Golden Showers

by Dee Newman

For years I have found it difficult to understand the irrational rhetoric and erratic voting behavior of the American electorate, especially the perverse utterances and illogical actions of so many southern white, blue-collar male traditionalist. Though I recognize that the history of American conservatism has always been marked by certain socio-economic anxieties and blatant contradictions, the so-called conservative attitude (i.e. clinging to long-established past patterns of thought and conduct, while assuming that progress and innovation is more likely to be dangerous than beneficial) has never (for me) adequately explained why so many working-class Americans consistently vote against their own interests.

Although, I am certainly aware that those in political and economic positions of authority in order to maintain their psychological and social positions of influence and affluence persistently exploit their follower’s fears and ignorance, nonetheless, my appreciation of this fact does not provide an adequate explanation of why anyone would support an ideology that discriminates against their life, liberty and the pursuit of their own happiness.

It may very well be true that a significant number of the working-class have come to believe (consciously or subconsciously) that the rich and powerful are better people than they are, that the wealthy rightfully dominate society because of some intrinsic superiority they possess, and therefore, deserve positions of cultural hegemony. However, any possible feelings of inferiority by millions of hard working Americans seem to me insufficient to explain the abandonment of their natural desire to defend and sustain their needs and interests.

Nor does it explain how or why so many working-class Americans, whose jobs and livelihood have been indisputably threatened by conservative monetary pursuits, would continue to support such repressive candidates and injurious economic policies that have allowed the rich to get richer, while the rest of us are left to scrounge for the dregs and the crumbs.

How, I wonder, can anyone be so inexplicably content with receiving the shaft year after year from conservative politicians and corporate moguls, while at the same time be so vehemently distressed by a small poor insignificant population of foreigners from south of the boarder who have been enticed and hired by American conglomerates to do the dangerous, difficult and dirty work for extremely low wages that most U. S. citizens are unwilling to do?

Why is it that too many of us seem unable to learn from our past mistakes? It took over a decade and a world war to extricate this nation from the great social and economic depression brought about by the unregulated free-market excesses of the 1920s. Despite what John Boehner may say, history has shown us when there are no restrictions on the accumulations of wealth other than the market itself, recession and/or depression are unavoidable. Time and time again, free-market capitalism has created a climate conducive to greed, encouraging an unbalanced accumulation of capital, which has inevitably lead to an economic pattern of boom and bust.

Despite the fact that conservative economic principles and policies, once again, nearly drove us to the depths of another Great Depression, millions of working-class Americans who never once protested the Bush administration’s excessive big government borrowing and spending, who never once objected to the massive accumulation of debt by the Republican controlled congress, are now out enforce supporting Republican obstructionism and protesting every step of the way the Obama Administration’s courageous and laudable attempts to lead this nation out of the depths of economic despair.

President Obama inherited the worst financial crisis this country had seen since the Great Depression. The Bush Administration’s flawed fiscal policies eventually culminated in a severe recession. Millions of jobs were lost before the policies of President Obama even had a chance to take effect, losing 4 million in the six months before he took office and over three quarters of a million jobs in the very month he was sworn in. The hole was so deep that even though his administration has added over 600,000 jobs for the last six months, millions of Americans remain unemployed.

Obviously, the president’s first and most urgent task when he took office was to stop the financial melt down and prevent the economic collapse from becoming another great depression. He hoped the crisis would cause everyone in congress, Democrats and Republicans, to come and work together, to collectively confront the crisis in a non-partisan and cooperative way. It was a time for statesmanship. Unfortunately, as we all know, Republicans decided to pursue another path, a path of pure partisan politics, becoming the party of no and obstructionism.

Sure, it would have been helpful, perhaps politically courageous, if the GOP had admitted or taken some responsibility for their mistakes during the eight years they were in power, or offered some plausible new approach to solving our nation’s economic problems. Regrettably, they have done nothing, except to propose the same old failed policies of the past, the same old conservative philosophy that led to this mess in the first place: trickle-down economics and further regulation reductions for Wall Street and corporate America.

Ignorance and fear may provide some insight into why so many good and decent Americans appear to be so irrational. Their anxiety and lack of knowledge may even furnish some insight into how massive negative “message repetition” by the far-right media machine is able to trump facts, but it does not (at least, for me) offer a viable explanation into why so many hard working Americans are so easily hoodwinked and manipulated into disregarding their own health, happiness and wellbeing for the benefit of the well-connected and the well-to-do.

So, the question remains: Why will so many good and decent, hard-working Americans, once again, vote against their own interests in the upcoming elections?

I believe I have, at long last, discovered the answer. I have, at the very least, arrived at a conclusion. The evidence, though not conclusive, seems reasonable. Many, if not most, of the follows of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin who continue to pathetically support a system of trickle-down economics may, in reality, be submissive urophiliacs – people who actually enjoy, take pleasure in being pissed on.

Trickle-Down Economics