Bachmann
If you want to read some really depressing writing, read some of ex-New York Times writer Christopher Hedges' work. Hedges writes some of the most insightful and frightening articles and books documenting the gradual descent of America. One of the central arguments of Hedges' book, "Empire of Illusion," is many Americans are so poorly educated they can't tell fiction from reality. During the last Mid-Term elections this became increasingly clear as many Americans, clueless about the true causes of the financial collapse opted to vote in members of the same party who had been largely responsible for the economic disaster.
It also explains the success of Rep. Michele Bachmann, who recently won the Iowa Straw poll. According to Rachel Maddow, she managed to pull this off after she bought and handed out about 6,000 ballots.
Bachmann is the type of candidate that makes the rest of the world scratch its head. Is it any wonder why Standard and Poors decided to downgrade the United States' triple A credit rating, when you have people like this in charge of this country?
Bachmann is a sad joke of a politician. Almost everything she says is a lie or wildly incorrect. If Bachmann tells you she is going to the bathroom, double check it. Bachmann tells so many untruths that one must assume that she not just fact-challenged, but a shameless liar.
She claims to be a small-government conservative, but has spent years sucking on the government teat. Bachmann used to work as an attorney for the IRS, where her job was chasing down Americans who didn't pay their taxes. While she was at the IRS, Bachmann also took liberal use of their maternity policy. Yet in spite of this, she has cast herself as a Tea Party favorite, a party that is supposed to stand for taxed enough already!
Bachmann's family farm has also received more than $250,000 in government subsidies and her husband's Marcus, an unlicensed psychologist, has received more than $130,000 in Medicaid payments, even though it has been accused of using reparative therapy, which aims to make gay people straight. And while she brags about serving as a foster mom to 23 children, she fails to mention that she also received money from the government for her generosity.
The Bachmanns also used a federally-backed loan program to finance their home, even though Bachmann later criticized the program. Basically, Bachmann's believes it's great for me, but not for anyone else.
And there is the issue with her problem with facts. But here are just a few whoppers:
- She confused the home towns of serial killer John Wayne Gacy and actor John Wayne.
- She said the Founding Fathers, fought against slavery, even though most of them were slave owners, and there was that whole thing about the Civil War.
- She also signed a pledge stating that black families were more intact during slavery, even though slaves could not legally marry.
- And most recently she confused Elvis' birthday with the day he croaked on the toilet.
- Last weekend on "Meet the Press," she denied calling for the United States to default on its debt, yet on July 28, CBS.com featured video of Bachmann vowing not to raise the debt ceiling.
In addition, there is her frightening fundamentalist views. Former Evangelical Frank Schaeffer describes Bachmann as a dominionist, an extremist sect, which wants to turn the United States into a Christian theocracy. While she was still a home maker in Minnesota, she tried to get the Disney carton "Aladdin" banned from her Christian school, because she though it promoted witchcraft.
With her extreme views, her faulty memory and her blatant hypocrisy, Bachmann, should have trouble getting elected to the local school board. But somehow, she has not only been elected to Congress, now she is among the front runners in the Republican presidential race. This is not without controversy. The conservative Wall Street Journal, recently wrote an editorial where they essentially said of Bachmann and the other GOP presidential candidates, "Isn't there anyone else?"
Why do some Americans support Michele Bachmann? Maybe it's her religion, it surely can't be for her spotty resume and her legislative achievements. In a Politico article, a Minnesota Democratic legislator said Bachmann had no significant legislative achievements.
Maybe it's like what Hedges says, Bachmann supporters can't tell fact from fiction. They are attracted to Bachmann's fervor and religiosity, even if she is a pathological liar and doesn't believe in half of what she says. Consider this quote from a Daily Beast article: "Donna Fouts, 73, doesn’t seem to care that Bachmann planned to vote against the debt-ceiling compromise that would ensure the arrival of her Social Security check and the military benefits owed to her sons and nephews. 'Well, I’m sick of all them other politicians that tell me what to do with my life, she answers. 'Something about her tells me to follow her.'"
So people like Fouts want to vote for Bachmann because she sounds good, and makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside. And they trust her to solve the Middle East crisis, fix the nation's economy, and track down terrorists? God help us!
