Are what the right wing pundits want the same as what the right wing public wants?

[RadioRaheem84]

I really do not think so. My guess is that what the general right wing person wants is to go back to the Golden Age of the America, yet they fail to miss the fact that it was a very Keynesian, state controlled managed economy that held wages high because of unions and popular control. I think that because wages were so high, prices were controlled, capital flight was checked, that people rarely needed federal assistance so they were able to get by on their wages for the most part. For some reason, Americans saw all this as a staple of the "free enterprise" system not one gained through years of popular democratic struggle (and state planners).

A Friedmanite couldn't get hired at a federal office, academic post, much less a think tank one back in those days. They were very isolated.

My guess is that the right wing public is really more like a Buchanite Conservative; protectionist, pro-capitalist among the country not internationally, pro-police, pro-army, populist and anti-finance.

Why is it then that pundits like Limbaugh and Beck harken back to the days of Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Nixon....as the 'simpler' times? Those days were marked by heavy state interference in the market. No one dared mess with the gains won during the New Deal and beyond that until the late 70s.

[Dimentio]

My idea is that the pundits are paid to sprout out reactionary garbage.

[RadioRaheem84]

What's obvious is that the pundits are paid by major corporate sponsors to spill reactionary garbage that benefits the top, not the interests of the working class.

What's not obvious is how they were able to convince the general public that the type of America they (the pundits) want back is the Golden Age of America (50-60s), fully omitting the fact that much of the economy was controlled by the state in some way or the other. They make it seem like Reagan's America was the same as Eisenhower's or any of the President's during the Golden Age. It wasn't. Far from it as Reagan sold off nearly everything to the highest bidders.

What gives? How do the American people not know this very simple fact?

[Os Cangaceiros]

What's obvious is that the pundits are paid by major corporate sponsors to spill reactionary garbage that benefits the top, not the interests of the working class.

Ya don't say...


What gives? How do the American people not know this very simple fact?

Because what the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public.

That's not to say that there's anything particularly special about the American public's ignorance. Anyone who doesn't know why people don't realize the plight of their own existence and buy into ruling class ideologies should take a refresher course in Marxism 101.