GOP - Making Everything Old New Again

"Conservative" 

A Word Nibbled to Death by Time

It wasn't pretty, either. When definitions no longer exist, 

speaking louder and faster become the order of the day.

In the olden days there was, at least theoretically, an actual contextual meaning for the term "conservative." Even then it was a word usable only with only the most awkward style of comparative meaning -- that is, when considered by itself, a definition quickly became quite nebulous. To accommodate this "syntactic challenge," conversational references to, for example, "conservative" things or "conservative" values, for instance, usually descended quickly to "what it didn't mean" and were augmented by all manner of comparisons to to "things" or "values" which its antonym might suggest were present.

However, as time passed even the task of selecting the "correct" antonym began to also descend into the same uncertain waters. "Liberal" or "progressive" seem to be the most recent efforts to describe "things" and "values" which were, by definitions never really made formally concrete, antithetical to "conservative things and values."

Of course this modern hodge podge of twisted concepts and labored efforts to bias communication did not occur spontaneously, that is, did not occur as organically as mere "lillies in the field." Instead, the current dichotomy was patiently developed with long, tedious planning and at great cost in the public opinion manipulating bunkers of the billionaire class.

Whatever's on your mind. [image]

The result was that many voters who never before enjoyed access to words with so many syllables suddenly found themselves entirely comfortable with the use of this particular term, "conservative." In no time at all its casual definition [in its use by this crowd] was entirely "vaporized into the dusty annals of forgotten history" only to be replaced instantly by absolutely whatever meaning such minds might have sought to add to their discourse in the precise moment it was uttered.

Conversations including a reference to "conservatism" may as well have been drunken arguments conducted with a rapidly rotating Wheel of Fortune.

[There's absolutely not even the slightest reason to worry about hurting the feelings of any of these "word salad chatterers" by commenting about them this way on the blog. If for no other reason, the "syllable count" typical to these posts would have sent them scattering in confused horror after they had encountered the first sentence.]

Things of Today and Things of Yesterday

It will help to hide your calendar.

The mad rush "back to the imaginary past" was predicted long before the GOP's "girders popped" in preparation for this election cycle. In the darkest, most frightening days immediately after the Republican Recession's looting frenzy had cooled a bit, President Obama made a prescient comment regarding the state of mind of voters.

Among the "non-lobbyist" crowd, everyone who had possessed wealth in practically any form -- real estate equity, 401 K accounts, retirement savings, and so on -- lost 40% of everything in few weeks. The President accurately foretold that these brutally injured "Middle Classers" would be inclined to revert to furtive, imagined memories of their individual "good old days." Although few Americans realized this in the frightening days of 2008, experts have concluded that a full recovery from the disaster will at least take two decades.

[Read more ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE and Social Trends PEW RESEARCH]

"And it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," Obama said. [April 13, 2008 - in the worst days of the Great Republican Recession - Christianity Today]

The New Dark Ages

The GOP's Twelve Step Program to

Re-institute History in Retrograde

Where in the world did they get these ideas? Oh, right.
The Dark Ages [ image - jonasdero]

The term "Conservative" wordlessly embodies an eager rejection of the present reality and a full retrograde impulse to re-establish mythical conditions imagined to have prevailed in the past.

1. Invading the Middle East - Again

More than a few of the current GOP Presidential candidates are proposing another invasion of Iraq and Syria with a US land army. Predictably, the burden of revealing important details about such a military adventure are lost amid the propaganda. The Dark Ages were annotated by one Crusade after another to "liberate" Middle Eastern real estate into the hands of the Pope and the Nobles, but we don't have to travel that far into the past to understand this one.

[Read more  Still Fighting George W. Bush's Battles SALON]

2. Criminalizing Minority Status

This takes three main directions. A. Complaints from black Americans with respect to the wide spread police shootings are "dispatched" by GOP candidates by citing racist epithets. B. GOP politicians stubbornly adhere to complete opposition to any political resolution to managing the current immigration crisis. C. GOP political candidates openly supporting the establishment of "blanket" detention camps in the US for landed immigrants from specific regions.

