Tuesday, May 02, 2006

The Great Democrat Wagon Race

Politics of every stripe seems little more than a big confidence game, but Democratic politics in particular lends itself to this rendering. It is this party that has taken to huckstering and scamming to get what they want. What do they want? Your vote. For this they will promise you anything. And if that doesn't work (mainly because the Republicans are promising you everything, too) they will take to pandering to your hatreds, your weaknesses, your social standing or just about anything else that might make you believe they are the team to help you get what you want, whatever that is.

Find a weakness, any weakness. In the Seventies, two of my brothers were in trouble with the law, my older sister was having the problems that many young mothers are saddled with, my mother was working at home and at a difficult and dirty factory job to help dad pay the bills and we were living in an increasingly crime-ridden and depressing inner-city neigborhood in Detroit. My mother, in order to help save her beloved family from all the world's pressures, turned to religion. Not just any religion, but in keeping with our fundamentalist Christian upbringing, she turned to a southern evangelist.

This in itself was certainly not a bad thing. Many southern evangelists are honorable men of God. I personally find Billy Graham to have been the example to which all others might aspire; being an honest and Godly man all of his life and career, never stooping to low behavior to increase his power or wealth. Oral Roberts was another story, however, and I came to hate that man as I hated no other.

My mother decided (with the help of dozens of pamphlets and mailings from Oral Roberts and his "organization") that Oral Roberts could help her poor family to overcome the trials and tribulations that this cruel world had foist upon them (crime, drug and alcohol problems, poverty and promiscuity, among the most recognizable). Oral Roberts slickly sent out mailings that asked his readers if they were having problems with any and all of these afflictions. If the answer was "yes" to these questions, he replied that the answer was God. Oh, but not JUST God. No, the answer was God, as revealed to His favorite minister, Oral Roberts!

In this way, my mother was persuaded to send her hard-earned money (and there was precious little of that around!)to Mr. Roberts, so he could take her prayers to his newly constructed Prayer Tower, where presumably his voice would be heard above all others in prayer, because he was soooo high up in that tower, you see (wink-wink).
Of course, there was little positive result from these petitions ("You cannot petition the Lord in prayer"!-Jim Morrison). Still, it was the only thing my mom had going for her at the time, so she gave it a whirl anyway and prayed and sweated and hoped that her sons and daughters would come out of all of this in good shape.

Well, the truth is almost all of them did, in time. But it was probably helped more by a righteous woman who loved God and her family that helped these children, and I submit that Oral Roberts had nothing to do with it at all. My mother died at the age of fifty-six, of lung cancer. She did live to see her troubled sons get their act together and even to see a few of her grandchildren born and grow. She died far too soon and received far less in her short life, than she deserved. She certainly did not deserve to be swindled by a huckster like Oral Roberts. God, I miss her!

This example is displayed to show how a con man will look for your weakness and use it to his benefit. Oral Roberts knew that the poor and inferm, those in trouble with the law and struggling with all manner of troubles, are ready to seize on any scheme to help themselves out of their predicaments. It isn't limited to unscrupulous religious leaders. The Socialists and Communists have long been overly concerned with class and race conflict: the Put-Upons with which to wage their war against Capitalism/Imperialism. In this manner, the Democrat Party looks for an aggrieved subset of humanity, from which to draw their lucre (and their soldiers).

Historically, it was the southern whites of the reconstruction on whom they preyed. Seizing on this group's perceived (and actual) grievances, the Democrats promised the usual in return for the votes that would bring them power and money. The baton in this Democrat wagon race was passed to the populists, with their long-suffering troubles at the hand of the rich, northeast business establishment. Then the famous donkey passed the baton to the poor, suffering through the decades-long depression, so that they would have the hopes and dreams that the WPA offered. The donkey passed the baton along to many other poor, Put-Upon peoples over the years, until it rested, very comfortably in the hands of the African Americans (of course when they were orginally passed the baton, they were still called Negroes, but Muhammed Ali was still calling himself Cassius Clay at the time...).

