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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Meanwhile, over at the Greed Wing of the GOP

Posted by Jill | 5:43 AM

While the God Wing of the GOP is painting the fall election as one of Christian Triumphalism vs. Godless Decadence, the foot soldiers of the Greed Wing -- you know, those people who like to think they're just a grassroots, informal gathering of just-folks working Americans fed up with Washington, are being organized by a well-funded organization that operates out of...wait for it....Washington (DC):

Through its political action committee, FreedomWorks plans to spend $10 million on the midterm elections, on campaign paraphernalia — signs for candidates like Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida are stacked around the offices here — voter lists, and a phone system that allows volunteers to make calls for candidates around the country from their home computers. With “microfinancing” grants, it will steer money from FreedomWorks donors — the tax code protects their anonymity — to local Tea Parties.

[snip]

FreedomWorks was founded in 1984 as Citizens for a Sound Economy, which was financed by the Koch Foundation, the underwriter for many libertarian causes. In 2003, it hired as its chairman Dick Armey, the former Texas congressman and House majority leader who was a force behind the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress.

Of course the article tries to paint the money spent by the Koch billionaires to foster a plutocracy in which guys like them get more and more and more; and everyone else is crushed into serfdom as EXACTLY LIKE the money spent by unions to try to give the American worker some power, because we live in a media environment in which everything has to be "balanced" and "both sides" have to be heard, even when one side spouts facts and the other utter horseshit.

But perhaps the most disturbing part of this article is the idea of young teabaggers working in a place that has photographs of both Ronald Reagan and Jerry Garcia on the wall. To sane people, this is a diptych of opposites. But for some reason, the youngsters of FreedomWorks see a guy who announced his campaign in the town where three civil rights workers were murdered, who told lies about black welfare queens in Cadillacs to whip white people into a frenzy of rage so that they'd accept mass transfers of wealth upwards to the already-haves, who started us down the road on which we find ourselves in now, in which the casualties of greed are demonized by politicians; is perceived as EXACTLY THE SAME as a guy whose music may have been inspired by the roots music that represents the heritage of some of the most reactionary, theocratic, racist people in this country, but whose artistry spawned a TRUE grassroots movement of people who just wanted to make this country a better place for EVERYONE. Yup -- exactly the same.

But that's the Tea Party movement in a nutshell, isn't it? Appropriate the tactics, the symbols, the language of the left in an effort to make the world safe for plutocrats like the Koch brothers? And here are these busy bees, too fucking stupid to recognize that they are the frogs being slowly boiled alive, to be devoured later by the very people they're helping in a spicy jambalaya with fava beans and a nice chianti.

Labels: American Idiots, Teabaggers

2 comments

2 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Freedomworks: the serfs of tomorrow helping make their own chains today.

8/26/10, 3:06 PM

casey said...

Hello Jill,

I think that the substitution of jambalaya for liver makes a great alternative. Both are good but either one by itself would be boring. Time to hit other taste buds.

8/29/10, 1:32 PM