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How To Destroy the Government in Three Easy Steps
In eight short years, conservatives have effectively bankrupted many state governments and left the fed in shambles. And now citizens have to "make tough decisions" and share the suffering equally across the land (unless of course, you're part of that lucky 1% who co-opted the functions of government to serve their own ends... they'll be cozy with their offshore bank accounts, golden parachutes, and permanent tax holidays).
Are you a teacher who educates our future citizens? Too bad. You've got to tighten your belt and let that job go. Manual laborer? Sorry but that job can earn more money for our shareholders if its done in Micronesia. Need a college degree? Prepare for indentured servitude because you'll be working to pay us off for most of your adult life. Health care? Ha! That's just a ponzi scheme dreamed up by a bunch of socialists.
Ever wonder how conservatives did all this?
Well here's your very own how-to manual for getting Big Government out of the way so you and your buddies can horde all the wealth to yourselves and build your empire.
Step 1: Blame the Individuals
Every battle has to have two sides, so you'll need to divide the people against each other. This means that you'll need to declare that "there's no such thing as society" and focus the entire debate on the faults of individuals.
Enron screwed people over? That's just a few bad apples. The business news a lap dog for corporate excess? That's just Jim Cramer doing his thing. The economy in shambles? That's just George W leaving his legacy.
And of course the housing crisis is the fault of greedy buyers. Industry can't do right for us because of that welfare queen. And government can't serve the people because of that corrupt politician and his special interest crony.
Get the people talking about individuals and it'll be easy to blind them to the public infrastructure they depend on. You don't want anyone to make a peep when we gut the schools, defund public works, and empty out the treasury. Those problems will just be fodder to throw at the sorry Democrat we'll blame when the fit hits the shan.
Step 2: Cut Taxes
Now that you've gotten everyone bickering about each other (and ignoring us), you can get to work dismantling the government. All you have to do is cut taxes. Yes, it's that simple. One move and you get all the benefits of (1) weakening every social program; (2) making government services inadequate; (3) setting the stage for calling out "waste" and inefficiencies (more of that blame game!); (4) keeping your richest friends from ever having to pay for the infrastructure they exploit to make all that money; (5) getting nonprofits and opposition leaders in the government (progressives... eck!!) to spend all their precious resources fighting to keep things in the budget; and (6) outsourcing government operations to your buddies in the corporate world so they can profit from them.
This one move is strategic. It does all the work for you.
And when life starts looking dire, you get opportunities you never dreamed possible in a democracy.
Step 3: Exploit Disaster
If you've managed to accomplish steps 1 and 2, people will be in a panic. And we all know that panicky people make rash decisions. Now is your chance to push that unpopular agenda through the cracks - disaster capitalism at its best!
Remember how we tricked the populace into an illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq to secure oil revenues? That wouldn't have happened if people weren't scared out of their wits by the fright of terrorism. Think people would have gone for No Child Left Behind and allowed tests to replace learning in the classroom? We had to fabricate a crisis (which took years of hard work to create) to push that one through. And you know that there's no way we could take away so many civil liberties with the Patriot Act if the debate was drawn out for weeks under public scrutiny.
So there you have it. Three easy steps to destroy the government.
If you're an overachiever (you know who you are!), you might even try giving away billions to your buddies in the banking industry when the bottom falls out. Or consider no-bid contracts to our old pals in the energy and defense sectors when no one is looking. Or, and this takes some special skill, you might call any efforts to "increase revenues" just another example of irresponsible spending that got us into this mess in the first place.
Note 1: Take care that progressives don't ever learn about this strategy. It could be nullified and made ineffective by exposing our agenda, allowing people to organize, or letting government work well enough for people to start thinking that government isn't inherently bad and (gasp!) that it might be useful for something other than empire-building.
Note 2: Want a more detailed discuss of how these ideas were so successfully implemented? This excellent series by Sara Robinson will help you learn how to take over the common sense of an entire culture: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Note 3: Not satisfied with this strategy? Maybe you'll want to build a different kind of politics that works in another way.
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58 Comments so far
Show AllThis article doesn't tell us anything that we didn't already know but I really enjoy the way that Brewer expresses it. You have to admire those folks who can so articulately reduce complex situations to their ugly, bare essentials.