The Democrats have earned their votes and power for decades by pandering to the fears and grievances (real and imagined) of this demographic. But now, the donkey is fixin' to pass the baton again. Yes, folks the new Put-Upons are the illegal immigrants, or as the Dems put it, Undocumented Laborers. It is this group of malcontents who hold the most promise, since they are the fastest growing demographic in the nation (of course the demographic includes most of the hispanic population in the country, illegal or not). Democrats are offering the same "everything" to this group as was offered and never delivered to all of the others.

It is to these "Undocumented Laborers" who now pull the wagon and carry high, the baton of the Donkey, that I offer the following words of advice, specifically relevant to this Democrat Con Game:

"You can't cheat an honest man"

12 comments:

camojack said...

I'm right with you regarding that charlatan Anal Roberts, brother. He bilked my grandmother out of plenty. When THE LORD gave him a "vision" that said he needed to raise millions or die, I was all for calling his bluff.

As for the baton being passed to undocumented workers, wouldn't they have to be documented to vote?
(In theory, anyway...)

Hawkeye® said...

I agree. That Oral Robber guy is a real sleaze. What a disgrace. I don't think this guy has any clue about what it means to be a Christian.

Kind of a sad story about your mom and all. Glad that things turned out OK for you and your siblings.

You're SO right about those lame Dems sucking up to the "Put-Upons". Unfortunately, it's beginning to look like the Republicans aren't much better. They're pandering too.

"Oh, what a world... what a world!"

Hawkeye® said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Beerme said...

camojack,

Amen on the latter choice, there for ol' Oral!
Yes, the undocumented can't vote (except in Milwaukee, Ohio and Philadelphia, anyway...)but the demographic includes a very large block of those Hispanic-Americans that can vote.

hawkeye®,

Mom did what she thought was right but was duped by a man of the cloth, who was made even more disgraceful by the fact that his primary targets were those with afflictions who needed HELP, not a good fleecing. The worst kind of sleaze!

As for Republicans, I wholeheartedly agree. They barely deserve any more credibility than Democrats. They have abandoned the principles of the party and have become-to a very large part-the same scum as their friends across the aisle. They better make a quick and decided turnaround soon, or they will lose their support in the electorate...

Anonymous said...

What if your mother's hard earned tithes went to feeding the hungry? Just because you think Oral Roberts is a little kooky does not mean you should blame your problems on him. I happen to be... "on the inside?" Hmmm... I don't agree with all administration and all of OR's or PRob's doctrine but as men of God I refuse to speak against them.

Beerme said...

Anonymous,

A careful reading of my article will assure you that I blamed NONE of my problems on Oral Roberts, nor did I say I thought him a little "kooky". I think him to have been a crook, plain and simple. Also, you can be assured that none of my complaints against O.R. had anything to do with tithes. Rather, these were responses to mailings from O.R., requesting donations in exchange for his interventions on the receivers' behalf. In other words, they were requests for bribes so O.R. would pray for them (the stated reason was that the prayers would be more powerful because they were uttered by O.R. in his new Prayer Tower).

If you fail to see that this is despicable and sleazy, then you deserve to be "on the inside"...

Robert said...

Way back when, about 30 years ago, my grandmother (1886-1986) asked me if I had a cassette player she could borrow. It turned out she had received a firsthand copy of Oral Robert's infamous "give me money for the hospital or I'll die" tape.

Later, I heard about the 900-foot tall Jesus. I did a goodly ration of LSD in my wild youth, but I never saw a 900-foot-tall Jesus.

I have somebody's "prayer hanky" kicking around near the dining table in the Possum Den; it's good for mopping up dog hair, dust, and scorpion corpses.

Your original point is spot on. Those People are going to demagogue the exploited plight of Mexicans into the ground. Like the body count from Iraq, dead mojados are nothing to those people but exploitable statistics, and potential voters if they can ramrod an amnesty bill.

It does not help either side of this issue than an otherwise honorable president is selling out. I too, have affection for Mexicans, but I am not cutting them slack, and they should understand why this is so.

Anonymous said...

Hey Beerme & gang,

How are you guys?

Oral Roberts and their ilk should be hung from the yard arm. Most of that stuff is just preying on the weak.

