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Why OWS Is the Next Republican Boogeyman
The Boogeyman is dead, and Santa is dying.
The Republicans have been, since the 1930s, the party of the Boogeyman. They led the fear-based crusades against Communists, first with the Blacklist, then Joe McCarthy’s hearings, then the twin fears of Communist Mao and the Communist USSR. With the death of the Soviet Union, and the corporate embrace of still-Communist China, 9/11 let them turn their fears to “radical Islam.”
But when President Obama killed Bin Laden, it took the steam out of their movement. And to make matters worse, Obama had earlier gone to Egypt and said, in essence, “Tear down these dictators!” – helping spark the Arab Spring and totally deflating the Republican fear machine, which now sputters along on the fringes trembling about Bachmann’s gays, Santorum’s fertilized eggs, and Perry’s immigrants. The likelihood of Mormon Romney’s presidential candidacy means they can’t even add “God” to their traditional “Gays, Guns, and God” trinity of GOP fears.
Without something or someone to be afraid of, the Republicans are truly lost, wandering in the wilderness. And no matter how hard they try to gin up fear of the “dreaded deficit bomb,” it just doesn’t make Americans jump the way the USSR’s nukes did two generations ago, or 9/11 did a decade ago. So now they’re trying to whip up fear of the Occupy Wall Street folks, but so far OWS has the sympathy of average Americans; it’s just not working for the Republicans.
But the Democrats aren’t doing much better.
Back in 1976, Republican strategist Jude Wanniski invented the phrase “supply side economics” and then proposed his famous “Two Santa Clauses theory” to sell it.
Democrats, he said, had always been the party of Santa – bearing gifts to the American people like unemployment insurance, Social Security, Medicare, the 40-hour workweek, safe workplaces, clean air and water, and the minimum wage. What the American people needed, they got – and they got it from the Democrats playing the role of Santa.
The Republicans, Wanniski pointed out, had always been the anti-Santa party, saying “No” to virtually every single “Santa gift” Democrats wanted to give to the American people, for over a century.
But, Wanniski reasoned, if the Republicans could become Santas themselves – give the American people an annual gift – and at the same time could force the Democrats to stop being Santas (in Wanniski’s words, “force the Democrats to shoot Santa”), then the Democrats would be neutralized and Republicans could win elections.
His strategy was simple, and picked up virtually from Day One by the Reagan administration in 1981: When Republicans are in the White House, cut taxes dramatically (particularly on the rich, but talk about the tax cuts to working people), while also jacking up spending to bubble-stimulate the economy and make it look like the good times are flowing. And when Democrats are in the White House, block all tax increase and spending measures while screaming hysterically about the “debt bomb,” forcing austerity and economic pain for everyday Americans.
Reagan dutifully ran up more debt in 8 years than every president from George Washington to Jimmy Carter – combined. And he spent those borrowed trillions, which bubble-pumped the economy and made people think he had some wonder-cure economic patent-medicine.
Herbert Walker Bush followed Reagan’s lead, adding trillions more to the debt and throwing in a war for good effort.
When Clinton came in, the “Debt Bomb!” screams began, so Clinton dutifully shot the Santa Claus of “welfare as we know it” and kneecapped “the era of big government.”
George W. Bush put Wanniski’s program on steroids, giving the most massive Republican Santa tax-cut for billionaires in history, while borrowing almost $6 trillion and spending it all so fast, stretching the bubble so hard, that it actually popped in the last year of his presidency.
For three decades, Wanniski’s strategy has worked brilliantly for Republicans and their rich donors, with the added bonus of largely wiping out the once-politically-active and pesky unionized middle class. Three Republican presidents ran the nation’s debt up to such incredibly high levels that President Obama is now talking about shooting Santa Claus – this time, cutting Medicare and other benefits.
But Wanniski hadn’t figured on the collapse of the USSR when he put forth his theory, so now both parties are politically impotent. Republicans can’t convince Americans to be terrified anymore, given that Obama’s pretty handily (and cheaply) chopped the head off Al Queda, the Republican’s most recent boogeyman. And Democrats can’t play Santa Claus any more because the Republicans ran up so much debt, and taxes are so low, there’s no way to get enough money to revive Santa.
It’s going to make for a fascinating electoral season, as Republicans try to gin back up any fear card they can find because, to their chagrin, nobody’s really all that afraid anymore of gays, communists, or Muslims. Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to revive Santa Claus, but Republicans in the House and Senate are successfully blocking their efforts to raise the taxes on rich people and corporations necessary to bring Santa back to life.
