You were hated for it. Your life was threatened because of it........and you were right !!!!

[freshwest]

44. You nailed it. They realized they'd have to dumb, divide and disinform us.

I'm not even saying it was a conspiracy as is preached through some Koch funded punditry. Because they preach it's the government that is always the main actor, when it comes from the ground up. Instead what you describe was the natural reaction of those groups.

The Thom Hartmann video I've cited here a few times, traces their actions. I've been quoting FDR's vice-president's words, for years now. It fits the fascist model perfectly:

"The really dangerous American fascist... is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence.

His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power...

They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest.

Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."

-- U.S. Vice President Henry A. Wallace, quoted in the New York Times, April 9, 1944

We nearly fell over the cliff last November they had pushed us toward for half a century. It is not wise to believe that with one set of electoral victories every four years, we have won for any length of time or forever. It's always a truce or a draw. They are NOT giving up after all these years. They've invested a lot in the system they believe we should all live in. If they can destroy civil government, they will extort us by using terms they set for their benefit, to pay directly for all we need to live. Without any redress because you can't regulate private interests without a strong, well-funded government, and the public has been convinced that is tyranny.

Privatization achieves all this piecemeal. If they win this fight, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, voting and all protection against theocrats and predators will truly be gone, simply of no meaning. Not just under siege as they are now, because the one who controls our land, air, water and food OWNS us.

Many of the heads-on-fire talking points are nothing but diversions to keep the eye of the people off Grand Theft USA. They studiously ignore that there is great profit to be made if one gets those contracts. Yet those are neighbors who believe it's the right thing to do. We create government in this country in ways that are both conscious and deliberate and also in ways that are unclear to most people. It's up to us to move forward to cleanse and empower whatever will hold these robber barons off.