RE: Dems
They are not an impressive lot. I have no idea who to vote for at this point. I'm almost hoping Gore comes back in. One thing is for sure, I never want one party with this much power again. I'd vote Green but they never have a shot.

Both major parties totally pander to Corporate America. I think the founders are turning in their graves as we speak. I'm sick of the Dems just whining all the time and not offering any real alternatives. I'm sick of the Repbulicans emptying this countries coffers and trompling the constitution.

Anyway, I was wondering how you guys felt about Bushco. Are you still behind him?

Beerme said...

Heybeerman,

I'm upset at Bushco but for different reasons than yours, I suspect. I am all for tax cuts, even if they may favor the rich more than the poor. But if you cut taxes, you also MUST cut spending. It seems, as you said in your post, that they are all pandering for votes and power by attaching earmarks and pork projects to every bill they see pass their desks.

Let me ask you this: what has Bushco powered through the legislature with all this "control" of the government they have? You'd think that Bush and the Republicans, after 9/11, would have been able to basically do anything they wanted. Remember the 90% approval ratings? What did they do with that power? Nothing. The administration allied with Ted Kennedy on an Education Bill (which Dems are now criticizing as another Bush failure-guess they forgot about Kennedy's input), they caved real quick on any meaningful Social Security reform, and now projections show the SS and Medicaid programs will be bankrupt a couple years earlier than they thought, they allowed pork filled bills to pass year after year with no veto, the list goes on and on. If I was a Democrat, I'd be happy as hell that Bush is president! You couldn't do much better with Kerry!

I, too would love to vote a third party candidate (though it would be Libertarian, not Green), so I feel your pain. I have decided to continue to vote Republican, though, as I don't want to waste my vote.

I think the corporate pandering is mostly a red herring, though I can't understand why the government should ever give corporations welfare, just as I don't understand most of the government's entitlement programs.

You and I will probably never agree on many aspects of government (Gore???)but I appreciate your postings and sharing your point of view with us. All in all, we Americans have much more in common than not...

Anonymous said...

Beerme,

What the Republicans did was:

-Loot the US treasury. We had a surplus under Clinton, now we have a massive deficit under Bush.
-Invade Iraq under false pretenses.
-They installed two conservatives in the Supreme court.
-They have grown the government which is against conservative values.
- Completely ignored global warming and the destruction of the environment going on around them.
- Are completely stomping on civil liberities. (OK, this might make me a liberal).

Basically they have done whatever they wanted under the guise of national security. While the one hand says we have your best interests in mind and issues you tax cuts, the other is signing bills that fund defense spending and "rebuilding" Iraq. How many billions disappeared in Iraq?

Let's face it, they planned to go into Iraq well before 9/11. In your eyes was that worth it? How come we are paying for rebuilding Iraq when Bush said it would be paid for with Iraqi oil?

Who runs this country? Big business. It doesn't matter if there are Dems or Reeps in power. The Oil/Defense companies run the country.

However this administration was the worst ever....they ripped us off and flipped us off while doing it.

I'm not saying the Dems would have been much better, but I don't think we'd be in Iraq right now.

Now tell me what you don't like about Gore. He invented the internet, how can you not like him? ;)

I like him because of his stance on the environment, which is my #1 issue. Yes, I'm a tree hugger but I don't stand in front of bulldozers.

You'd be surprised how many values that we share. However at 30% approval I think I was on the correct side of the aisle the last 8 years. We're starting to get into Nixon like numbers...

Beerme said...

Ok my beer loving, tree hugging friend, I will address your laundry list of "accomplishments" while admitting that (wonder of wonders) we agree on one and in part on another!

-Loot the US treasury. We had a surplus under Clinton, now we have a massive deficit under Bush.
This argument is really such a smoke and mirrors trick, it bears a complete renunciation but suffice it to say that the surplus was wonderful but who controls the purse strings? Why does the liberal establishment want to blame spending on Bush, when it is the congress that writes and approves the budget, while giving Clinton the credit for HIS budgets, when he only signed off on spending bills congress (you know, the Republican congress that was part of that Vast Right Wing Conspiracy) passed?

