Right-wing “populism” is a joke: Poor-bashing, immigrant-hating and a revolting agenda, Heather Digby Parton, Salon, July 10, 2014
There are some areas of agreement among the left and right populists. They are both hostile to the “wealthy bipartisan elite” although for somewhat different reasons. It’s possible there could be some common legislative ground if both sides were sincere in their desire to rein in money in politics. But Sarah Palin’s words speak of a different priority — the visceral hostility toward immigrants and the obvious belief that they and other poor people are at the root of “workers’” problems. One certainly hopes that the poor and immigrant populations aren’t seen as chips in a negotiating session on these issues, but it wouldn’t be the first time that such devil’s bargains were made.
The real impediment to any agreement is the fact that most of the populist right is being funded and informed by the same wealthy interests they claim are destroying America with their immigrant-loving ways. These wealthy interests are actually less concerned about keeping their cheap immigrant labor (there are many ways of skinning that cat) than they are about the fact that the Republican Party is in grave danger of locking itself out of the executive branch for generations if it is seen as being overtly hostile to Latinos. They’ve invested a lot of time and money in the GOP and they do not wish to lose their grip on power simply because Sarah Palin and her friends don’t like immigrants. But there’s not much they can do about it — they’ve been stoking this right-wing populist base for decades now and that fire is now burning out of control.
Obama and the imperial presidency meme, Steve King, Death and Taxes, July 11, 2014
After the cascading debacle that was 2013, President Obama had hoped to change the narrative this year. As he insisted in his State of the Union, 2014 was going to be a year of action. Obama proclaimed that he had “a pen and phone” and that if Congress wouldn’t work with him, he would act unilaterally to forward the agenda that Americans had voted for in 2012. But his pen and phone have turned into just the latest opportunity for another Washington slapfight over process and electoral posturing. Even though Obama has signed fewer executive orders than many of his predecessors, you would never know it considering how Republicans in Congress have latched onto the Imperial Presidency myth.
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Most of the executive orders were only signed by Obama as a result of congressional intransigence, but this all feeds into the same narrative; that King Obama is usurping Congress and coming for your precious freedoms. Keep in mind that the public is in pretty wide agreement with closing the gender wage gap, gun background checks, more stringent EPA regulations and ending sexual orientation discrimination. But that won’t stop the Republicans from turning the public’s natural social instincts into an election year wedge issue.
The Deceptive Tactics of Christian Evangelism, Adam Lee, Daylight Atheism, July 14, 2014
While outrage at these deceptive and unethical evangelistic tactics is amply justified, we can take another lesson from them: it’s a sign that anti-gay, anti-choice evangelicals are losing the culture war and know it. After all, if your strategy relies on getting people to give you a hearing under false pretenses, it’s at least a tacit admission that you know your message would be rejected if it were stated openly and that you expect people to hold unfavorable impressions of you and your beliefs. Granted, these Christians may be taking their cues from the Bible, which seems to endorse this lying-to-get-your-foot-in-the-door strategy (1 Corinthians 9:19-22, in which Paul boasts that he can be “all things to all men”). But even so, it seems safe to say that a preacher who was confident of a good reception wouldn’t feel the need to stoop so low.
