It is a crazy year when republican candidates even somewhat make the case of what is really killing American society. Of course, primaries are a different animal but usually the gop nominating process does not even get this far before the fanatic right-wing base falls into line behind some would-be mussolini or another. I am still scratching my head over the decision to change the process. Until this year, the republican primary system was winner-take-all so only a few contests were needed before one candidate developed an insurmountable lead. But, maybe for the only time, the delegates a candidate wins are apportioned proportionately. An odd experiment in pluralist democracy from a fantastically anti-democratic organization that usually prizes rigid hierarchy.
It is this change that I would argue is behind the unusually rabid infighting. Especially when each candidate is very flawed and unappealing in various ways to conservatives. To all of us outside the republican party, mitt and newt are simply posterchildren for "the inside." A lot of non-gopers may not quite be able to put a finger on exactly why these very rich and hypocritical men are unsettling. Nor can we count on the Democrats and President Obama to explain it. The opposition party that all-too-often is on the inside or too closely aligned with it will far more likely they go after racism or sexism or gay-bashing/baiting. The social issues that hopelessly divide us are almost comical in comparison to the too-often buried economic issues that can hurt or are hurting just about everyone in America.
That is why it is almost jaw-dropping to see a republican candidate actually let the cat out of the bag. Even if it is a self-centered attempt to tar a single opponent with actual, empirical facts to get the nomination. Newt's documentary "When Mitt Romney Came To Town," however it was made it is "his" baby, is really dangerous to the inside. I guess Newt is at least an example that ego and power, or the pursuit of it, can actually trump the blind obedience to money that usually characterizes the inside.
Here is it is in case you haven't seen it:
Joshua Holland at alternet made a pretty concise summation of how the inside/haves/1%/establishment works in this article. I wish I could add to it, but the best I can do is offer an historical comparison. What leveraged buyout/corporate raiders do, now they are called "private equity firms" is very similar to how the populists understood the economy. There is a famous populist cartoon that shows a cow grazing over the heartland and being milked on the east coast by bankers. It was basically true then, and even more true today. With one exception, gilded age bankers had an interest in keeping the cow alive, sick and skinny, but still able to function. The financial sector still extracts wealth from the heartland, as Holland argues, but today's PE pirates figured out that there is even more profit in fattening up the cow artificially with huge dollups of debt and then slaughtering it, taking huge fees to butcher the carcass and sell off the choice cuts while leaving huge chunks to simply rot, then moving on to a new cow.
So, I don't know if the vulture is the best anthropomorphic representation for this version of "capitalism" it sure is catchy. Even if the conflation of venture capitalism, which actually has an interest in building a business, with the private equity pirates doesn't line up. What do you expect from an intellectual flyweight like rick perry who actually brought the term up? Anyway, the masters of stupid and easily understood slogans, five second sound bites, and the vicious competition that embodies the "other" American dream of the intentional ignorant have something to bat around a bit for the dumbed-down audience. It might even penetrate the compartmentalized and ideologically shielded minds of republican primary voters/cheerleaders/sports fans. I guy can hope.
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