So – at least for the moment – it’s dueling straw men.
Republicans are telling their base the next boogeyman is “Occupy Wall Street,” and using GOP TV (aka “Fox News”) and a well-funded punditocracy to push out the message. Democrats are repeatedly – but unsuccessfully – bringing before Congress proposals to revive Santa, with unemployment insurance extensions; jobs for infrastructure, teachers, and cops; and free healthcare for the growing class of the working poor via Medicare. But the American people – at least so far – actually like the OWS movement (even Republicans!), and the last election stripped Obama of the electoral advantage needed to actually pass Santa Claus legislation.
Which is why the electorate seems largely asleep, and political discussions seem vapid.
Barring another attack on America before November 2012, or the OWS movement turning violent, Republicans have lost their boogeyman. And so long as Tea Party control of the House of Representatives remains unbroken, Democrats have lost access to their Santa Claus.
Wanniski and Reagan are dead, but their legacy – and strategy – lives on…
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72 Comments so far
Show AllThom Hartmann believes that "Democrats can’t play Santa Claus any more" in order to pay for the social programs in this country because of the debt that the United States has accumulated over the years. It is surprising that a bright guy like Hartmann does not recognize that one of the best ways to substantially decrease the debt is to significantly cut the military budget and to eliminate the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The church allows people to believe that they can be good Christians and yet draw dividends from armament factories, can be good Christians and yet imperil the well-being of their fellows by speculating in stocks and shares, can be good Christians and yet be imperialists, yet participate in war."-Aldous Leonard Huxley [1894-1963], English writer
Well, for one thing, Thom isn't particularly bright. The "Two Santa Clauses Theory" is one of the few things he's capable of talking about, and it isn't even his own idea. And for another, where is Thom's condemnation of the notion that the Dims can't even play Santa Claus any more? Not that I'd expect that from a dim Dim shill like Thom Hartmann.
Anybody who isn't afflicted with denial syndrome realizes that Obama's massive corporate welfare programs make him as much a corporate santa as his idol Ronny Raygun was. In order to pay for his corporate santa schemes, Obama now needs to gut the social programs that we have all been funding for the past 75 years.
Obama has made the GOP the boogeyman he needs to rationalize why any working class or poor American should vote for him.
Excellent revision. Oblahblah is no longer a Santa Claus for the American people -- but he is a Santa Clause for the corporate oligarchy. Hmm, just like the Rethug presidents.
You all are missing the point completely. The "Two Santas" story is about how, since 1980, Republicans have scammed their way into power and changed the rules, forcing the Democrats to play the new game or be irrelevant. And thus both Clinton and Obama are cornered into cutting social programs, thus "killing Santa" in the view of the GENERAL PUBLIC/RANK AND FILE VOTERS. Another point of the "Two Santas" story is that Republicans KNOW THAT STIMULUS WORKS because they've been using it for 30 years!
Comment readers: ignore the negative comments here! Thom Hartmann has been one of the loudest and clearest voices calling for abolishing corporate personhood. I challenge the commenters here to provide examples of Hartmann being an apologist for the Obama or the Democrats, without flagrant mis-quotes or quoting out-of-context... (I'm not really expecting much, as I suspect most of these posters to have moved on to their next smear target)
"Obedient Servant" and "Cygnus" : I have read your posts elsewhere and expected better from you. Perhaps you are corporate shills as well...
corvo sez: "Well, for one thing, Thom isn't particularly bright."
That simply isn't true. Leading with an ad hominem attack doesn't say much for your ability to make such a judgement.
"one of the best ways to substantially decrease the debt is to significantly cut the military budget and to eliminate the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan."
Absolutely right on the money. (no pun intended) Much military spending has nothing to do with defending our country.
"And to make matters worse, Obama had earlier gone to Egypt and said, in essence, 'Tear down these dictators!' – helping spark the Arab Spring and totally deflating the Republican fear machine"
Huh??? Thom Hartmann can't possibly be serious. The United States corporations and their servants (Obama, the Clintons, the Bushs, etc...), have no desire to see anything remotely resembling democracy in the Middle East. If Thom Hartmann is referring to Obama's Egyptian speech, he needs to re-read it and then think critically about what the rhetoric and euphemisms Obama was spewing really meant.
