The history of the two party system in this country is an amazing tale of incorporation and manipulation. This is most certainly true today as a careful observer will see through the rise and potential fall of the Tea Party group within the Republican Party. The true target? The populist left; Progressives, prime-time MSNBC hosts & viewers, The Young Turks.
Let’s take the scenario that the Tea Party candidates of 2010 largely suffer a rout in November. The White House, large media outlets, and corporatist Democrats will say, “see? You can’t follow the people on the fringes.” The problem is that somehow our government and media have moved so far to the right…wait. Even in this conversation I am treating our political reality as a two dimensional spectrum. This is how we get manipulated by the sleight of hand. There is no question that cultural issues such as abortion, mosques, same sex marriage, and gun rights are hot button topics. But these are the explosive issues that are dividing the masses of people who are getting fleeced on a daily basis and need fundamental changes in this country.
So back to the original point. We have had a Democratic Party during the last two years with an almost unprecedented power base and mandate to effect fundamental change. And no willingness to use that power. Following Cenk Uigher’s (The Young Turks) commentary I believe this to make the Democrats at best weak, at worst complicit.
We need a throw the corporatist bums out philosophy, but we need it at the primary level and within the Democratic Party. Third party attempt? We all know this doesn’t work. Election laws from the local to federal level are so heavily slanted to the two parties currently in power that the only true avenue of success is within. The cultural right has been working at this with a hammer (Rush Limbaugh) and a blowtorch (Fox News) for a couple of decades. The Tea Party is the culmination of their efforts, creating “populist” fervor through the cultural hot buttons mentioned before while protecting corporate interests at all costs. The highlight of the Tea Party candidates as we discuss them are the beliefs or statements that are so culturally off the deep end to the right that November voters are likely to reject them.
The conversation as stated before will turn to the danger of the fringe. The faulty part of that statement is that we are already on an upper right fringe where our power structure is concerned. While we are told that most people are unhappy with the results of health care reform, we hear little about recent polls that state a large portion of us don’t think it went far enough. Certainly not what we are lead to believe. As we hear a lot about taxation at the federal level, there is little talk about curbing the defense contracting industry, which sucks up a ton of resources to benefit a few. There is also little talk about the butter portions of the budget; infrastructure, education, health & welfare. What we forget is that the responsibilities we have to the butter issues remain the same after taxes are cut and defense money is given away. They remain the same through federal legislation, US American values, and ultimately what we as human beings of conscience know to be important. These costs are constantly being downshifted to the state then county then local then personal level. That is what is killing us in the global marketplace.
The last decade has produced a sea of ex-Republicans. Taking myself, Cenk Uigher, and a significant number of my old friends as examples (not scientific, I know but through enough anecdotal evidence, I truly believe this to be a trend) an incredible portion of the United States population has gone from “conservative” to “progressive”. I mentioned before that our government and media have moved into an upper right direction. Let’s start focusing on a new spectrum on the y axis. Large corporations versus true small business and entrepreneurialism. Why do we need better health insurance reform? So it is more possible to create a new business or keep an existing one afloat rather than allowing annual double digit increases to health insurance premiums. Fixing the education system by ignoring the decades of faulty studies comparing our education system, which strives to every student the chance to succeed, to the nations who weed out those who think and learn differently at every possible level. To recognize that this is our greatest cultural strength and if we stop the current standardized testing nonsense and develop the 21st century education system from an agri-industrial model into an artisan-entrepreneurial model, we will create both better workers, businesses, and an economy that shows the true power of democracy and the US American spirit. A lot of the fundamentals here are what many of us probably believed in as young 1990s Republicans.
We need to stress the issues and obstacles holding back true small business and entrepreneurialism. When the cultural red meat gets waved in the air…I hate to say ignore it…but respond with the simple edict that the government should limit involvement with matters of the Church and the boudoir. The spectrum which will determine the success or failure of the United States in the 21st century is populism versus corporatism, not social left/right issues.
Again, the Tea Party is painted as populist while being engineered for a crash by tying itself to colorful personalities of the cultural right. The left must start the conversation now concentrating on entrepreneurial populism. Don’t wait to be invited to speak on television, create your own online content and let a thousand voice drown out the ones supported by General Electric and United Health. Those with larger, established audiences resist the cultural conversations and focus on realigning what populism does and should mean.
Whichever way you cut it, the 2010 elections are a dangerous time for true populism. But if we start now and keep feet to the fire, there is a chance we can make headway in 2012. The alternative is a very dark indeed.
