Comes now the warnings about and the round up of some of the fringier and flakier of the lunatics on the right, those who claim the right of insurrection starting with the officers of the law.
The way this is being played out is interesting. It seems that Our Rulers are singling out certain elements on the right for close scrutiny and they are taking out certain very marginal players, and they seem to be doing it as a signal to the TeaBaggers and their sponsors that if they step out of line the man'll come and take them away.
But the line, for those on the right, seems to be set at "Pretty Much Anything Goes."
They can carry on as wildly as they like, including breaking windows, so long as... no one gets hurt? Is that the game? All good clean fun, eh?
Blowing off steam, as Rush would say. Actually, the other day -- probably yesterday -- he was going full bore against Obama, claiming Obama started it! Obama said mean things against el Rushbo, mean, mean, mean! It was quite a performance...
Ah. Key: this is all Performance. I'm sure there are folks out there eager wage something come April 19, and who knows, they might just do it.
But there is another level to all of this. Back in the day, it was critically important for Our Rulers to discredit and marginalize and co-opt the lefty insurgency, and they did so with a wide range of tactics, from the "Free Speech Zones" to the Marches in Place. And anybody who got out of line was bludgeoned, gassed, or hauled off to the pokey. Remnant Communists organized some of the biggest protest marches the nation, nay the world, had ever seen, and they were studiously ignored by the Ruling Class. Through these means and others, relentlessly and piteously applied, the Left -- so called -- became so marginalized it all but disappeared, replaced by an ersatz-left that is almost indistinguishable from Reaganism. Clever ploy, eh? The point is, it worked. There is no "Left" left in this country. And there is little or no possibility of one arising -- or re-arising -- any time soon.
Now to apply the same proven tactics to the right.
The TeaBaggers are getting lots of attention from the Republican rump party and from the media, but they come across as reactionary and insolent and deeply confused about the simplest things. There's justifiable anger of course among the People, and the TeaBaggers collect and diffuse the anger. Nobody knows what they're fighting against or fighting for, they're just fighting for the hell of it. Or something like that. The more these people are seen, the more they -- and their childish anger -- are marginalized. The more they are featured, the less their message resonates.
Ultimately Our Rulers become the Wise and Witty, Warm and Wonderful realists who are Doing the Best They Can for All of Us, and those on the Left and those on the Right can just sit down, shut up, and listen to their betters.
The Rightists have been denying there was any violence, at least that there was any violence committed by them. The bricks and the epithets either didn't happen at all or if they did, they were the product of "Leftist" provocateurs. Maybe they were, who knows? But I think the Rightists understand better what is going on than those on the so-called Left, because they've practiced these very same tactics for many years. Successfully.
Now they see they themselves being targeted. And they are worried.
Good.
Meanwhile, the Ruling Class continues on its merry way, looting, murdering, pillaging and plundering with abandon, and no one's the wiser.
Have you read Matt Taibbi's piece, or gone over to Chris Floyd's for something dismal lately? Well, there you are. We're not really making any progress at all.
Ah, but it's Spring!
A Flower:
No comments:
Post a Comment