The common enemy of Us and Teabaggers and Moderates? Crony Capitalism.

[Armstead]

Look at pretty much any issue these days and it boils down to this.

We, the people of the United States, aided and abetted by politicians in both parties, have allowed wealth and power to become far too concentrated in the hands of too few people and too few corporations.

Look at most issues and that is at the bottom of it. Jobs? You aren't allowed to make too much money, because the greedy oligarchs want it all for themselves. A shitty economy? Ditto. Healthcare? No need to say anything more about that. Free Speech and a flowering of constructive debate? Media monopolies have killed that one.

Other issues like the environment? Can't have any policies or practices that interfere with the ability of global corporations to squeeze costs and jack up profits.

Free enterprise? Forget it, unless you have a few million to compete with Wal Mart or a few billion to compete with some other big corporate competitor.

Effective government? K Street and bought and paid for politicians.

The same sense of powerless and hopelessness about opportunity that pisses off progressives, teabaggers and moderates has a similarity underlying theme if you lift up the rocks. The only way to fix it is to identify the cause, and stop being distracted by the nonsense.

[DJ13]

1. K&R

[DrToast]

2. If teabaggers gave a shit about that, where were they the pervious administration?

[Armstead]

4. That falls into the category of "distracted by the nonsense."

[Captain Hilts]

3. Yes!

[Odin2005]

5. There is no "Dem vs. Puke" anymore, there is Pro-Fascism and Pro-Freedom.

Time to kill Fascism.

[Faryn Balyncd]

16. You are correct....The "left right" linear languarge serves mostly to obscure...

[Armstead]

31. Part of the problem is that left/right is not always consistant on issues

These days, more and more, our politics are packaged and you are supposed to be on one team or another on every issue.

In reality, someone might be very conservative in terms of some personal issues, like abortion rights, but more liberal/progressive on economic ones -- or vice versa.

But with the "team" approach, it becomes harder for people who disagree on some things to agree on others.

[frazzled]

6. I see you are embracing "bipartisanship"

I'd think again, if I were you. If you are finding common cause with TeaBaggers, your explanation is very probably far too broad and simplistic.

That's what often happens with the "populist" view. And though the all-embracing bogey-man theory may make you feel better, it is not to be wholly trusted.

[Armstead]

9. Yes it is a simplistic post -- But sometimes ya gotta cut to the chase

And populism is a valid response, when you have massive institutions rigging the system for their benegot at the expense of the majority, and when you have the benefits of the economy being pushed upward instead of outward.

You are naive if you don't think it is a problem....And if you don't acknowledge that is is a "bipartisan" problem. It shouldn't be, but it is.

[Faryn Balyncd]

17. You're on to something...

(k and r)

The current public "dialogue" has been so distorted and, unfortunately controlled, by propagandists, and emotions fanned with such cynical skill, that working across the artificial lines of political division to find common interests has been effectively stifled. Thanks for sharing your insights.

[iceman66]

7. No. The teabaggers are BANKROLLED by crony capitalism,

and are either too dumb to realize it, or just don't care.

We have very little in 'common.'

[Armstead]

11. The teabaggers as individuals -- not the movement.

And you are the one who is "dumb" if you want to demonize everyone who shares the anger of the teabaggers, without going below the surface as to why they are so susceptible to being bamboozled by the likes of Dick Army.

I know some people who identify with the anger of the teabaggers. They are good people whose anger is misdirected.

[iceman66]

14. Maybe some of them actually are 'good people,'

but the 'anger' displayed by many of others is simply a visceral reaction to having a black man in the White House.

That is obvious from the signs at their rallies.

[Armstead]

15. Some are racists.....Others are just frustrated and angry at the same crap we are

Divide and conquer is part of what has gotten us into this mess.

[iceman66]

19. Well, any of them that still supports the Republicans

after the recent Supreme Court decision are fucking stupid.

You don't get much more pro-corporate than that, and every single 'justice' that voted for it was a Republican.

[Armstead]

27. Emotionally I agree with you -- But that doesn't change the facts

Just because someone doesn't recognizer the oppressor doesn't negate the fact that they are oppressed by a common abuser.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

25. Where were they between 2000 and 2008?

The left was out there protesting and the left is STILL protesting. Therefore I take the left's concerns as genuine. The teabag squad was nowhere to be found.