-Invade Iraq under false pretenses.
Simply put, I was against the invasion of Iraq, mostly because I am against foreign entanglements of most kinds. Still, I must ask if "false pretenses" is the same as "misguided beliefs"? Bush and his administration believed the world's best intell regarding Iraq's WMD potential. They and the rest of the world were apparently wrong, though not necessarilly lying.

-They installed two conservatives in the Supreme court.
Yes, but more importantly, they installed one supremely qualified jurist who is interested in original intent, rather than evolving content and world legal interpretations. Roberts is eminently qualified for the job of Chief Justice and his recent written opinions show him to be a reasoned thinker that favors neither conservative nor liberal views, but rather constitutional reason.

-They have grown the government which is against conservative values.
Yup! The main reason I'm angry at their behavior. Unforgiveable!

- Completely ignored global warming and the destruction of the environment going on around them.
I guess they deserve this because they don't agree with KYOTO? I would never agree with signing onto the Kyoto agreements. They're overly injurious to our economy, don't apply to the worst offenders (third world countries like China and India pollute far more than modern democracies), are slanted towards the prohibition of CO2 which is non-toxic and probably benign, especially compared with the pollutants belching from most of world's poorer countries, and finally even if global warming were a fact AND it was certainly being caused by our actions our complete return to the stone age would not revert the damage that has purportedly been done to our global temperature change. All that in addition to the fact that volcanic euptions, undersea venting, bovine flatulation and a myriad of other natural processes are pumping CO2 out into the ozone layer at a greater rate than all of the US industry could ever hope to match.

- Are completely stomping on civil liberities. (OK, this might make me a liberal).
This is the one I partly agree with: ) The classic definition of Liberal is something akin to what we now call a libertarian. I believe that civil liberties are being eroded by this administration to a certain degree. I don't think it is nearly the catastrophe that the leftists are claiming but there is some truth to it being a downward slide. The devastation of the war on drugs over the past twenty years has done more to erode civil liberties than any Bush action, though.

I agree that we wouldn't be in Iraq right now under a Democrat president. They would have done the Clintonian thing: fire a cruise missile or two at a pharmaceutical factory and call it good.

Oh, and that 30% thing...I ain't so sure 30% of the electorate would agree with me on my political agenda, either. What do they know, though?

BTW, I enjoy corresponding with those of different viewpoints, especially if the conversation is civil and well-informed. Thanks for visiting!

Anonymous said...

Beerme said...

-Loot the US treasury.
But who controls the Congress? Who basically rubberstamps everything this administration has decided to do?

-Invade Iraq under false pretenses.

I believe they lied. Look at the Plame affair. That was payback for Wilson blowing the Yellow Cake story. Many advisors told them not to go in for various reasons which they ignored. Also have you looked at the Downing Street Memos? Have you looked at the PNAC website? The always planned on going into Iraq to spread their ideology. They cherry picked the intel. If the Intel was so bad, why was Tenet given a medal on his way out of office? Doesn't make any sense to me.

I'd also like to say that 99% of the Democrats were complete cowards for not slowing them down. There are only a handful of politiicans that stood up.

-They installed two conservatives in the Supreme court.

Roberts is qualified. I'm conservative about quite a few things. I'm also hypocritical. I'm for gay unions, not marriage. But I also don't want my son to be gay...I want grand kids!!!

-They have grown the government which is against conservative values.
Yup! The main reason I'm angry at their behavior. Unforgiveable!

- Completely ignored global warming and the destruction of the environment going on around them.

I'm not saying they should have signed Kyoto, but they are completely uninterested with the environment unless it affects their voting base. They now seemed concerned because it's a hot topic and they are way down in the polls with elections coming up. I love Gore for being Green. That overwhelms the bad in him, for me, for now.

- Are completely stomping on civil liberities.
This NSA business is getting out of hand and in my opinion just the tip of the iceberg. There is too much possibilty for abuse here.

Lastly, I think our press corp are absolute cowards. There has been no real reporting for years.

BTW, I enjoy corresponding with those of different viewpoints, especially if the conversation is civil and well-informed. Thanks for visiting!

Me too! We'll have to share a beer sometime.