She is a striking brunette with a decidedly outspoken attitude. She lambasts President Barack Obama as a socialist and has become the darling of America's right-wing activists who flock to her appearances. She is hated by liberals and loved by conservatives. Not quite. Meet Michele Bachmann, a Republican congresswoman from Minnesota who is being hailed as a new and increasingly powerful voice in American politics. Bachmann, at 53, is a darling of the so-called Tea Party movement, which has campaigned vociferously against healthcare reform, the economic stimulus package and legislation to combat climate change. Her followers have been behind mass rallies in Washington and smaller ones all over the country. She has emerged as one of the most visible politicians in America, frequently appearing on the conservative Fox News channel, whose hosts often champion her causes. She is part of an increasingly visible "female brand" of conservatism that is rising in America in the wake of the election of Obama. They include notable syndicated Sarah Palin commentators such as Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter, whose dislike for liberals has grown ever more shrill in recent months. And, of course, Palin herself. She is still a giant of the political and media landscape and next week embarks on a book tour to sell her autobiography. It has already sparked a media frenzy, with a heavily hyped appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show, and become a huge bestseller on pre-orders alone. – UK Guardian
Dominant Social Theme: The new wave in US politics is female.
Free-Market Analysis: It is great to read this article in the Guardian, a leftist British newspaper of note, because the machinery of mainstream media manipulation is laid out for anyone to see here. The dominant social theme being constructed is once again the conservative one. We have of course written about this numerous times already and probably will continue to follow this meme closely as it plays out. It is one of the most important memes that the monetary elite operates (outside of central banking).
It is very important to convince the electorate in the West, especially the United States and Britain that there are only two main political choices when it comes to government. One side wants to build out government, along with higher taxes and regulation, to initiate social programs that supposedly help the poor and disadvantaged and make society fairer. The other side claims to want less taxation and government involvement in the private marketplace but tends to support an overwhelmingly large and aggressive military industrial complex – and will use the leverage inherent in state power, including taxes and monetary stimulation, to get it.
Thus it is that this political dominant social theme organizes both sides to utilize state action. But as we pointed out most recently in our article on Sarah Palin, there is a third point of view, which is generally anti-state. It is the view of Thomas Jefferson and is the view of the American Constitution itself. This is the same view held by outspoken individuals such as US Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex). This is the constitutionalist view that America was founded on. It is in direct opposition not to one but to both major political parties in the US, Britain and elsewhere.
From this standpoint, the Guardian article is both useful and interesting. It ignores the American constitutionalist/libertarian movement, which is quite likely the most powerful and interesting political phenomenon to come along in years. Instead, it focuses on "Conservative" female firebrands who partake of the right wing statist meme. Is this serendipity? We cannot help but think it is a purposeful media manipulation since one sees it over and over. As we have pointed out before, ignoring obvious facts is part of the process of spinning the memes of the monetary elite. The green/climate change meme ignores the past decade of colder weather. The conservative-socialist meme ignores the evermore clamorous libertarian movements in the US and abroad.
Here's some more from the article:
All these women express a mood of conservative discontent that is becoming increasingly vocal and, some experts warn, extreme. The have been kicked out of power in the White House and Congress. The party is becoming more white and southern at the same time as national demographic changes give power to other regions and minorities. Many Americans are also suffering in the recession. That is a grim picture but one that also makes many voters vulnerable to a talented rabble- rouser. "They are tapping into grassroots frustration… they are charging up an already highly charged group of people," said Shaun Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California at Riverside. …
The politics espoused by Bachmann, Palin and others on the far right of the conservative movement warn darkly of Obama's intentions. They paint a picture of an America that is under threat from its own president. Bachmann has spoken of the possibility of the White House setting up "re-education camps" for America's youth. Palin once accused Obama of "palling around" with terrorists. To the many critics of this new breed of conservatism, people such as Bachmann and Palin are putting an attractive female face to a very ugly brand of politics. …
What makes liberal Americans laugh or cry has got the conservative wing of the Republican party extremely excited. In an article that sent shockwaves through America's political classes, top conservative newspaper columnist George Will recently wrote a piece anointing Bachmann as a new star of the movement. "Some of her supposed excesses are… not merely defensible, they are admirable," Will wrote. It is easy to see why Bachmann is being so enthusiastically embraced by conservatives. The high profile of Palin showed the impact a charismatic, young conservative woman could have on the right wing of the Republican party. …
But Bachmann – and Palin too – are more than just individual politicians. They have come to represent a mass social movement that stretches far beyond just turning up on election day. … Palin's brand of homespun wisdom, rooted in uber-patriotism and killer heels, was a breath of fresh air that conservatives had been looking for. So were unashamedly conservative views and a willingness to state bluntly what she thought about Democrats. Palin's subsequent self-destruction in a series of media interviews only served to make her more popular.
