David A. Schwinghammer
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Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
Scapegoating
6/19/2011 7:56:27 AM
Why do we tolerate such behavior from our public officials
when we don't among ourselves?
Sarah Palin’s recent contretemps with Paul Revere and American History brought to mind the Tea Party’s (perhaps intentional) misunderstanding of their namesake event, The Boston Tea Party. That party wasn’t about taxes; colonists expected to pay some taxes. After all the British were defending them against the Indians. The Tea Party was about taxation without representation. Tea Partiers (who tend to be rich fat cats) may have more representation than the rest of us, what with lobbyists, lawyers, and politicians doing their bidding. Sam Adams and his fellows also didn’t want to be bullied by a monopoly, the East India company, whose tea they destroyed. Tea Partiers and the GOP in general love monopolies.
Anyway, I’m wondering how many voters know about the Know Nothing Party, a political phenomenon that existed from 1830 to 1860 or so. They opposed immigration (sound familiar?) of mainly Catholics, worried that these people would be loyal to the Pope and gradually take over America.
As late as John Kennedy’s election WASPs were worried about Popeism and concocted conspiracy theories.
In 2011 right wing conservatism has replaced the Catholic immigrants with Mexican Americans. One definite characteristic of a conservative seems to be intolerance or scapegoating of one group or another. Alongside illegal (and some legal) immigrants there is homophobia with as many as 31 states passing some form of Marriage Act (It’s on the ballot in Minnesota for 2012; Minnesota voted against Ronald Reagan. Let’s hope they keep up the ornery spirit). Then there are the Moslems. Apparently Moslem Americans shouldn’t be allowed to build a mosque on their own land if it’s a few blocks from the World Trade Center. It’s the good old all or none philosophy of conservatives. All Moslems are blamed for the act of a few terrorists.
Prior to illegal aliens, homosexuals and Moslems, blacks were conservative scapegoats. Southern Baptists found evidence in the Bible that blacks were meant to be slaves, and if they had to be free, they should be segregated. Then there was communism. The worst thing you could be was a black communist. Communism was an effort to redistribute wealth; it was hijacked by such dictators as Stalin and Mao. Prior to that industrialists refused to pay their workers a living wage and they lived in squalor. Since 1920 the Republican mantra has been “the business of America is business.” What voters ignore are the many times business has violated the supposed compact with American citizens. Everybody knows about British Petroleum and Enron, but do you remember the taconite companies who dumped tailings into Lake Superior or the river in Cleveland that caught fire because of industrial pollution? Politicians like Tim Pawlenty will say “That was then, this is now.” But it was only last year that a giant oil company looked the other way while its executives cut corners, causing the biggest oil spill in American history. Business leaders also say that their only obligation is to their stockholders. American corporations are creating over a million jobs in Southeast Asia while Americans go begging. We just went through a horrible recession because business leaders were selling something called derivatives that blew up in their faces. And now there’s a super computer on Wall Street that makes bets on whether stocks will go up or down. Humans are not involved and the bets are not based on whether the companies are run well or offer a viable product. They’re just bets. The computer recently caused a 600 point drop on the Dow Jones in a few minutes, once again picking the pockets of gullible investors. Another bubble waiting for a pin prick. Then there’s the Supreme Court. Antonin Scalia and his four buddies just gave corporations the same first amendment rights as individuals. Actually they just gave them more, since corporations have the aforementioned lawyers, lobbyists and politicians working for them, and more money of course. Another recent ruling made it harder to sue giant corporations.
Atheists can also be scapegoats. A commonly heard conservative epithet might be “Godless communist.” Many remember the attempt by Ronald Reagan to corral the evangelical vote, then referred to as the moral majority, but they were moral in name only with adherents such as Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reid, not to mention Pat Robertson, and Reagan, a notably irreligious sort himself, may have only been after their votes. Bush staffer David Kuo wrote a book about the contempt Bush aides had for Christian kooks. So atheists, and by proxy scientists who tend to be agnostic if not atheists, are a targeted minority. Only one member of Congress is an avowed atheist, Pete Stark, a California member of the House.
As individuals we don’t tend to like people who blame others for their failings or who point fingers, so then, why do we tolerate it from our public officials. Kudos to the gay activists who have been liberally powdering the likes of Gingrich, Pawlenty, and Bachmann , all lackeys of corporate greed, with rainbow glitter. I hope they show up at the inevitable Tea Party conventions prior to the 2012 elections.