[Armstead]

28. The OP was not about the merits of the teabaggers

A common oppressor is a common oppressor.

[rwenos]

8. Bankers & Political Theory

It's the bankers. Both right wing populists ("teabaggers") and left wing populists ("progressives") share one thing -- both are being exploited by the banks and Big Capital. The big lie purveyed by George Herbert Walker Bush and his son is that right wing populists benefit somehow from voting for the interests of Big Capital. This big lie rests on one false major premise -- i.e., that those same RW populists might someday, if they are really really good, go to the right church, wear the right clothes, speak with the right Midwestern or Mid-South accent, grow up to be the Wall Street Republicans who own Big Capital.

It is amazing to watch how those same Wall Street Pubs continue to con those RW populists. So long as the issues are God, Guns, Abortion and Homosexers, the RW populists vote for Pubs. When the issue becomes wage equity, worker exploitation, the environment, globalism, or workplace safety, those same RWers share an interest with the Left.

Franklin Roosevelt understood this. Where are all the budding successors to FDR's coalition of labor, minorities, workers, the middle class, intellectuals and progressives?

[Armstead]

12. +1

[Hosnon]

10. I agree. I'd like to see everyone band together and pull out the guillotine.

Metaphorically, of course. :evilgrin:

[Armstead]

13. Keep it metaphorical.

O8)

[Jennicut]

18. They are essentially populists...but I wonder if they will ever see the light that the GOP is just

using them? And they are more racist, nutty and more prone to wanting no govt. then liberal populists are. They are more libertarian populists.

[Armstead]

21. They're a mixed bag -- Some are beyond hope but I think other are persuadable

But Democrats have to stop reinforcing conservative memes. People like Evan Bayh need to put a sock in it.

[alcibiades_mystery]

20. Correction

Crony Capitalism.

[Armstead]

22. I wouldn't go that far myself...But I take your point

I don't see capitalism as irredeemable. But it does need a strong counter force of government to keep its abusive side in check.

[David Zephyr]

23. The glue that holds the teabaggers together is racism, xenophobia, militarism and homophobia.

They are blind to anything that excludes that soup.

We will not reach these people. They are sick.

[Armstead]

24. That's too easy

Some, maybe many of them, yeah sure.

But it sucks in people for other reasons too.

The Big Tent that we often romanticize of the old liberal Democratic Party had a lot of racism and bogotry and narrow mindedness among the coalition too. It required people who didn;t always see eye-to-eye or even like each other, to work together against a common foe.

Evolving of consciousness has to take place on different levels -- it's not all political. That be a big kettle of fish to deal with.

But in matters of wealth and power, and how they affect everyone's quality of life, I stand by my OP.

[David Zephyr]

26. Thom Hartman has suggested what you are saying, too. So you have company.

I grew up around these sort of bigots and that "soup" that I spoke won't break down even with industrial solvents. And, I didn't throw in the most toxic ingredient of them all: religious fanaticism like this is the end times, the anti-christ is among us...

Armstead, I'm glad that there are optimistic people like you and Thom, but I think we'd be better off recruiting directing in insane asylums. You are right, these people should be with us, they are the victims of the class warfare they have been told to never discuss, but...

Check out John Wilbur Cash's epic "The Mind of the South" written in 1940 which peels back the veneer behind what caused all that "crazy".

Edit for K&R.

[Armstead]

29. Hartman is company I'm happy to be in

The fellow in the picture to the left (Sen. Bernie) also says it.

I'm familiar with all that shit firsthand too.I grew up in a family of southerners in the 50's and 60's. I won't even repeat some of the racist crap that used to come out of my grandfather's mouth.

But I also know he was a fundamentally decent guy who was shaped by a racist environment. And even his racism never got personal -- Some of his best buddies when he was a kid were Blacks and he treated everyone with respect one to one.

I'm not defending assholes. Just saying that people are complicated critters, and anytime you have more than two people, there are going to be a lot of differences.

I'm also not suggesting wasting a lot of time trying to get into a political bed with them. But the only way we're ever going to make a dent in the larger oppressive system is to recognize the root causes and whenever possible try to at least get enough of a public critical mass in the overall zeitgekist to challenge the behomoth collectively.

[slipslidingaway]

30. knr nt