[The Rude Guy, The Leo Tolstoy of podcasting, the pimple on the butt of corporate culture, the unreconstructed beatnik, discusses Corporate Communism, the Other Half of American History, What is Populism?, WHY we need a Populist Party AGAIN in America to shove back corporate colonialism; Conservatives, Progressives, Liberals, Farmer's Revolt, Huey Long, Teddy Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, progressive income tax, nationalizing our oil companies and the Rich Zubaty Web Site: www.happyfool.org]
[sex and birds]
This is The Rude Guy. The barefoot philosopher. The pimple on the butt of corporate culture. Standing ankle deep in mud, after one straight week of rain, in the tourist Mecca of Maui.Welcoming you to the Reality Cult. Presenting The Idea of the Week.
This is the show that’s about Ideas…not issues…not opinions…IDEAS.
The show with something to offend everybody…The show that dares to ask…
Why is Karl Rove’s head so big?…Has he been infected by a bizarre virus…that eats the ethical centers out of someone’s brain…and excretes a waste product of noxious gas, that inflates the victim’s skull?…THAT would certainly explain something.
And…why is Dick Cheney so mean? Is he unhappy because he is only the DE FACTO President of the United States, and not our duly elected president?
And…if the Democrats are the party of big business and labor…and the Republicans are the party of big business and small business…don’t we, in fact, have only ONE political party. The party of big business? Just like the Soviet Union did? Just like communist countries do? One corporate party with two different “flavors of the moment”? Depending on which one is getting the better press?
The answer, of course, is YES. And until a political party forms which teams up labor and small business on one side, AGAINST corporations on the other, we will NEVER have political choice in this country. We will remain a de facto, one-party system. a communist style political system. Corporate Communism…Corporate Communism.
If you, like me, are one of the 50 million voters absolutely disgusted, with both the Democratic and Republican parties…if you, like me, would like to drag EITHER, or both, of these political parties, back into the REAL world, then settle back into your sofa or car seat…because The Idea of the Week THIS week is:
What is Populism and what can we learn from it?
What IS Populism and what can we LEARN from it?
Most people think that Populism has something to do with regular people, or popular perceptions, or the wisdom of the masses.
And indeed, it does mean those things…but that’s only HALF of the story. Here’s the OTHER half. The half that has been edited out of our schoolbooks by corporate schoolbook publishers.
STAAAY with me here.
I’m going to try and draw a diagram inside your head. It’s not going to be easy…but we can do it.
Picture a blackboard. On the blackboard I have drawn a diamond shape. One point is up, one point is down, one point is right, one point is left… a simple diamond.
At the right point of the diamond I print the word conservatives… conservatives …then…all the way across on the left side of the diamond I print the word progressives… progressives …At the top point of the diamond I print Liberals, and at the bottom most point of the diamond I print Populists.
True political debate in this country would pit conservatives, on the far right, against progressives on the far left. NOT conservatives versus liberals, like right wing talk radio. But conservatives versus progressives….And I’ll tell you why.
Conservatives are CONSERVATIVE on BOTH social issues AND economic issues. Like stopping abortion – a social issue -and promoting so-called free trade – an economic issue. Progressives, are progressive, on both social issues and economic issues. They wish to allow abortion, and rein in the so-called free market… which is actually the corporate colonization of our lives.
Hold that thought.
OK…at the top of the diamond I printed Liberals. Liberals are progressive on social issues – they support abortion. But they are CONSERVATIVE on economic issues. CONSERVATIVE on economic issues. They are beholden to Wall Street, and the big corporations.
Hold that thought too because here’s where we’re going with this.
At the VERY BOTTOM point of the diamond I printed the word Populists. Populists are the mirror opposite of Liberals. Populists are CONSERVATIVE on social issues and RADICAL REFORMERS on economic issues.
Populists believe that issues like abortion and marriage, including gay marriage, are PRIVATE MORAL AND RELIGIOUS ISSUES…and that the government should have NO involvement in them, one way or another. Government should not ban them, and government should not approve them. Government should have nothing whatsoever to do with them. Those are PRIVATE moral issues. This is the essence of Constitutionally conservative social philosophy.
AND…Populists believe that corporations have WAY too much power…and that they need to be reined in. Corporate lobbyists should be kicked out of Washington D.C. As EVEN arch-conservative Newt Gingerich has said, there should be NO political fundraising done in Washington whatsoever. None whatsoever. As in Europe, it should be illegal for corporations, in any guise, to donate money to politicians or political parties. Just flat out IL-LEGAL. We have created a system of legalized bribery whereby the people, with the most money, BUY the politicians, and the legislation they desire. It is INNN-SAAANE.
[ME retching with donkey]
So let’s review our diamond. Conservatives on the right, Progressives on the left…Liberals on top…Liberals are progressive on social issues, and conservative on economic issues. And at the very bottom… the rest of us. The Populists. Who are CONSERVATIVE on social issues and REFORMERS on economic issues.
And who is getting NO voice in this government? In the media? In the schools? MOST of us. The Poplulists.
But…there’s…more.
We HAD a Populist Party in America, 100 years ago. That party was formed by Midwestern farmers to combat the corporate colonization, of their farmlands, by banks and railroads.
And here’s the GOOD NEWS. They WON . The Populists WON.
They did not win as a political party. But their ISSUES won the day. They began taking so many votes away from the Democrats and Republicans, that the only way they could be stopped, was for the other two parties to absorb their issues – take over their issues – which was ALL that mattered anyway.
The ideas of Trust Busting, and deconstructing monopolies, became very much a part of the American political landscape, 100 years ago. Teddy Roosevelt began creating national parks to conserve our wilderness, so corporations couldn’t come in, and tear them up, to extract resources.
