Cain: GOP's Latest Showman

This opinion piece, appearing in this morning's Des Moines Register, rips the veneer off of the GOP's public face. A must read.....

Written by HARRY BROD

HARRY BROD is professor of philosophy and humanities at the University of Northern Iowa. Contact: harry.brod@uni.edu

With the most recent poll showing Herman Cain leading in Iowa by a margin of 10 points over his closest rival, it's time to take a longer look at the Cain candidacy, a longer view that looks back to the former candidate whose mantle all Republican contenders now claim, Ronald Reagan.

There's a direct line from Reagan to Cain, but it's not in terms of values or issues, where Reagan was much too moderate for the current crowd. I mean the line from Reagan the actor to Cain the motivational speaker, the line that underscores the increasing victory of style over substance.

Sincerity is everything in politics. If you can fake that you've got it made, goes the old saying. Renowned physician Oliver Sacks (the basis for Robin Williams' character in the movie "Awakenings") tells of patients with a condition that turns them into sort of human lie detectors - they spot insincerity, and find it hilarious. Sacks once walked by a room in which a group of such patients were laughing hysterically. Peeking in to see what was going on, he found them glued to the TV, watching a Reagan speech.

Reagan understood the importance of stagecraft. He was controversially the first president to return a military salute, a violation of military protocol. Not even five-star General Eisenhower did that as president. He respected that the privilege of saluting comes with the uniform, not from the title of commander-in-chief.

Cain's got a commanding stage presence, too, but he takes too much command. He reacts to interview questions thrown at him like a batter at home plate, swinging hard at pitches he likes but ignoring others, even those in the strike zone. One wonders if the swagger Republicans like will continue to be popular. Americans tend to want their chief as well as pizza executives to answer the questions they're asked.

Today the way to convince people you're doing or would do a good job as president is by appearing rather than being presidential. When he tried to actually function as head of our executive branch President Bill Clinton was criticized as a "policy wonk," and President Barack Obama tries hard to avoid that label. As far as I can tell, wonkiness is a charge that they're trying to do their job.

Or at least that they're trying to do the job the Constitution envisions for them. But the line from Reagan to Cain traces a different job description, emptying the job of real content and leaving it as a figurehead position, not so much chief executive as national spokes model.

There is indeed a policy agenda behind the Republican emptying out of the presidency, but it's not spoken out loud. The policy is privatization, meaning increasing corporatization of our lives, with the essential functions of once public institutions like schools, prisons and the military increasingly outsourced to private contractors, putting them outside the democratic process by which they could be controlled.

That's why the Republican Party is out to prevent government from functioning. Convince people that government is inherently dysfunctional, and corporations are there to fill in the gap. The less government does, the more unregulated and excess profit there is to be made.

For those puzzled by Cain's new ad featuring his campaign manager blowing his cigarette smoke into the camera while the song sings "I am America," it's Cain repaying his corporate sponsor. He got his political start as a Washington lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association and made his mark by turning it into a front organization for the tobacco industry by opposing regulations on smoking in restaurants, a move opposed by many restaurant owners who thought his actions were bad for small businesses.

The lines spoken by candidates in the Reagan-Cain line are written by someone else. These candidates are a mouthpiece for the corporate interests behind them, and their seemingly presidential style is just skillful corporate ventriloquism. I'll let you figure out what that makes them.

D.C. Under the Far-Right Heel

What would the country look like if the increasingly far-right Republican party had total sway over our government? They campaigned on jobs, jobs, jobs. How about a reality check.

Take for example Washington, D. C. Although the GOP-controlled U. S. House has been in power just a little over a month, they are busy negating the will of the D.C. taxpayers.

Today's article in the New York Times, "Even Less Representation", gives us a glimpse of what Republican control looks like:

"The district’s hard-won home rule came under assault from day one with a House rule scrapping the already pathetic power of its elected representative..... This overreach was rationalized by cynically redefining the city as just another part of the federal government.... now piling on with a proposal to overturn the district’s legalization of gay marriage duly enacted last year under home rule.

"Then came the Republicans’ broad assault on federal financing of abortions in the states, tailored to include a particularly insidious clause, barring the Washington district government from using even local taxes for legal abortions"

While we have watched transfixed in the last weeks as the Egyptians dramatically moved their country toward democracy, the far-right in our bastion of freedom are relentlessly trying to dismantle ours. To insert their religious beliefs into laws that mandate government intrusion into, and control over, our most basic freedoms.

If these rights come under the heel of federal and state control.... what other of our rights could be next? This is what is happening in our country. You can change this.... 2012. Vote.

What's the GOP Tea Party Brewing?

Our country is being battered by a take-over attempt, the battle-plan drawn up by the religious right and corporations. Sure, they call themselves "patriots." But, that's just to keep the unwary faithful from catching on. Winning would result in a corporate-theocracy, based on their narrow interpretation, not just of the Constitution, but of the Bible. The vehicles are the tattered remnants of the GOP and the flamboyant Tea Party led by the looniest of tunes, no need to name them.

The once-Grand Old Party is being dragged behind the stampeding Tea-herd, yoked to them as a result of their obstructionist, personal-attack history. Hopefully, these false patriots have set themselves up to become history. It's just a matter of time until voters realize the "shining city on a hill" is Dubai.

The GOP/Tea Bag consortium proclaims they want smaller government, more liberty, but almost every action they take moves the country in the opposite direction.

It was the Republican administration who misled us into the moral and fiscal swamp of the Iraq war and nation building. It was the Republican administration who put into place the unfunded budget-busting drug program for senior citizens.... a giant boondoggle for the drug and insurance companies. It was the Republican administration that assembled the Homeland Security Administration behemoth, the biggest single expansion of government, ever.

