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Our National Sideshow
By Michael Bradley
Sometimes national events coalesce in a manner
that enables other domestic forces to move their own political goals, and that
is what has apparently happened this year as we endure an ongoing Republican
Sideshow.
Anyone who is involved in or who
follows national politics understands it is not hyperbole to say there is now a
powerful interlocking of right-wing interests. These interests are playing a
dynamic role in America during this election year, although many factors came
together to create this situation.
America has not had such a
partisan majority on the Supreme Court in many decades, perhaps extending back
to the years leading up to the Civil War. Nor has it had a Congress filled with
members willing to grind the nation to a standstill in order to fulfill agendas
that only vaguely reflect the actual interests of their constituents, and
certainly don’t represent the majority of Americans.
But there is a loose and
interconnected network of fabulously wealthy, reactionary-minded Americans who
not only applaud in the background, but also seek to facilitate the results in
the foreground. It is realistic to see their efforts behind the many months in
which political news has been all about the GOP, thanks to the amazing Sideshow
the Republicans continue to present.
It has been a parade of the
bizarre, following the footsteps of that strange GOP groundbreaker, Sarah Palin,
who set the stage by declarations like this one in an interview with Katie
Couric, where in attempting to explain why Alaska’s ‘proximity’ to Russia gives
her foreign policy experience, Palin declared:
"As Putin rears his head and comes into
the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It's
Alaska. It's just right over the border."
But now we have the following
words of wisdom from our national Sideshow, which is brought to us largely by
the hidden hands of wealthy plutocrats who are enjoying the carnival more than
the rest of us because it suits their interests, their desires and their
long-term goals.
Rick Perry: “I
don't want to look like
Connecticut, no offense, I don't want to look like Oklahoma, I don't want to
look like California. I want to be uniquely Texas. And that's not to diss
anybody else.”
Michelle Bachmann: “What
we should be teaching are the problems and holes. And I think there are legitimate problems and holes
in the theory of evolution. And what we need to do is to present those fairly
from a scientific point of view. And we should lay out areas in which the
evidence supports evolution and the areas in the evidence that does not.”
Rick Santorum: “Candidly,
I believe most corporations actually don't mind big government.”
Ron Paul: “Capitalism
should not be condemned, since we haven't had Capitalism.”
Newt Gingrich: “One of
the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't encourage
you to be nasty…I'm not a natural leader. I'm too intellectual; I'm too
abstract; I think too much.”
Herman Cain: “And
I'm here to tell you, the reaction that I'm getting around the country, people
are sick and tired of this word in Washington: compromise. This is why nothing
ever gets done.”
None of this bizarre Sideshow,
this political carnival, would take place if it weren’t for hidden money. Some
if not all of these candidates likely don’t understand just where and how their
financial support is provided, because thanks to the Supreme Court in its ruling
on “electioneering communications” through the Citizens United case, corporate
entities now have the rights of citizens. Those with vast fortunes and/or the
ability to develop Super Pacs, can now pour money silently and virtually
invisibly into a variety of campaigns. And today, as usual, it is the wealthy
hard-right that has the greatest ability to exploit such an opportunity, adding
it to their more traditional political systems, foundations.
Enter the Koch brothers
People like David and Charles
Koch, Richard Mellon Scaife, and their various supported foundations – The Cato
Institute, FreedomWorks, the Heritage Foundation, The American Enterprise
Institute – can find common ground with the John Olin Foundation, the Walton
Family Foundation and others as they are presented with such a new ability to
use the Supreme Court decision to put quiet muscle behind the current Sideshow.
This means that by clever
exploitation, the media, most especially the electronic media, will have
something to focus upon constantly in talking about national politics, and that
something will promote the Republican brand and dwarf the coverage of whatever
the current Democratic Administration may be accomplishing.
It doesn’t matter that the coverage often
reflects the strange and bizarre, because it keeps the brand in play while
exposing the electorate to a serious discussion of far-right concepts that might
otherwise be laughably dismissed.
Yet what will happen when its time to get
serious? That’s also simple: by early 2012 the carnival will be over and the
Sideshow will be dismissed in favor of a ‘serious’ Republican candidate, someone
who will look all the more presidential by contrast to the Sideshow candidates
that have been paraded unquestioningly in front of the nation by General
Electric, which owns NBC, and Walt Disney Corp., which owns ABC, and by National
Amusements, Sumner Redstone’s conglomerate that owns CBS and Viacom. And then of
course there is Fox News and the Rupert Murdoch influence.
