FOX - Rupert Murdoch's Seven Wonderful Miracles

MeanMesa

FOX-NEWSCORP: A Taste of 

"Not So Sweet" History

Was a youthful MeanMesa 

one of Rush's "ditto heads?"

Although this post is all about the quite modern concept of finally "neutralizing" the toxic effect of FOX as a "political player" in the American democracy, a very brief visit to the distant past may be in order. When MeanMesa first arrived in Albuquerque -- on the very same day as 9/11 -- the first impression of New Mexico was disturbingly consistent with the, at the time, widespread, subconsciously universal, "cinematic description" concerning the place.

Once the move was completed, this "siesta image" grew even more saturating. Being already what could be generously called a "geezer," when the conditions of everyday living were settled, there was "plenty of time" for listening to the radio.

That meant listening to Rush Limbaugh. By 2001 FOX had established itself as a more or less daily presence on hundreds of radio stations all across the country, and broadcasting and rebroadcasting Rush Limbaugh in "every open time slot," everyday had become a reality. NEWSCORP [the corporate owner of FOX] was shelling out literally tens of millions of dollars to the crotchety, huffing and puffing old bombast year after year.

At NEWSCORP's corporate level the Australian fascist, Rupert Murdoch, had been channeling hundreds of millions of Saudi dollars from the eagerly willing pockets of his partner, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, into content control of hundreds [if not thousands] of American broadcast companies which made "arrangements" to carry not only Limbaugh's show, but dozens of other FOX offerings of a similar ilk. In terms of both his plan for the scheme and the motives which were driving it the billionaire Prince's involvement was understandable.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal: Another major stakeholder has been Al-Waleed bin Talal, of the Saudi Royal Family. In 1997, Time reported that Al-Waleed owned about five percent of News Corporation. In 2010, Alwaleed's stake in News Corp. was about 7 percent, amounting to $3 billion. In 2013, News Corp. had a $175 million (19 percent) investment in Al-Waleed's Rotana Group, the Arab world's largest entertainment company.

  [News_Corporation/WIKI]

Well,

After listening to Limbaugh for a few times strictly from boredom, MeanMesa gradually became utterly fascinated with Rush's incendiary, daily "death of America" whining and lamentations. There were no alternate talk shows being broadcast, that is, shows with an alternate bias, and, in fact, this was the first time that MeanMesa had ever encountered anything like what is now called a "talk show," and Limbaugh, thanks to the millions already invested in the FOX scheme, was "on the air and ready to go."

The deception only grew greater from this point. At first there emerged a widely asked question about the scheme's apparent success. Were there really so many Americans who thought this kind of broadcast content was actually relevant? Murdoch was prepared with an almost demonically clever "explanation." [In the words of MeanMesa...]

"The exact reason that FOX and commentators such as Limbaugh are so successful is that most Americans completely agree with what FOX broadcasts. Why, this stuff is so popular that it is literally 'flying off the shelves.' It's only with great, patriotic difficulty that we here at FOX can continue to produce enough of this to even begin to satisfy all these interested listeners."

Of course in this famous explanation Rupert "skipped" over the part about using the Prince's Saudi millions to entice all the local broadcast companies to carry his hateful NEWSCORP message. Nonetheless, this "famous explanation" grew more and more accepted until it began to appear as, in fact, an actual explanation. 

In no time at all numerous gangs of patriotic American billionaires noticed this "capitalist phenomenon" and -- in between their Country Club afternoon naps during which they indulged in their own "billionaire wet dreams" about transforming the US into their private oligarchy -- these billionaires quickly figured out that they could "use" something like FOX, and that it would, in fact, become "quite handy." Although Murdoch's scam was losing money hand over fist during this early stage of its life, the billionaires eagerly pumped millions into the game to keep it alive until it had a chance to "blossom into its fully rancid maturity."

Prior to this revelation, the American billionaires had been suffering from a painfully unfair "identity crisis." They couldn't act out as the avarice crazed psychopaths they really were because they were afraid of the, so-to-speak, "guillotine problem," but on the other hand if they attempted to behave in a civilized manner, their "return on investment" would begin to falter. For them FOX's reactionary fear mongering was a perfectly wonderful development, that is, "a shiny new invention which was absolutely the best thing since sliced bread."

FOX had been busy convincing Americans that they were all nothing less than "temporarily disadvantaged millionaires," themselves, and that each and every one of them would be "rolling in dough" just as soon as the Democrats, poor people, environmentalists, gay people, "wrong colored people," immigrants, moochers, terrorists and so on, stopped parasitically "stealing" all their wealth. 

