Basically, Nothing
That's what the Iowa caucuses meant.
Consider what happened. Over the last few months, we have seen the rise and almost immediate collapse of a seemingly endless stream of right wing buffoons proposing to run for President as the Republican candidate. Having apparently run out of merely implausible characters, the lunatics who make up the Republican base turned to Newt Gingrich as their savior from the dreaded Romney, who, though just as greedy and lawless as the rest, appears to have the fatal flaw of being semi-sane.
Newt Gingrich! The man who, more than anyone else, legitimized the Republican Congressional tactic of destroying the government in an infantile tantrum if he couldn't get what he wanted through winning elections. The man who presided over the worst abuse of Congressional power in the history of the United States, the "Impeachment" of Bill Clinton. And the man who was then essentially kicked out of Congress by his own party because his open corruption was too much even for them. Well, that's for another post. All I want to point out is that, three weeks ago, he was the go-to guy for the "Conservative" wackos that seem to be driving so much of Republican politics.
Well, the rich people who really own the Republican party weren't going to have that. They just dumped a few million dollars into "Superpacs," which ran so many negative ads against Newt that it was estimated that the average Iowan saw or heard 60 to 80 of them in the two weeks before the Caucuses. And what did they purchase with their largesse? Newt's support was cut in half, and he went, in a few days, from being the leader to being a pathetic also-ran.
Now we have Rick Santorum, who should think about this cautionary tale, because he is about to fall prey to the same thing. The real owners of the Republican party want one of their own- a savage, rapacious corporate predator- in the White House, and they are about to make short work of Santorum too. Not, incidentally, that he deserves any better.
Of course, the bad side of this story is that this is all small potatoes compared to the eight month vomiting of vicious garbage against Obama that we are about to see from these "Superpacs," which will feature lies that make the Swift Boat stories look like quaint folk tales. You have just seen how quickly this massive expenditure of corporate money can eat away at whatever democracy this country has left. I find it doubtful that Obama can stand up to this onslaught, and thus, thanks to five corrupt Republican Supreme Court Justices, we can stop even pretending that our country belongs to its citizens.
Consider what happened. Over the last few months, we have seen the rise and almost immediate collapse of a seemingly endless stream of right wing buffoons proposing to run for President as the Republican candidate. Having apparently run out of merely implausible characters, the lunatics who make up the Republican base turned to Newt Gingrich as their savior from the dreaded Romney, who, though just as greedy and lawless as the rest, appears to have the fatal flaw of being semi-sane.
Newt Gingrich! The man who, more than anyone else, legitimized the Republican Congressional tactic of destroying the government in an infantile tantrum if he couldn't get what he wanted through winning elections. The man who presided over the worst abuse of Congressional power in the history of the United States, the "Impeachment" of Bill Clinton. And the man who was then essentially kicked out of Congress by his own party because his open corruption was too much even for them. Well, that's for another post. All I want to point out is that, three weeks ago, he was the go-to guy for the "Conservative" wackos that seem to be driving so much of Republican politics.
Well, the rich people who really own the Republican party weren't going to have that. They just dumped a few million dollars into "Superpacs," which ran so many negative ads against Newt that it was estimated that the average Iowan saw or heard 60 to 80 of them in the two weeks before the Caucuses. And what did they purchase with their largesse? Newt's support was cut in half, and he went, in a few days, from being the leader to being a pathetic also-ran.
Now we have Rick Santorum, who should think about this cautionary tale, because he is about to fall prey to the same thing. The real owners of the Republican party want one of their own- a savage, rapacious corporate predator- in the White House, and they are about to make short work of Santorum too. Not, incidentally, that he deserves any better.
Of course, the bad side of this story is that this is all small potatoes compared to the eight month vomiting of vicious garbage against Obama that we are about to see from these "Superpacs," which will feature lies that make the Swift Boat stories look like quaint folk tales. You have just seen how quickly this massive expenditure of corporate money can eat away at whatever democracy this country has left. I find it doubtful that Obama can stand up to this onslaught, and thus, thanks to five corrupt Republican Supreme Court Justices, we can stop even pretending that our country belongs to its citizens.
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