The Republican PR machine reminds me of the con man who would stand on soap boxes on the dusty Main Street in western towns years ago, shouting to the gathered group of curious onlookers about how his Miracle Tonic would cure everything from baldness to pneumonia.
As they embark on their Kill Medicare Snake Oil Campaign, these Republican political pawns of the wealthy, knowing full well that the budget they passed killing Medicare is opposed by over 70% of Americans AND over 50% of Republicans, are prepared to step up on those soap boxes across the nation and sell their snake oil to what they see as a gullible public.
PlanetPOV has used its vast undercover network to provide the following transcript from the first trial of this campaign by the GOP in Sheep’s Mount, Wyoming.
“Step right up! What I’m holding in my hand here may look like poison, it may taste like poison, it may act like poison but, my friends, this is the only thing that will save you from the doom that’s coming! That’s right, the end is near and the only thing that can save you is this amazing, miracle elixir that we call, “Republican Ryan’s Remarkable Remedy”! Just swallow this and all your worries will drift away! No more worries about making doctor’s appointments and say goodbye to those annoying operations and treatments!
My friends, budget deficits want to kill your granny but the ingredients in Republican Ryan’s Remarkable Remedy, which include only the finest hand-picked tax cuts for the wealthy and the essence of denied hopes and dreams for the middle class and poor, will take care of all of that before you can say” The Black Plague”!
To you older folks I say, don’t be a slave to reason or instinct! Don’t let concern for other generations make up your mind for you! I swear on the life of my own sweet elderly mother, this potion won’t kill anyone over 55! Take it today and save yourself! You show your love for your grandkids in so many other ways, from hard candy to scratchy woolen sweaters, you do enough for them so protecting their standard of living and their health when they’re your age is just spoiling them. You are the last generation of seniors that really deserve health care, you’re far more special than your kids, your grandkids or the families they’ll have! Don’t be shy to stand from the highest walker and shout, “I’m old! I’m selfish! Get used to it!”
To you middle aged and younger folks out there, don’t think about what I just said, think about what I’m saying now! How can you know for sure that Medicare will be there for you when you get old? If you take Republican Ryan’s Remarkable Remedy, you will know for sure, I guarantee it! You may ask, “How does Republican Ryan’s Remarkable Remedy work on impotence and Medicare?” Let’s start with Medicare. Here’s what it’s gonna do, if you buy this formula, you’ll get a $15, 000 voucher to pay any private insurance company for health insurance. Now, you might ask, “What if the only policies I can find ten years from now are $25,000 a year and I can’t afford the extra $10,000 in cash? What if the only policies I can find at $15,000 have a $10,000 or $20,000 deductible? What if very few doctors are willing to take the payment amount provided and I’d have to drive hours to see a doctor…but what if I’m too ill or old to drive?” To all of those questions I say, don’t worry about all of that, it’ll make you sick then you’ll really have something to worry about.
So step right up today, it only costs only one thin vote! Hey, you’re too young to vote, get away kid, ya bother me! The rest of you, don’t wait before it’s too late, buy Republican Ryan’s Remarkable Remedy now! You won’t see another deal like this in your lifetime, I mean it!”
Hi AdLib – I noted in Marion’s post that I’d been away all weekend seeing plays, and one of them was a 1960s-setting version of “Imaginary Invalid”. Little did I know you’d be interpreting that for the current moment, too!
Argan, the hypochondriac, is utterly self absorbed in his “ailments” of which he has none. He takes lotions, potions, and a wide array of disgusting “treatments” from his snake oil salesmen, doling out huge amounts of cash while utterly neglecting both his two daughters AND life around him. His brother, Beralde, lives simply with a joy for both the world and its people. At the end, it is Beralde who dies – and knows he will – but who has lived fully and well with clear vision and a sense of purpose and joy.
Will we be Argan or Beralde? Will we try to force our children to marry the snake oil salesman (or his son) to keep a “doctor in the family” to keep shoveling goo down our throats or up our rears?
I think, as in the play, we are starting to see that the “doctor” has nothing but self interest, that we are not really sick, and that we really do better when we use good sense instead of capitulating to vague or lying fears. The polls are beginning to show that people have stopped swallowing both the snake oil and the Kool Aid and are realizing that the “doctor” is a fraud.
Let’s hope the movement toward good sense keeps going. I liked the play and its happy outcome. I’d like the national play to have the same.
I have to admit it’s hard for me to joke about an issue this fundamentally corrosive to the very fabric of this nation and shows what a shattered state of affairs our electorate is in now.
The real problem is propaganda works on groups of people who are hateful, fearful, ignorant, apathetic and blindly partisan. That description probably describes 80-90% of the voters in America with our escalating cold civil war. Most people don’t even make up their minds for themselves anymore they just go along with whatever group they identify with most closely.
The GOP with Faux News and the right wing echo chamber have mastered manipulating these divisions. To think even “moderate” media types call Ryan’s proposal “courageous” shows how anything no matter how absurd it is will be accepted as part of the “debate”. Any sane media would call Ryan’s plan exactly what it is a huge distribution of wealth from the poor and seniors to the rich. Ryan’s budget is utterly nihilistic in it’s purpose. It rejects any notion of ethics or morality associated with the social contract.
