Here it comes the largest wave of propaganda in this country since World War 1. All bought and paid for by the country’s wealthy elite, who think that you’re so stupid, that you will fall for it. Perhaps you yourself are not, yet perhaps your neighbor or your neighbor’s neighbor are.
Good Tea Party, now take a nap and awake for the next election. I’ll give you a snausage if you do as your told.
Corporations spend billions every year to influence our buying decisions, and look what it’s done. America has grown fat because everywhere we go, someone is telling us to eat something cheesy, greasy and oh so delicious. America has become a nation of escapists, because every event or festival is dominated by Bud not our buds. We have become a nation of people obsessed with a self-image we can never attain, thanks to the scented pages of women’s magazines. And we’ve become a nation that has ceased to think for itself in a world that is filled with crap we do not need and do not remember why we bought it. No wonder they talk so much about personal responsibility (which is of course THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR HERE). Though it must be pointed out, that’s exactly what a drug dealer would say.
Now they are coming for your views.
It’s been a long time coming for sure, as old as time itself. They used to buy your votes with free turkeys and favors. Today, all we get are empty promises about values. They throw you a line about freedom and you’re supposed to be so grateful you will vote for them. Sounds obvious, yet it works.
Now why is this any different than before? Well, this is the first time that unlimited corporate money is allowed in a Presidential contest, where corporations can directly spend money on political campaigns through the use of Super PACs, as long as they don’t “coordinate” with the politician. This is so laughable that Colbert formed a Super Pac and later ran for president, handing off the Super PACs responsibilities to Job Stewart. They repeatedly joked about the coordination.
| The Daily Show with Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Colbert Super PAC – Not Coordinating with Stephen Colbert | ||||
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Yet there is nothing funny about what is about to happen. These guys are going to throw half a billion towards electing their shill, Willard Mitt Romney, who will do whatever they want. Open up the public lands, sell off public utilities, deregulate industries, eliminate the FDA, kill the EPA, lower their taxes and let America become a paradise for cheap labor and cheap resources, that is, until the resources run dry. Romney will increase the defense spending beyond what the Pentagon has asked for. This money will not be spent on soldiers, but on an industry of equipment.
Just like our prison system, the Republicans and their wealthy elite backers love the government, they plunder it for contracts and special favors they can use to enrich themselves, yet they just don’t like it when you get any of that access. Oh and they also don’t want to pay for it. Believe it or not. The Koch Brothers make so much money (together they are the wealthiest couple on the planet) that throwing millions at elections actually pays off for them.
I’ve had a theory that if these guys took this same half a billion they have pledged to Romney and spent it on good deeds for the people, they could probably win their support anyway. Instead this money goes into an endless tide of commercials and pads the bank accounts of Republican election strategists.
All the while the voice of the people is drowned out in a sea of noise directed at YOUR views.
When a politician takes money from you, he is pledged to fight for you, anonymous middle-class doner. He send you a nice little thank you letter and a dozen follow ups begging for more money. Yet when a politician takes money from someone wealthy who owns a business, he usually gets a much larger check and meets them in person, pledging to fight for them. Suddenly, Mr. and Mrs. Anonymous Middle-Class voter is no longer that important. However what happens when David H. Koch makes a donation, hell must be freezing over because he doesn’t give to campaigns, he RUNS HIS OWN CAMPAIGNS! In the battlegrounds, David H. Koch has hired the best of the best to come in and “help” the candidates, all the while the ads on TV are his own. His own views, and his own spin, all on behalf of Willard Mitt Romney.
When Proposition 8 passed in California, despite the victory of Barack Obama, many questioned the money that was pumped into advertising from the Mormon church, based in Utah. This turned out to not be the exception, yet the new rule as Republican campaigns have continued to pump their enormous corporate profits into state after state to buy elections. In most cases, it’s people like the Koch Brothers, spending millions of their fortune on small state elections like the Wisconsin Recalls. Why? To get control of the public utilities there of course. The Kochs stand to make millions if Wisconsin follows the path put forward by Tea Party Governor Scott Walker.
So what about gay marriage? Isn’t this just a display of values groups trying to force their values on other states? There is nothing to sinister about that, right? Well actually there are many states at play here. As Bill Moyers recently pointed out, the right-wing groups are trying to recall the Iowa independent judges who ruled gay marriage was in line with the state constitution. They got 3 of them in 2010, mostly funded by out of state organizations who border on hate-groups. Today one remains and he is the target of a GOP onslaught to remove him, again funded from out-of-state organizations who want to force their values on everyone else. Many of the speakers, like Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum have political agendas of their own. Yet the most important factor here is momentum. They are trying to show a national trend of their “values” spreading. Along with those values comes votes for the Republican party. What does the Republican Party do, other than push an agenda that wants to tell people how to live, who to worship and who they should marry? They are the multi-national corporations biggest friend, passing bills that make it harder f0r families to file for bankruptcy, harder for average people to sue corporations and they fight against minimum wage, health care and anything else that costs a corporation one penny they feel should go to their bonuses.
So you see how it works. The Republican “values” are just a smokescreen to make rich people richer.
It’s a tragedy.
We are smarter than this. So please, my fellow Americans, use a grain of salt and those synapses to see through the cloud of nonsense. Don’t forget that the enemy of advertising is community, since when we communicate with each other, the audacious claims made by advertising are rendered moot when they are untrue. An untrue claim even becomes a liability.
Welcome to post-Citizens United America! We can no longer put even a tiny amount of trust in political advertising. If you don’t see it, don’t believe it.