[Read more The Poor Get Prison INSTITUTE OF POLICY STUDIES]

3. Cultural and Religious Purity

Openly Dominionist GOP Presidential candidates espouse the specific supremacy of Christian [Western] values and policy. Kasich is supporting an international propaganda campaign to promote "Western" values, while Donald Trump has "quietly" [indecisively] supported a policy requiring religious identification tags on Muslims. Humanity's dark history is littered with such programs.

[Read more The Right Wing's Purity Culture SALON]

4. Reconstructing the Division of Berlin

Every time Donald Trump bellows about "building a wall" between the US and Mexico, MeanMesa cannot avoid remembering the wall which divided Berlin for years -- including the corpses strewn about on the Eastern side when desperate Germans attempted to run the gauntlet through the unmanned, automatic machine guns. Building an impenetrable wall between the US and all contiguous neighbors amounts to roughly the same thing.

The Berlin Wall was a constant reminder of why people wanted to escape the crushing hardship of an utterly failed social system. Ironically, within a few years after their construction, the Trump walls will probably be a constant reminder of the same thing.

[Read more Building Trump's Wall NEWSWEEK]

5. Mutual Assured Destruction [MAD] 

People who clearly have no idea what occurs when an H-Bomb detonates over a populated area should not recklessly tease the Russian Federation. The United States and Russia still have -- by far -- the largest and most credible nuclear deterrent weaponry. Restarting the Cold War with the Russian Federation would initiate future decades of nuclear insanity -- not to mention gigantic arms expenditures crippling economic stability on both sides.

Those Europeans who lived in the Dark Ages were almost constantly threatened by unending wars -- the Hundred Years War, the Thirty Years War and more. The United States and Russia have been threatening each other [occasionally threatening more and less] with nuclear war for over fifty years.

[Read more Republican candidates on Russia, Ukraine and Crimea ABC NEWS]

6. Validating Cultural Supremacy 

GOP political campaigns are now openly promoting the psychology of [US National] exceptionalism based on biased interpretations of history. History reveals that when this becomes the national psychology, war inducing jingoism follows rather quickly in its wake. The psychology of exceptionalism "excuses" citizens who think that actually being informed about international realities is an unnecessary burden to qualify one to formulate an "informed" [valid/realistic] opinion about national policy.

[Read more  The Problem of American Exceptionalism - PEW RESEARCH]

7. Establishing Statutory Law Based on Religious Ideology

Although these ideas have been embedded in GOP political campaigns only at the level of innuendos, the trend is toward far more specific references. The GOP base responds well to the fantasy of Biblical credentials and Biblical policies when espoused by Republican candidates. Even the mere mention of creating statutory law based on admittedly ill defined Biblical principles excites poll numbers. To MeanMesa this is reminiscent of the suffocating Catholic theocracy in Europe during the Dark Ages.

[Read more Republicans - Dismantle Constitution and Make Christianity the National Religion POLITICUSUSA]

8. Creating a Cynical Crisis in Trust 

We can only speculate the long term effects of a determined, well financed effort to fundamentally shake the trust Americans have traditionally held for their representative government. Nationally, there has never been a period entirely absent of complaints and suspicions, the the current wave of total mistrust exceeds anything similar in the past. The effort has employed every possible ploy including the "kitchen sink" to accomplish this among a nearly illiterate electorate -- raw xenophobia, intimations of God's wrath, nearly unilateral dread from no longer controlling the economy -- all driven to a fever pitch by an entire "news" network hell bent on completing the job.

[Read more MeanMesa America's Dark New World of Total Mistrust]

9. Cultural Paranoia and Fear 

This refers to a general fear and anxiety. Americans haven't had a moment's rest of this onslaught, and the results are telling. Fear has become the "currency of the day." For perhaps a majority of Americans a television talk show which doesn't invoke even more fear is generally characterized as suspect or unrealistic. Although the President joked about this development with respect to the GOP Presidential candidates, the brutal reality of it stretches far afield  --- beyond just the campaigns -- to include an  un-examined fear of even the most innocuous daily encounters for millions of Americans.

