“Anti-Government Fanatics Take Hostages in California Budget Crisis”
By Daniel Uselmann
Now there is a headline you won’t see from the COM, the Corporate Owned Media! I don’t use MSM, Mainstream Media, because it tries to legitimize the social fiction that the media is “Mainstream” when in fact, the media is owned by the corporate class and does their biding, always.
Back to the headline you will never see… Let’s deconstruct this “reality-based” headline a little, shall we?
Who exactly are these “Anti-Government Fanatics”? The real fanatics here are the good ol’ GOP, that’s right, the Republicans! Specifically the Republican fanatics in the California State Legislature who have all drank heavily from the “No New Taxes” mind-bending Kool-Aid. Why would a Leftist call them “Fanatics? By way of definition from the Websters Revised Unabridged Dictionary:
Fa*nat”ic, a. [L. fanaticus inspired by divinity, enthusiastic, frantic, fr. fanum fane: cf. F. fanatique. See Fane.] Pertaining to, or indicating, fanaticism; extravagant in opinions; ultra; unreasonable; excessively enthusiastic, especially on religious subjects; as, fanatic zeal; fanatic notions.
The Republicans in the California legislature have clearly jumped way the hell over the line separating partisanship from fanaticism. California’s ongoing and annual “Budget Crisis” is simply the latest incarnation in a long series of brutal fictions unleashed by the Republican fanatics on ‘we the people’ in order to cripple the functioning of government. Our government, damnit! When the government (which is us) can no longer take care of “we the people”, the rich and ruling elites are able to do whatever the hell they want to do. They have been engaging in this brutal form of “slash and burn” budgetary politics for 30 years, since the Reagan Counter-Revolution. They will continue to do so until there is fundamental structural and political change in the budgetary process and electoral reforms that continue “one party, two factions” fiction of American politics.
The Republican fanatics in the California Legislature have all signed the Grover Norquist pledge “to never raise taxes in this lifetime or the next.” You remember weird Uncle Grover, don’t you? Yeah, he’s the sick bird who said he wants “to make government weak enough so he can take it and drown it in a bathtub.” Not to be outdone, the Idiot-Governor of the Golden State , Der Schwartzeneger, has said pretty much the same thing. From the Sacramento Bee in 2005 the Idiot-Governor said that raising taxes is “out of the question,” and “taking money out of the private sector is a no-no because we don’t want to feed the monster. We want to feed the private sector, and we want to starve the public sector.”
Now why these toadies for the rich weren’t hauled off and given the old ‘tar and feather’ routine is beyond me. Here these fiscal fascists are talking about DESTROYING THE AMERICAN SYSYTEM OF GOVERNMENT and nobody seemed to get upset. Nobody did a damn thing. Ah, but I digress…
The next part of the headline you will never see is “Take Hostages”. Who exactly are the “hostages” you might ask? They are all of us. Every single one of us living in California has been taken hostage by these anti-government fanatics. The perennial state budget crisis not only threatens to harm many of our states most vulnerable folks (the elderly, poor and children); it continues the degradation of our infrastructure, it wrecks the environment and it throws many people out of work, and it also threatens to undermine the very foundations of our nominally free society.
When a fanatical minority like these GOP’ers can inflict such massive damage on our society just in the name of “cutting taxes” our freedoms are on the verge of disappearing. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is rapidly on the way to becoming just another trite phrase to stir patriotic feelings. “Yes folks, coming soon to a formerly free society near you: “Halmark Patriotism”…
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” becomes a trite phrase when life gets increasingly dreary and dangerous because of a lack of public safety due to a collapsing economy and infrastructure and the destruction of public services. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” becomes a trite phrase when liberty is gang-banged by the corrupting influence of the rich and corporate interests who destroy public confidence in the democratic institutions that good governance can provide. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” becomes a disgusting taunt when the pursuit of happiness is only a “pursuit” with no chance of even modest happiness for the millions of working class and poor left behind as our government is looted for the benefit of the rich elites. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is getting the Alberto Gonzalez treatment in that “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” will soon be “rendered quaint and obsolete.”
From a leftist view, the long-term goals of the ruling elites are to return us to the dark days of serfdom for the masses and the reinstallation of these ruling elites to their previous position of unquestionable dominance and power over all means of production and wealth. All government institutions will be weak and ineffective, except the military and police state security apparatus. The primary purpose of the remaining government will be to funnel the wealth of our society, the ‘commonwealth’ into the pockets of these rich and corporate interests. Unions will be gone, environmental protections wiped out and the ability of the public to have an actual say in what happens in our society will be a distant memory.
If this happens “We the People” will just be considered a disposable labor pool to be used up and thrown away, just like the Constitution under the Bush regime.
The most recent version of our gladiatorial spectacle ensues as we idly watch the shredding and torching of the social fabric, the destruction of our democracy by the greed, hatred and delusion of the rich, the corporate interests and their lackeys.
These people will kill your mother, shoot your dog and are stealing your kids’ lunch money to make sure their corporate masters are able to extort and extract higher and higher profits while continuing to reduce their share of taxes. This unholy alliance just doesn’t give a damn who they hurt as long as they keep funneling the money to their corporate masters.
The Republicans of the California Legislature, the latest version of Anti-Government Fanatics 2.0.
And that’s a view from the left…
“A View from the Left” is just that, my views and perspectives as a lifelong leftist. None of the views herein expressed reflect reality as perceived by anyone else, just mine. Find your own damn reality by gathering information from many sources then start thinking critically of the issues and events in your life as you have experienced. Then, don’t just sit there, do something about it! Any haters, fascists, trolls or paid hacks who want to write mindless, mean-spirited garbage in response to “A View from the Left” are cordially invited to form a circular discussion group and shoot your vitriol onto each other.
