Corporatism, Fascism, and Confirmation Bias

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s had three Vice-Presidents during his four terms in office. Henry A. Wallace replaced John Nance Garner in 1941, and was replaced by Harry Truman in 1945. Of the three, Wallace was by far the most articulate in his condemnation of the corporatist agenda that was the Republican Party platform.

In 1944 Wallace penned an opinion piece that would be published in the April 9 edition of the New York Times. The Republicans have never ceased in that agenda, and Wallace's words of over 70 years ago lend perspective to why we find ourselves with the current president, and why his often otherwise reasonable supporters cling so ferociously to the lies that were drummed into their heads.

“The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity…"

"American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery..."

The full piece, entitled The Danger of American Fascism, along with other of his works, may be found at the FDR Presidential Library & Museum website.

I doubt any of my biased Republican friends will read it, or anything that might disagree with what they want to believe, but who knows? They are not necessarily stupid... just confirmed in their bias.

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Some things never change

Ramblings on the value of a life and the perceived differences in humans...

It wasn't unique to Dallas, although the city's recent past reputation as a Klan haven brought much attention to the white-bread communities north of the Trinity. In those days the financing behind the fear mongering and hatred came from a pair of born-into-privilege brothers from an oil rich family (sound familiar?). Dallas was their home, but the virulence was all around. Dallas north of downtown was friendly territory for the John Birch Society. What was going on in Big D didn't come to my home. It was revealed to me later as I learned to dig deeper than the pabulum fed to us in carefully edited textbooks.

I grew up out in West Texas; in the middle of it all, or so it seemed at the time. Everywhere you looked across the dusty Texas ranch land and oil fields there were hand-scrawled placards hanging from barbed wire fences and professionally painted road signs shouting "Impeach Earl Warren!" I didn't know who Warren was or what impeach meant at the time, but I did know the seething hatred that could be found whenever a group of old, white men got together over cups of coffee down at Star's Cafe. It was a little later as I haired over and learned to drive that I learned how widespread was the evil. Just to the east of Dallas was a town with a banner hanging over the main street... bragging that it had "The Blackest Dirt, The Whitest People." Just to the west a diminutive but well cared for sign under an oak tree on the courthouse square made the bold claim that "The Last Nig*** Hung in Texas Was Hung From This Tree..." These are gone now, but the fear and hatred from which the emotion was born is still evident. In their place we see anti-Obama and increasingly anti-Hillary signs; we hear a constant barrage from the pulpits and from hate radio about the Muslim usurper in the White House and the greedy wench wanting to force "four more years" into our bleached white existence. It isn't a whole lot different now than it was in 1963. Only the targets have changed... the hate remains the same. Considering the seemingly never ending hatred of the "others" endemic in this state, in retrospect the Kennedy assassination seems almost inevitable. Much analysis has been done on that dreadful event... the murder of a president and the days immediately following that fateful November morning in 1963, but there hasn't been enough attention paid to what lead up to it. The linked article entitled A Month Before JFK's Assassination, Dallas Right Wingers Attack Adlai Stevenson - Remembering the ferment in the "City of Hate" was penned for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination by Bill Minutaglio, It offers a glimpse of how it was then. I don't see it being much different five decades later. Who will die, when and where seem to be the only things left unanswered. Dallas has mellowed much since those hate-filled decades, but the hate-filled people are still with us... they've just moved to the suburbs and surrounding counties. Witness the witless politicians they send to the Statehouse and to Congress; interesting folks like Louie Gohmert, Joe Barton, Dan Patrick, and Tony Tinderholt. Children aren't born hating. Hatred is learned, and in Texas it is learned at the knee of the father, from all the hate radio jocks, and in the pews on Sunday. ~~~

The modern conservative

Watch the video....

 

Then follow the links to the various sites with comments about the video... and the reaction to the video. These people are the far right fringe of those who proudly call themselves "social conservatives". They band together and vote Republican... which is why I will not. 

They call themselves conservatives. I call them hateful bigots. The good thing is that the positive comments are outnumbering the racism about two to one. 

Ad Week

Gawker

Reddit, read the comments

YouTube, read the comments

YouTube again, read the comments

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Yet more insanity

More news items found...

A new fool rears its head. Welcome the Alabamadamna fool.

While Facebook claims yet another victim in Ohio...

