I remember learning as a late teenager of then-President Ronald Reagan’s plan to destroy Nicaragua by funding a group of mercenaries known as the “Contras.” With CIA money, they killed, rampaged, and blew things up. I remember noticing how easy it was, how little effort it took to destroy something, how undermining a small nation was like child’s play, when your only goal is to create havoc.
It’s very easy to tear things down, to kill an opportunity for honest change, to destroy a fragile alliance, to shut out the truth by telling dramatic lies for the cameras, and repeating them day in, day out. Even if people don’t believe your lies, they’ll be confused enough to not act on the truth you are trying to defeat. It’s very easy to blast your way into the headlines and become the de facto winner of any argument, just by sheer firepower. The man who killed a handful of women at the gym the other day discovered this. His sick rant is now publicized all over the nation, thanks to his murderous rampage. Had he merely tried to argue his points, standing up in a discussion reasonably and making his case, he’d be a nothing. Now that he claimed the lives of other human beings in a fit of violence, he’s a national figure.
The tea-party town hall protesters have learned this lesson well. They’ve discovered that there is no need to put forth good arguments for their points, or to meaningfully debate their ideas at the congressional town hall meetings set up just for that purpose. Why should they do that, when they can go on a rampage, yell and scream, intimidate and threaten, even bring guns to the meetings? Such activity guarantees the presence of TV cameras. News organizations will report these activities as “passion” for a cause, and not as the lunacy that it really represents. The Republicans in charge of the town hall mayhem have learned a valuable truth. It’s very easy to destroy someone else’s effort, to denigrate the fragile progress of those sitting at the table trying to work out a common goal. Like Republicans everywhere have learned, all you have to do is shout and swear, wave guns and flags, threaten and rant, and they can get their way. Not by converting anyone to their cause, but by simply making politics so unpleasant that most people just go home and hide.
Thomas L. Creed
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2009.
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In 1936, or was it 1939, when passing the Social Security Act the Democrats, and FDR, PROMISED that the tax for SS would NEVER exceed 3%, and that all surpus funds would be placed in a trust fund at 3% interest.
In 1965 the Democrats, and LBJ, broke this promise by passing the Unified Budget Act which allowed the Treasury to pay the SS benefits out of the general fund, and to use the surplus to “balance” the budget, and replaced the trust fund with IOU’s gathering no interest.
In 1941 when instituting the “mandatory income withholding” law allowing the government to take 1% of your wages directly from the employer to pay for the war FDR, and the Democrats, PROMISED that it would “sunset” at the end of the war. However, this was then extended to pay for the Korean War, and then made permanent law.
Now, I know you have read the actual bill, all 1018 pages of it, so you know what is being “promised” now, right?
Of course, you trust the government to do as they say they will, right?