The Jan. 22 guest column by Harry Faulkner pointed directly to the source of anti-Democratic neocon policy and the single biggest threat to our American democracy.

The threat is a diet of toxic Kool-Aid being lovingly prepared in the policy kitchens of Grover Norquist, Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich, et. al. It’s being ladled out daily to hurting Americans by hate media propagandists such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and other corporatist shills. Their followers (sheep?) gorge themselves on that diet of diatribe, delusion and chewed-up, regurgitated doublespeak. They shun any honest effort to listen, read and consider primary sources of information.

This nation’s founders wanted an “informed electorate” to carry on the business of democracy and far too many of us are failing miserably. The founders were determined that we, the people, would never again fall under the heels of predators such as a moneyed aristocracy, religionists and corporatist oligarchy. (Recall the original Boston Tea Party against the East India Company.)

The ink on the Constitution was barely dry when corporatists began to connive and lobby to weaken the protections against the greed-is-good (GIG) class. It has been a vicious, bloody and relentless battle, right up to today. One would think that finally such corporatist shills as Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman and the most recent fallen saint, Alan Greenspan, might have provided the last nails in the GIG coffin. Tragically, however, we see the latest and most horrific manifestation of it in the Supreme Court decision on campaign advertising, and now American democracy is facing the very real and present danger of being GIG’ed to death.

In order to escape the awful mess we’re in, Americans must get smart on the true, root-cause sources for the nation’s problems and then get active. For starters, we should carefully re-read the Bill of Rights, Constitution and Gettysburg Address, so that we’ll know what we’re pledging our allegiance to.

But, dang, that would mean an evening away from faux news and other “reality TV.” What are the chances of that happening?

I don’t know. You tell me.

Seabury Lyon, Bethel


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