Hartmann is a rhetoric over action guy - obama can do everythng for the banksters and the elites and then give one somewhat populist speech which has ZERO chance of being implemented and thom starts cheerleading - "obama is Fdr - Obama is FDR!"
As someone here mentioned before - unfortunately the best predictor of obama's future actions are obama's past actions not FDR's for christ sakes!
Disengenious to the point of Dishonesty.
Actually, the tribal structure of most of the Muslim world is particularly resistant to corporate colonialism (ie keeping out Burger King, Coca cola, Wal-mart, etc), and a good argument can be made that the real conflict between "The West" and "Islam" is from the corporate world wanting to "open up" those "markets"... and "spreading democracy" sure makes a great cover
More Elite bafflegab defending the status quo.
Well put!
Thom continues to pound away and push the false two-party narrative lacing it with other fictions like Obama killed Osama. He is the radio guru to my Obamabot friends and family who don't get that propaganda is all about combining truth and lies, and who are stuck in a time-warp when it comes to Democrats ever giving a damn about serving the people. If I were going to make a list of for-real media bogeymen, Hartmann would definitely be on it.
Bogeyman: "A malevolent creature from folklore. Some of them are merely troublesome and rather harmless, but others are truly evil..."
"who don't get that propaganda is all about combining truth and lies". Yep. And virtually everyone who regularly watches MSM doesn't get this - but they think they do! Sigh (screaming). Helloooooo, I tell them: Billionaire stock holders own the media. Do you really think the information you get is not cleverly slanted to favor them over you? "Huh." Some days it feels like you're talking to goldfish... but I keep trying.
"dave gresham"
Talking to goldfish would certainly be less frustrating.
[posted in error]
Dear Abby Zimet:
Better Dim shills, please!
Regards, corvo
This *may be* the most vapid, dishonest, downright-stupid article Hartmann has ever written. CD might have spared him the disgrace of reprinting it. How embarrassing! Now I am done reading; I feel I may have harmed myself through mere exposure.
Like other pornography on the 'Net, just wash your hands after reading Thom.
Yeah, but this is really bad porn, and fraudulent besides. Like buying the DVD with all of the drop-dead-gorgeous stars on the front, only to find that the disc itself is a bunch of grainy old grindhouse loops featuring a bunch of desperate junkies.
A teaspoon of charcoal will help with the toxins.
Right on target, Stiv.
The late, great Phil Ochs had one of the best takes on liberal frauds like hartmann (some names might be obscure, but Ochs' theme is eternal):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u52Oz-54VYw
Elite bafflegab indeed. Great definition of the above article.
1. Obama giving a speech in Egypt DID NOT lead to the revolution!
That occured because bernanke is printing $ as fast as possible leading to sharp rises in food prices etc.........
2. The democrats and especially hartmann have their own Fear Card they play like a broken record - it's called the Republicans Are Coming!
In fact that is one of the Only Reasons hartmann can trot out to vote for the oilybomber. That and the Supreme Court nominations - and then he says that obama picked 2 'liberals' already. One of which was named to the federal bench by george bush sr and the other on the payroll of Goldman Sachs.
My answer to Hartmann - yea obama is playing 'chess' 12 steps ahead of evryone else - see by losing the house and senate, bailing out the criminal banksters and printing $ as fast as possible we get massive unemployment, and global unrest leading to a democratically based worldwide revolution! All according to the best laid plans of obama.
What a joke.
And CD prints this while still refusing to print an ampedstatus article - someone help me Why doesn't CD print some of those excellent articles? What am I missing?
Obummer is playing chess all right but he don't realize that he's one of the human chess pawns himself.
For Hartman to suggest that Obummer started the Arab Spring is outrageous. What does this guy smoke and drink?
The Dimocrats were equally responsible in giving us Alito and Roberts by not filibustering the nominations. Thom, if you think the Oily Bomber's gonna give us better Supreme Court Justices than the Repigs, you need to get more meds.
BTW Thom, Medicare is not a gift. It's paid for by people who eventually receive it.
What's with the Santa Claus analogy? It's our money! Where misguided government spending (greatly) exceeds tax revenues, the capital and credit involved are still based on the labor of the people, past and present.
Granted, a few "gifts" or "crumbs" back to the people from all that we provided over the decades would have made much better politics, but mercifully, Obama and the elite are not actually good politicians. Or, of course, we've reached the point where they don't have to (pretend to) care in the slightest about our opinion or welfare.
Santa Claus makes lists of kids who are naughty and nice.
Obama makes lists of Americans he wants killed without due process.