The residue of the Sideshow, with its bizarre
viewpoints, will remain, seeping further into the conservative bedrock even as
more ‘presidential’ voices come to the fore. But who are these ‘more serious’
Republican candidates?
First the Bait
…
Mitt Romney of course has already been the
stalking horse for GOP seriousness. But flip/flopping Mitt, always seeking to
find the firmest ground in the GOP political swamp, inadvertently also served
the interests of the right-wing plutocrats; in so doing, Mitt likely missed his
opportunity to become the Republican candidate facing Pres. Barack Obama.
Mitt has become a vision of the GOP’s middle
ground, alienating the Koch brothers funded Tea Party. Mitt has also been the
one who sustained the scrutiny, vitriol and prejudice of those who fear a Mormon
president; he has taken all the hits. In so doing he’s served well the goals of
people he may or may not even know, but he will nonetheless be dispensable.
…then the
Switch
But the GOP has another candidate, one whose
impeccable resume, solid stance and reasonable voice differentiates him from all
the others; he has been largely kept behind the curtain during the Sideshow’s
public run.
“I was criticized at some level
within the Republican Party by those who say government should not be in the
economic development business at all. My response is that the only country I
know that doesn't have an economic development plan is Papua New Guinea,” Jon
Huntsman, Jr., recently said.
Jon Meade Huntsman, Jr., is the hidden dark horse that the
promoters behind the Sideshow have wanted to see ignored, held back. He is the
man with the sterling reputation, the truly presidential ‘look’ and the calm,
common sense rhetoric who has been conveniently ignored by the major media and
its focus on the Sideshow.
Huntsman has been steadily plowing the ground in New
Hampshire. After he announced his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination
in June, 2011, he has carefully taken a different path from all other Republican
candidates. He made no secret of it. Jon Huntsman candidly told the media he
would focus all his energy in New Hampshire, the first primary state.
He has lived up to his promise, moving himself and his
organization into the Granite State and, remarkably, becoming the ‘underground’
candidate; yet that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been visible! Huntsman has been on
every public stage with the Republican Carnival. But he has been virtually
ignored by the major media, even though when he has spoken his comments have
been consistently organized, filled with common sense, reason and old fashioned
Republican values. The media nonetheless has focused on ‘front-runners’ and the
unusual, which given the circumstances might be revealing as a way to keep the
actual candidate behind the curtain.
No major media outlet has tried to determine just what
Jon Huntsman and his organization are doing or accomplishing in New Hampshire,
where they have been spreading their message for nearly half a year. This is in
itself remarkable and should be a reason to scrutinize the media. Huntsman is
not some fringe candidate!
Jon Huntsman is
the candidate that the Obama Administration fears the most!
He has the most untarnished, sterling reputation. A
two-time governor of Utah who was elected by landslides, he was a White House
staffer for Ronald Reagan and was appointed by George H.W. Bush as Asst.
Secretary of Commerce and then as Ambassador to Singapore. He served as a Trade
Representative under Bush the younger, guiding China and Taiwan into the World
Trade Organization, WTO.
Re-elected governor of Utah in 2008 with almost 78% of
the vote, he also served as chairman of the Western Governors Association. But
in August, 2009, he resigned his positions and accepted an appointment from
Barack Obama as the U.S. Ambassador to China. He successfully held that position
until he resigned in late spring of this year to announce his candidacy for the
GOP nomination.
Additionally, Huntsman is a wealthy man whose father
is the billionaire owner of the Huntsman Corporation.
So why would such a fascinating man with such a
remarkable track record not engage the interest of the media, large and small?
This may be a question that will haunt all Americans in the months ahead as it
is very likely that Jon Meade Huntsman, Jr., will reap the rewards of his quiet
work in New Hampshire and emerge victorious from that all important, early
primary, after which the Sideshow will be forgotten and all the media attention
will be on this serious, prestigious Republican candidate.
Such is the silent and hidden power of the GOP
plutocracy as it moves toward the dream of a fully realized oligarchy in the
U.S., helped immeasurably by the Supreme Court’s decision to
grant corporations citizen status, allowing money to flow unobstructed behind
the scenes, coloring American politics red.
Nov. 20, 2011
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