The greed epidemic has enlisted its old buddy, hatred. The Tea Party people, for a less-than-shining example, disguise themselves as patriots and preach hatred. They call President Obama a tyrant, the new code for “Nigger.” Their mercenary mouthpiece, Sarah Palin, spreads lies, fear and hatred for $100,000 per speech. As a bonus, she also incites violence against our lawfully elected leaders, urging her audience to “reload.” They are the reverse image of the peace and civil rights movements of the 1960s and 70s, railing against “the system.” Only this time around, they advocate, rather than protest, violence and hatred. They further enlist religious faith as an instrument of evil, a ruling class trick as old as religion itself.
The simple truth is that hatred, greed and violence are evil. There is no middle ground here. Greed is wrong, hatred is wrong and violence is wrong. No religion leaves any wiggle room on that score. As flawed as they are, the 10 Commandments cover these things unequivocally, and anyone claiming to believe in them while espousing hatred, greed and violence is also a liar, another no-no according to the Commandments. None of these things are okay, not in good times, bad times or in between times.
Using evil as a means to an end is what created this mess in the first place. The orgy of greed by wealthy individuals robbed trillions of dollars from the working classes in a reverse Robin Hood scheme: robbing the poor and giving to the rich. Millions of lives were damaged for the greed of a few. When the house of cards erected by the financial manipulators collapsed, the right-wing administration that participated in this looting was voted out of office, handing the White House and both Houses of Congress to the Democrats, in the process making history by electing America’s first black president.
So massive was the damage done to America by the right wing, the cleanup job they left us will take years. Greed and corruption has become endemic, and America’s economy resembles the city of New Orleans, thrown an anchor when it was drowning by the Cheney Administration. For years after the 2004 hurricane that nearly destroyed it, New Orleans stood as a rebuke to the right wing by thriving among the ruins, slowly rebuilding itself while the Federal Government fiddled. From 2000 to 2008, there was no help anywhere in America for citizens who were not wealthy. For the very wealthy, the United States Treasury was open for Looting Season.
Their naked greed very nearly ruined the greatest economy the world has ever seen. The Cheney Administration oversaw the biggest peacetime transfer of wealth in human history, with less than 1% of the population now owning more wealth and assets that the bottom 95% of American citizens combined. On top of that, the corporate princes wanted the only thing that greed demands – more. Already fabulously wealthy, the greedy corporate princes resorted to fraud and larceny on a previously unimaginable scale. Now they refuse to recognize the will of the people who voted for reform of the system they corrupted.
The disgraced phonies who were voted out of office did not repent or show any shame at all, nor did they even acknowledge in any way how vast was the damage they wrought. Instead, they turned on a new President who was generously trying to work with them. So quick were they to bite the hand of friendship and bipartisan cooperation that Mr. Obama is lucky he still has 10 fingers. Now they field the Tea Party movement, founded on fear, ignorance and hatred. Talk about not getting it.
This is one of those movements guaranteed to get more press coverage than votes. Sensationalism might sell, but it has a shorter shelf life than cottage cheese. Only a small minority of Americans are stupid enough, venal enough or naive enough to support these puppet-masters of the Tea Party movement, whose only agenda is regaining power for greed’s sake. If greed needs fear, hatred and violence to achieve its ends, then it will use fear, hatred and violence. If it needs to corrupt and misrepresent religious teachings, it will not hesitate to do so. If greed needs to sell out all our tomorrows for a tidy profit today, consider it done. Greed is all about now.
Let these people admit what they are doing, and openly proclaim their greed and hate and their violent intentions. That won’t happen of course, since they are cowards and charlatans. Only a cowards hate, and only charlatans hide behind a God that stands for the opposite of everything they stand for. Only a fool swallows any of this, those poor souls incapable or even worse, unwilling to think this whole thing through to its logical conclusion; evil begets evil, with no exceptions.
Fortunately for the puppet masters, the Good Lord who’s name they cynically invoke at every opportunity has provided them with no shortage of fools to do their bidding. No army ever marched without somebody convincing them that God is on their side. For greed to succeed, the rest of us simply have to shut up about all this. Any volunteers to hold your tongue while evil bigots attempt to capture America for their greedy overseers? Our silence will be taken as an endorsement. It’s good versus evil time. Speak up while you still can.