The electorate has been groomed into a state in which fear and hopeless malaise can be turned to a political advantage.

[Read more Jimmy Carter's Malaise Speech in 2016 USNEWS]

10. Bigotry as the Status Quo 

The fear and xenophobia usher in raw bigotry. Americans who disapprove of police shooting among black citizens mitigate their criticism with rambling justifications -- shadowy justifications carefully designed and embedded into the back grounds of their minds by professional think tanks and other experts employed to mitigate public opinion. Anyone considering this to be an exaggeration or an embellishment need only listen for "buts." "Yes, it was awful, but..." "Yes, it was racist, but..." "Yes, it was unnecessary, but..."

Racism almost certainly has many foundations and derives from many social roots, but for oligarchs public opinion schemes validating racism, justifying it and even tolerating violent racism are "tried and tested" means for maintaining a divided electorate -- something necessary for them to accomplish their ambitions.

[Read more NYTIMES]

11. Lower Standards of Living and Poverty 

During the decade or so that the tea party has been holding political sway, the American population has descended from being the best fed in the world to a nadir which sees one in six children facing food uncertainty. Now, although the oligarchs have dispatched the tea party as no longer useful, the poverty remains -- and continues to grow. This tragedy may be shocking, but we can be encouraged by the fact that it is not an inexplicable "mysterious development." Both the process and the consequences are entirely consistent with the "larger plan" initiated by the oligarch class during the Reagan era.

Conditions of life during the Dark Ages were marked by a desperate "dog eat dog" poverty and superstitious fear conveniently induced by religion. The ambitious plan of the billionaires is to persuade Americans to accept oligarchy and dynastic wealth as a new, permanent status quo in the democracy -- in the same way that Dark Ages peasants accepted the "Divine Right" of the noble plutocrats who ruled them.

[GOP Poverty Report Washington Post]

12. Rewriting History 

Written history poses a far less serious threat to those who would rule men's minds when no one knows it, but if straight, out and out illiteracy can't be achieved, twisting the content of history books will do almost as well. This was, for example, one of the root causes of the sectarian violence after the US invasion of Iraq. For years Iraqi Sunnis had been taught that they represented a majority of the Iraqi population -- the opposite of the true distribution of Sunni and Shiite demographics.

In domestic education the Texas School Board's well financed effort to promote "conservative" ideology through subsidizing text books for other states is another example.

This leads to a patient effort which leads large numbers of "educated" Americans to fail to criticize the policies and individuals who have, frankly, damaged the country. The long term consequence is the creation of entire generations deeply saturated by such propaganda and as a result, a population no longer able to discern the qualities of character necessary for competent performance in a high office. Understandably, celebrity candidates, for example, are confused with those having competence for national leadership. 

[Read more - Think Progress]

The Vanishing, Existential Difference 

Between "Perfect" and "Failed"

Especially when discussing religion, politics, 

current events or policy... but probably not sex.

A few years ago the daily email orders from the GOP's think tank bunkers must have flatly stated that the use of the term "failed" would be injected into all Republican campaign rhetoric and public statements at every possible opportunity. As a result we now have a "failed" economic policy, a "failed" foreign policy, a "failed" immigration policy, a "failed" health insurance reform, a "failed" Wall Street reform program, a "failed" infrastructure reconstruction program and plenty of other "failed" things.

Wait. Would it be "out of line" to insist that anyone using this blanket condemnation of "failed" be also obliged to propose a "perfect" alternative? Or, if the "perfect" option turns out to be an unfair requirement, could some other option described merely as "successful" replace it?

MeanMesa suspects that such a demand would produce some serious "dead air time" in the relentless broadcast of the mouth junk emanating from the oligarchs' ideology bunkers. In fact -- it might produce a crisis-like "lock jaw" epidemic in the New York FOX studio.

