The corporate influence is certainly the worst--that whole greed thing, win at all costs. Take what you demand. Add to this mix the religious extremists that accept whatever their religious leaders tell them without any question or soul searching--one of whom, Anderson in AZ, is publicly espousing praying that Obama will die of brain cancer and the righteous need to kill gay people. Now, push the NRA's demand for the freedom to tote your AK47 to political rallies, with Anderson's encouragement. Get people worked up and then send them to yell words, like "Nazi" and "socialist," designed to incite fear and panic at "town hall" meetings. Have some prominently featured political leaders, like the governor of Texas, trot out the "secede from the union" phrase a time or two. But, I think the corporate dominance is the most insidious.
The Republican fear machinery is working a new angle: make Americans fear the physical violence of America's baddest bullies.
The main difference between left and right wing extremism is that corporate interests ally with the right. Right wing extremists might be crazy, but the corporate interests are not, and they know how to manipulate the crazies on the right.
So the idea that what we're seeing now isn't as bad as what we saw in the sixties and seventies on the left might be true on one level, but it's not on another. Left-wing extremists were always fringe and never accomplished much of anythiing; right-wing extremists might be fringe in their psychology, but they are not fringe politically, and they have been fairly effective in getting their agenda recognized and implemented. The left never had a major cable news station, and it never had major funding. You don't have to be a majority to dominate in the political and economic spheres. You just need to have a lot of money and most of the power and an effective media megaphone.
[From After the Future: Whither America?]
The simple truth of the matter is this: We can no longer afford to be the police force for the world. The amount of money we have wasted in military spending for the past 8+ years has accomplished nothing but the bankrupting of the nation.
Once we can take care of our own people's basic human needs for housing, food, and medical care, then we can think about beating up on little nations like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our priorities are totally screwed up, and too many people are being duped into the corporate mind games that will continue to enslave us as a nation purported to be of the people, by the people, and for the people.
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