The raging bonfire of FOX's ideological propaganda and the billionaires became the happy couple in a "marriage made in heaven." As FOX gradually convinced Americans that being a greedy psychopath was, in fact, perfectly socially acceptable, these previously frightened billionaires found it much easier to "disappear safely into the crowd" when the "crowd" was comprised of these newly convinced fellow travelers.

Murdoch and FOX: 

 OOOPS! Inciting Anticipated Consequences

 Which Could Later Be Convincingly Described as "Unanticipated Consequences."

Oh well, I guess the American people have spoken.
Of course it becomes even more "convincing" when you own every microphone.

Happy memories at NEWSCORP [image]

Happily, FOX, NEWSCORP, Rupert Murdoch and the Prince were never particularly uncertain about their collective mission. From the very beginning the overall highest priority was to make the nation's transition to oligarchy as painless and obscured as possible -- at least as painless and obscured as possible for the oligarchs.

Well, in no time at all after Rupert proposed his now "famous explanation" the "miracles of political synergy" dropped "straight out of heaven" and landed right in the laps of this stalwart, democracy hating gang. Further, these "miracles" appeared in the form of "wonderful coincidences." 

Thankfully, at least for them, these "miracles" along with their "attending, wonderful consequences" arrived so quietly that, at first, almost no one even noticed their startling new presence.

The Seven Wonderful Miracles 

Which Visited Rupert and the Prince

Thanks To Murdoch's "Famous Explanation"

The golden bull comes later. [image]

Miracle Number One: 

Tens of Millions of Americans 

Turned Out To Be Incredibly Bigoted Hillbillies.

Granted, NEWSCORP's "basic business presumption" was that millions of Americans were harboring some serious xenophobic issues, especially that they really didn't like "wrong colored" people, and that they could be convinced that all their problems had been caused either by illegal immigrants, moochers or minorities. It was to be precisely these "abnormalities" which NEWSCORP would come to regard as its greatest, most valuable and most promising "business assets."

Aside from Rupert Murdoch's glee at having "discovered" this demographic, the unbridled joy of the Saudi Prince was so great that it could not be contained.

Miracle Number Two:

Hardly Anyone in the United States 

Had Ever Studied High School History or Civics.

Normally, a propaganda campaign of such scope and consequences would be a matter of "arguments and counter arguments" such that the success of many of them would, understandably. require energetically "debating" the facts. Well, for our "little democracy hating" gang this turned out to not be any sort of requirement at all! In fact NEWSCORP and its well paid "mouth junk" experts discovered right away that there would be no facts of any sort required to "set the hook" with this hateful propaganda.

Practically no one in the FOX audience knew anything, and practically everyone in the FOX audience would eagerly believe whatever was broadcast. Conveniently, given the FOX network's obsession with embarrassingly biased "news" reporting, the FOX audience ceased making any effort whatsoever to delineate between content claiming to be "reported news" and the rancid talking points of "editorial comment" issuing forth from the network's "mouth junk" movie stars.

Miracle Number Three:

Almost Everyone in the United States Had Been Painfully Bruised and Bankrupted By An Economic Collapse That Hardly Anyone Understood.

Happily, FOX and NEWSCORP had accurate predicted that precisely this almost universal "lack of understanding" would be the case, and that practically any "explanation" of the causes of the collapse would be greeted with "roses, simply roses" by the 2008 recession scheme's dour, perplexed survivors. Naturally, the fist step in the exploitation of the Great Republican Recession would be affixing the blame for it on exactly the people that the FOX audience already cordially hated.

Thanks to plenty of "preparation" propaganda, the cause of the 2008 Great Republican Recession became widely perceived as directly attributable to possible gun laws, abortions, migrants, gay marriage and a few other "festering pimples" which were anxious to break through the surprisingly thin skin of the FOX audience on command. The entire FOX audience was suffering from image wrecking acne in no time, and all these unhappy, pimply little nobodies knew exactly whom to blame.