In reality [where we have to live...] the FOX propaganda authors might be frozen in their tracks if they were suddenly required to begin describing policy promising "success" instead of simply those foretelling either already accomplished "failure" or future, inevitable "failure." In no time at all we will "re-arrive" at the point where those so enamored with "failed" seek ideological refuge in the syntactic quagmire of "Conservative."

Even after Donald Trump's "campaign" inevitably obliterates itself when not even the hill billies of the GOP base will remain interested in voting for him, the allure of the "imaginary refuge" promised by this retrograde fantasy will continue. MeanMesa suspects that not even the coming landslide defeat of the GOP in 2016 will significantly alter this carefully crafted mindset. It is simply too useful as a political manipulation tool for the oligarch class.

No matter how intently the sold out media promotes the fantasy, there really is a reality. It is all around us, and dealing with it is not optional or discretionary. The Republicans have systematically thrown every identifiable demographic "under the bus" at this point -- with the exception of the white, information challenged, illiterate racists and smelly, starry eyed fundamentalists. With this "retrograde fantasy" tactic, the brilliant GOP leadership has clearly decided to "split off" any rational base voters not yet thrown under the bus and...throw them under the bus.

At some point the plutocrats will finally take the "big step" of positioning themselves to ignore electoral outcomes, but in the meantime, they will hand FOX and the others the task of convincing those already "under the bus" by that time that they are not "under the bus."

10 New Years Wishes for New Mexico

Some nice, local, sentimental New Year's Wishes...

As the "terror and stench" of the years of the 2000's pass into history, MeanMesa is experiencing the common sentiment of considering exactly what could be well-reasoned hopes for a better future. Of course, the recent history of the nation presents some inescapable and obvious choices. It would be nice indeed if the USA were to more carefully avoid being hurled into reckless and costly military adventures, not be subject to catastrophic "greed tantrum hangovers" from the financial sector and to begin healing from the GOP's crazy addiction to divisiveness and fear mongering.


But those are national matters. What about New Mexico? What wishes might one have for the State of Origin of MeanMesa? After all, our Galactic Headquarters are here.


But first, for both our international visitors and even our fellow Americans who live elsewhere in the country, a few words to introduce our state. New Mexico has a population of about 2 million souls. It was the 47th state to enter the union (next door Arizona was the 48th) in 1912. Politically, New Mexico has a generally populist state government which includes a few crusty rural ideologues, a corporatist liberal Governor and a remarkably "common sense oriented" electorate, most likely a predictable result of traditionally durable but low end economy.


A cursory review of names for everything from streets to schools to cities betrays a strong Spanish influence. That European "tribe" arrived en masse around 1550 with a well heated obsession for colonialism, oppressive religion and more than a few other, violent bad habits. What was to become New Mexico became an Imperial Spanish Viceroyalty. Although the locals successfully recaptured the place a few times, they were no match for a European colonial power in the end.


Naturally, the "totals for the day" showed that these locals also did most of the bleeding.


Ancient history-wise, there was a significant Clovis culture here around 9,000 BC, followed by a Folsom culture a thousand years later. The state is littered with artifacts from these periods along with substantial desert pueblos from later times. Many MeanMesa visitors may have heard of the famous ruins at Mesa Verde or the cities of the Anazasi.


Modern New Mexico has the largest Hispanic population of any U.S. states, and around 80% of New Mexicans speak English. (MeanMesa visitors who would like to know more details about this beautiful, high desert place can consult Google/Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico#Population

for all sorts of additional information.)

Ooops. New Mexico is the place where MINORITIES are the MAJORITY.

So, with that short introduction complete, what ten wishes for the New Year will MeanMesa settle on for this posting? The introduction was necessary because one's wishes for a home state such as New Mexico might be rather different from one's wishes for a more developed or heavily populated place. Likewise, the pivotal cultural issues for New Mexico are also somewhat unique.