Columbus Teacher’s Post-Election Facebook Post Leads To Investigation

Out in California we have the 22-year-old blindingly brilliant blond having a difficult time figuring it out.

A California woman seems genuinely surprised that calling the president by the n-word and wishing for his assassination might be, well, a big deal.

In Mississippi, the more things change the more they seem to stay the same.

Obama re-election protest escalates at Univ. of Mississippi; racial slurs, 2 arrests reported

This one represents the illogical dichotomy of modern Christianity. Since the vast majority of racist tweets posted following President Obama's reelection originated from Alabama (according to the demographers at Floating Sheep) it is perhaps unsurprising that this effigy was spotted on a porch in a small community not far from Dothan had apparently been sitting there since Halloween without any complaint from the neighbors.

Obama effigy with 'Pray 4 Assassin' sign removed from outside Alabama home

Certain business folks have doubled down upon learning that the Romneys wouldn't be adding yet another to an already long list of palatial mansions.

Coal executive explains layoffs with prayer lamenting Romney loss … Papa John's CEO John Schnatter: Obamacare likely to raise costs, employee's hours to be cut … Some Denny’s restaurants to bill customers 5 percent ‘Obamacare’ surcharge

By far the most bizarre overreaction is also the saddest… and occurred prior to the election. Responsibility for this hyped-up fear and hate-mongering falls squarely on the shoulders of the right-wing media and the plutocracy that funds them.

Virginia man kills family and himself over fear Obama would be re-elected

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A paucity of sanity

Kooks, buffoons and dangerous idiots.

Vote or die?

Police: Gilbert wife runs over husband with SUV after fighting about Obama's re-election

I'm sure this is only because it's deer season.
Gun store's sales up 400 percent after President Obama re-elected

No worries about this guy buying any guns.
Obama's re-election drives Key West man to suicide, cops say

There is a large disturbance in the force with these people.

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Does the rhetoric sound familiar?

To those who are old enough, particularly those who were living in or near Dallas in the fall of 1963, the hate-speech we're hearing from the extremist right wingnuts and teabaggers has familiar tones.

On November 20, 1963, members of the John Birch Society circulated some 5,000 of the now infamous JFK wanted posters on the streets of Dallas.

Two days later, on the morning of the 22nd, a full-page hate and lie-filled advertisement appeared in the city’s largest newspaper, the Dallas Morning News.

The advertisement, paid for by John Birch Society affiliate, the previously unheard of American Fact-Finding Committee, accused the President of responsibility for the imprisonment, starvation, and persecution of 'thousands of Cubans,' claimed he sold food to ‘Communists,’ accused him of letting Attorney General Robert Kennedy ‘go soft on Communists’ and ‘leftists’, and of persecuting ‘loyal Americans who criticize you, your administration, and your leadership.'

Two hours after the President read that advertisement he was dead. There is no known link between the Birchers and the assassination; there certainly is a link between JBS and the hateful rhetoric infecting our political discourse both then and now.

The John Birch Society has a history of extremism, liberal bashing, hate speech, and conspiracy theories. In the almost 50 years since the Kennedy assassination the Birchers have never let up on the rhetoric. Now today the right-wing blog The Hill has included JBS president John F. McManus as one of “the nation’s top political commentators, legislators and intellectuals.”

We’ll never be able to say for certain that the hateful words and actions of the likes of the John Birch Society in the early 60’s had anything to do with the death of a President, but as Chief Justice Earl Warren said in his eulogy delivered two days following the assassination, acts such as JFK’s murder “…are commonly stimulated by forces of hatred and malevolence. ... What a price we pay for this fanaticism. ... If we really love this country, if we truly love justice and mercy, if we fervently want to make this nation better for those who are to follow, we can at least abjure the hatred that consumes people, the false accusations that divide us, and the bitterness that begets violence.”

Today we have the likes of Glenn Beck stoking the flames on hate TV and hate radio, and there are the Michele Bachmans and Joe Wilsons in D.C. pushing their hate-filled agendas in the halls of Congress. In the old days we had Father Coughlin and Joe McCarthy. The hate has always been there, and it will forever be there, but we must not allow it to poison our body politic. Reason must prevail.

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Limbaugh proves his idiocy once again

A kid endures 11 minutes of hell, and all Limbaugh can do is blame Obama. When will this idiot's audience finally see just how evil the dude is?

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