Indeed, to examine the impact of both Palin and Bachmann is to see an America split firmly into two different worlds. The first is a liberal one where such politicians make outlandish comments that become the butt of jokes on the Daily Show or Saturday Night Live. The other is one where Palin and Bachmann are the victims of a liberal media that hates its own country.
Many of the signifiers of a certain kind of political dominant social theme are in the above excerpt. The article divides the American political world into two camps – Conservative and Progressive – and then picks terror as a main flash point between the two competing camps. It goes out of its way to point to Sarah Palin's "uber patriotism" and generally makes the case that the differences between the two parties have much to do with the American military industrial and intelligence complex.
Michelle Malkin is well known for her support of the American war on terror and the ever-expanding federal anti-terror programs of Homeland Security that supposedly combat it. Ann Coulter at one point attacked widows of 9/11 for questioning government conclusions about 9/11. Unfortunately for Ms. Coulter, the leader litigator of the 9/11 Commission, John J. Farmer, has just concluded that government officials generally lied to the commission about the events surrounding 9/11 and makes the case in his new book "The Ground Truth: The Untold Story of America Under Attack on 9/11."
Readers of this article, therefore, are cleverly led to see that there are only two choices. Either they subscribe to a party that supports the current American military and civil defense posture, or they do not. If they do not, then they must support the Progressive side of the political discussion that is less forceful about military issues but far more forceful about leveraging the power of government in the service of socialism. The "third way" – a party that seeks to shrink government generally – is nowhere to be found in the above discussion. It is an old mainstream media trick, one used very successfully in the 20th century to keep state power alive and growing. But it is ending now.
Many of the memes of the monetary elite are beginning to collapse in our humble opinion. Promotions that are obviously untruthful have difficulty in the era of the Internet. The global warming dominant social theme has morphed into the climate change meme because too many people know that the last decade was a cooling one. The central banking meme – that a small pool of wise men can fix the price and quantity of money to benefit everyone – is collapsing as well thanks to the economic crisis and increased ‘Net coverage of free-market, Austrian, economics. And finally, the all-important Conservative/Progressive meme is collapsing as free-market oriented politicians such as Ron Paul relentlessly pound away at it, offering a constitutional conservative view of government that wishes to shrink BOTH civil and military spending.
There are many other elite memes that are imploding besides the ones mentioned above. The collapse is slow-motion and not always easily visible. But these promotions all have the same context and profiles. They seek to scare people into helplessness by overwhelming them with notions of catastrophe. Then the solution that is offered is some sort of government action, the bigger (and more global) the better. Lost in the translation is the control that the monetary elite generally has over government – and thus the benefits that accrue to it (wealth and power) if people can willingly be made to accept more government say in their lives.
The Gutenberg press caused a similar collapse of the monetary elite's authority in its day. We anticipate that the Internet will eventually cause an elite retreat as well. In fact, we will continue to try to point out. And It is for this reason we write (continually) and with some confidence that sooner or later there will come a time when the world (or part of it anyway) will come to accept, and even welcome, a private-market gold and silver standard analogous to what has driven eras of prosperity around the world for literally thousands of years in the past.
