Theocracy, Indoctrination, and the Cult of the Red Card

I suppose the context for the ad was about right. Republican Presidential debate moderator Neil Cavuto began, “First off, Dr. Carson, to you. You say you are in favor of a tax system, I guess akin to tithing, sir, with a flat tax rate of up to 15 percent because you said, if everybody pays this, I think God is a pretty fair guy. So tithing is a pretty fair process. But Donald Trump says that is not fair, that wealthier taxpayers should pay a higher rate because it's a fair thing to do. So whose plan would God endorse then doctor?”

The debate score is Theocracy 1, Democracy 0. These are the clowns who want to run the show. What could possibly go wrong?

Burning democracy at the stake requires ever more far Right political indoctrination. And the ad poured more fuel into the flames.

The ad targeted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the independent agency created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and tasked with enforcing consumer protection rules as recourse to the unaccountable actions of Wall Street.

The CFPB was portrayed as a sinister government office of bureaucratic automaton workers “controlling your decisions", denying “those who need help the most, and mercilessly stamping “DENIED” on loan applications.

The American Action Network ( Mission: To promote “center-right” solutions to our nation’s challenges) ran a TV ad attacking the CFPB during the GOP debate , featured red banners on the wall depicting Senator Elizabeth Warren and CFPB Director Richard Cordray as literally red tinged communist dictators.

When an organization of corporate/Wall Street shills admits to being “center right” we know how extreme they really are.

Elizabeth shot back:

“So… Can we talk about that ad that just ran during the  GOP Debate where I look like a Commie dictator? Wall Street has a problem: They know the CFPB is working, and it’s incredibly popular with the families it helps. The CFPB has forced the big financial companies to return more than $11B to people they cheated on credit cards, mortgages, etc. Thousands of dollars on a TV ad is nothing compared to the money the big banks save if their GOP buddies go after the CFPB. Wall Street knows if they soften CFPB support, the GOP will feel better undercutting the agency in closed-door deals. So here’s my message to Wall Street & their GOP buddies: we’re ready to fight back to protect the CFPB.“

Will we ever see the McCarthyism of their propaganda subside? No. Here’s why. 

They are convinced of the righteousness of their beliefs. They now have the internet and 24/7 Right Wing/Republican corporate media reinforcing these beliefs.

The first Big Lie required to support the propaganda is also what all cults do. They tell their people to trust no source of information but their own. They incessantly re-brand corporate media as "liberal media".

"Trust us, not the evil liberal media".

Once that indoctrination is set, the rest is all downhill. The far Right propaganda machine now has immense control over what their believers think.

They are of a belief system founded on far Right ideology intended to divide our citizenry and support entrenched economic interests. While liberals are concerned with global corporatism, inequality, corruption, the environment, living wages, and suppression of democracy, conservatives are targeted for "mobilization of resentments" to blame and scapegoat minorities and liberals, and other "Southern Strategy" style methods perfected by team Nixon. "The 'takers' are stealing from you! Obama is coming for your guns! Liberals hate America!" 

They are induced to feel threatened by too many voters, constitutional public safety nets and health care, and the democratic process of elections and representation.

The program has been a smashing success. Many Americans now see their fellow citizens through this formula:

Liberals/Unions/Teachers/Journalists = Democrats = Socialists = Communists. And they all hate America and want to take away the freedoms of "good Americans". 

This is the operating equation of their ideology that is needed to gain support for draconian law enforcement, wars of choice, tax cuts for the rich, special deals for corporate “persons”, de-regulation of Wall Street and planting corporate shills in regulatory agencies.  All who oppose this agenda must be branded as communists.

The goal of the equation is to implant the final factor into the minds of their cult. Liberals/Unions/Teachers/Journalists = Democrats = Socialists = Communists = Blame.

Once this indoctrination is set, the accusations, blame and scapegoating follow.

It follows the classic political methodology of fascism and results in growing resentments, anger, and hate for fellow Americans.

The followers cannot see this of course, because they assume their moral superiority is immune to extremism, and wealth reflects virtue. The financial elite should be entrusted with writing the rules, and all those “takers” who disagree are “anti-American”.

Such beliefs cannot be held without a gnawing sense of fear that becomes inseparable from all that resentment and anger.

As studies have shown, the amygdala, the primitive fear and emotion center of the brain, is more active in conservatives.

Is it any wonder why the legions of the Far Right are such an angry, resentful mob?

This is by design, as well as circumstance.