So-called Populist demagogues, like Huey Long in Lousiana…they actually call this hero of the people a DEMAGOGUE in school books…Huey Long forced the big oil companies in Louisiana…that means the Rockefellers…to pay for childrens school books, so kids could go to school. And for this he came to be demonized in corporate history books.
[donkey retch]
Time for a sex break.
[sex break]
We’re still talking about Populists. a magnificent grassroots political movement, that regenerated America in the late 1890s…and took power away from the corporations…and gave that power back to the people.
I am going to compare the Populist issues of 100 years ago, to the issues we have today…And you will IMMEDIATELY see they are the SAME issues. And from that important fact, we COULD deduce, that the solution to the problem is going to be the same today: reestablish a genuine Populist Movement…from sea to shining sea.
In the 1890s, banks and railroads had too much power, and were driving farmers into bankruptcy. Populists called for government ownership of railroads, telephones, and telegraphs. As the platform explained, “the railroad corporations will either own the people, or the people must own the railroads.”… Replace the word RAILROADS, with OIL COMPANIES, and you will see we have the EXACT same scenario today…Back then, due to pressure from populists…railroads, banks, and communications monopolies were broken up and regulated. And farmers could resume tilling their SOIL, without becoming FEUDAL SERFS, to BIG corporations…Ring a bell?…
Our small farmers are going the way of the buffalo. They are being pushed out by corporate farms. And smothered by huge distributors like Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill…and seed companies like Monsanto.
And every single American alive is being jerked off, by our oil companies. Our energy supplies are too vital to our lives…and to our national security…to be delegated to a gang of corporate oil company thieves. We need to nationalize OUR oil companies, and regulate the hell out of them. That’s the POPULIST response to the war in Iraq. Enough already, with BIG oil, and the tax bills they stick us with, to fight their foreign wars.
ALSO…In the 1890s, land speculation by rich people was driving land costs, too high. Populists demanded that public land be set aside for actual settlers, rather than speculators…fast forward to today…when the stock market tanked during George W. Bush’s first term, rich people dumped their money into land speculation, and drove the price of land SO high, average working people cannot afford to buy houses… This is CRIMINAL…These people should be beat with umbrellas. We need affordable land in this country. Home ownership is not a luxury. For most people it is the bedrock of their lifetime investment. Their own personal bank. And we are running the real estate market like some casino game…with gamblers and speculators upping the bids, and calling the shots.
[donkey retch]
ALSO…the Populists thought Industrialization was OK, but people must be paid living wages…Labor is what creates wealth, not slick deal-making on Wall Street. Karl Marx AND Adam Smith BOTH said that Labor IS capital. Labor is what takes raw materials and transforms them into wealth. And LABOR must be fairly rewarded…But the Republicans have us bamboozled into thinking we don’t need a minimum wage. We should just throw our borders open to anyone who wants to come here, and let THEM set the price of labor.
[silent gap]
ALSO…the Populists believed, that the money supply, was being controlled, for the advantage of rich people…TODAY…we need look no further than the stock market, for evidence of that. Some corporation lays off 2000 people and its stock goes UP?
[Outrageous]
Money is being manipulated for the advantage, of those who are ALREADY wealthy.
ALSO… Several farmer demands became law, during the Progressive Party era…which is the political party, Teddy Roosevelt formed, when he broke with the Republicans, and began ADVOCATING POPULIST demands. Roosevelt attacked monopolistic corporations, and staked his political future, on the premise, that individuals…NOT businesses…are the key to political clout. The Populist demands that eventually succeeded were: monopoly regulation…banking and currency reform..and the graduated income tax. That means rich people pay more tax, proportionally, than poor people, because they derive more benefits from the American system. For instance…rich people use airports, more than poor people…so they should pay a higher rate of tax to build and maintain airports. Simple math…That’s fair….
Populists also advocated direct democracy, with reforms such as initiative and referendum…Previously unknown in this country, ballot initiatives and public referendums have become common in states like California, where the people vote directly on certain issues, instead of hoping that corporate flunky legislators, will vote how the people WANT them to vote.
And here is a virtually unknown fact: In 1894 Populists held the balance of power in the Senate. That means they could make deals with the other parties. You vote with us on this…and we will vote with you on that. That’s exactly how the Green party works in Europe today. I’ve SEEN how clean and clear, the once-dead, chemically polluted, Rhine River, is today…so I know the Greens are getting things done.
In other words, though Populism never succeeded as a political party… due to the fact that it began stealing votes away from the other two parties…the other parties began absorbing Populist ideas, and moving them into law.
Here’s something a Democratic Party wonk said recently:
If “Populism” means: opposing corporate control of our government…having rich people and corporations pay a greater percentage of taxes…enforcing the ability of workers to organize in unions…defending Social Security…health care for everybody…strong public schools…real lifelong learning opportunities…and income support for the working poor – then HAND ME my PITCH-FORK.
["oh yeah", type sex groan]
You wanna pitch in. Go to therudeguy.com and click on the links.
Buy a book, buy the Corporate Vampires DVD, make a donation…therudeguy.com
And check out the Rich Zubaty web site at: happyfool.org. By helping him you’re helping me: happyfool.org.
And email me: therudeguy@hotmail.com….so I know I’m not just talking, to the GHOSTS of history.
[bird song]
This is the Rude Guy. I’ll be back next week.
Stay strong. Don’t let anybody intimidate you.
Don’t let anybody shame you.
No more BULLSHIT. That’s our motto. NO MORE BULLSHIT!
Ahhhhhhh….feels a little better already.
[sex groan ending]