I'm moved to paraphrase Pope.
"Truth is nature completely undressed,
What we all thought but no one expressed."
While Alexander spins in his grave, we need to call out the republicans for the utter hypocrisy of their obstructionism. They are like a drunken man who sets his house on fire and then stands on the lawn and criticizes the firemen who try to put it out.
I'm more than willing to admit that the Dems are not entirely blameless in fostering the current depression but the thruh is that the republicans have been the prime movers in creating this disaster.
q
Progressives not only learned of the strategy, they elected Obama to continue it by repainting and relabelling the neocon programs and institutions with populist facades.
That doesn't seem like a useful definition for progressive. It seems more coherent to define progressive as far left, i.e. support for 100% distribution of human fulfillment. This way we can put socialist at center-left (something like 80% distribution of fulfillment), liberal at center-right (20% distribution of fulfillment), and conservative at far right, 0% distribution (total concentration for "king of the hill").
If we look at the progressive platform, e.g. the Green party platform, we see 100% distribution of fulfillment designed into that. It's the people's choice, verified in poll after poll. Likewise, if we look at the socialist platform we see full human fulfillment minus the people's submission to the state, thus only 80% fulfillment. If we look at the liberal platform, we see various protections for human rights but also mass enslavement of the people to elites thus only 20% fulfillment.
The O'Bama admin is liberal, pursuing a mere 20% for the people. 20% looks great in comparison with 8 years of zero, but we progressives are pursuing 100% fulfillment for the people.
"- This is a meaningless observation, since the Republicans are almost always the prime movers of EVERYTHING, while the Dems are the prime movers of NOTHING."
Oh, yeah, right. Like those great republican policies that gave us social security, medicare, medicaid, head start, decent working conditions for workers, maternal leave, vacations, the 40 hour work week, unemployment insurance, and that is just for starters. Yes, the republicans gave us all those things: NOT. In fact, they fought against every one of those things, and it was only the democratic majority that we had for 40 years that gave us ANY of them.
Republicans, on the other hand, HAVE given us a few things. 2 Depressions, a vast unregulated society, a for profit prison system, tax cuts for the rich in a time of war, not to mention the war itself, a wealth disparity that hasn't been seen in 80 years, prohibition, and NO health care in spite of it coming up several times over the last half decade.
Yeah, I just LOVE how those republicans have given us so much. They have hardly screwed us at all, have they? Do YOU have some relearning to do. Republicans don't give anything, they take it away and give it to the already wealthy.
The NEW DEAL programs like the GREAT SOCIETY programs (which were really just an extension of the NEW DEAL) were not given to the American people as a gift by FDR. It was in response to the collapse of the economic system which had been destroyed by the economic doctrines of the "roaring 20s." Government was once again responding to something outside itself. During this period incidentally, the government waged a major war on labor which was beginning to organize itself again and finally did succeed in winning some of its goals but not after enormous popular struggle and many casualties. With enough popular struggle from below governments can respond to the interests of the public -- it's never easy but it is a must.
and how are those New Deal/Great Society programs faring now? oh yeah, the dems are real gangbusters for keeping those programs alive and well.
"WJM - your indignation is ridiculous. Today's Democrats have about as much in common with New Deal Democrats as Bush/Cheney Republicans have in common with Abe Lincoln's Republicans. The times are different, & the parties are different. Only the name is the same. Today's Democrats deserve no credit for what FDR did. (By the way, FDR would probably puke if he could see today's Democrats.)"
I have no disagreement there. But what you think you ssaid is not what came across in reading your post. Your implication was that republicans are the only party that ever does anything. In fact, you said that outright.
As to today's democrats, you are right. They are useless, and are being led by two of the most useless people to ever hold their positions. Pelosi in specific should have been driven out of office during the last electin, and I sincerely hope that she is in the next one. She is a completely useless obstructionist who I suspect is taking republican money to be such. Ried is a wimp, with no understanding of his own position and the power it entails. Getting rid of the two of them would open up the possibility of actually doing something for the benefit of the people of the country.