Santa Claus is not Thom's analogy here, it is the Republican's strategy from 1976! Get it yet? This is a history lesson, and an admonition against violent protest... & I suspect most of you are corporate plants, because the main thrust of most of Thom's books is abolishing corporate personhood & instituting a new model of "social-capitalism."
Thom should understand with absolute clarity that he's rejected completely in this comments section. If he has any remaining doubts all he has to do is read the responses from his last article CD posted.
Thom, do us all a favor and take your two party disinformation nonsense, which is the GREAT PROPAGANDA EVIL plaguing the country, and deposit it where ......
Even the most uninformed commenter on CD is light years beyond the Two Party CON peddled by sell-outs like Hartmann and understands the horrific damage this con has ravaged on our country and the world.
If you once had "friends" or followers in this comments section their current numbers are few or none.
Additional thanks Thom for taking the few hours of radio talk time given to liberals and destroying it with your Obama cheerleading.
Those who listen to your radio show are willing dupes. We are not.
Why isn't Obama opposing the Military Dictatorship in Egypt, Thom?
Egyptians Chant "Muslims Christians Are One" As Military Viciously Attacks Protesters:
AAA+++ Must Watch Video from The Real News Network:
http://tinyurl.com/5rp9463
Bizarre considering Obama and his bots are keeping the fear alive themselves.
Thom:
How is that different then the Democrats and you using the Republicans as the Boogeyman?
It is because of people like you saying "I will vote for Obama, no matter what he does" that he has no reason to represent the people in this country and if he loses, please take a look in the mirror for the blame. Can you imagine telling anyone there are no consequences for their behavior? Obviously not.
"The electorate seems largely asleep and the discussions seem vapid." The electorate are wide awake and an excellent example of vapid discussion is the above article.
Skipped the article, and just read the comments, which, as usual, are instructive and edifying. Can't read or listen to Thom Hartmann; his cheerleading for Obama is noxious and disempowering. I used to be a faithful listener to his radio show, but I finally got a clue.
Editors of CD: could we please have a moratorium on shills like Hartmann?
I did the same thing, didnt even bother to read the article, I just scrolled down to read the comments.
I used o listen to Thom, and I thought he was truly a progressive minded talking piece, but he made a comment that to this day still makes me sick, I think it went like this
"the only way to change things is thru the Democratic party"
That was an eye opener, especially after they did absolutely nothing when they had all the power.
I wish, hope that a third party that represents the social, and working classes emerges from the occupy movement, and I hope it happens fast, as we are streamlining to disaster .
Clearly, Santa is a paranoid schizophrenic who is convinced that the elves are demons and must be slaughtered before they impregnate the reindeers and thereby create a new breed of horned, flying demons who would sodomize Mrs. Claus in a secret religious ritual which would cause Santa's empire to decay and mold.
Thank goodness Thom Hartmann is here to mesmerize us into believing that Santa Democlaus is the only hope for the elves!
He sees you when you're sleeping,
He KNOWS when you're awake,
He KNOWS if you've been bad or good,
So be afraid to make your case.
You'd better watch out!
You'd better not pout!
You'd better not lie!
I'm telling you why,
Santa Claus is owning this clown.
Thom Hartman needs to read his own books.
He is a complete sellout.
Much like the other apologists who get pick up here: Katrina, Nichols, Maddox, Flanders, Heyden, et al... as I've said many time before the posters here have more progressive insight than Hartmann could ever dream of...
Santa isn't dead. Today he just visits the rich kids and gives them more and more goodies on top of the goodies they already have. And his "helpers" in Washington send the bill to the rest of us.
Mr. Hartmann:
Prior to 2009, I listened to your radio program on a regular basis and found you frequently made interesting points. However, I began to realize in 2009, after it became obvious to me that President Obama prioritized the wealthy and powerful elite as more important than the citizens, that "We the people" received the shaft due to a great marketing campaign.
In 2009, I gave you the benefit of the doubt that you would recognize and acknowledge the real problem. Instead, you continued to make progressive" statements while telling people to support Obama. As a result, I stopped listening to your radio show because I view it as pure hypocrisy. Whether you realize it or not, you are doing further damage to the progressive message by undermining it. By stating a "progressive" philosophy, then telling people to vote for Obama, you are actually saying, "well, here are the ideals, but the neo-liberal policies are better and we should support them". Sorry, but what B.S.
This is a time when we truly need better messaging on radio and television, but people such as Thom Hartmann have become part of the problem, not the solution.
