Shock Doctrine Continued

Although she didn't advertise it this way, Rachel Maddow presented another facet of the domestic Shock Doctrine that billionaires like the Koch Brothers (and when I say billionaires, I mean brothers who made nine billion dollars--just last year) are getting their hysterical Rabid Right minions in the states to take care of, in the guise of dealing with a fiscal crisis.

(This was her Thursday program, which I was going to blog about on Friday when the transcript became available, but then...Japan happened.)

In addition to busting unions and demonizing public servants like teachers and firefighters, or on a national level trying to take government support away from the poor, the sick, the old, the arts, the closest thing we have to public interest media, to public transportation--to just about everything not entirely controlled by profit-making corporations, and just about everybody except the extremely rich--in addition to all that, the Rabid Right is going after the vote. Or more precisely, the ability of those to vote who are more likely to vote against the Rabid Right.

The short-term politics is clear. Maddow:

Republicans in 32 states are considering adding more onerous ID requirements to make it harder to register and harder to vote, which should bring down the number of Democratic voters nicely in time for the 2012 presidential election, and which should limit any electoral damage these guys might be expecting from pushing for even wildly unpopular redistribution of resources and rights away from America‘s middle class.

Which makes the long-term politics follow: further redistribution of power to the few. I think you can think of a few names for that.

I'll have more to say at a later date about all this, but I don't want this program or transcript to slip away without taking note of it.