Miracle Number Four:

The US Domestic Media Gradually "Bought Into" Murdoch's Famous Explanation "Hook, Line and Sinker" and Began to Constantly Insist That There Were Always "Two Sides To Everything"

Murdoch's pitch promoting the idea that FOX's audience was an electoral majority -- or even close to a majority -- gradually grew in resonance across the remainder of the corporate domestic media. Although hardly any of the "inhabitants" of such an imaginary majority could rationally account for their admittedly cloudy ideological ideas, as long as the issues were firmly anchored to grotesque, fact free emotional states, the exquisitely crafted "FOX non-message" was easily able to play havoc with an audience which was somewhat "more stable" in better times.

Further, describing the FOX offering as a "non-message" is appropriate. The network's airwaves were only very infrequently bothered with any actual policy proposals, and instead were fitfully consumed with frightening conspiracies, frightening "interpretations" of contemporary news happenings and buckets of hate filled rhetoric squarely placing the entire blame for every grudge or quiet fear onto this or that target within the population. As the line dividing FOX's "news reporting" and its penchant for violently hateful rhetoric faded ever farther into the fog, the network's talking points became perpetual phobias for FOX's intentionally frightened, yet continuously more faithful minions. 

The predictable result was that the domestic media's blind assertion that there always existed "two sides to every problem." Unhappily, this bad habit gradually elevated the Murdoch side to a credible "side-hood" when the Murdoch side wasn't actually even a side at all. Murdoch's talking heads expressed far less interest in addressing solutions than assigning blame.

Miracle Number Five:

When the Media Became Entirely Saturated With Murdoch's Talking Points, the Moribund Democratic Party Became, Painlessly and Permanently, Even More Invisible.

Face it. The Democrats have been on a decades long "boring streak." MeanMesa assumes that the Party leadership simply didn't notice that the Democratic side of things had been plunged into a media black out during the Reagan era. This well engineered "plunge" turned out to be quite durable.

Of course Democratic Party policies have continued to be effective and beneficial to the majority of voters, but as the Party's ideas steadily grew even less "news worthy," the Murdoch machine turned the very name "Democrat" into something vulgar. The fervid FOX audience now equates a Democrat with a convicted traitor. If the actual facts describing our government were interesting, the Democrats might have had better luck keeping their brand out of the crematorium of media invisibility.

Such an effort would have required not only more inspired leadership, but also some sort of flair at generating political drama. The Party leadership is shockingly unimaginative. The Republicans gained control of the government for a number of reasons, but the absence of any particular image of the Democrats in the minds of voters led a majority of them to not even read below the "R" section on their ballots.

Miracle Number Six:

As the Plan to Divide the Country Became Complete, 

Political Discourse Became Extinct.

One of the fundamental ideas present in the foundation of the country's democracy was that the voices of various interests among the electorate would engage in persuasive discourse with the ambition of "attracting" the opposing side to ultimately vote in a different way. One of the founders, Thomas Jefferson, even dared use the term "educated electorate" in his logical defense of the early country's adoption of wide spread enfranchisement.

Unhappily, what served at the time for a meaning to "educated" has been replaced by mindless talking points and propaganda. The end result is that, for example, a progressive such as MeanMesa enjoys almost no chance at all of "persuading" a Murdoch-style reactionary to adopt a more progressive position. The converse is also now an unpleasant truth. In fact there seems to be absolutely nothing among the positions of the Murdoch-style, talking point reactionaries which is the least bit attractive or interesting to a progressive such as MeanMesa.

Even a casual mention of "reaching across the aisle" instantly begs its own question: "Why?"

Miracle Number Seven:

 Once Convinced That Everything Had Become a Problem, 

"Leadership" Became "Problem Solving."

Americans failed to remember that, at one earlier point, "leaders" were expected to "lead" the country away from problems rather than simply waiting for the next calamity as an opportunity to publicize their "problem solving" ability. [For example, think of 2008, ISIS or the "post BREXIT" world economic disintegration.]

There is a chilling difference between "leading" and "reacting." For example, think of a driving instructor charged with teaching a teenager how to drive. Instead of presenting "general leadership" ideas about driving's "big picture," this instructor remains silent until a crash is imminent. Then he screams and grabs the wheel, jerking the car out of harm's way at the last instant. Following this, rather than perhaps pointing out the young driver's mistake, he commences to boastfully describe how cleverly he had intervened.

The American democracy was intended to be placed in the hands of a leader who can guide the nation along its path -- avoiding or preventing as much as possible what he or she perceives to be potentially dangerous developments. While pursuing this goal, such a leader continues to "steer the ship of state"  on a calm, organized, steady course toward prosperity and security.

Problem solving is very handy when there are problems, but the remainder of the time should be dedicated to making our way to somewhere we want to reach.

