Friday, July 2, 2010

Possibilities, the Poor and Right Wing Populism

On this glorious 4th of July weekend, I am reminded of one of my top ten Favorite Movies (h/t M. Winship at Huffington Post) 1776 the Musical. In the restored, directors cut version of the film is the song Cool Cool Considerate Men:



From this song we get dialogue spoken by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania (actor Donald Madden) that best sums up the success of the Tea Party:

    "...don't forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich, than face the reality of being poor."
It is the reason that right Wing Populist consistently support politicians who vote against their (the Tea Party's) economic interest. It is also the reason that real wages for working people have gone down:

even as the incomes of the top 10% have risen dramatically:

Unfortunately for the these United States of America in CE 2010, I fear that the line from John Hancock (actor David Ford) may no longer apply:
    Fortunately Mr. Dickerson,there are not enough men of property to dictate policy.
Or maybe not? We shall see if Mr. Sloan's article from the Huffington Post trumps the conventional wisdom about the November 2010 elections.