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More Blogs by David A. Schwinghammer
• Skunks Believe Everybody Else Stinks - Thursday, May 16, 2013
• The Morning After Pill - Friday, April 12, 2013
• What Would Thomas Jefferson Say? - Saturday, April 06, 2013
• Boneheads - Tuesday, March 12, 2013
• Why Benedict XVI Resigned - Sunday, February 17, 2013
• Gabby Giffords Testifies - Wednesday, January 30, 2013
• Newspaper Caters to Gun Owners - Wednesday, January 23, 2013
• Piers Morgan Deserves a Medal - Monday, December 24, 2012
• The Red Devil and the Blue Devil? - Tuesday, October 30, 2012
• Is the new TV show, REVOLUTION, fantasy? - Wednesday, September 26, 2012
• Fanatical Moslems Aren't That Different From Our Fanatics - Wednesday, September 12, 2012
• We Need the United Nations - Wednesday, July 18, 2012
• Stop Catering to People's Basest Instincts - Monday, July 09, 2012
• Concerned Women for America political ad - Saturday, June 23, 2012
• Independent Voters Need to Pick a Side - Monday, June 11, 2012
• Romney's Solyndra Appearance - Friday, June 01, 2012
• Single Issue Voters - Sunday, May 20, 2012
• Bully or Sociopath? - Saturday, May 12, 2012
• Tan-orexic Woman Poor Role Model - Friday, May 04, 2012
• So Far Right They're Almost Left - Sunday, April 22, 2012
• Dog Eat Dog - Sunday, April 15, 2012
• The Tea Party is Back! - Sunday, March 25, 2012
• Gas Prices - Tuesday, March 13, 2012
• "Doofus" - Tuesday, March 06, 2012
• Bon Iver Front Man Makes Important Statement - Thursday, February 16, 2012
• Contraception Blowback - Friday, February 10, 2012
• 800 vetoes! - Saturday, February 04, 2012
• Issa Hounding Holder over GOP program - Thursday, February 02, 2012
• Rick Santelli's Rant - Wednesday, January 18, 2012
• Corporate Raider President? - Thursday, December 01, 2011
• Is This the Best They Can Do? - Thursday, November 17, 2011
• Tea Party a non-violent Movement? - Sunday, October 30, 2011
• Wall Street Protests - Wednesday, October 05, 2011
• Three new stooges - Thursday, August 25, 2011
• Hypocrite enters the race - Friday, August 19, 2011
• Business Leaders Need to Speak Out - Saturday, July 30, 2011
• Rupert Murdoch and GOP Credibility - Monday, July 25, 2011
• Playing on the railroad tracks - Sunday, July 17, 2011
• Scapegoating - Sunday, June 19, 2011
• The Biggest Swindle in US history - Friday, June 03, 2011
• We're Still Here! - Saturday, May 21, 2011
• Improve education by improving teacher morale - Wednesday, May 04, 2011
• Tea Partiers Don't Know What They're Talking About - Thursday, April 28, 2011
• General Electric paid no corporate taxes - Tuesday, April 05, 2011
• The Flat Earth Society is at it again! - Thursday, March 17, 2011
• Crap fest - Thursday, March 03, 2011
• Egyptian Revolution - Tuesday, February 08, 2011
• Tucson - Wednesday, January 12, 2011
• Would you want a right-winger for a neighbor? - Friday, January 07, 2011
• Noah's Ark Museum - Monday, December 06, 2010
• Frick and Frack Shoot Off Their Mouths - Friday, November 05, 2010
• Enthusiam Gap - Wednesday, October 27, 2010
• Super Computer - Tuesday, October 19, 2010
• US Chamber of Commerce, conservative front group. - Wednesday, October 13, 2010
• 13 Reasons to vote the straight democratic ticket - Wednesday, September 01, 2010
• Breitbart Makes Segretti look like a choirboy - Wednesday, July 28, 2010
• House on Fire? - Thursday, June 17, 2010
• The Blame Game - Friday, May 28, 2010
• National Prayer Day - Tuesday, May 18, 2010
• Conservative psyche (continued) - Friday, May 14, 2010
• Conservative psyche - Wednesday, May 12, 2010
• Are you smarter than a half-term governor? - Wednesday, April 14, 2010
• Rewriting History - Monday, April 05, 2010
• Fred Phelps - Friday, April 02, 2010
• Combing the Daily Newspaper - Wednesday, March 17, 2010
• Noir - Friday, November 06, 2009
• Interview with SOLDIER'S GAP author continued - Tuesday, November 03, 2009
• More from SOLDIER'S GAP author - Thursday, October 29, 2009
• SOLDIER'S GAP author answers questions. - Thursday, October 22, 2009
• Everything you always wanted to know about writing a novel - Tuesday, October 20, 2009
• Manuscript conventions - Thursday, September 10, 2009
• Revision - Monday, September 07, 2009
• Dialogue - Thursday, September 03, 2009
• Scene cards - Tuesday, September 01, 2009
• Point of view - Thursday, August 27, 2009
• Plot - Tuesday, August 25, 2009
• Arnie's dream - Friday, August 21, 2009
• Rituals - Thursday, August 20, 2009
• Dressing Arnie Vogel - Tuesday, August 18, 2009
• Character sketch continued - Friday, August 14, 2009
• Character sketch - Thursday, August 13, 2009
• Characterization - Wednesday, August 12, 2009
• Scene outline - Tuesday, August 11, 2009
• Warm-up activity - Freewriting - Monday, August 10, 2009
• Warm-up activity - brainstorming - Sunday, August 09, 2009
• Warm-up techniques (clustering) - Saturday, August 08, 2009
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