Additional Reading:

The Strange Face of 21st Century Democracy - MeanMesa

A Fond Farewell To the 2 Party System - MeanMesa

A Sanders Post Nomination Reader - MeanMesa

How Sanders Intends to Bend the Curve - MeanMesa

How Sanders Intends to Bend the Curve

The Main Goals of Sanders' Plan

When progressive "guns" finally come to bear on the billionaires' GOP scam.

[This post follows MeanMesa's previous article on this subject: 
A Sanders Post-Nomination Reader] 

MeanMesa would like to summarize a few "high points" from what the article mentions about Sanders' post nomination political strategy. American citizens need to be thinking in these terms as we brace ourselves for the inevitable, relentless GOP attacks on President Hillary. If anyone thinks that the racist obstructionism on display during the Obama terms is somehow exceptional, just wait until the billionaires who own the Republican Party begin to scream for the assault on the next President.

Even the red states will be looking like third world junk yards after another four paralyzing years of a petulant, sold out Republican majority in the US House of Representatives. The GOP's "big picture" strategy is simple: "Anyone without a lobbyist will bleed." Amazingly, large numbers of mindless American GOP base voters have been propagandized to the point that they believe this is in the best interest of the country -- if they actually ever even bother to ponder such a question.

6 Points in Sanders Proposal

We've listened to plenty of right wing talk about "taking back our country."

Show them this plan and enjoy the silence. 

1. Rehabilitate voter interest and voter turn out in order to elect a Democratic Congress [House AND Senate] in 2018 and beyond.

To "rehabilitate" low voter turn out, a statistic which has been inflicting lethal damage on the conduct of the democracy annually since the Reagan era, involves a couple of really dicey tasks. 

First, the apathy based on a very general disgust with the failed operation of the government must be shaken with an injection of newly energizing hope. The development of this crippling apathy and disgust was not coincidental. Millions or billions of dollars were eagerly invested in the process of creating it, primarily in the media but also in other mechanisms of the modern culture.

Second, the "information background" operating in citizen voters must also be "rehabilitated." The understandably disgusted and apathetic American lacks access to the fundamental model which describes the process of remedying the failures which have grown so visibly apparent. As we enter into the 2016 election we find most American citizens shockingly uneducated as to their opportunities to alter the present state.

Those strongly supportive of the rudimentary goals of the Democratic Party represent an unquestioned majority of the electorate, yet the government structure of the country is now firmly under the control of the minority. [MeanMesa -2013 US Democracy Braces for a Decade of Minority Rule  Don't just groan. If the elected Democrats in office after the 2020 census are like the ones there now, we'll have another ten years of gerrymandering and billionaires in control. If someone thinks the democracy can withstand that, he is a starkly out of touch optimist.]

In 2010 the GOP began, in earnest, its effort to not only elect a controlling majority in Washington, but also to make such a take over much more permanent than the last one which rode into power on Obama's election, that is, a Democratic Congressional majority lasting decades or longer. Sanders sees this as a time frame for the Democratic Party's similar aspirations. 

Is it just wishful thinking? No, the political atmosphere in the country is now ready -- if not eager -- for a much longer period of functional government than has been the case in recent times. History delivers a strong message about this. The only times in recent memory that government has been considered even grudgingly functional, it has been under Democratic control for a significant number of election cycles.

2. Consolidate Democratic candidates platforms and policy proposals into a stable, nationwide, united Party identity.

Although it is becoming more and more difficult for Congressional Republicans to sustain this contradiction, the unexamined meme remains well established -- even when it is not justified by observable facts -- in the minds of the GOP's base.

A wounded animal with billionaires
 ...for brains?  [cartoon]

The billionaires began the disembowelment of the Democratic Party brand during the Reagan era or before. By manufacturing a relentless flow of right wing propaganda, innuendo, coordinated talking points and truly cheap pandering to the self identified biblical lunatic voter demographic, reactionary think tanks have had a field day demolished Democratic Party legitimacy in the low information voter base -- which turns out to be much more pervasive than Democratic political strategists ever thought. [See item 6 - below]

This attack was made even more effective as the Democrats gradually lost access to the increasingly right wing media. Today, not only Rupert Murdoch's FOX but also the remainder of the corporate domestic media is firmly under the control of the oligarchs and their operatives. These interests have continuously degraded what had previously been wide spread support for Democratic Party ideals.