I am a registered independent and have been ever since I first started voting, many years ago. I don't trust democrats, but I detest republicans. It was the republicans who declared war on the people of this country for the benefit of big money, and I watched it happen. I couldn't believe that it wasn't being called out at the time, and I can't believe that it's only now finally being pointed out, 28 years later.
Do I denounce the republicans? You bet. And anything that tries to make them look like anything other than a party of traitors to the citizens of the country. And I will continue to do so. They deserve far worse than I can give them.
"You write, "Republicans don't give anything, they take it away and give it to the already wealthy."
- You're right. And Democrats help them do it."
And that is because during the Reagan era they started listening to the republicans and believing their lies. So yes, they did go along with it. So those of us who haven't changed our opinions of the stupidity of things like Reagan's Alzheimer's economic policies have our work cut out for us in trying to undo the damage and change their minds. I always come back to Ben Franklin, who said that "If 50,000 people believe a foolish thing, it is STILL a foolish thing". If all of congress believes in stupidity, it's still stupidity. I am for the removal of ALL of them and let's start over with a whole new bunch, along with actual public financing of all elections and removal of Corporate "rights" to influence elections. Until the corporations are separated from that power, we can argue all we want about things, but nothing is going to change at all.
Oh, let me kneel and lift my ass to the sky so that those big butch Republicans can fuck me again. Spank me, spank me!
Don't forget, that drunken man is pissing straight into the fire he started, and claiming to put it out.
Step 4: Make sure everyone says the Democrats are equally to blame for all the Republican screw-ups, so we'll just keep going in circles forever.
Forgiving the Neocons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAmCddr6PDE
not everyone says that, not by far. that's the great dupe of american politics, which joe brewer consistently reinforces, that democrats are not fully co-authors of the mess we are in. they were in power for 8 years under clinton, were enuff in power under reagan and the bushes to stop the more egregious abuses (massive social inequality and rampant militarism), and did nothing.
they are 100% equally responsible. if you only cared to examine their actions, rather than being suckered by their cheap rhetoric.
belief that democrats are different is what keeps the cycle going forever.
(and here comes joe brewer to call me a troll, a cynic, etc., etc., in 3....2.....1)
Washington DC is a two-man con and I'm glad regular Joes on both sides of the aisles are waking up to this indisputable fact. But it's a hard fact to face, because it means THERE IS NO POLITICAL SOLUTION TO OUR CRISES. People don't want to contemplate their responsibilities under these conditions.
I am glad to see a comment from you with which I can agree. I have been trying to make a similar point in a subtle fashion at CD for some time.
Step 4: Make sure everyone says the Democrats must be faithfully supported by We the People because they truly oppose rather than enable Republican screw-ups, so we'll just keep going in circles forever.
___________________________________________
Fixed the typo!
· Yr Obd't Servant
"In eight short years, conservatives have effectively bankrupted many state governments and left the fed in shambles."
Horsefeathers! Conservatives did this all by themselves did they? There are many liberal and Democratic state government's that are effectively bankrupted and they had plenty of help at the Federal level.....California was put where it is by Conservatives?
Lets not be dishonest about who is to blame. Neocons and the Republican Conservative's....absolutely.....all by themselves....not so. In fact the Conservative states are not in as bad a shape when you look as I just did.
If we aren't honest, we are no better than the Neocons.
Moore 9:56 --------- Alternative Scenario -------- Democratic States were targeted ---------- as was the Democratic Alabama Governor arrested and put in solitairy confinement on Roves orders. -------- Think about it.
democratic states were targeted? what do you mean? (no doubt about the gov. of alabama, that's for sure. but was this a widespread phenomenon?)
Democrats can also be conservatives.
Also, the current governor of California is a Democrat?
Is he? What happened to Shwartzenpecker? I haven't been paying attention obviously.
That was sarcasm.
Really? I thought he was an Austrian.
About conservatives:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Society/Conservatives_Deconstruct.html
California absolutely was bankrupted and put in its current mess by conservatives. Proposition 13 and similar laws and tax cuts have been turning CA into a virtual 3rd world country for decades. Enron and the massive brownout-bailout-sellout of 'Gov. Gray' are just another example of disaster capitalizing.
