The Dumber You Are, The Harder You Fall… For The Trick

There’s a reason the Republicans and Conservatives seem obstructionist both while in government and in opposition. Prorogation at every turn in Canada, and filibustering every routine bill in the States has helped mis/uninformed or “low-information voters” conclude that government is ineffective at solving problems through collaboration, legislation, and science. This is an intentional trick being perpetrated by the Conservatives in Canada, and Republicans in the United States.

While there are valid issues to vote for the Republicans instead of Democrats, and Conservatives instead of Greens, it’s important to view their overall intentions when governing. Being on the side of conservative platform policies doesn’t make someone a rube. However, you have to consider the truth behind the words that follow, or you’re missing the point of how North American conservatives have been going about conducting politics. They are not on your side unless you have millions of dollars in your bank account. Your loyal support is appreciated, but not rewarded.

By: Mike Lofgren, Truthout | News Analysis:

A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress’s generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.

A deeply cynical tactic, to be sure, but a psychologically insightful one that plays on the weaknesses both of the voting public and the news media. There are tens of millions of low-information voters who hardly know which party controls which branch of government, let alone which party is pursuing a particular legislative tactic. These voters’ confusion over who did what allows them to form the conclusion that “they are all crooks,” and that “government is no good,” further leading them to think, “a plague on both your houses” and “the parties are like two kids in a school yard.” This ill-informed public cynicism, in its turn, further intensifies the long-term decline in public trust in government that has been taking place since the early 1960s – a distrust that has been stoked by Republican rhetoric at every turn (“Government is the problem,” declared Ronald Reagan in 1980).

The media are also complicit in this phenomenon. Ever since the bifurcation of electronic media into a more or less respectable “hard news” segment and a rabidly ideological talk radio and cable TV political propaganda arm, the “respectable” media have been terrified of any criticism for perceived bias. Hence, they hew to the practice of false evenhandedness. Paul Krugman has skewered this tactic as being the “centrist cop-out.” “I joked long ago,” he says, “that if one party declared that the earth was flat, the headlines would read ‘Views Differ on Shape of Planet.'”

So how do we get information to “low-information voters” who no longer care to know anything about the people seeking their votes? The media doesn’t want to do it as an institution because the media’s owners are no longer the low-information voters, but the information-rich elite. The Internet is one way to get information to people, but will they read/watch it? With copyright laws and wireless phone fees, will people give up on getting the news they need from their fellow citizens?

Reading further I found this, and was surprised to read that I didn’t invent the phrase at the end of the paragraph.

Pandering to fundamentalism is a full-time vocation in the GOP. Beginning in the 1970s, religious cranks ceased simply to be a minor public nuisance in this country and grew into the major element of the Republican rank and file. Pat Robertson’s [link is by Saskboy] strong showing in the 1988 Iowa Caucus signaled the gradual merger of politics and religion in the party. The results are all around us: if the American people poll more like Iranians or Nigerians than Europeans or Canadians on questions of evolution versus creationism, scriptural inerrancy, the existence of angels and demons, and so forth, that result is due to the rise of the religious right, its insertion into the public sphere by the Republican Party and the consequent normalizing of formerly reactionary or quaint beliefs. Also around us is a prevailing anti-intellectualism and hostility to science; it is this group that defines “low-information voter” – or, perhaps, “misinformation voter.”

Why is the worker class divided, refusing even to acknowledge there is a class war underway?

Televangelists have long espoused the health-and-wealth/name-it-and-claim it gospel. If you are wealthy, it is a sign of God’s favor. If not, too bad! But don’t forget to tithe in any case. This rationale may explain why some economically downscale whites defend the prerogatives of billionaires.

And it’s a long article, but contains so much more truth that you can’t handle it anyway.