In the car I generally listen to classical music or podcasts; my wife listens to public radio news. I had taken my car in for service and she was driving me to pick it up. On our way, "Talk of the Nation" was on, and Neal Conan was interviewing Chris Hedges, author of "Death of the Liberal Class".
You can find an excerpt of the book and a link to the audio at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131166027&ps=cprs
Hedges basically says that the Liberal elite has been bought out or co-opted by corporate interests and are no longer really concerning themselves with the plight of ordinary people.
As I listened to and read some of the political advertising and sloganeering in the latest election farce, I wondered can these ideas be coming from average citizens or is some small group orchestrating these ideas.
Republicans said that Rep. Jim Oberstar was out of touch with the people. But which people - the people that voted against him, the people that voted for him, or the people who didn't even bother to vote?
Republicans said they wanted to limit the government that was encroaching on our freedoms. Which freedoms? The freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water? Or the freedom of large corporations to pollute as they please. The freedom to have a safe workplace? Or the freedom of large corporations to cut corners on safety at the cost of workers lives? The freedom to have safe food and medicines? Or the freedom of large corporations to use carcinogenic pesticides in factory farms and to limit the testing of medicines? The freedom to obtain health care at a reasonable cost? Or the freedom of large corporations to make large profits on health care insurance? The freedom to have financial institutions safeguard our investments? Or the freedom of large banks to make unregulated, risky investments and pay themselves huge amounts of our money?
An effective government provides these freedoms to people. A bought government provides the opposing freedoms to large corporations.
It seems to me that certain corporate interests are doing their best to create a mythology of an intrusive government, both by the propaganda they put out and by the politicians they buy.
If you want a good example of how certain corporate interests are subverting rational public discussion, see "Global Warming: Man or Myth - Global Warming Denial Machine", by Prof. Scott Mandia of Suffolk County Community College. I was lead to this article by "Scientists Join Forces in Hostile Climate", Andrew Revkin, New York Times, 2010-11-07.
Did the Republican Party die with Abraham Lincoln? Many commentators think that his "government of the people, by the people, for the people" has already perished from the earth.