That is not to say the Democrats are innocent. As said, most Democrats are also conservatives, and they have played their part in the psychological system that is the corporate-party oligarchy we have created. Governments do things well, provide needed services and stay solvent when the people participate fully and wisely and the governments are not being destroyed from within and without by unconscious radical right wing corporate socialist pseudo-individualists. But you're right; if we're not honest we're no better than the Neocons.
raydel;
Hope your post provokes a range of opinions,at age 66,I've gone full circle politically,from my first vote for Goldwater-to now being a socialist with no confidence in Obama. If we don't quickly adopt as many Nativist practices as we can.my grandkids are going to be coping with truly Hellish conditions,or even be gone;and not with the Left Behind loonies.
My dad now close to 80, is a dyed in the wool republican and man I wish YOU could talk to him to make him "come full circle" -- god knows I've tried to no avail!
To (mis)quote Winston Churchill: a man who is not a liberal in his twenties has no heart; a man who is not a conservative in his forties has no brain; (to which I add) a man who is not a liberal in his sixties has no soul.
I was also a Goldwater Republican in my college years, then a liberal as Vietnam wore on. I have voted with no party for some time and now won't even bother to vote at all since realizing that the whole election thing is just theater for the masses. I'm not sure how to classify myself anymore..maybe I'm a social anarchist. All I know is that unless we stop the corporations, there is absolutely no hope for humankind.
The real gem - in this mostly bullshit article - is in Note 1:
"government... might be useful for something other than empire-building."
This is what should define a true progressive: using government for needs of the people, not its rulers. And it doesn't count if you try to do both. After all, Hitler built the Autobahn. If he had also delivered free health care - yet continued military adventurism - would he have justly been hailed a "progressive" leader?
Whether you're a Republican initiating wars, or a Democrat ensuring they continue, the obscene amount of aid drained from opportunities at home is inexcusable. The Obama Deception is as bad as the Bush Gang.
i think you need some serious training in joe brewer's "cognitive distortion works" or whatever it's called to see the profound differences b/n the humanitarian impulses of obama bombing pakistan and bush's imperialist ones......
"HUMANITARIAN impulses of Obama bombing Pakistan"?
I think you must have graduated from the Cognitive Distortion Works.
sorry. i failed the course completely, w/ a score of ZERO ;)
No, seriously--what are those "humanitarian impulses" of Obama???
I agree that "the Obama Deception is as bad as the Bush Gang but what I disagree w/you on is what you seem to take issue with: "government might be useful for something other than empire building." Governments are not inherently bad nor are they inherently friendly institutions. However, government is the ONE arena that can be forced to respond to the will of the people. This of course, depends on mass popular movements. When you have a well-informed public (which unfortunatley, we do not), class consious of its own needs such as the building of a national health care system, a desent public school system, well kept roads, public parks, etc. In sum a public that recognizes its own power and knows that it has the ability to force government to respond to ITS needs rather than the needs of the elite, then and only then can you say that you have a government by and for the people. Governments have responded to public pressure as we have seen with the civil rights movement (not to say that racism doesn't still exist), the worker's movement, the women's movement, etc. What can't be pressured to respond to the public interest like government can is the private sphere. Corporations for instance, where all power lies at the top and are wholey unaccountable to the public -- "private tyrannies" as Prof. Noam Chomsky has referred to them. This is why the ruling elites are always denouncing "big government" because they know it is the one area that can be influenced in the interests of the public. But again, this depends on mass popular movements. The war in Vietnam was stopped (much too late of course) due in part to the popular antiwar movement. With enough mass popular pressure we can force the government to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, force the government to respond to our economic needs, etc. None of this is easy, for you need a well informed public able to see through the lies that the mass media perpetrate as well as organizing from the bottom up. We can't wait for saviors like Obama to do it for us because it's not going to happen. Only WE the people, can achieve these goals and make government respond. The government does not inherently have to be an empire as it is today and as you seem to indicate it must. Incidentally, this government was founded as an empire. Washington referred to this new government as a "nascent empire" as he and all the rest of the founders were imperialists to begin with. It doesn't have to remain that way. We have the power to change it. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
Sioux Rose
DAVE T: You name the solution, rebirth of "We, the people" clause; while also naming the obstacle or liability: it (that public) is NEITHER informed nor (as a result of this status) unified. What many Americans can't conceptualize through their minds analytically, they may well sense through their stomachs (hunger) or pocketbooks (too many bills that can't get paid given the costs of things relative to personal wages or incomes).