The Democrats elected to office in this period seem to have failed to notice that their party brand was gradually disappearing from view in this heavily controlled, domestic media. They became an "invisible party" without a widely acknowledged political identity. 

[The Democratic Party's identity is the body of general knowledge and expectations of a unified Democratic policy map. When two Democratic voters refer to the Democratic Party, they more or less agree that these positions represent the Democratic Party's policies and goals -- the Party's identity.]

One part of this was due to the hypnotic "beltway echo chamber" in which the Party's credentials seemed -- at least to the Democrats currently in office during such times -- to be healthy, functional, in tact and public while none was actually the case. The other part was the fairly clear decision within Democrat strategy to "cozy up" to the corporate interests for funding as the Republicans consistently castrated labor unions, the Party's traditional funding base. This was inherently counter to the Party's "brand."

Sanders' plan is to once more solidify the Democratic Party's fundamentals into a consolidated "identity" accessible to voters. The attractiveness of this "identity" has never been successfully contradicted by the reactionaries, but it has become so confused that it has grown cloudy -- far too cloudy to allow Democratic voters to spontaneously refer to general, overall Democratic Party ideals. The "identity" has been successfully sectioned and separated -- by the opposition's awkward obsession with preventing Obama from ever receiving credit for any accomplishment --into a plethora of smaller, isolated, individual elements, each one small enough to fall as an easy victim to the right wing's wall to wall media control.

Just as is the case with these fragmented issues, individual Democratic candidates across the country have likewise been tactically isolated from one another, leaving specific races subject to political attacks not directed at Democratic Party credentials, but instead, at individual candidates. This is been the "playing field" of the always eager billionaires. A million dollars worth of billionaire money not directed to support some sold out Republican candidate but rather to target a less well funded Democrat has become the best bargain in town with respect to winning elections.

The Republicans, thanks largely to this maneuver, now control 31 of the states in the country. Within the propaganda field this fact alone "validates" Republican propaganda claims, although there is usually no mention of the dire economic conditions in those states.

Sanders' plan places a very high priority on spreading an awareness of Democratic Party leadership successes. As this information continued to reinforce itself following a series of elections and a longer period of prosperity and policy successes, Democratic Party ideas would once again begin to resonate politically because the outcomes for average citizens would be so much better. We are talking about a Democratic form of propaganda here, but it would be an educational, information based form rather than in the incendiary, purely ideological, Republican think tank style.

3. Attract progressive Democratic Party Candidates

Both Parties have demonstrated an inclination to select "known commodities" from the political past because such choices are considered more secure to a voter population with an astonishingly low "trust level." The burden of whatever political baggage may accompany such candidates is acceptably balanced by the mere fact that such candidates have a track record. Even in the currently common cases when the "track records" are far from positively persuasive or otherwise attractive, this raging lack of voter trust still makes such selections seem to be the safest choices.

What an impressive pile of...uh...wisdom!
The system makes them quite secure.
Just think of where YOU were 30 years ago and
 how the government has performed since then.
[data source]

It is not surprising that this political "habit" has resulted in a government which is an almost perfect reflection of unpopular past governments. We see the electorate attempting to break away from this endless repetition of the past with candidates such as Sanders and Trump. Unhappily, the impulse has generated almost no effect in the immediate time frame. Although this particular election began with the first glimpse of "new light," the old style political hacks, no matter how soiled by their own reputations, remain in control -- on both sides.

Additionally, the carefully manufactured disgust penetrating the electorate now has, predictably, migrated to infect potential candidates. Over the previous three decades since the ossified division of the population became the highest tactically priority for the oligarchs' think tanks, the position of being an elected public servant has truly lost all of its excitement and glitter. This adds yet another obstacle to the task of attracting competent, determined candidates into the political realm. But still accomplishing precisely this goal remains a central, albeit difficult, element of the Sanders' plan for transforming the nation's politics.

These new candidates won't simply be "fresh faces," though even that much would be refreshing. These candidates must have the competence, commitment, stability and integrity to sustain the Party's platform in Congressional and Senate races all across the electoral map. The people who can become these future Democratic Party candidates are all around us -- waiting for a political party which can offer them a path to making real changes, one with ideas which are strong enough to save the democracy and one which no longer automatically suffocates every sincere patriotic ambition into a still born orphan.

