, being estranged from the good stuff.
Our age of manipulated language and contrived narratives serve those grasping for power. In the past decade perjured speech has reached new levels of the absurd. Immediately after the Trump inauguration I was listening to NPR’s 1A during the Friday discussion of political news. The panel turned to discussing the newly inaugurated Trump administration and their lies (politely called misstatements). A jaw dropping claim was made by a Trump supporting media person. She stated alternative facts or truth needed be considered. If enough people believed a thing, it held its own truth. The rest of the panel were stunned. This attitude marked the beginning of a new era in purported beliefs over facts. At a speech in Kansas City to the VFW annual convention (July 24, 2018), President Donald Trump in an anti-media rant said, “Stick with us. Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. … What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” A new variation of who you gonna believe me or your lying eyes.
Calvin Coolidge play cowboy ignorer of non-white Americans
Oxymorons have become commonplace; we barely notice them.
Freedom Caucus, a group dedicated to restricting women’s rights, imposing the will of a minority on the rest of the nation, and undercutting the freedom fighters who are defending Ukraine.
Problem Solvers Caucus, a group yammering about bipartisan approaches yet never once has stepped away from the party line. They have yet to solve any problem.
Election Integrity, a policy to invalidate the will of the majority. Implementing laws that deny citizens the ability to vote, while claiming massive voter fraud that never proves to be true.
Anti-abortion, Right to Life, Pro-life, Pro-baby each label has morphed to try to capture support from groups unaware of the consequences of restrictive policies. The pro-baby crowd is actively trying to return three million children to poverty.
Moms for Liberty, fighting for censorship of education that would teach about the struggle for liberty. Also fighting against knowledge and science in public health decisions.
Citizens United, a case that allowed average citizens to become irrelevant, whether they unite or not. Corporate power is enthroned now; it rules the day.
Any corporate lobby group claiming to be grassroots will have a name at odds with its purpose. But hey, its everyone’s right to have an opinion. If enough people believe, it is a fact. Money is free speech, and all meaning is obscured with a good slogan. Politicians say what they have been paid to say, it is corporate truth. Who you gonna believe?
Shiresteve — substack — shiresteve.blog — threads — Forgottonia on facebook
Shiresteve Kindle & Apple Books
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/17/2193780/-Our-Oxymoronic-Age-who-you-gonna-believe
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