It was the Republican administration who put us on the path to unsustainable debt.... and a good argument can be made that it was done deliberately in order to later say we can no longer afford Social Security and Medicare. For them, corporate welfare is fine, individual help is unpalatable.

Smaller government, fiscal restraint. Read the tea leaves, that's not in the brew.

As for freedom and liberty, GOP liberty is only for some. All are equal except women, gays, and non-believers, next up to receive the GOP backhand. Corporations have been awarded personhood by the ability to pour money into our electoral process thanks to our no longer Supreme-judgment court. Sad to say, the highest court in our land has become just another tool in the GOP/Tea Bag toolbox. Left unfettered, is the United Corporate States of America far off?

As for the promise to create jobs, forget that. What the GOP/Tea Baggers crave is social reform, made in their religious-moral-code image. In their perfect world, women would be forced into burkahood as control over their reproductive rights fall under government control. Gays would be denied civil rights while corporations would be granted more rights... to pollute, to manipulate financial markets, and to further deregulate our food products. And clean energy, less dependence on oil. Forget it.

But there will be a reckoning..... 2012 is coming. We can reject this toxic brew. What happens to our country is up to us.

Jindal"s "Fix" Is In

When it comes to Louisiana's GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal's attitude toward making the GOP relevant after their November drubbing, one is reminded of Peggy Lee's "Is that all there is, my friends?..... then let's keep dancing."

Jindal told an audience of 800 yesterday in West Des Moines at a fundraiser for the socially conservative Iowa Family Policy Center, " 'There are things we can do as private citizens working together to strengthen our society. Our focus does not need to be on fixing the (Republican) party,' he said. 'Our focus needs to be on how to fix America.' " (DM Register)

Oh noooooooo! The Republican party has been trying to "fix" America for eight years, and look where we are.... nowhere!

Worse than nowhere.... our creditors can still find us!

Jindal, please focus on fixing the GOP.... the country needs two viable parties.... haven't you noticed that the Republican party is stuck in reverse, mired in social crusades against gays, choice, privacy, and science.

The "focus" of the Iowa Family Policy Center is even narrower.... it is working for a marriage amendment to the Constitution aimed at gay marriage. They evidently think they can "fix" America and their own marriages by denying those rights to others.... promoting a "Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman."

With this kickoff tour, it's obvious to which base Jindal is going to pander in his 2012 presidential bid.

Will the GOP Evolve?

There is a battle being waged in Texas and within the GOP party.

The outcome of that battle will determine if they go forward toward the liberating cultural complexities and scientific advances of the 21st century. Or, if they will continue their backwards fall into the embrace of the suffocating superstitions of religious fundamentalism.

Case in point.

"State education panel hears evolution debate." (Dallas Morning News) "Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution grabbed center stage Wednesday as State Board of Education members heard from dozens of Texans trying to influence the panel on how evolution should be covered in science classes of the future.

"College professors, science teachers and pro-evolution groups urged the board to drop a rule that requires the strengths and weaknesses of Darwin's theory to be taught in science courses, while conservative groups aligned with a sizable bloc of board members said the rule has worked well and hasn't forced religion into those classes as critics charge.

Of course, conservatives aren't fooling anyone. Their religious wolf under the cloak of "educational freedom" is trying to ambush impressionable hearts and minds.

The first vote on the issue by the state education board will be in January. At stake are the science guidelines for elementary and secondary schools and the materials used for state tests and textbooks. The guidelines would remain in place for a decade after their approval by the state board.

The state's most famous Texan, George "Is Our Children Learning?" Bush, has already weighed in on the debate. In 2005 he famously told reporters that he believes that intelligent design.... creationism repackaged.... should be taught alongside evolution as competing theories. (WaPo)

The report on Bush's remarks explains that "Much of the scientific establishment says that intelligent design is not a tested scientific theory but a cleverly marketed effort to introduce religious -- especially Christian -- thinking to students.

".... Bush's remarks heartened conservatives who have been asking school boards and legislatures to teach students that there are gaps in evolutionary theory and explain that life's complexity is evidence of a guiding hand."

It isn't just the Texas education system at the crossroads, an increasingly marginalized GOP is trying to read the what-went-wrong tea leaves after their defeat in the last election.

As Kathleen Parker said in her recent editorial, "Giving Up on God," (WaPo)..... "the evangelical, right-wing, oogedly-boogedly branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue" to do so unless the GOP faces "the gorilla".... perhaps that should be monkey.... "in the room."

Parker diagnosis is, "Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party."

Texas, don't let it kill your educational excellence too.

Jindal Jumps the 2012 Gun

A very troubling news brief this morning.... "Louisiana: Killing at K.K.K. Initiation." (NYTimes) An Oklahoma woman was killed at a Ku Klux Klan camp site after she tried to leave the initiation ritual. Her body was found about 60 miles north of New Orleans.

Also troubling is The Progress Report's update on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina issued August 29... "Three Years Later." It found that in Louisiana massive problems resulting from the hurricane remain, including "significant debris management issues," and "a cleanup fraught with environmental issues." New Orleans still has a far greater proportion of vacant homes than any other city in the country, with "more than one in three residential addresses vacant or unoccupied."

As of March, "only 13% of the $1.6 billion in the state's emergency community development block grant funds had benefited lower-income victims." And, the levees still aren't up to snuff.... threatening to "make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood."

All of this in the light of.... "Here we go again: Huckabee, Jindal visit." (DM Register) "...two high-profile Republicans will visit Iowa amid speculation that they will seek the GOP 2012 presidential nomination.... On Nov. 22, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will visit Cedar Rapids and West Des Moines to speak at several events."

Perhaps Jindal needs to spend more time in his own back yard.