The points in this article are pretty self-evident and difficult to refute. Herein lies the problem; there is a huge chuck of our population who would be lost at "chickens coming home to roost" (ironically, a lot of them are rural folk). See, this is a portion of America who ain't too big on thinkin's. They live in infinite denial that any social, political, or economical issue might have too many nuances to be effectively boiled down to black and white. They demand that every facet of life be right or wrong, yes or no, or "American" or not. This is one of the biggest criticisms of the U.S. zeitgeist from pretty much the rest of the world, (alongside our inflated attitude of self-importance, obsession with petroleum and junk food, and complete disinterest in the goings-on of other nations). This is also the key to CON-servative's victories over the last 65 years; their ability to pander to this category of Americans. They prey upon the weak-minded by peppering their quasi-patriotic "us-vs.-them" rhetoric with crucifixes and Norman Rockwell fantasy imagery, and demonize thinkers as "East Coast intellectual elitists".
The challenge for the left is that, given a choice between thinking through issues, making an effort to remember our history, and working towards the best interest of the whole nation OR jumping behind Glenn Beck on a human centipede and letting a group of doughy, loudmouthed, privileged white men do one's thinking for them through hate-speech which entertains at the level of the lowest common denominator, this demographic tends to gravitate towards the latter. The RepubliCAN'Ts have done a great job of convincing these people that narrow-mindedness is a virtue. How, then, can the rest of us sell them on the concept that thinking for oneself is not necessarily a vice? There is no doubt that the CON-servatives are imploding right now, and the results are wildly entertaining. But what happens when they regroup like Voltron around Chris Christie and launch an even more vicious and polarizing crusade to restore America to what it never was to begin with?
Will this cycle ever be broken?
"Never underestimate the other man's greed!"
Robert Loggia, Scarface
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