Whoa Tom! You better come back to the party of the people which still needs to be created. It has become quite apparent that we only have a one party system and dims/repugs are one in the same. Yes, I know we have a few good dems i.e. Jeff Merkley and Peter DeFazio of Oregon, however, with all the money being used against them, how in the heck are they going to hold out for the people. They will be out of office. There probably are a few others but?????
We need someone to run against Obama other than a republican or a dim. You've been my drummer for years but you've got to realize Obama/dems are part of the problem and we're all tired of lesser of two evils.
In typical Hartmann obfuscation he notes something about "fear-based crusades" while accurately stating the GOP participation but typically ignoring the Democratic equally egregious campaigns based in 'fear' like lesser evil voting, capitulation to Wall Street insiders, endless war, drone strikes on noncombatants, murder of innocent, black ops operations, assassination of Americans void of due process rights, for profit health care void of Single Payer, carte blanch mountain top removal permits to appease Big Coal, capitulation to in the Gulf Spill (which has reverted back to the same policies of Deep Water Drilling), voiding Habeas Corpus, extending Bush Tax cuts to the wealthy elite while cutting Home Heating and Head Start to the poor; talks currently in the works to downsize Social Security on marginal populations.
Hartmann continues to demonstrate that not only does he live in a Dream World but he is fastly becoming the Obama Admins plant in public broadcasting as the Minister of Propoganda...
'Hartmann continues to demonstrate that not only does he live in a Dream World but he is fastly becoming the Obama Admins plant in public broadcasting as the Minister of Propoganda...'
Exactly right, he is indeed the waterboy for the democrats, and working for the very same oligarchs he claims to condem. He is the minister of propaganda, and, mark my word, rachel maddow will be obama's press secretary when he wins in '12.
What everybody-- and I mean EVERYBODY-- else so far has said.
Re: Cygnus-X1-isaHole (11:57am)'s "Thom should understand with absolute clarity that he's rejected completely in this comments section. If he has any remaining doubts all he has to do is read the responses from his last article CD posted."
My edumacated guess is that even if he knows he's being published here (it's not clear that authors are informed), Hartmann wouldn't get anywhere near the comments threads.
And if he did, he'd probably contact the CD admins and demand that in the future, his articles be published without comments capability.
When I used to listen to Thom's radio show he would mention CD with great regularity. I don't recall him ever talking about the comments thread, however.
It's important that we draw a line in the sand and let him know (and whoever else may be monitoring) that he does not speak for us.
We must be clear that we will not let Thom co-op our voice or meld our OWS movement into his Democratic party of endless war, assassination lists and torture complicity.
"My edumacated guess is that even if he knows he's being published here (it's not clear that authors are informed), Hartmann wouldn't get anywhere near the comments threads. And if he did, he'd probably contact the CD admins and demand that in the future, his articles be published without comments capability."
Looks like this has already happened. After Thom's August article, "Democracy Died First in Wisconsin – Long Live the Oligarchs," drew eleven critical comments in a row, they were all removed and the comments capability was shut down. I complained to the editors about this, but received no reply.
Hartmann is such an inarticulate shill, I find it amazing that he is published here, much less has a radio show!
Come on Big Eddie, you've been warned about this before. If you want to complain about other on-air personalities do it during your show or on your own website.
A somewhat misleading title for the piece by Thom Hartmann, as the vast majority of the body of said article is his expounding upon talking points that any listener of his show is all too familiar with. What would have been more instructive is the various ways and means that the right wing noise machine have been attacking Occupy Wall Street (i.e., pejoratives such as 'Flea Partiers' & 'Adventure Slummers,' using the mien of 'hard working, honest middle class vs. lazy poor seems to be the attack du jour). Hartmann could do himself and his listeners a much better service by posting a piece with this quote from Sun-Tzu in mind, 'Know thy enemy.' While the title of the piece is true and is going on with Rush Scumbaugh and the assorted wannabe's in that media space, a simple elucidation of such and example counter-arguments would have been of much more use. Sadly, Hartmann seems incapable of that.
The entire point of the article is "know thy enemy... and their history" highlighting how the right wing noise machine is attacking OWS and advising OWS not to reinforce those attacks by giving in to violence... or allowing plants to violently hijack the movement.
Thom's listener-ship is not that large, and the "Two Santas" story needs to get out there... its the equivalent of pulling back of the curtain in Oz, or showing how a magic trick is done.