Just How Dumb Are We?

Calhoun's Can(n)on for Oct 1. 2010


. . . The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. . . .
                                    W.B. Yeats

What Yeats forgot to mention is that the passionate intensity is now filled with an astonishing amount of pure dumb. I mean, really. Has a good chunk of America started wearing tin-foil hats? Consider:

--The corporate media, as bad as it is, debunked the “death panels” rumor over 40 times. You remember that one? The lie that had folks terrified that the health care bill would result in the government killing Granny. Nonetheless, an Associated Press poll shows that 25% of those polled still think Granny’s gonna get offed.

--It gets worse. In a Pew poll, 18% of the public thought Obama was a Muslim, while 43% didn’t know what his religion was. In addition, a CNN poll found that 27% thought Obama was “probably” or “definitely” born in another country.

--All this gets worse for Republicans. A new poll reported in Politico.com. of 2,0003 self-identified Republicans, showed that 63 percent believe President Obama is a socialist, 24 percent think he wants terrorists to win, 36 percent do not believe the President was born in this country, 31 percent agreed with the statement that Obama is “a racist who hates white people,” while 23 percent want their state to secede from the union.

So, a good chunk of Americans apparently think Hawaii is now a foreign country, have forgotten the hysterical dust-up over President Obama’s pastor and spiritual mentor, the very Christian Reverend Jeremiah Wright, while a huge number are dreaming about the windfall inheritance soon to be coming their way every time Grandmaw starts looking peaked.

Plus, a scary percentage of deluded Republicans, while waving the flag and tub-thumping about the sacredness of the Constitution, nonetheless want to secede from the very union they claim as sacred?

And now, into this bizarre blend of Dumb and Forgetful comes a Republican Rerun – the un-new, un-improved retread of Newt Gringich’s old 1994 “Contract with America.” The “Pledge to America” is a cynical ploy that may well work because, beside Dumb, Americans also suffer from a serious case of short term memory loss. For that reason alone, they won’t bother to ask the critical question required of this new “Pledge:” If the issues listed in this “Pledge” were so important to Republicans and to the nation, then why weren’t they passed into law during the eight years that Republicans controlled the House, the Senate and the presidency?

The answer, of course, is that this rhetorical retread is just another cynical plan that will allow politicians and voters to pretend they’re doing something without having to actually do it. Because doing something about the problems we face means we’d all have to make some real changes. And that’s the one thing Americans don’t want to do.

Instead, we get the cynical in league with the willfully uninformed in order to avoid doing the necessary while both sides self-righteously play the victim card.

So we continue to dumbly vote for meaningless platforms that will never deliver any effective results. (Case in point, the Pledge’s promise to “End the practice of packaging unpopular bills and advance legislative issues one at a time.” Complete hokum as neither party will ever, EVER, “advance legislative issues one at a time.” Hiding unpopular bills inside popular bills gives politicians plausible deniability when they have to make hard choices. It’s the soft conspiracy of the unspoken lie that voters love since they regularly punish congressfolk who are honest enough to make those tough votes public.)

The result is we end up with spineless political weasels, dishonest “Pledges,” more political theatre, wealthy players, unions and corporations hiding behind affinity PACS in a system awash with huge secret, non-reported political “donations,” hours of Fox Noise’s misinformation inadvertently churning out fodder for John Stewart’s satirical “Daily Show,” great swaths of Corporate Media’s lazy misinformation further confusing an already dumbed-down and actively misinformed and forgetful electorate, while a comedian shows up in character to satirize our hypocritical farm labor policies during another useless window-dressing Congressional hearing while pundits pretend to be outraged by the stunt.

In short, we are entertaining ourselves to death, all of which will surely result – as it always does – with the sound of gunfire followed by bullet holes appearing in a huge number of feet: Bang! OW! Bang! OW!

And as for the “tea party” darling-du jour, Senatorial candidate from Delaware, Christine O’Donnell? In 2007 she excitedly claimed as fact that “American scientific companies are crossbreeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains!”

Close, Ms. O’Donnell. But you reversed the brain/body order.

Would The Real Story Please Stand Up?

Stories in the Sept 16, Tribune:

Front page headline (McClatchy Newspapers) “Tea party could derail GOP’s bid for Senate.” Then, inside a couple of pages, “Poll: Climate for GOP keeps getting better.” (Associated Press). Uh, O.K. sure.

What Am I Bid?

Headline, “Whitman smashes spending record” and notes that Meg Whitman, who’s bidding like she’s gone on EBay to try to buy the CA governorship, has just upped the ante – another $15 million – which cranks her bid up to $119 so far. The EBay bidding closes Nov 2nd, so stay tuned.

“Warren will mold finance watchdog”

Elizabeth Warren, one of the smartest women in the room, will be appointed to “launch the government’s powerful new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.” At this point, because Republicans will block anybody who might possibly actually set up an effective consumer-protection bureau (incompetent Heck-of-a-job, Brownies would be o.k.), President Obama didn’t appoint her as official director, since that would require Congressional confirmation. And Republicans certainly wouldn’t confirm her!

But, that’s o.k. for now since what’s critical about a new consumer-protection bureau is that it must be set up correctly – you know, so it actually protects consumers, not simply acts as window dressing. Says Rep Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), “The American people are tired of being ripped off by large banks and financial institutions and, in professor Warren, they finally will have someone in a position of power who can protect their interests.”

Naturally, Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala) opposes the appointment because he feels she’s “not objective on consumer issues.” He's right, she’s not objective because she actually opposes consumers getting ripped off is what Mr. Shelby really means.

I agree. I don’t want a wholly-owned corporate/wallstreet shill heading up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I want a very un-objective person in there who actually objects to American citizens being used as suckers so they can legally be robbed. I actually want a totally un-objective Woman With A Gun standing at the door when the thieves in Congress start – once again – to manipulate the laws so their big-money handlers can return to their thievery.

So, good on President Obama and to Liz Warren – you go, girl!

Tea Party Saves The Day!

Tea Partyite, Christine O’Donnell, will be the Republican candidate for Delaware’s senate seat. Let’s pray she wins and soon converts the entire Congress to her strongly held beliefs that there should be no sex before or outside marriage and that masturbation is the equivalent to adultery and should be stopped! Then Congress could stamp out all this self-canoodling by making it against the law and to enforce the new Anti- Onan Recovery Act, Congress will then votefor a new Anti-Self-Stimulus Fund that will be used to hire everyone now out of work and employ them to hunt down and arrest all self-abusers, including themselves, if necessary.

Voi la! Unemployment problem SOLVED! Good job, Christine! And who says Tea Baggers are a bunch of batshit crazies?