my connection with the tea party

[kandrathe]

Basics.

My first thought was... tl;dr... Use paragraphs. Please.

I had a really interesting thought earlier today. I find it ironic how the Tea Party and the far right in general embrace free-market, get-the-government-out of my life economics, but only when it benefits them.

Everyone who disagrees with you is in the tea party/far right.

Privatize profits, socialize losses. Companies like Goldman & Sachs and AIG, contrary to popular belief, LOVE socialism (but like capitalism, only when it benefits them). This "too big to fail mentality" is what killed American capitalism, if you think about it. It is a myth: No firm is too big to fail, none. If it failed, it failed.

Democrats & Republicans RAN to shore up these institutions. It was not a tea party thing.

When small businesses fail in a capitalistic system, they have to suck it up most of the time. But now giant lending firms on Fraud Street and other transnationals can simply rely on this new (or rather not so new if you think about it) concept of socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else.

Small businesses don't suck it up. They get flushed, and the owners/investors might lick their wounds and try again.

To me, it is just further evidence to reinforce the idea that not only are social democracies superior to capitalistic ones, but that in fact capitalism (even if it's not 'pure' capitalism) and true democracy are now INCOMPATIBLE since the political process now allows those with greater wealth to have more political clout than the rest of us, since corporations are now treated as individuals.

They are incompatible since once the people realize they can vote themselves money... Lucky for us, we have a Republic based on representative democracy.

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship." -- Alexander Fraser Tytler

The Citizens United decision needs to be overturned.

I guess you had a random thought segue. I think it is fine if corporations want to be treated as citizens, as long as their citizenship and loyalty is American. Unfortunately, their allegiance is not to the preservation of our republic.

Throw in a right-wing controlled media that spoon feeds citizens who can't think for themselves about what is best for them by creating a predetermined social discourse, the majority of whom drink it up like kool-aid, and Marx's concept of 'false consciousness' is illuminated.

You mean of course that Murdoch owned alternative to the left wing controlled media. It would be much better (for you) if all media and propaganda were controlled with a unified voice.

I think the Tea Party, more so than any other group I can recall in at least contemporary American (or even international) politics, exemplifies this concept almost perfectly. Normally I would feel sorry for these people, its one thing to be ignorant, but its an entirely other thing to be WILLFULLY ignorant as they are, thus when things go bad for them they do not have my sympathy (now I sound like one of them, but I can't help it). But this doesn't merely apply to business.

Yes, some of them even bought into the milksop campaign of "Hope and Change" without every questioning "Hope for what, and what will change?" Talk about false consciousness.

It also applies to families that think a 'for profits' healthcare system is great but then wonder why they have to choose between losing their home, all their retirement savings (if they have any), and hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills to pay for their mothers cancer treatment or let her die.

Is this an anecdote, or just another random thought? I have a vivid imagination too. I saw Les Miserables, and I've read David Copperfield.

And of course, our politicians wonder why we keep having recessions and depressions, and though we get out of them, they try to look for solutions to prevent them from occurring again. Thus far they have failed, and that is because there are no solutions. No amount of "deregulation" can prevent these booms and busts. As Marx said, they are an INEVITABLE part of a capitalistic system such as ours. The sooner politicians can take their blinders off and realize this, the better off they and the rest of us (or almost the rest of us ) will be.

Right. The only way to prevent boons and busts is to restrict the free flow of capital. Slavery to the state would resolve that problem.