Rabble Rabble Rabble; or, There's a Sucker Born Every Minute

So I watched this video of the mayor of Lansing, Michigan completely destroy some random goon at Fox and felt like I needed to go on a rambling political rant. It may not be coherent (it's four in the morning, after all), but it is filled with lots of good, old-fashioned left-wing anger! You've been warned.

The far-right, as exemplified by Fox and personified by people like Rush Limbaugh, hate middle and lower class Americans, and indeed anyone who works for a living. They exist only to serve the upper class, big business, and Wall Street. Why don't people see this? The GOP panders to the Puritanical religious beliefs and outdated social fears held by the uneducated poor in rural backwaters to win votes, without ever having to actually deliver anything to their voters.

Who votes Republicans into office? They have two main constituencies: big business, and lower, lower-middle, and middle class people, like farmers, factory workers, small business owners, enlisted military personnel, etc. What do these professions have in common? They are populated largely by people who are from modest backgrounds, they are from the South or Midwest, they are unlikely to have achieved any education past high school, and they are devoutly religious. To put it in the parlance of a politician, they are "simple, honest, hard-working, God-fearing Americans."

So how does Michael Steele convince such a disparate group to join together and vote Republican? Well, the simple answer is he doesn't. He is just awful at his job. But theoretically they do this by fear-mongering and exploiting the prejudices of their lower class voters. It's clear why big business votes GOP - they're the big business party. No judgment, that's just what they are. But what is truly perplexing is why the poor, working classes would vote to elect politicians who, once in office, will do everything in their power to make life miserable for them.

So how exactly does the right exploit these fears and prejudices? Well, they've cornered the market on evangelical Christianity, the biggest business of all. Through this they claim to be the party of "morals" and "values"; the issues on which they base this suppose superiority are the death penalty (killing dark people), huge military expenditures (killing dark people in other countries), abortion (to ensure that there are plenty of children being born to poor single mothers who will grow up, join the military, and kill dark people), gun control (lest dark people or King George III threatens them), etc. You get the point - to the far right immorality is anything related to minorities of any type. Black people, brown people, gays, women, non-Christians - they are all dangerous, they hate America, and they must be stopped.

It is interesting to note that for all its talk, the GOP rarely scores a victory when it comes to so-called moral issues. There are exceptions; the recent piece of racist legislation in Arizona, for instance. But the terms "progressive" and "conservative" aren't accidental. They serve to show on what side of history the left and the right inevitably find themselves. Society progresses, it advances, and it can't be stopped. Take civil rights, women's rights, gay rights - conservatives always lose, and then they look like complete jackasses in the annals of history.

But I get off track. What, when it comes down to it, has the GOP delivered to these "values voters?" They will never touch Roe v. Wade, so abortion is out. Despite what the NRA thinks no one is after their guns, so gun control is a moot issue as well. The Democrats support our insane military budget as much as the Republicans, so credit to the GOP for convincing everyone otherwise. And while there is still a lot of work to do, the treatment of women, gays, and dark people improves all the time. So Republicans get in office by promising these lower class voters that they will do...something about these "issues" that have absolutely nothing to do with them, and then, of course, nothing actually ever comes of it. But what they do is get in bed with the super rich and Wall Street and make life absolutely miserable for everyone else. It's quite a racket they've got going, and would be impressive if it weren't so maddening.