Freebird!

[Doctor Rock]

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkeflmkFCj0[/youtube]

[Mister Chaddy]

Thanks. 

[Doctor Rock]

Thanks. 

Oooo, smell the sarcasm! 

[Doctor Rock]

:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjxY9rZwNGU[/youtube]

[Bizarro]

There's one thing I find really puzzling... For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to express myself without much nuance:  how have the rich managed to convince so many that what the rich want is in the best interest of everyone?  I mean, it's so pervasive that even parties that used to be left of centre (like Labour and the Parti Quebecois) have gobbled it up!

Thomas Frank's book on how this trick was pulled off in Kansas is pretty amazing. This article on Salon gives an overview.

When the Democrats dropped any pretense of the working-class populism that had defined their decades-long reign as the majority party of the New Deal, veering first left (under George McGovern) and then right (under Bill Clinton) in search of various patchwork electoral coalitions, a vacuum was created at the grass-roots of American politics.

In the post-Reagan era of Rush, Hannity and O'Reilly, the right has filled that vacuum expertly. Its commentators and candidates have channeled the old working-class resentment against bankers and corporate fat cats into mistrust of an even more shadowy enemy, the "liberal elite" who are responsible, it seems, for mealy-mouthed P.C. rhetoric, foulmouthed rap music, Hollywood movies, teenage sex, school shootings, man-bashing feminism and a laundry list of other social ills, real or imaginary.

[Doctor Rock]

There's one thing I find really puzzling... For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to express myself without much nuance:  how have the rich managed to convince so many that what the rich want is in the best interest of everyone?  I mean, it's so pervasive that even parties that used to be left of centre (like Labour and the Parti Quebecois) have gobbled it up!

Thomas Frank's book on how this trick was pulled off in Kansas is pretty amazing. This article on Salon gives an overview. Short answer: they staked themselves out as the religious party that appealed to old-fashioned morals.

Yeah, but see, that only applies, I think, to the US.  Amongst the Quebec lefties I know, I pass for an extremist dinosaur because I dare to mention the word "class".  And the democrats aren't as bad as the repugs, but they, at least in theory, share the same basic economic principles of the repugs i.e. state intervention bad, dereg good; taxes bad, less taxes good; underinvestment in infrastructure, overinvestment in defence;  lock'em up and throw away the key approaches to law (heck, all major dem candidates are for the death penalty!), etc.  The dems have pretty much gobbled up (but maybe not to the same degree) the pro-rich stuff... My point is, the left (at least the moderate left) have adopted large swaths of economic policies that were, traditionally, right wing.  See Labour in the UK, for instance! 

[Doctor Rock]

So... Like Barack Obama's all "I will defeat you Hillary Clinton and steal the nomination forever ha ha ha" but Hillary Clinton knocks him down with her kung-fu action punch like KA-SMMEESSSSHH! but Obama's all "now I shall reveal my TRUE IDENTITY" an he turns into this evil cyborg dude here an fires his auto-launching arm missiles like KA-PEWW, KA-PEWW an then Godzilla an the Decepticons show up but Hillary Clinton fights em off with her laser breath an her robot pony friends an it's totally awesome an that's when the dinosaurs attack!

http://fafblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/audacity-of-hope.html

Is it over yet? 

[matthew]

I believe that part of it, and this may apply outside the US to varying degrees, is that historically states have been run by un-democratic systems governed by a wealthy oligarchy of some kind. As big as today feels, we are a drop in the bucket of time, and one only has to glance over hundreds and hundreds of years back to the days of kings, to recognize the struggle for real democracy as we generally think of it, is quite recent and has suffered a major series of defeats in the decades following WWII. The days are not that long past, as the world still retains several monarchies today.

Much of the 'convincing' has to do with exposure and the control of media and ideas. Alternate systems have been either quashed or rendered obsolete or voiceless or impotent by a news media run on a business model (this definitely applies in Canada, as our concentration of resources and media is more extreme than that of the US).

Blargh...I am going to have to come back to this after work.

see you later.

[captqitn]

ok. bye!

[Bizarro]

Realizing as I say this that I am one of the guilty parties here, for the sake of a fun, inviting daily thread, we may have reached the point where this should move into the Isle to Which We Banish the Political Talk.

[captqitn]

Ok.  Lets get back to pop matters then.


Saw the Orphanage this weekend.   meh.    It was beautifully shot and had a couple creepy thrills, but didn't really go anywhere new.

[Sabamah]

WE HAVE BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS IN OUR BASEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


 

[captqitn]

PLURAL?!?! 

[Sabamah]

!!!!!!!!!!THERE ARE TWO OF THEM AND THERE ARE ABOUT A BAJILLION EGG SACS BETWEEN THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!

[captqitn]

ACK!!!!

I recommend you just torch the house.