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| The Koch Brothers |
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| Ed Meese |
It affected his grandfather's perceptions.
But that does not mean he was unable to see certain things with a certain clarity.
He loved to say this country has the best Congress money can buy.
He really loved that joke.
But, the fact is, he likely missed the point, in that, it is not really Congress, or even the Presidency which is all that important in this country. The people who really control things are not widely known, don't want to be. We focus on John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, the stooges who are out in front of the cameras ever day, but they are not pulling the strings. The men who make the puppets on stage dance and twitch are the Koch brothers, Ed Meese (Ronald Reagan's old attorney general) who can spend the money on the advertisements which mold public opinion, slowly, inexorably, even as we do not realize our opinions are being molded.
It is these men who have turned the statement: "Obamacare is unpopular:The nation hates Obamacare," into an article of faith.
Of course the public has no clear idea what Obama care is, what it will mean, but they know they don't like it because the Koch brothers have spent the money to convince the public they don't like it.
It's the men with the money who wield the power, who pull the strings. We hold elections, and we elect a smart man to be President, but that doesn't matter. The rich boys are still rich and they make sure their money buys them what they want.
Mario Puzo put that idea front and center in The Godfather, the mob bosses spoke of having judges and politicians "in their pocket," because it was money in the pocket which allowed you to own politicians and judges. This is fiction based on real life perceptions and experience.
Read the New York Times today, Sunday, October 6, the lead article about how Ed Meese and the Koch brothers conspired to bring about the government shut down, how red state gerrymandering and money spent paid off to allow a few men, got control of a few politicians--likely as few as 50 Congressmen--to control the fate of 300 million American souls.
It's the story of a revolution undone. We had an American revolution, in part at least, because people living on this continent resented being under the thumb of rich aristocrats across the sea, in England. It has been said it was a revolution of rich American aristocrats against rich English aristocrats, and that may have been true, in the South, but in New England, it was peasant farmers, humble country lawyers and shope keepers who revolted against arrogant moneyed gentry and royalty. But now, in America, we have our own, new aristocracy of big money. It's Animal Farm for our current age.
And you look from pig to man, and from man to pig, and you cannot tell one from another.
Oh, Jefferson, Adams and Madison would just groan to see what we've done to their idea.
Mad Dog,
ReplyDeleteI'm with your grandfather, we frequently-although thankfully not always, have the best government money can buy. Didn't you just love some of the names of the groups:Americans for Prosperity, Young Americans for Liberty,The Center to Protect Patient Rights...bonus points to the Right wing think tanks for those gems. As for Boehner,Cantor, Cruz etc. you're right, they're little more than flying monkeys for a higher power. What I don't buy is that the Koch brothers and all the big money men are funneling so much cash based on dogma. There has to be a financial gain there-so who are the financial interests behind this push? Not the insurance companies. Or do you think it's just part of a long term financial strategy of ousting all the Democrats, they're just thinking in the long term....
Maud,
ReplyDeleteAs usual, you have a shrewder streak than the Mad Dog. It stands to reason there must be some direct, or at least important indirect pay back for the money spent.
On the other hand, Mad Dog realizes his perceptions are limited by his plebeian upbringing. In Mad Dog's world, money was so tight, you only spent it if you anticipated the prospect of a bigger return. Like college tuition, and all like that.
Not sure the same is true of this ilk of billionaire. Look at the McMansion belonging to the ex-Mrs. Koch on Rte 1A, overlooking the ocean. It is Versailles in New Hampshire. Even if she lived there more than six weeks a year, and even if she had a rotating menagerie of young swains visiting her, it would be way too big to live in. Unless she throws Gatsby-equse parties, it is simply money spent because she can.
Maybe that's the way the Koch brothers are. They've just got too much money to ever spend in one lifetime. Heaven forbid they should try to eliminate malaria or provide clean water to villages--no, is it not possible they simply want to spend their money to satisfy some deep psychic needs, like putting health care out of reach for the average Joe, or putting a gun in the hand of every six year old?
Mad Dog can only imagine how minds like that might work.
--Mad Dog, hisownself