The Elephant in the Room

[ronatchig]

http://www.alternet.org/story/19029/

Snip)

Americans have been ignoring the elephant in the room. It's that huge thing that's in front of everyone, but that no one mentions by name. Most people can't see it, while others intentionally disregard it, but many people just have a hard time articulating what it is.

Even its opponents direct little attention to the elephant itself; at best they tend to describe its various parts. Its ears are deregulation, its trunk trickle-down economics, its mouth media consolidation, its tail a pre-emptive war in Iraq, its legs record deficits, and its feet cutbacks in education, social security, America's safety net, even veterans' benefits.

Snip)

So how have Americans been faring under conservative policies these last couple of years?

Let's start with the basics. Conservatives turned a $127 billion budget surplus into record-shattering deficits with reckless tax cuts; in 2004 alone, the deficit is expected to reach $500 billion. Poverty is on the rise with more than 34 million Americans living below the poverty line, including 12 million children. As for the first job-loss recovery since the Great Depression, it's an "upside down recovery" according to the Center for American Progress, meaning that corporate profits have risen at the expense of wages and employment. At the same time the costs of housing, gas, and medical care have all surged by double digits, not to mention that 20 million working Americans have no health insurance. Conservatives' answer? Not surprisingly, Washington's one-trick ponies call for more tax cuts for the rich. More of the same failed conservative policies
Snip)

There is much more in the piece. It is imho it is great fodder for a LTTE campaign nationwide. Perhaps we could make our voices heard in a way that damns the entire GOP with facts.

Here is a rough draft of my letter any critque is more than welcome.

With the election drawing near, I feel it is time to give credit where it is due. The conservatives' policies have led us to a projected dificit of nearly $500 billion 34,000,000 people living below the poverty level, an economy that that has shed 1,500,000 jobs to outsourcing and downsizing while corporate profits and CEO saleries have skyrocketed. Real wages are going down while costs of living for things like gas, food, healthcare, property taxes and education have risen dramticly. Healthcare is less accesable to more working people while others cannot afford to have a home.
The conservative remedy: cut taxes further, both federal and state, for the wealthy and corporations, build more prisons, and question the patroitism of any who would complain.
No wonder Mr. Bush wants to screen all Americans for mental illness, we're all delusional if we believe this is good government.

[checks-n-balances]

1. Excellent article - thanks for posting the link!

Stating the facts in a flood of letters to the editor SHOULD be enough, and the author of this article provides a starting point for us. Who knows, maybe the people who need to read them will read & learn from such an effort.

Somebody please tell me there's still hope for redirecting the suicidal course we're on.

[dand]

2. Brilliant,

LTTE campaign is just what we need. Don't change a thing.

[struggle4progress]

6. Agree: good suggestion, likely to be effective. eom

[Demeter]

3. Name That Elephant!

The best way to get the talk going is to properly identify that elephant in the living room.

His First Name Is GOP, his Last Name is Fascism, and his parents are the Class Warriors of Wealth. His "god" parents are the religious idiots who believe his lies, and his Alma Mater is Yale.

[teryang]

4. It's the return of the Gilded Age

What they have in mind is repealing the 20th Century and going back to the Divine Right of Kings.

[ronatchig]

5. Well ,

I've sent the LTTE in , we will see if it gets printed. I do have a question tho. The newspaper asks that letters be 150 words or less. Is a word, in this sense, 5 spaces as in typing class?

[dumpster_baby]

7. excellent article! And it is really all about PROPAGANDA

Propaganda means getting out a message that is able to affect political attitudes in Americans. And the neoliberals have been able to do that SO VERY WELL.

[dumpster_baby]

8. neoliberal propaganda tactics

from the website of the progressive think tank linked by the article:
http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/thereis.html



>>>>>>>>>

How has the right been so successful? Research shows that over the past quarter-century a well-funded, tightly coordinated ideological movement has come to dominate our country's marketplace of ideas. Their deeply ideological movement – with its well-funded advocacy think tanks and aggressive communications strategy – has increasingly set the public agenda, shifting national and local politics consistently to the right and away from the broader public interest. This movement has undermined society's understanding of the legitimate role of government and the need for balance between community, individual and corporate responsibilities.


It sounds like many voices, but it is really only a few. Imagine: There is an important issue in the news, and you look for information. You read an op-ed piece written by a "policy analyst" from some "institute." The next day, a columnist writes something similar, quoting "conservative scholars." You read a magazine article with a similar message, citing yet more experts. That night, you watch the news on TV and the commentators are expressing opinions that are beginning to sound awfully familiar. A politician’s speech becomes hard to distinguish from the rants of the radio talk-show host. A much-discussed book and a highly trafficked website echo the same themes, in similar language.

* "The media & academia are liberal."
* "Public schools are failing."
* "Social Security is going broke."
* "Increasing wages costs jobs."
* "Environmentalists care more about trees than jobs."
* "Regulations hurt business."

These are just some of the messages that the right-wing movement has spent vast amounts of time and money drumming into the public mind. After the public has been primed by the repetition of these messages, their politicians can step in and harvest the results. As more and more people are persuaded of the existence of these "problems," the "solutions" offered by right-wing politicians become increasingly appealing.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[ronatchig]

9. Thank You Dumpster Baby

that namesakes link is a treasure trove of info. It gives me an avenue to do some research into a pet project. Of late I have been very interested in finding out who "they" are. As in the always un-named shadow figures that play fast and loose with our freedoms.

As to the point made in your post, the method of the right wing is exposed and if I (a working class stiff) can get my mind around the fact of the fundemental fraud they expound, it is a matter of time until their house of lies crashes around their ears.

It is my belief that the Bush legacy will be as the twit who exposed their fascist dreams(unwittingly) and brought ruin to their plans.

[Mechatanketra]

10. This is a meme the Dems could win with ...

... except, of course, that too many of them fail to see the elephant themselves (and a few are too busy feeding it peanuts because it's so darn cute).

It even lends itself to the kind of bumper-sticker soundbites that GOPpers love so much: "Reagan-era Republicans used to crow that '40 years of liberalism have ended in failure'. Today's batch has proven themselves 10 times more efficient: it only took them 4 years to fail even worse."