The table is set for a catastrophic empowerment of the right

[Papa Boule]

These guys are right.

The table is set for a catastrophic empowerment of the right. The pieces are in place:

-- The recent Supreme Court ruling giving corporations unlimited control over the democratic process.

-- A public willing to believe that whichever side wins is the right one.

-- A dithering, enabling, sycophantic, controlled media.

-- A national political drift to the right, while at the same time the core right has ideologically purified itself (driven away its moderates and "RINOs"), and has become insulated from facts and truth (and even the country itself) by having its own ideology-conforming news, information, and education sources.

-- A political left more afraid of being unpopular and of losing elections than of sacrificing all of its core principles.

-- The cultural "extremizing" of the moderate left, and the marginalizing and ridiculing of the left's rational voices.

-- The fanning of the flames of right wing fear and frenzy by talk radio ideologues and a national cable news network positioned to serve as an official ministry of propaganda (when that time soon comes).

-- A lingering culture of trauma-based child-rearing producing a core group of submissive authoritarian followers -- a standing army of foot soldiers.

-- The passing of the World War 2 generation, along with its first-hand awareness of the dangers of unchecked right-wing extremism.

-- An American lifestyle and infrastructure dependent on oil. Any interruption in its availability or uncontrolled rise in price, and, well....

-- An unchecked granting of power to the government to spy on, imprison, and even torture or kill anyone it pleases without regard to due process, along with an unprecedented concentration of power in the Executive Branch.

-- A looming American economic collapse, which will surely be followed by populist fury and demagoguery. Certain ethnic/minority/social groups are going to be exploited as targets for blame and hatred, to rally a movement.

Weimar Republic redux.

Are we ready?

[pinboy3niner]

1. What???

Dems hold WH and Congress

'10 elections may see dems lose seats in House, but retain majority--as well as holding WH and Senate

"Catastrophic empowerment of the right"? I Hardly think so.

[femrap]

16. If you haven't noticed....

the Dems aren't exactly behaving in a Progressive fashion.

They take the same Corporate $$$$ as the Right does. The Left has moved so far to the 'Center' that Nixon and Goldwater look like Democrats today.

[pinboy3niner]

20. Even assuming you are 100 percent correct . . .

that in no way equates to "catastrophic empowerment of the right".

[femrap]

38. Corporate fascism

certainly isn't anything close to the Left. And the little political minions that the Corporations purchase dance to their tune.

The political minions may say one thing...but watch what they do. Did we get a Public Option? Do the Insurance companies face any kind of competition?

No...that's fascism.

But hey, I totally understand the power of Denial. It's comforting.

[Codeine]

2. The table is set for catastrophic hyperbole!

Dig in, kids!

[OHdem10]

3. "Fascism should be more appropriately called Corporatism because

it is the merger of state and corporate power."....Benito Mussolini

[mmonk]

31. +1

[zeemike]

4. For me it is not a big concern.

As an old fart I have no investment in the future past 20 years or so.
It is the young I feel sorry for and it is the young that MUST stand up and fight back.

[Hubert Flottz]

9. The will of the young to fight back is being neutralized with force

fed ignorance and a steady diet of misinformation.(the dumbing down of the human herd in order for the wolves to have all the marbles)

Whatever happened to those Civics classes? The powers that be, don't even want the kids to be physically fit.

[zeemike]

18. And totally distracted with shiny things.

And an addiction to action and adrenalin inducing things...
They go from playing video games to war games with ease.

[TheBigotBasher]

28. They even use the same controllers

for quite a few military machines.

http://www.hightech-edge.com/microsoft-xbox-360-joins-the-military/420/

[ShortnFiery]

24. I have faith in our youth as well as in our community.

I guess that I'm fortunate in that regard. :-)

[Hubert Flottz]

33. Good luck with that...

I'm fresh out of faith or trust either one. I don't even believe half of what I see anymore.

[pretzel4gore]

27. meanwhile hitler wins the second world war

as another old geezer, i look at the way the reactionary right has achieved their great success, and can see the reagan election in 1980 the continuation of the fascist takeover of western world and the final end of liberty and justice the rightwing were working at in the fascist era. The USSR wasn't fascist-it maybe was brutal, but never fascist. Reagan's victory only 6 years after nixon, was the beginning of a true dark age that will end with the last gasp of the last cockroach as the planet goes into hyper overheating or civil chaos or whatever....the pig loses by winning and wins by losing, and could see that even Jesus o Nazereth hated them (rightwing hypocrites and killer thieves) Yet, yet they went for the big one regardless. They stole the candy from the baby, finally ( re: the 'baby' was gonna grow up to be a rightwing goofball no matter what anyway,it appears, so maybe robbing it in cradle of what little it had was not good idea(?)

[panader0]

5. I disagree

The same things you view as potentially "catastrophic" are the same things that will make people vote against the right.

[Walk away]

6. I've said it before, make sure your children speak several languages....

and send them to Europe for at least one semester of college if you can. Get them out of here or at least get them some connections overseas so they can make lives somewhere else if they want to. It's what our family is doing and we are pretty up front about the reason. This is not going to be a pleasant place to live.

