The world outside of Hawaii is gone far beyond crazy. Republicans, since the success of the Southern Strategy, have weaponized religious rants by the ill-read and poorly educated, all who "reject Bush" while holding on to extreme neoliberal doctrine (like there would be any difference) while popularizing a corporatist agenda proffered by propaganda mills mischaracterized as think tanks. (They rightfully qualify as Don't Think Tanks because exist to prevent any thinking by their patrons.) Republicans claiming that the Democrats are somehow "socialist" (a baseless fascist trope, if ever there was one); after all, it was the Republicans that forced, through deregulation, the public bailout of the world's banking systems. This is socialism for the wealthest and capitalist exploitation for the rest of us.
The Clinton administration presided over the most prosperous years, for the oligarchs and global plutocrats, in the last four decades, but the godbots are programmed to refer back to the Reagan era for solace. Nothing like keeping it in the party of "family values" propaganda (how many of these rightwing religionists have served prison sentences, been outed, and worse for their "family values"? It's like calling Donald Trump a good businessman). And let us not forget the oxymoronic neoclassical Friedmanic fascists. They don't want us to know that Clinton was one of them, and that the only reason he won the election was that he, like Carter, siphoned Southern voters away from the Republican Confederacy and their racist strategy. Those pushing the Southern Strategy need someone for their stampede of stupid to hate and target.
I cannot fathom the rhetoric I hear on the News channels or read on other Blogs. Although, this is understandable when I listen to McCain on his "stump" spewing the same rant as though it has not been discredited by every agency dedicated to the topic of which he speaks. This has cleared up a suspicion of mine that the fiction based and faith motivated among us are in fact immune to education because they are impervious to reason and facts, so they will vote ideologies and bigotries like racism, and because nationalism, patriarchy, i.e. white male privilege including misogyny of both the physical and derivation types, appeal to their basest of primitive drives, they feel like the racists are telling it like it is.
Note: deprivation is a form of violence, and the cheapest way to make someone feel deprived is to give them nothing, call it something, worship it like it's everything, then tell them everyone, someone, your enemy, is trying to take it away. Religion is by far the premier example of this: Christian persecution complex. Monotheistic religions have no rival in this category. The antebellum tradition of the pampered Southern Belle built upon the fictive pedestal of chasity, purity, and piety, but really racism and exploitation, penal institutions and poverty comes in an embarrassingly distant second, but it does keep the old gals fighting against their own interests, working for self-determination, or achieving anything close to ethical validity in this century.
I am, on the other hand, guardedly optimistic about the future of America because of the youth view of reality as evidenced by the youth support for Barack Obama and a growing percentage of the under forty category leaving religion in the dumpster. We can only hope this wave continues. I also found some good news on youtube that, well, lifted my spirits, public discourse about the invalidity of using the book as a basis for moral ramifications in governmental applications, by Barack Obama. I thought it was quite good.
By the way, on a more personal note, most of my family is in Indiana and Oregon both of which have a history of being very conservative (remind me to tell you the story of how I ran away from home at four years old, think KKK, Christian nationalists, hypocritical evangelicals and anti-choice activists, those paramilitary survivalists that look like they ate the whole donut shop, the ever present antisocial tax cheats, capitalist anti-environmentalists, and almost every rightwing astroturf group who can find a Winnebago), but according to the polls that I can find even Indiana is on the fence. Could this be due to me IMing my opinion to the "clan" every chance I get, or ...
Can the privileged plutocrats be out of believable lies? Perhaps there are fewer stupid people in this country. Could the internet be having a positive effect?
I have spent many quiet moments in contemplation questioning why people believe what they believe and why they don't accept facts, and science. I highly recommend a book by Robert Wright, The Moral Animal: Why we are the way we are (1994). I might also recommend Consciousness Explained, by Daniel C. Dennett (1991). While both of these books can be useful to explain why one would believe in superstitions, even the superstitions of bronze age desert goat herders, they are mostly concerned with the evolutionary mechanisms (Wright), of why and how one perceives our world (Dennett). These institutionalized systems of superstitions and religious doctrines which are actually fabricated from many stone and bronze age fears and were repurposed for the support of bronze and iron age tribal leaders, by those tribal leaders, are a form of psychological manipulation and emotional abuse. Manipulation and abuse through these fears and myths are actually the answer to the question. That this answer, too, is the source of plutocratic power and at the heart of submission to tyrannical personality cults of the religio-political socioeconomic persuasion throughout the history of human society tells us what is changing and what must be chastised as unethical. The good news is that our evolved psychology also plays a central roll in our disappointment in people who succumb to fear too readily. This humility is usually felt by the fearful when manipulative lies are exposed.
But anyway, my readers should know that Republican Confederates find the need to use the same "propagate the fear" tactics used by tyrants, religionists, warmongers, racists, and nationalists for millennia then capitalists for the last couple of centuries. I guess you are who you hang out with, or emulate. The ridiculous claims of Republicans about Democrats, including Sen. Barack Obama, have only shown me that I was absolutely correct in categorizing them as a domestic enemy.