[MeanMesa-2016 Candidates Needed, Apply Immediately ]

4. Completely Revised Campaign Financing for Democratic Candidates

Campaign financing in another critical area where Democratic Party candidates find themselves essentially isolated -- especially when compared to the small, ambitious clutch of big GOP donors who typically finance Republican candidates and well funded think tank super PACs always eager to attack opposing candidates. After mortally "soiling" itself with its recent habits the Democratic National Committee can no longer expect "grass roots" campaign contributions from large numbers of Americans.

However, after all the media mouth junk experts repeatedly announced that the Sanders campaign would never raise enough "grass roots" money to get "off the starting block," even the ossified Washington hacks in the DNC joined in with the experts in with the same mesmerizing amazement at the amount of cash rushing into Bernie's war chest. Perhaps even more unsettling for these hacks and experts was that this rush of money not only continued, but grew as the campaign moved ahead.

The "inconvenient truth" in this case was that this scale of fund raising actually not only became possible but largely spontaneous when these millions of citizens were shown a candidate and a platform which they could support on some basis beyond "the lesser of two evils."

Importantly, this represented an existential shift in the environment of domestic politics. Friends of MeanMesa who previously dispatched every candidate along with any expectation that domestic politics might, somehow, ever become relevant again, not only contributed to the Sanders campaign, but also participated in canvassing and phone banks. This development was a nightmare to the perpetual inhabitants of the DNC "dog food factory."

Sanders "influence" plan calls for this to become the norm in Democratic political campaigns -- and not in the whimsical fantasy of some distant future scenario. Sanders wants this sea change to become a "fact of life" by the 2018 mid term elections.

5. Democrats Re-Enter as a Domestic Media Presence; Re-Appear as a Political Party

When political persuasion becomes exclusively a question
 of racial bigotry, fear and terror, there is little need
to discuss policy.  [cartoon]

No doubt still reeling from what the Sanders campaign accomplished -- even in the face of being almost entirely disregarded by the domestic media, Congressional Democrats have -- finally -- begun to take a few early, timid, "baby steps" at actually competing with the FOX network and the other thinly disguised domestic propaganda machines masquerading as media "news" suppliers. 

In fact this particular element of the ""Sanders plan may be the most exciting among all of them.  Because of this MeanMesa will post about this particular part of "what lies ahead" as an individual topic. Watch this space.

6. Penetrate Right Wing Propaganda Isolation For Republican Voters

If there were some sort of empirical process which could recover an entire list of things that GOP voters currently accept as true, the nation would experience a depressing bout of dangerous laughter before even the first half had been considered. We can blame Murdoch for much of this, but the other domestic corporate networks have been willing co-conspirators.

It is important to realize that the rise of the current wave of reactionary political primitivism was not a coincidence. Millions of dollars worth of billable hours applied to the oligarchs' think tanks accomplished this. Well practiced psychologists methodically sought out every available reservoir of fear, mistrust, racism and other confusions, carefully analyzing their discoveries for vulnerabilities. With this in hand these think tanks began a systematic, well funded "cultivation process" to prepare the final "playing field."

Naturally, such a treasonous, despicable strategy required an endless supply of direly exploitable, low information voters. We can see the Congress doing everything possible to inhibit the expansion of Internet services to their "captive audiences" in the red, fly over states. So long as the "news" and "opinion" available in such places can be entirely limited to the drivel broadcast by the cable corporations, these pockets of unflinching. mindlessly ideological voters will remain safely sequestered -- never encountering any alternate narrative.

One of the most useful and necessary of the popular fantasies promoted by this thought controlled media is that a vast percentage of Americans are spontaneously reactionary conservatives. Another is that being informed or being educated are strictly useless distractions.

Well, once the "echo chamber" has been put into place, no one in daily life ever contradicts these types as they bumble around the rural red states and rust belt. The fantasies which have been carefully embedded in them as "facts," are never contested or contradicted with "actual facts." Add the incendiary campaign rhetoric of right wing politicians eager to "harvest" this forlorn demographic, and a new phenomenon emerges.

Being politically uninformed, lacking any comprehension of the actual situation surrounding one and enjoying only the most callously twisted, rudimentary understanding of the details of the US system of government, becomes entirely acceptable. Anyone seeking an actual education, understanding or awareness of the reality at hand becomes quite suspicious.

This really has to end. Half the population of the country currently suffers under this carefully manufactured deception. 

Sanders plan includes relieving this hypnotic thrall in order to reach those currently voting lock step for exclusively reactionary candidates, making them at least available for a re-entry into the democratic process.