I now read where corporate America has come to save us from reality again. After a few people actually questioned the absurdity of Ryan’s budget at townhall meetings being held by GOP congresspeople they have now stacked townhalls with people who will only ask softball questions. Not to mention unlike the summer of Tea Party hate against healthcare reform the townhall dissidents regarding Ryan’s budget received a major yawn from the MSM anyway.
Great post, Adlib. I’d like to add that those snake oil salesmen usually had lots of customers!
Thanks so much, Escribacat! And yes, there are plenty of rubes out there who are ready and willing to be “sold” on scams. However, after being scammed repeatedly, as the GOP has done to the public, I hunk people will more readily accept the accusations of them trying to scam again.
I’m really pissed by this.
And it’s totally being missed.
Ryan soothes the older crowds saying “oh no, don’t worry, it won’t affect you”.
Ohhhhhh????????
Well FUCK YOU VERY MUCH TOO!
Seriously, that’s a SLAP IN THE FACE to young people.
Where is the outrage about that? What he’s doing there?
It’s like, he knows he’s on camera when he’s totally selling the rest of us out, right?
What, we haven’t payed into it?
That’s about the size of it. Vote for us Seniors, we promise not to let you die prematurely and indigent, it’ll just be your kids and grandkids we do that to. Is that a bargain or what?
They know that the younger people are, the more likely they are to vote for Dems so they pandered to Seniors.
But it’s totally blown up in their faces, Seniors aren’t quite as selfish and spiteful as Repub politicians, they strongly oppose the Repubs destroying Medicare.
The Repubs have been and continue to be in a bubble, hugely disconnected from the majority of Americans and deluded into thinking that just because they lie about other things and get away with it, they can lie about everything including the destruction of Medicare and the sheep will just follow them as usual.
Not this time and they’re all tied to killing Medicare now.
My prediction is that we’ll look back and see this was the beginning of the end for the GOP 2.0 (as the Bagger party). Yes, they will seek to re-invent themselves again if hammered as I think they will be in 2012 but they have painted themselves into a corner now. Just baggers and RR loons left in their party now. Not much room for pivoting again.
Adlib I wish I could be that optimistic. The GOP will probably gain seats in Congress come 2012 because people are just so angry these days and mad people make bad decisions. The Dems are still seen to be the party in power and I just see a seesaw of throw da bums election after election for the next decade or so.
It’s going to take people losing Medicare, Medicaid or SS to understand how badly they will be missed.
It shows how utterly cynical not only this plan is but also how cynical your average voter is these days.
Face it the narcissism in our society today is unpalatable. For a 3% in the income tax rate to resume the Clinton Tax brackets for the wealthy the GOP would sell their young.
This is EXACTLY their strategy. Everyone over 55 (a majority of the BBers) will NOT be affected. This means that seniors and those affected will not have the numbers to squelch this plan. Pretty thoughtful. I hope today’s seniors will see what this is all about.
Exactly the thought I had, watching the video of Ryan, thin as a garter snake, flashing his powerpoint presentation to an audience of stern-faced senior citizens…who clearly weren’t buying it.
His appearance, with the fast-talking, glib delivery, sliding over the bumpy spots; Medicare…now you see it…now you don’t…lacked only the striped suspenders and bowler hat.
Good job!
Thanks nanews!
I loved that video as well, Ryan came off so weak, like a liar who had fallen in his lie and couldn’t get up. The political equivalent of a Life Alert commercial.
AdLib: Your post is spot-on in its analogy, history and methodology.
Republicans have followed the age-old cure-all recipe perfectly.
Let’s say you’re selling a pill for tape worms — not too uncommon back in the day. Well, inside this little pill is coil of white string which will pass through your system in a couple of days and appear miraculously as a ‘dead worm’ — proving that the pill worked and sending the patient / victim back for another pricey pill.
By cutting taxes, Republicans have manufactured the debt malady so they can sell their desperate fiscal transfer-of-wealth-to-the-wealthy, remarkable remedy ‘poison’ pills. Snake oil salesmen and Republicans are of the same ilk… each peddling quack-cures for money.
Bob, thanks for the kind words.
BTW, really like the tapeworm con you described!
As happened with snake oil salesmen, the repetition of frauds does eventually school the public to a degree and creates a perception.
I think this is that one overreach too many. The polls show how even the majority of Repubs oppose Ryan’s plan for killing Medicare! They’re own party!
If this does turn out to be the turning point that dooms the Repubs in 2012, we’ll need to send a thank you card to Ryan in January, 2013.
The Repugs should start their “death panels” and “killing granny” propaganda slogans all over again, only this time they can direct it at themselves as their new goal for Americans and their 2012 election campaign slogan.
“Hell, we won’t just kill YOUR granny, we plan to kill ALL future American grannies too. Vote for us!”
You nailed it Kalima, this is the sales pitch, “We promise, we’ll only kill grannies in the future!”
To quote a Republican, this will not stand. The GOP and their candidates who supported and voted for this will be destroyed in 2012 for doing so. Fools, utter fools who bought into a mirage called the Tea Party.
AdLib- This is sadly funny, but you sure put it in context!
Cheers jkkFL! If we push this comparison though, maybe it will have a happy ending.