[ShortnFiery]

7. A democratic party that no longer stands up for LABOR and SOCIAL JUSTICE.

Come 2012, I predict ALL THREE BRANCHES of our government will be GOP, bat-shit crazy right wing.

Thanks Much "New Democrats!"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x324276

"If you give the people a choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, they'll pick the Republican every time." -- Harry Truman

Put more crudely, many Americans think that while the Republicans are kind of nuts, the Democrats are posturing wimps.

Granted, the Republicans are more literally corrupt. When it comes to taxing the middle class and poor and giving to the corporations and the rich, they are the champion anti-Robin Hoods of all time.

<snip>

Again and again the Dems run as Republican-lites and wonder why voters gamble on high-test. The Democrats are also willing to gut the Constitution to fight the "war on terror," but only a little. And they can no better define that war than George Bush can.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. The American public thinks whoever wins is right? Since when?

The Baggers do not seem to think Obama is right at all. Our side certainly did not think Bush was right because he won.

[ShortnFiery]

13. Yes, but for all his faults - and they were many - Bush didn't capitulate and dither

to the Centrists, much less the left.

As much as I loath George W. Bush's rule, he STOOD FIRM and came through for the Corporations and the Ultra-wealth. He also handed "red meat" to his base by those two right-wing SC Justices.

What did our democratic "leaders" do in the House and Senate?

ABDICATE. Also, they demonized anyone who attempted to speak truth to power. Anyone to the left of center was to be ridiculed and/or forced out in favor of those neo-liberal New Democrats.

http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-us_democrats.jpg http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/img/card-homeland_security_act.jpg

[dionysus]

21. silly cards... check. defending bush to get a cheap shot at obama.... check.

tres predictable.

:rofl:

[ShortnFiery]

23. No, I loathed BushCo. but at least they served both their Base and their Owners. eom

[ima_sinnic]

10. don't forget, also, looming ecological disaster and destruction of public education

Like the poster somewhere upthread, I'm a little too old to be really afraid, but I have grandchildren in this game, and they are the ones who will be cheated and robbed of a pleasant life. I don't really know how to help them much as it seems to be spiraling out of control. Sometimes I think it might require intervention by other, more sane countries, if our foreign policy gets any more imperialistic, avaricious, and destructive.

[Bonobo]

11. True. There is a TON of righteous populist anger. One side will grab it...

and it doesn't look like it will be the tone-deaf Dems.

Look at Ron Paul. Look at Tea-Baggers. Look at the popularity of Palin.

A lightning rod will appear and soak it all up.

And in a country where 40% of the people think Jesus rode dinosaurs, I do not think there is much of a future for Progressives.

[TransitJohn]

14. Ross Perot could win in '12 if he were around.

n/t

[TransitJohn]

12. There is no "national political drift to the right"

On every poll on all the issues, the American people consistently want left solutions to our problems. That America is a right leaning country is a complete and utter LIE.

[ShortnFiery]

15. It's coming ...

Go politically inland because the tsunami will hit by 2012.

When our party doesn't stand for nothing, it will fall for anything.

[Echo In Light]

22. I fear too many would side blindly (again) w/the US re another false flag to champion more war$

Despite being more wary re social issues, and that's a good thing, indeed, many follow blindly when it comes to the National $ecurity State ruse

[kenfrequed]

34. True

The problem is that our Democrats don't run on 'left issues' they concede them to run on Goldman Sachs issues or republican-lite issues.

[sui generis]

17. now THERE's a glass half empty.

I would subtract every single argument from which an advantage could be given to either side as irrelevant to proving the thesis.

Whatever remains without a corollary argument to the other side is worth discussing. We extremify the right. Therefore the argument that the left is extremified is irrelevant.

[dionysus]

19. hedges, is that you?

:rofl:

[LetsgoWings13]

25. i doubt it, the independents and moderates are not that stupid.

they wouldnt put more repukes in, do you remember that last 8 years?

[Orsino]

26. ...as opposed to the past thirty years of catastrophic empowering of the Right.

The coming evolution is the result of our failing in our due diligence for decades.

[arcadian]

29. I can see the status quo practitioners have shown up.

Hope they like the America they are helping on the path to destruction.

[KittyWampus]

30. We're DOOMED!

[Hubert Flottz]

32. The Great Ship of State is sinking in a shit creek of it's own making.

We trusted the untrustworthy like sheep and now we will pay the price like sheep.

The wolf is at America's back door but it came in through the front door dressed up like a televangelist or a beauty queen.

Things are really as Bhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad as they seem sometimes in the real world.

[Echo In Light]

35. Psychologically it's interesting how the denial/trivialization of that is alluring for many

[Odin2005]

36. Democracy is dead on a national level.

Focus on your local communities, there will be no real change coming out of Washington. Protect yourselves, your families, and your communities from the coming totalitarianism.

[philly_bob]

37. -- And the election machines are still controlled by right wing corporations. (nt)