MeanMesa's Ten New Year's Wishes for New Mexico

1. An end to the "patrone" cultural structure

New Mexico's history of colonial elitists laid an enduring foundation for the idea that decisions about social directions would be a permanently "top down" affair. Even New Mexico's most egregious crooks are desperately unsophisticated. Hardly any effort is spent to conceal even the most outrageous corruption, much less impose limits on its scope based on a criminal's well reasoned self-preservation instincts. Civilizing statutory structures ranging from landlord tenant laws to dependable, uniform prosecution of drunk drivers which are well established in other places seem to always fall short here in the New Mexico desert.


The collective bishops of the Roman church just finished savaging the state legislature's attempts to secularize marriage to a new form which would be out of their control.


The man on the street has been groomed by local history to simply accept his "class status" and to abide by relentless insults from others who believe they have escaped its entrapment.


MeanMesa's first wish: That the population could become actively enfranchised in the decisions of the State. That community organizing might embolden and inspire New Mexico's common folk to firmly take charge of directing their state government.


2. More sophisticated labor unions


We're not referring to the importation of East Coast Union Thugs, but organized labor in the state is disturbingly toothless. Of course, there are unions for state employees, teachers, policemen and firemen, and a limited number of unions exist around in the famous laboratories at Sandia and Los Alamos. However, the class system has remained a suffocating burden on most of the state's workers. The local economy is centrally comprised of smaller businesses, creating another obstacle for advances in organized labor.


Wages are low, benefits are sparse and opportunities are limited. At the same time, the quality and education of New Mexico's labor force is low compared to other states. The remants of the old class (Patrone) system are apparently locked into the idea that all is well so long as they have more than anyone else.


MeanMesa's second wish: That well structured labor unions might organize and focus on developing a better educated and better trained work force along with better pay and benefits. Higher wages would mean more money in the local economy, better business and more prosperity.


3. More brave, new development ideas


To its credit, the state government has done a remarkable job of implementing news ideas for the local economy -- especially when one takes into account the fact that New Mexico is a very poor state. We have subsidized movie making, built a small light rail train between some population centers and even made significant loan money available to the nation's first space port. These are -- at the time of this posting -- all successful, innovative development projects which have provided good jobs and improved the possibilities of a more prosperous future.


MeanMesa's third wish: More thoughtful, modern, well designed ventures which will contribute to the state's economic development. The old "trickle down" oligarchy of the past can dies a well deserved, lonely death. New ideas can capture the imagination and energy of New Mexicans who dare to think ahead!


4. A New Mexico State Bank


Most MeanMesa visitors, being pretty darned savvy about national politics, are familiar with the incredible advantages the State Bank of North Dakota provided its state's residents during the latest GOP economic blunder. (If you are not up to speed on this great idea, chase down the following links:

http://www.firststatebanknd.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/?Job-Losses?-Not-in-North-Dakota---A-Stimulus-Plan-That-Really-Works&id=3203890

MeanMesa's fourth wish: Found and fund a New Mexico State Bank which can provide a similar independence and durability for our own economy!


5. State wide water and renewable energy projects


New Mexico probably has some of the highest quality solar and wind resources in the country. Even a short visit to this beautiful place on a windy summer day will erase any doubt about the availability of incredible amounts of renewable energy resources! However, like most states with oil and natural gas reserves, New Mexico developed some remarkably durable bad habits early on. We can do much better -- we could even export clean, renewable electricity to other states if the national grid were improved. For a recap of existing energy resources in the country (including New Mexico):

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/natural_gas/data_publications/crude_oil_natural_gas_reserves/cr.html

MeanMesa's fifth wish: Engage renewable energy development in a big way -- starting NOW! New Mexico can benefit with jobs and promising infrastructure improvements right away, taking advantage of the stimulus grid projects and funding opportunities.


6. More modern and sophisticated race relations


If a visitor to New Mexico didn't know any better, he would arrive at all sorts of incorrect observations about what is going on here. To him, we might look like a slightly less vicious version of slavery in the South -- at least a slightly less destructive form of the Jim Crow era! Far too many of the Hispanic population is poor and under employed with only the most lack luster hope for improving their condition. There are plenty of desperately poor white folks, too. Wages are awful. Most jobs have neither benefits, much job security or much a chance to advance (see "patrone" above...).


