In the aftermath of the 1964 defeat of Barry Goldwater and the crushing of right wing federal, state and local officials from elective offices throughout the United States a new type of movement conservative (MC) was formed. This movement has become the basis of the ‘fights’ we have every day, in every way to get ahead as a society.
This new MC was tired of losing elections to the masses now allowed to vote. These new MC leaders decided the path to victory and power was in the restricting the voter from voting. The human rights codified by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Warren Supreme Court decisions since 1953, the 1965 Voting Rights Act added to the uprisings by everyday people questioning the ‘leaders’, convinced the new Movement Conservatives something needed to be done. These new movement conservatives had to find ways to disenfranchise all poor, minority, young and old United States citizens.
This was not a new effort. Going back in history this has been the goal of despots the world over. What made this effort different was the use of the ‘new’ modern media and public relations. These MC leaders were going to use everything the Madison Avenue ad executive (Don Drapers) had in the public relations arsenal.
The movement conservatives of old were often from the coalition of anti-New Dealers, FDR haters, Joe McCarthy followers and the Koch (father of our current Koch Brothers) funded John Birchers. The new MC leaders were by and large experts in mass messaging. Richard Viguerie and Paul M. Weyrich with funding by Fred Koch, Joseph Coors and others started a series of organizations to begin educating a new larger conservative movement. Many of these organizations have impressive, bedrock type names such as The Moral Majority, The Heritage Foundation, Judicial Watch, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and hundreds of more shell foundations to hawk the new anti-New Deal, anti-Great Society, anti-poor mantra and policies.
The removal from office of competent civic leaders / employees, the events of our recent city election, the bungled and fraudulent American elections across the United States is all part of plans put into action in the aftermath of the 1964 election. Paul Weyrich summed up the philosophy of this movement in a 1980 speech:
“Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome — good government. They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.
The path to power is:Â disenfranchising voters, not allowing everyone to vote.
The Citizens United decision was not an unplanned decision. This is part of a long standing plan to change the balance of power toward the wealthy. Richard Nixon appointed a MC, William Rehnquist, to the Supreme Court because of the work he had done to restrict black and Hispanics from voting in 1964 and 1968. He trained John Roberts.  John Roberts, as a Bush appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice, directed, in 2009, attorneys standing in front of the Court, to bring a case to the Supreme Court to remove McCain-Feingold restrictions.
During the 1970’s and 80’s, the above organizations and more developed a game plan to have their own revolution. Most of Americans were not invited to join (I know this because I was asked to be an organizer). This revolution was based in a broad attack on institutions the majority of Americans were using to gain a foothold in the American Dream. Approximately 45,000 elected and appointed civic positions were identified for their movement to fill and control. Weyrich and his plan teamed up with Southern Christian ‘leaders’ to preach the anti-abortion, anti-social justice issues, welfare queen stories, prosperity gospel and other messages to bring people together in lowest common denominator / guttural politics. These groups promote the politics of hate and fear to win elections. These 45,000 positions are everything from President down the line to our school boards, city councils, and township boards. 45,000 decision makers changing everything we are and wish to be.
Our recent city hall and school board elections tested the Pat Powers, Gant, ALEC and Weyrich depravity of power and greed. We lost Debra Owen, the underlying institutional history and integrity she brought to the job. We no longer have people working in Pierre who even try to be even handed or fair. Our good government is not a sports event as our media portrays it. We now equate a mayoral or Presidential election to a football game as if it’s all or nothing. With a new poll every day, instant scandals, weekly ups and downs, we are forced to forget why we vote.
This history is deep and involved. It brings out the worst in people and the best in others. Right now we are feeling the combined efforts of anti-New Dealers who were tired of losing and decided to be traitors to our founding principles written into the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Steeped in conspiratorial rhetoric, this thing stinks of PG.
Nope, Dan would have put his name on it.
This person has political ties.
You can agree or disagree, but I for one know that the appointment of GW Bush was a crock of shit.