All these trillions sprinkled on bankers like fairy dust (FED funds being "printed") will indeed inflate our money supply. Like so many oxymorons rendered policy in a land that makes war in the name of peace, our "leaders" may say they are NOT inflating the money supply, but what other name better fits what is ACTUALLY underway?
Sioux, I'm not quite sure if you are disagreeing w/my thesis which is simply that WE THE PEOPLE have the power to make governments respond to our needs. It certainly is not something that can be done overnight but with popular organizing we can achieve goals that are in the interests of yes, WE, THE PEOPLE -- to use that phrase since it resonates so well with anyone who has had a civics class. My main argument is that while yes, this government -- probably the only one in history -- was founded, as Washington referred to it, as a "nascent empire" that could only survive through continuous expansion and has obviously brought untold suffering on the people of this planet, it doesn't have to remain as such. Through popular organizing we can get government to respond to the interests of the many and not simply the few, as is the case today and has been since this countrys founding. What we can't do is wait for daddy-like saviors such as Obama to do it for us. The power resides with us.
Not as long as we have a two party system.
"government is the ONE arena that can be forced to respond to the will of the people."
Your word in Gawd's ear.
I said it in another blog: DEMOCRACY IS THE TOOL of the two party corporate oligarchy that manages the profit and wealth flow for a small elite.
Have a close look all over the world. Isn’t it amazing that in most countries it is pretty much the same that there has been a two party system established which plays tennis with the citizens’ votes, draining all chance for a radical change of ways, which is desperately needed. The intelligentsia of a system, clued up enough to make sense of the mess and to have the education to see alternatives, is in the minority. The voting masses are kept in convenient ambivalence with welfare payments, games and survival struggle.
Democracy is the tyranny of a few cunning circles that use the stupidity of the masses. The world would need a benevolent altruistic and humanistically inclined ‘King’ with wisdom, integrity and foresight. But you can’t always get what you need when you get what you want. For the time being.
The world political systems would need a total remodeling of democratic mandate formation. The right to vote should require a minimum historic and political knowledge. Because why, and I ask you in all seriousness, should millions of gullible ignorami, appeaseable with banal consumerism, have a right to decide on the fate of this planet?
Yes, the Constitution and Bill of Rights is a good way to start. In Benjamin Franklin’s times half of the Wall Street gangsters, half of Congress, half of all bankers and most lobbyists would have been tarred and feathered, the other half would have formed chain gangs.
As in any crises, a total collapse seems requisite for catharsis to eventuate fundamental change. One does not need to be a pessimist to see the writing on the wall.
Dante put it nicely.
In the Divine Comedy Dante passes through the gate of hell, which bears an inscription, the ninth (and final) line of which is the famous phrase "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", or "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here".
Before entering Hell completely, Dante and his guide see the Opportunists (=above-mentioned gullible halfwits, appeaseable with banal consumerism), souls of people who in life did nothing, neither for good nor evil. Mixed with them are outcasts who took no side in the ‘Rebellion of Angels’. These souls are neither in Hell nor out of it, but reside on the shores of the Acheron, their punishment to eternally pursue a banner (i.e. self interest) while pursued by wasps and hornets that continually sting them while maggots and other such insects drink their blood and tears. This symbolizes the sting of their conscience and the repugnance of sin.
I wonder what will go on in hell, the party room for the corporate oligarchy.
Democracy, in its current form, is the tyranny of the ignorant majority and will bring down this planet.
If you call something 'bullshit' take the time to explain.
And Hitler DID deliver public health care. Further, he was a 'progressive' leader in that he discontinued the enduring squeeze on the German people by international finance after WW1 . And who was then (and still is to a big part today) at the core of Western finance? ???
As for the rest of your comment I agree.