MeanMesa sat on jury duty here a couple of months ago. Every trial was another sickening case of a young Hispanic screw-up facing a devastating judicial onslaught. The tragedy went far beyond "guilt or innocence." It was heartbreaking. The most awful part was that all the "players" (cops, judges, defendants, jurors, attorneys) simply accepted the social meat grinder as their inevitable lot in life. It seems as if there is not even a dream of a better state socially.


MeanMesa's sixth wish: Fire up an in state civil rights campaign! Begin programs which will eat away at New Mexico's passive race inequities and don't relent until things get evened out!


7. Radical improvements to public education


MeanMesa seldom embraces the concept of a "clean sweep" as a good idea when it comes to reforming failed institutions, but this might be an exception. The rate of high school students failing to graduate is over 50%. The streets (and the courts and the prisons) are a dismal march of hopeless gang members and other hopeless sorts who would consider a job at McDonalds both a "sell out" and an "unbridled career opportunity." Step one might be a good public flogging of every teacher in New Mexico public schools followed by an opportunity to either go into exile somewhere else or change professions.


Let's see, now. Perhaps this little rant has "tipped our hand." Nah. Public education costs represent half of the state budget and cannot be characterized -- even on a good day -- as anything besides a nightmarish social menace.


About the changes Washington DC is making in public schools:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/michelle-rhee

MeanMesa's seventh wish: New Mexico needs to import an all new staff of everyone needed to run its public schools from some place where the system is working -- even a little! Washington DC has a school "Chancellor" determined to improve public education there. New Mexico needs a "State Chancellor" with the same kind of guts. Nothing changes until the young ones change.


8. An exciting new image


Aside from the slums, the drug addicted teenagers and the forlorn, drunken survivors of this crippled classist economy, there is nothing permanently wrong with New Mexico! This is a magnificent place absolutely chuck full of beautiful scenery, resources and hopeful, energetic, ambitious people. Yet, say the words "New Mexico" in Los Angeles or New York and people begin to think of cruddy western movies they saw in their youth.


Sure, we have problems, but life here has qualities that folks on the coast only dream about.


MeanMesa's eighth wish: Reveal our state! Not just to potential tourists, but to new residents! We have both the space and the opportunities for many exciting new neighbors, and we need fresh ideas and ambitions to move our home into the 21st Century. Rustic and free are great ideas, and when they are coupled with wide open frontiers, reasonable living costs and lots of fresh air, who could resist?


9. A state cooperative


New Mexico has traditionally been prey to out of state "box stores," but it doesn't need to remain that way. In fact, most of the Chinese "one size fits all" merchandise crap for sale around here doesn't even meet the needs of local conditions. This complaint can be made for everything from swamp coolers to boots, rain water cisterns to camping tents, agricultural crops to affordable housing. It's time to think local! The state has suffered long enough with stuff made for somewhere else.


MeanMesa's ninth wish: Start a state cooperative -- the state bank might be a great first step. Then foster local manufacturing of locally designed products in a price range accessible for local consumption. The cooperative idea, once matured, can offer us a way out of our total dependence on outside jobs, products, companies and out-of-state profits.


10. Look at state ownership of oil and gas reserves

Private ownership of New Mexico's energy reserves has not served us well at all. The basic idea seems to lead unavoidably to concentrated legislative powers, half-hearted environmental compliance and unpredictable fluctuations in state income. Even if the price were high, state control of local natural resources would constitute a great improvement over the way things are presently -- one which would pay for itself over time. The local economy needs to be served by a state run energy system in place of the current set up. What we have right now is an unhealthy mix of the "patrone" idea married to the normal avarice of lease holders who think they are above any local responsibilities or, in some cases, even local laws.


MeanMesa's tenth wish: Formulate a plan for the state purchase and management of all underground hydrocarbon reserves. Everything can be planned -- without the profits or influence -- to serve the residents of the state, lower their energy costs, share the profits and better meet their needs.


There you have it. How about making some New Year's wishes for your own state? Happy New Year from MeanMesa!