Ya gotta love it. It appears when confronted by facts and knowledge, Americans tend to bury their heads in the sand and claim “conspiratorial rhetoric” rather than understand the history. History is a blend of cause and effect. History is also multidimensional, all of us see only what we want to see.
Americans by and large do not believe in studying history. Partly because most of it is taught very badly (for many reasons), poorly written and not easy to make into cute short stories.
Angry Guy, L3wis and all who read these short history tales need to continue their own research for better understandings. There is a lot of information out there to read. Sometimes the the data is so overwhelming you have to stop ans ask yourself “how come this is never taught in school?” or the classic “How come the media doesn’t report this?”
South Dakota is a small state allowing the average person, if you want, to become involved for good or bad. We are seeing it everyday and most people will bury their collective heads in the sand or go fishing rather than contribute to the repair or overhaul.
Why would you put a guest post on your blog with no name on it?
For the same reason I let you comment anonomously.
It isn’t that I’m not involved or that I don’t understand political history.. it’s that I don’t particularly care anymore. BAA BAA!
AG – You point out the reason why I only follow city politics anymore. National and State politics are so broken I wouldn’t even know where to begin to fix them. When I read books about Franklin, Hamilton, Washington and Jefferson I often wonder what they would think of our current state of affairs. They would probably have to get a heart pumping machine like Cheney has to survive, even though, I am pretty sure Franklin’s libido probably gave him a few more years. I still want to have sex while wearing a coon skin hat with someone else besides myself.
13wis. Funny last line!
I’ve known about those fake Christians the author noted, for some time. Weyrich is one of the worst. He is the forbearer for Dobson, Robertson, Falwell, and many other despicable individuals. They have distorted Christianity until it is nearly unrecognizable.
They have used their media power to crater the strong mainline denominations through abuse of the fundamentalists and evangelicals. It is extremely gratifying to know that many evangelicals are reclaiming their spiritual heritage because they are willing to truly and honestly examine the Bible, with a focus on Jesus’ teachings.
I don’t know if I truly hate anyone, but those bogus Christian leaders who are destroying the faith for their own benefit, come awfully close.
BTW, I am a former American history teacher in SD’s small town high schools. I am still a history scholar. I’ve been doing a great deal of independent reading. That means I’m not using textbooks approved by these very conservatives we’re learning more about here.
Our guest author has lots of factual information to back up what he is saying. I believe him.
Last, but not least, is the visibility of how the MC strategy is coming to fruition now.
The effort to discredit public schools has been decades in the making, and is nearing its crescendo at this time. That means that the MC is gaining nearly complete control of what our children are taught. Their Distorted Version. A more ignorant and uneducated population better serves their goals.
They’ve so corrupted the political system that many, like A.G. “don’t particularly care anymore.” That is a goal very nearly reached.
They’ve used the pseudonymously named Fox News, to create doubt about any information. They’ve attacked the government so perniciously that large segments of the population see it as an evil entity.
They’ve perfected Orwellian language to an extent that many don’t hear it any longer, even when it comes out of their own mouths.
They’ve taught us that no one describing a conspiracy, and yes, they do exist, should be trusted. They do that by attacking the individual, while ignoring the evidence. That reached perfection when three highly credible sources told us and the world that GWB had planned the Iraq invasion from day one, and it had absolutely no connection to 9/11.
These things, as the author said, didn’t simply spring up randomly. This has all been a well-orchestrated plan working through decades. The greatest expression we can give to our citizenship, our love of this country, is to believe him, and do our own work so that we can learn more and more. Then we can truly Take Our Country back.
Bishop, I would have to agree. I didn’t post this because I believe everything this person was saying, just like I don’t believe every commenter on this site. This is about awareness and discussion. I hope that ALL Americans can discuss and defend a fair election system in SF. While we could talk FOREVER about the Florida debacle and other failed elections, I would much rather talk about the impact of MC on our local elections. Think about it, just for a moment. The last election should have been a slam dunk, a 14% turnout (which was accurately predicted) but there was so much bungling, one wonders if it wasn’t done on purpose. If I am full of shit, fine, but please explain to me how the last election became such a mess, sure, we have a large group of incompetent people working in local government, but it isn’t about them, it is about who is manipulating them. For example, do you think the Downtown TIF program came about because city officials wanted it to happen? There are influences not only in national and state government but on a local level. It is wise for us to keep our eyes and ears open locally.
