Beyond the Two Party Labels

For the last several decades -- heck, maybe from the very beginning -- there has been a war of conceptualization that has gripped this nation. On one side are the elites -- the captains of industry and those who possess huge swaths of the proverbial pie. On the other side are the rest of us -- those who have built this country for a pittance. In between these two poles sit the shrinking middle class who believe that, with a little bit of luck, their ticket can be punched for the elite destination, but are ever fearful that they are one disaster away from falling into the lower class.

This great divide has simmered below the American consciousness for a good long while. It breaks the surface every now and then, but the elites are adept at pushing it back down below the surface before enough people notice. It has reared its head again in Wisconsin and, this time, it may be a lot harder to stuff the genie back into the bottle.

The reason it may be far more difficult to bury as in the past is because the elites feel like sharks circling blood in the water. They duped voters across the country into voting for their most conservative elements and now these elements see the prospect of finishing off the job once and for all.

This is a point raised by George Lakoff in a post on AlterNet today. In it, he writes,

The central issue in our political life is not being discussed. At stake is the moral basis of American democracy.

The individual issues are all too real: assaults on unions, public employees, women's rights, immigrants, the environment, health care, voting rights, food safety, pensions, prenatal care, science, public broadcasting, and on and on.

Budget deficits are a ruse, as we've seen in Wisconsin, where the Governor turned a surplus into a deficit by providing corporate tax breaks, and then used the deficit as a ploy to break the unions, not just in Wisconsin, but seeking to be the first domino in a nationwide conservative movement. Deficits can be addressed by raising revenue, plugging tax loopholes, putting people to work, and developing the economy long-term in all the ways the President has discussed. But deficits are not what really matters to conservatives.

Conservatives really want to change the basis of American life, to make America run according to the conservative moral worldview in all areas of life...

While I agree with Lakoff's overall point, I do think he's a bit off when he ascribes these machinations SOLELY to the GOP. In my view, this has less to do with which mainstream political party a person hails from; it has far more to do with elitism. The haves see an opportunity today to handcuff the have nots to a horse trough that has little food or water in it. The thinking here is that, if they can emaciate the body politic, we won't have the wherewithal in the future to oppose almost ANY elite dictate.

In conservative family life, the strict father rules. Fathers and husbands should have control over reproduction; hence, parental and spousal notification laws and opposition to abortion. In conservative religion, God is seen as the strict father, the Lord, who rewards and punishes according to individual responsibility in following his Biblical word.

Above all, the authority of conservatism itself must be maintained. The country should be ruled by conservative values, and progressive values are seen as evil. Science should have authority over the market, and so the science of global warming and evolution must be denied. Facts that are inconsistent with the authority of conservatism must be ignored or denied or explained away. To protect and extend conservative values themselves, the devil's own means can be used against conservatism's immoral enemies, whether lies, intimidation, torture, or even death, say, for women's doctors. Freedom is defined as being your own strict father - with individual not social responsibility, and without any government authority telling you what you can and cannot do. To defend that freedom as an individual, you will of course need a gun.

This is the America that conservatives really want. Budget deficits are convenient ruses for destroying American democracy and replacing it with conservative rule in all areas of life.

What is saddest of all is to see Democrats helping them...

Again, I would submit that Democrats aren't simply "helping them" along. Democrats, by and large, receive the vast majority of their campaign lifeblood from the very same individuals and corporate special interests as their GOP counterparts. They do much the same kind of bidding for their corporate masters. The main differences are in degree and speed.

The GOP wants wholesale change as quickly as possible. Today's Democrats, on the other hand, want to change things incrementally at a slower pace. Make no mistake about it though, at the end of the process, both corporate parties desire to wind up at very similar destinations, ones not separated by miles but by mere feet.

So, in my mind's eye, the question facing the vast majority today is quite simple: Do we stand up for our beliefs in a more ethical society OR do we lay down to allow the elites to overrun us?