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Edited on Wed Sep-05-07 04:24 PM by calimary
It's STINGEY, CHEAPSKATE, SELFISH sociopaths and cheapskates, who either can't or just deliberately WON'T see past their own self-involved little noses.
What always tips the balance, at least I've found, is the "I don't wanna pay taxes!!!" whining, that more often than not trumps everything else. The meme that the reagan people really pounded home the most effectively was that myth of the "welfare queen." Okay, maybe during the 80's, somebody somewhere saw one of these drive up to the unemployment office in a nice, shiny Cadillac. Maybe there's actually one or two hundred or thousand in the system across the country. Why wouldn't there be? After all, look how many of the bad guys game the system themselves, and cheat and cut corners and bend the rules to finagle more than their fair share? What is ALWAYS neglected is any effort to bring balance and perspective to that meme. The actual number of welfare cheats are VASTLY outnumbered by people by the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS, if not MILLIONS by now, who have fallen through the cracks through no fault of their own, and whose needs (either in health care or disability or housing or lousy dead-end job - or lack even thereof) are completely legitimate, and who are dependent on others for help. Nobody EVER points that out. It's always framed in terms of somebody who's a lazy moocher sucking off the system that you worked your whole life and thousands of honest days' work only to have your money taken from you and given to these lazy, good-for-nothing fucks. And it's a myth. A COMPLETE myth. But it was SO easy to sell.
And it was easy to sell because there was this HUGE reservoir of resentment and anger that some extremely shrewd CONservative social observers picked up on and decided to exploit for political gain. I think, especially during the 80's, that resentment was growing to a loud crescendo because it was on the heels of a LOT of social upheaval and leveling of the playing field - which left a lot of people out. It started in the late '70's and '80's because that was a timeframe just on the other side of the huge changes wrought specifically during the '60's and '70's that benefited mainly minorities and women. I remember clearly in my own life, for example, that it was the mid-70's when the FCC made it fearfully clear to TV and radio stations from coast to coast that they better start hiring more women. I once attended a news convention at which Jane Pauley spoke. At the time she was the toast of the "Today" show and had survived much already, and was widely considered as a role model for women and a secondary pioneer (after Barbara Walters, that is - whom she'd replaced). Pauley mentioned that, too, how that FCC decree back in the early-mid '70's made HER career rise possible. I rode in on that same FCC wave. The first SEVERAL jobs I got out of college were because they were specifically looking for a woman - either to do weekend news or to do fill-ins for the men, or they had a man on in the morning and thought a woman would be good for the afternoon. Every job I got when I was first at it was a "first woman in the newsroom" or "first woman on the air" job.
Not to brag about myself necessarily here but to point out that - those jobs I got, and other women coming into the business got, were jobs that previously had been all-male bastions. A bunch of us made local and national headlines because we were such a new and rare phenomenon - the girl in the news room or the female anchor or coanchor. Men ALL OVER THE DIAL were having to move over to make room for a woman, or in many cases to be replaced by a woman. I saw some of the resentment personally. And fairly quickly on THOSE heels came the hiring pressure to move others on the air over - to admit a black broadcaster also. What that translated to, and what that meant, to the previously dominant employee pool was that those jobs now being given to women and to African Americans (and to a lesser extent, at least here in So Cal, to Hispanics), HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN THE EXCLUSIVE PERVIEW OF MEN. It was always the guys, across the board, who were hired and who filled all the air staff positions. That began to change with the FCC dictates. And there were many men put out of work because management felt it needed to give that job to a woman so they could check that box off at license renewal time and show how broad-minded and community-responsive they were. And the guys had to take it in the shorts so women and minorities had a chance, for a change. And the guys HATED IT. They invariably took it personally and felt aggrieved in the extreme. A HUGE and PROFOUND sense of being personally ripped off, of that unfairness hitting directly home at YOUR house for the sake of some lazy, undeserving, Johnnie-come-lately schmuck to come in out of the blue and cut in ahead of you to the front of the line. Many of them resented those of us who were perceived as "taking THEIR jobs" and some of 'em didn't suffer in silence, either.
Compound that with the added insult-to-injury that it's the damned, blasted GOVERNMENT DICTATING TO YOU (business) THAT YOU WERE FORCED TO COMPLY WITH THIS WHETHER YOU LIKED IT OR NOT.
There was a LOT of resentment. Many men didn't like being forced to share. I guess when you're "raised as an only child," you don't like having to move over all of a sudden and make room for an outsider, much less allow them a seat at the big table next to you when their proper place was always over at the kiddie table. In some cases in broadcasting, at least, that kiddie table still existed. Many of us women and blacks were relegated to the public affairs department while the big marquee jobs with the best exposure and biggest paychecks still went to the men. But in those cases, it meant there actually, finally, WAS a kiddie table where there wasn't even a table before.
I owe my career start to the FCC, and I'm sure several of the jobs I was given would otherwise have just gone to another guy. And I'm not alone BY ANY MEANS. It happened all across the country, in ALL industries and workplaces.
And what that led to was a COLOSSALLY huge reservoir of resentment and anger by those who felt put-upon and ripped-off so the woman or the African American/Hispanic could get a break.
And ronald reagan and his friends, advisors, and cohorts tapped into that. They knew there was gold in them thar ills. And pond scum like rush limbaugh and his many, many clones, gave it a voice.
Typical of 20th Century-mentality republi-CONS: they only get anywhere when they appeal to our baser natures. Back then it was resentment and anger. NOW, it's FEAR on top of that same kind of resentment and anger.
It's only because of horrific events like Hurricane Katrina (and even, to a lesser extent, the bridge collapse in Minneapolis) that even SOME of us are jolted awake from our misconceptions and our embrace of that irrational, knee-jerk anger and resentment and blame-it-on-the-lazy-welfare-queens and smelled the actual coffee - that showed the value, indeed, the NECESSITY for government intervention to level the playing field and help those who cannot help themselves.
But the myopia, the willful refusal to see past your own nose and NOT want to share or help or put yourself out a little or move over so someone else has a place at the table, all those piss-ant feelings down in the bowels of our baser natures - are where the latter-day GOP has nestled in and made itself EXTREMELY comfortable. And fat. And sassy. They've appealed to our lowest selves. And it's worked. At least for a few of them. The rest of 'em, who are only given promises about that proverbial pie that's somehow, someday, magically going to be made "higher," are simply being strung along with empty promises - of a magical, fabulous, Publishers' Clearinghouse champagne payday - that NEVER comes. "Vote for us and you'll get yours, too!" And boy, are they. Straight in the shorts. And still they believe. And still they get played. Someday more of THEM will start waking up, too. Hopefully.
Aw shit - sorry this is so long.
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