A perfect example of the awful nature of current political rhetoric can be found on the Argus site. In response to a comment about Noem, this cretin pulled out all the Tea Party cliches to attack the original commenter. When this person came back with facts (OMG), the response was something along the lines of “I don’t need to read anything to know I’m right and you’re just a communist liberal”. There’s nothing inherently wrong with watching Fox of listening to Limbaugh, but for way too many people that’s the ONLY place they get their info (and I’d say the same about those on the other side, too).
l3wis, thank you for some of the most fun I’ve had in weeks. The conversation this post has started is fascinating to watch.
M2CW38, I have asked l3wis to allow me to give my history lessons at this point, without attribution. This story is not about me, it is about the causes I have followed and have become passionate about for more than 50 years. Our system of government is based on honest discussion and the trust we have in our processes. We have groups buried deep in our system who are there to take as much of it as they can.
When the American people collectively say baa, baa to our processes and head to the closets or hills to hide from it, we all lose. We not only lose our democracy at all levels but our chance to live the American dream of do no harm to the system so our children and our children’s children will carry on the legacy of promise.
D.E. Bishop I honor your service as an educator. If I were to have a do-over in life, I would be a teacher. What I am able to do now is mentor.
To the point Scott makes above about the Tea Party cliches / flamers war at the Argus. I have no desire to encourage flamers. The Tea Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Koch Brothers, etal organizations. There is nothing grass roots about them in the way the Organize movement is. When local Tea Partiers began to getting loud in the Sioux Falls, I had a lot of fun engaging them into conversations. These were low information people frustrated to the point of anger by lies told to them 24 /7 by Faux news and the Limpbag brigade of commentators. It was amazing to engage these individuals and through a series of questions, lead them out of the dark side, if even for only a few minutes. Yea, I may have been messing with them a bit but it was fun to seem them turn blank as they questioned the lies they thought were facts. Here is a lesson learned, do not confront to low information person but have a calm, structured case when guiding them through the fog of lies in to the sunshine of facts. The deer in the headlight look is worth every minute spent.
Thank you again L3wis and everyone commenting. I am enjoying this and with L3wis’ permission, I will carry this conversation on.
GP, the person who this person was engaging on the Argus handled the “debate” exactly as you just described. In fact, I told the person who pointed out the exchange to me that I was falling in love with this woman as she calmly defused every lie and insult he threw at her.
I found out tonight that the county auditor is pushing for the super precints and e-polling for future elections, as a ‘cost saving’ effort. While I agree with e-polling, I DO NOT AGREE with super precincts or trying to save money on elections. Elections should be open and it should be easy for people to vote. When we have money to build construction barrel cartoon characters, we have money for multiple precincts. I do know there will be massive pushback from the ‘Super Friends’ on this one. Litz better prepare himself for a fight or might just take pictures of his yard again 🙂
The Litz, Gant, and ALEC cost savings and prevention of voter fraud are always used as the reasons for these actions. Government must be cost efficient the saying goes, but democracy is messy and voting is an overhead cost of a free society. Everything should be done by the people in charge to make sure as many people can vote no matter the cost.
There is no voter fraud, there never has been and there never will be in America or anywhere else in the world. There is only variations of ‘ELECTION’ fraud by people running the elections.
As government budgets get stretched, the first things to go deal with democracy, always remember Paul Weyrich’s words from above:
“I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
Make voting inconvenient, confusing, cumbersome and include long lines and the ‘wrong’ people won’t show up to vote. Go back to Ohio in 2004 where the Sec of State Ken Blackwell and his election officials did not fully stock ballots and did not place enough voting machines for the ‘wrong’ people to vote on.
Instead of taxing the people and corporations who abuse the system the most, the system is designed now to assess fees and restrict the ability of the ‘wrong’ people to fight. These are not the ‘wrong’ people they are the ‘wronged’ people.