09/11/2005
The
horse they rode in on:
Ideological Clueless-ness
on the Mountain Top ... Frustrated Common Sense in the Valley
Friday night I watched James
Glassman of the American Enterprise Institute (a conservative think
tank) aggressively argue the discredited ideology against the likes of
George Carlin, Cynthia Tucker and Bill Maher on Real Time. His argument and
philosophy were powerfully stated by sheer force of volume, a willingness to
interrupt and an attempt to dominate discussion - all in detachment from
the reality of both human nature and the human condition.
I listened to Newt Gingrich
and other of the original and current architects of down-sized government and
corporate capitalism, read Gingrich's memo distributed to Republicans this
week and see reality continue to discredit these
"wise-governing" theories that began implementation with Republican electoral
success back in the late 80's.
Grover Norquist's
shrink-government-until-it-drains-away theory of prosperity for all is the
same inflexible mistake of pre-Depression corporate capitalism
renewed again in our time.
The horse these naive
intellectuals rode in on continues to drag American power and influence to
political and military venues not directly connected to protecting the
mountain tops and valleys of America.
It's a horse these naive
intellectuals - whose personal perspective of war and power has not been
refined by personal experience with real war and real power - continue to
ride as abstractions. It's a horse they have had to resort to validating
with lies, slander and truth-twisting; abusing our understanding of core
American values and the real meaning of patriotism by wrapping themselves
sanctimoniously in the American flag - an abuse in and of itself.
It's a horse these naive
intellectuals rode in on that faces discrediting by a single military mother
and those who have awakened to her taking the moral high ground
away from Republicans, leaving those discredited naive theorizers to
pretend to patriotism with whine, whimper and slander.
The horse these naive
intellectuals rode in on is not the horse that pulls the American plow, pulls
the wagon of American commerce nor carries the cavalry of American military
force. It's a horse expected to work without adequate care and nourishment, a
horse rarely curry-combed nor re-shod with focus on the actual terrain
over which it must labor for its masters.
It's a work-animal these
naive intellectual horse-traders bought for themselves and then convinced the
actual laboring and voting heart of the American economy and society to accept
as a replacement for the more effective original.
It's a work-animal these
naive and out-of-touch intellectual horse-traders believe will allow everyone
to move out of the valley and into the mountain tops of intellectual
capitalism. Personal monetary wealth in and of itself will support
every family; will effect a financial personal responsibility that will free
all citizens of the need for government of any size - except of course
for large expenditures
into the military-industrial venue to protect all of us would-be rich folks.
It's a work-animal these naive and out-of-touch intellectual horse-traders
feel is not needed in the valley where those who do not reach the mountain
tops deserve their fate and must remain as cogs in the economic machine.
Valley-ites are to remain subject only to that which they can obtain
thru financial slavery distracted by cheap promises and meaningless
entertainments. They remain subject to what happens when storms,
political and economic disasters somehow bypass the influence of the mountain
tops and fall into the valley below.
It's a work-animal even
these naive and out-of-touch intellectual horse-traders do not fully
understand. Those in the valley who truly actuate productivity, the
humanpower of American military prowess and the reality of American social
responsibility have come to know well that this horsel is inadequate and
a now-proven poor imitation of what the real thing looks like.
Listen to the Republican
apologists at all levels from the bottom-up or the top-down and what you see
and hear is the same blind devotion to a political and economic philosophy
that overrides common sense.
Chertoff and Brown -
political appointees with totally inadequate experience for the specific
callings given them by those who do so with political ends in mind -
ignorantly and openly displayed the ignorance of arrogance by approaching the
Katrina disaster as bureaucrats. First and foremost they acted as political
bureaucrats elevating procedure, protocol and political
permission above common sense and a leadership style that acts
immediately and decisively.
Chertoff, Brown and those
above continue to fall back on the Republican bureaucratic thinking based on
the now-discredited horse they rode in on.
Cheney, Rumsfeld and those
below continue to fall back on Republican and neocon ideological and
bureaucratic thinking based on the now-discredited horse they rode in
on.
They know no other way, no
other approach and no other method available that would be consistent with the
naive and intellectual horse-trading theories that got them here. They insist
on continuing to ride the old nag that may manage forays into the valley but
more and more struggles to get back to the mountain tops.
Our baby
boomer generation's time is coming to an end. Those of the next
generation will take control of whatever we pass on.
Maximus in the film Gladiator
tells the power-mad Republican Commodus, "The time for honoring yourself is
coming to an end."
Barack Obama this morning
told George Stephanopoulos, "These children are our children."
Our children are even now
moving in the direction of taking their rightful places on the mountain tops.
The best we can do is our part to reveal and repudiate the fraud of the horse
the politically naive regime rode in on.
The least we can do is help
them get our time-proven horse back and send the horse-THEY-rode in on to
where - neutered and impotent - it will serve well at the glue
factory.
