Watching USA’s political landscape unfolding, or more accurately unraveling, these past years I’ve been infected with a growing pessimism. Now after a couple weeks of studying up on Americans for Prosperity, henceforth, Americans for (Kochs) Prosperity, that pessimism has given way to a palpable sense of terror.
Why do I worry? Our presidency was taken by a strategy of hate-mongering and lies. Our Republican Party shows complete disregard for the popular will of the people and Congressional rules of fair play, in favor of obsequious servitude to the oligarchs who paid for their elections.
Add to that our Democratic Party of Complacency who still haven’t figured out how to convey to liberty loving Americans what a clear and present existential threat our democracy is facing.
Then the coup de grâce, learning details of the Koch, et al. octopus of front groups such as the AFP with their self-defensive absolutism, their misrepresentation of facts, and their melodramatic demonizing of all things progressive or liberal.
Please consider our history, this past century is full of epic hard fought democratic battles to reform our Government and how it dealt with social, health and environmental problems. Reforms that forced our democratic government to pay attention to the needs of a growing population and to recognize the importance of a healthy society and environment, you know, our life support system.
While most captains of industry have developed an acceptance, after all, these reforms benefit our entire community’s wellbeing. Acceptance was never universal. There were always the Robber Barons and John Birchers who resented every concession made to We The People.
Their motto: “I only want my fair share. All of it,” and the Koch network embodies the worst of those impulses.
Seriously! Don’t need to go beyond this county for an example. Koch’s AFP agenda won’t abide a popular, professional behaving, duly elected La Plata County Commissioner who dare’s expect the oil industry to own up to their responsibly, and who thinks we need to plan for the future.
AFP fills heads with rhetorical bromides (and resentments) that turn a blind eye to the complexities of finding a balance between protecting our unique landscapes, traditional agriculture and ranch properties, while accommodating tourism along with the unending flood of people moving into our county and the development they’ll bring along.
Wake up La Plata county, Americans for (Kochs) Prosperity with their wishful thinking based “libertarian” brainwashing efforts are spreading their tentacles into every crevice of America. There messaging is designed to get people to ignore that we live in a pluralistic, crowded society, on a shrinking planet, in a 2018 reality, and not in some 1918s nostalgia world of their fancy.
The Libertarian, Tea-Party, Alt-right, Koch funded sausage salad of groups are intent on the ultimate goal of shrinking our government’s domestic portfolio down to pre-Roosevelt Administration Hooverville days.
This means wiping out the social, health and environmental reforms of the 30s, 40s, 60s, 70s, up to Obama’s Administration. Laws, guidelines, programs and agencies along with expectations that Americans thought we could count on to help make our future a more tolerable place, are all on their chopping block.
You say, impossible! Really? We’ve already given our White House to a self-serving serial liar. A man who despises our government and who never met a deal he couldn’t break, along with a Republican Party leadership who’s okay with him no matter how low he goes. So long as they can ram their master’s agenda down America’s throat. It screams volumes, but who’s listening?
Why is America so easy with all this? I’m not saying reforms aren’t needed, but listen carefully to AFP’s siren song, they want to burn it all down, consequences be damned.
Don’t believe me? Learn about their plan for yourself, I’ve been building a collection of insightful articles from an assortment of authors and other information, spanning decades at AmericansForKochsProsperity.blogspot.com. You’ll find these dudes are ruthless, and they’ve been winning and we’re into final innings. Oh, and they are playing for keeps!
Moral of this story: Sorry to report, it’s worse than you think, and if you don’t get involved, it’s going to get worse than you can imagine. A healthy democracy requires an informed and engaged citizenry.
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Okay, I'll admit my knowledge of John Birch philosophy is limited to numerous tutorials around campfires by some long ago rafting mates who where firm believers. They had no responses to my questions, and I wasn't impressed enough to learn more. Guess my blissfully unawares will need to end.
The John Birch Society Is Back
Bircher ideas, once on the fringe, are increasingly commonplace in today’s GOP and espoused by friends in high places. And the group is ready to make the most of it.
By JOHN SAVAGE July 16, 2017
… This is what the 21st-century John Birch Society looks like. Gone is the organization’s past obsession with ending the supposed communist plot to achieve mind-control through water fluoridation.
What remains is a hodgepodge of isolationist, religious and right-wing goals that vary from concrete to abstract, from legitimate to conspiracy minded—goals that don’t look so different from the ideology coming out of the White House.
It wants to pull the United States out of NAFTA (which it sees as the slippery slope that will lead us to a single-government North American Union), return America to what they call its Christian foundations, defund the UN, abolish the departments of education and energy, and slash the federal government drastically.
The John Birch Society once fulminated on the idea of Soviet infiltration of the U.S. government; now, it wants to stop the investigation into Russia’s 2016 election meddling and possible collusion with the campaign of President Donald Trump. …
…
The John Birch Society formed on a frigid Monday morning in December 1958, when 11 of the nation’s richest businessmen braved single-digit temperatures to attend a mysterious meeting in suburban Indianapolis. … {near four thousand words and worth the read, link }
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