Of course there was the little matter of The Final Solution, not to mention the other little thing-the conquest of Europe. Otherwise Hitler was an OK guy.
How To Destroy the Government in Three Easy Steps
1. George
2. Wanker
3. Bush
If there were three easy steps that would destroy the Federal Government, I'd be off so fast I'd leave a Roadrunner-esque dust cloud hanging in the air for hours.
How To Destroy the Government in Three Easy Steps
1. Elect Republicans
2. Elect Democrats
3. Rinse & Repeat
· Yr Obd't Servant
Right on!
I remember an article on here some months ago that explained the conservative agenda of running up huge debts and deficits so that when liberals take power, they are unable to enact social programs and progressive agendas because there is no money for them. This all seems like part of that plan, except Obama doesn't seem to be letting the lack of money stop him from doing what's needed.
Funding education, maybe interior, regulatory agencies better, spending money to start transition to a new healthcare coverage system. Surely adequately funding government departments and agencies is needed, minus on Defense?
It's all like giving poor little Oliver another bowl of gruel at last. Too little too late.
Yes, I'd like to know that myself. Please enlighten the uniformed.
The author mentions "disaster capitalism at its best." Naomi Klein's great book THE SHOCK DOCTRINE: THE RISE OF DISASTER CAPITALISM is a great read for all who wish to understand how the ruling elites are able to push through unpopular programs during times of crises or "disasters" be they economic, political or natural. The ideas for what eventually become unpopular programs are lying around in the minds of the ruling elite so that when something like, let's say hurricane Katrina occurs or 9/11 the elite can then ram through all of these programs on an uninformed and fearful populace. Just take a look at the Patriot Act -- so-called -- something like this would never have passed without the disaster of 9/11. Incidentally, Naomi has a website with lots of great info: declassified government documents, interviews, blogs, articles she has written, videos and more at "shockdoctrine.com"
The guy who said he wanted the gov. to be so small and weak he could drown it in a bath tub was an ex leftist who turned on us and found salvation in the Almighty Dollar. Yea I'm pissed at the Dems. but the Repub.s make me sick with their whining that Obama hasn't cured cancer yet or found a solution for cold fusion. Where the hell were they when their people were raping this country and why the hell aren't we up in arms about this crap. The country is being left to our children (I'm 65) and I'm not too happy with the way things have turned out no matter how hard we all have worked against the Repub. machine. I keep seeing where the revolution is going to start but it is always later. Maybe we need to take back the ballot boxes and press f or laws to delegalize corporations as persons (1869 I believe) and press for laws that make lobbying a criminal offense no matter who the hell you are. We need to take over our local politics first and then move to the states then to the U.S. Revolution without guns just the ballot box. Yea I know I hear voices too.
It's unfortunate that the greedy Repughs have held sway for so long instead of the greedy Dumbnuts. It was a time when corporations should have lost their human status, when lobbying should have been regulated and curtailed, when ballot boxes should have been made secure from tampering. Then we might have avoided the revolution it's gong to take to change anything. That's revolution as in bloody rebellion and making criminals (corporate and congressional thiefs, not marijuana smokers) swing from lamp-posts so that the couch potatoes who manage to tear themselves away from Everyone Loves Raymond and American Idol can see the results of stealing from taxpayers. The ballot box hasn't seemed to help much. Both brands seem to taste much the same. I don't just hear voices, I hear shrieks and moans as well. Oh, and I'm 68.
God, if people can't see just how corrupt the Big Two are by now, let alone the system, there's no hope.
They'd all better hope Jesus doesn't come back. He would kick ass and take names. They'd crucify him again. He'd be a dangerous subversive instead of the warrior of intolerance the Right has made him out to be.
Did he or didn't he exist? I don't care.
The elites are killing all the beasts, children, and the whole world we inhabit. And Barack Obama's just making these timid stands and measures to placate the angry populace to insure that they won't rise up.
Their machinations are complex, but the solutions, the antidotes are pretty simple and straightforward to me, not to mention ethical.
THIS is the free market unleashed, and no one currently in power seems to want to put the poor, rabid beast to sleep.
I'm ranting again. Whatever. Deal.