Our Way or the Highway

About fifteen years ago or so, the GOP began to consolidate some of  the last fringe groups who had been hanging onto the edges of Conservatism these past fifty years. Where once these groups had been written off as safe havens for nut jobs and  Right Wing lunatics, the breakaway Tea Party proved ultra conservative lunacy did have legs and the GOP better pay attention. They did and managed to bring those wackos into their fold. That was the final death knell of the Moderate Republican leader for probably a rather long distant future and marked the birth of a nastier rank and file that  has surprisingly managed to become the voice of the party in the last decade.

Where before the GOP  appeared to not have been woke yet and now they were, well, this process actually had begun many years ago, some say when President Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974. That was the beginning of the end of the moderate Republican and the birth of a new nastier, self serving type of Conservatism less likely to willingly share power with the Left and more likely to only favor what made the Right more powerful along with the rich and powerful who backed them. An "Our way, or the Highway" type of mentality.

Many Southern Democrats were angry about the Civil Right's legislation of the 1960's. They looked for someone who would carry their weight in the future. They did not seem interested in actual fixes, they just wanted the promises. Ronald Reagan gladly stepped up. He was the perfect candidate at the perfect time. He was not too bright but he was charming while he made promises his administration had no intention on keeping.

Two terms as governor of California during the chaotic Sixties gave Reagan plenty of time to mold his racist and xenophobic beliefs into rhetoric that was more palatable to a broader cross section of the population. He made grand promises, but instead of meeting those promises honestly, his claimed policies more often than not were followed by positive action and played out in results directly in opposition to the promises made on the campaign trail.

He fired all the Air Controllers and put a final nail in the organized labor movement. It would be thirty five years before any meaningful unionization happened again. And in the meantime, the minimum wage crawled and clawed its way to the current level it has been at for the last thirteen years. 

Reagan got away with treason by selling arms to Iran, an avowed terrorist state enemy in order to finance his war in Nicaragua. To ease and lubricate the supply network, a wink, wink policy of not insisting the CIA create any definitive anti drug smuggling rules was unofficially put to work. Many of the pilots who flew the planes south filled with arms, then returned from Contra country with drugs. Probably the worst kept secret of the 1980's. Reagan's crew headed by Ollie North successfully pulled off some of the most damaging treason in US history.  (* Iran Contra )

One of Reagan's big promises when he ran for his first term was fighting Crime. He assured us that if we went after the illegal drug trade, crime would drop like a rock. Yet, he and his crew were already a major cog in the illegal drug trade that was fueling the drug epidemic he claimed he wanted to eradicate. 

Before his first term was over the normal amount of hypocrisy that accompanies any politician or party was taken to a new height. There were no longer anymore checks and balances on how hypocritical one could be. Politicians began to shrug it off instead of shrink in disgrace when called out in a lie.

While this is going on, the nation was raising new generations under this cloud of unethical and morally bankrupt shenanigans that were so so obvious. The leaders of the Right began to hold their ears, cover their eyes as they forced one big lie after another onto the public, who naively thought at least some honesty and integrity still existed among the leaders of the Right.. Calling them out as liars and con men did not matter anymore. We Americans were well into our period of re-education regarding the political ethics we should expect now as opposed to the political ethics our parents grew up on.

During this reconstruction of our political landscape, Americans also stepped up from Consumers consuming based primarily out of need to consumers who consumed just because they could. Buying stuff became more than a fad, it became a duty. The normal range of greed that used to be the rule was now out of the barn and going crazy. We became the disposable society who could not care less what happened in Washington DC as long as the cheap, disposable lifestyle we had come to expect continued unabated.

Flash forward thirty five or so years to where we are today and the populations supporting the Right are made up of folks like the woman to the left; Many of these new "conservatives" cannot add and apparently own mindsets only one of their kind can understand. They seem to have little knowledge based on facts, only conspiracy theories and rumor. The rest of the Right who know their platform is bullshit, do not care. They are winning elections with numb and dumb. Why rock the boat?

As an aside, can anyone explain to me what this woman is trying to say with her sign? I know her math is flawed, but what the Hell is her message?

So what does this all have to do with Trump? Hmm.............

Trump is not the cause of all this recent polarization, hate and discontent the Right is so full of today. He is the poster child of the movement. If it hadn't been him, it would have been someone else.Trump is the result of the fifty years of changes and adjustments to the aims and goals of the GOP. 

He may not be exactly what many on the Right wanted, but he fills the stands with safe votes for anything the Right wants. Trump is now providing what the GOP has always wanted, a rank and file who do not question their leaders and frankly do not think much at all. They follow directions. The perfect voter is right there sporting a sign with bad math and no clue about what they are trying to say. 

The Right has finally cluster fucked into existence a political world they feel at home in. They no longer need to think up policies to govern with. Now the lazy, greedy bastards only have to prevent the Left from what it wants and keep their own minions full of fear of things that go bump in the night. And now they, without guilt, use any lie, co-opt any song or slogan they want and claim it as theirs. There are finally no rules or decorum. They can be shameless, hypocritical and possibly will soon be able to shoot a lib on Main Street, East Gish Florida and get away with it. 

What a great Country!

Later,

______________________________

 Because the GOP and the Right have no shame, I am sharing a song they claimed for themselves without permission or respect to the songwriter who is a hard nosed Progressive. Here is Neil Young's "Rockin in the Free World".