HUH? Fox News Hack and GOP Senator Say Corporations are ‘Kind of Scary’

The hypocrisy of the Republican Party is a remarkably resilient toxin that has infected the American body politic. They have abandoned any sense of reason or rationality. And if they have to contradict even their longest held “principles” (to the extent they exist) in order to sustain whatever outrage they are peddling, they’ll do it in a flash.

Fox News, Censorship

The GOP has always had an affinity for big business and the wealthy elitists who reign over it. But now they are experiencing a sea change due to events in Georgia and Texas and some other red states that are drafting and passing legislation aimed at suppressing the votes of Democrats in general, and people of color in particular.

This trend began when Georgia passed a series of suppressive bills that reduced ballot access, made voting by mail more difficult, and even criminalized giving water to voters waiting in line. Subsequently, some companies in Georgia responded to the protests of their customers by renouncing the anti-voting bills. Major League Baseball moved their All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver. And Delta Airlines, Coca-Cola, and others let the GOP politicians in Georgia know that there would be consequences, including cutting off campaign donations.

This corporate revolt has spread as similar bills spread to other states. And now the corporate world’s best friend, the Republican Party, is shocked and appalled and ready to strike back. They have even threatened to revoke the preferential tax codes that the GOP had previously given them (Oh no, not that!). The GOP Minority Leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has called for corporations to get out of politics. Well, except for their financial support.

On Monday, Lisa Boothe, a Fox News contributor, expressed what has become the new mantra of the GOP with regard to their Big Business ex-allies:

Really? People like Boothe never thought it was scary when corporations shoveled funds into their campaign war chests. They never thought it was scary when those corporations spoke out against fair taxation. They never thought it was scary when corporations campaigned against reproductive rights or civil rights or environmental protection or regulations that protected the safety of food, water, or workplaces. They never thought it was scary when those corporations backed their candidacies for public office. And they certainly never think it’s scary when Fox News, itself a monstrous corporation, gets entwined in politics every minute of every day.

Boothe’s tweet was followed less than an hour later by a similar posting from the GOP Senator from Missouri, and insurrection proponent, Josh Hawley. He repeated the same message about how the corporations he once loved have turned evil:

Not to be outdone, Fox News primetime host, Laura Ingraham, devoted her entire opening segment on Monday night to a monologue demanding that “conservatives have to rethink their relationship with Big Business,” because “Corporate America has gone all-in on helping Democrats secure a permanent majority.” Right, because Democrats have always been Corporate America’s favorite party. Elaborating, Ingraham disgorged the ludicrous theory that corporations are intent on “protecting liberals’ grip on power.” “Democrats,” Ingraham babbled, “know their agenda is gonna crush working class Americans. They hate it when wages go up.” Which is why Democrats are the party fighting for a higher minimum wage and an end wage disparities due to race and gender, while Republicans steadfastly oppose that.

Hawley, Boothe, Ingraham, and the rest of these ultra-rightist hypocrites have apparently forgotten how supportive they were when corporations would “get together to plan how to control legislation” that favored the corporations and the Republican political power base. They must have forgotten about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a confederacy of corporate lobbyists and state legislators that work together to draft legislation on behalf of its corporate members.

For the record, what triggered Boothe and Hawley at this time is that a group of more than 100 top corporate leaders got together to discuss how they should respond to the Republican voter suppression movement and the GOP’s threats of reprisals. It’s a voluntary association driven by the reaction of the American people to the red state anti-voter initiatives. And contrary to Hawley’s reference to “oligarchy” it wasn’t started by the corporate titans, but by Prof. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a dean of the Yale School of Management.

Corporations will always have their own best interests at heart. But it is decidedly better for the world when they are pursuing those interests due to free market pressure placed on them by their customers, than by the greed that motivates their executives and shareholders. And it’s the fact that these recent events are marketplace-driven that is so objectionable to the Republican Party. They simply can’t stand it when the people decide to rule. They don’t like it when people rule by voting in record numbers. And they don’t like it when people convince corporations to behave like good corporate citizens.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

CNN’s Corporatist ALEC Fluffer Dana Loesch Is All In For Mussolini’s Fascism

The secretive and influential American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been toiling in the political shadows to advance a far-right agenda aimed at enhancing the power of corporations and suppressing the voice of the people. Their so-called “voter integrity” initiatives are thinly disguised efforts to obstruct the voting rights of minorities, students, seniors, and low income citizens. The Center for American Progress authored a study that details ALEC’s operations, it’s ties to the powerful in politics and business, and its pride in concealing its activities from the public:

“Under ALEC’s auspices, legislators, corporate representatives, and ALEC officials work together to draft model legislation. As ALEC spokesperson Michael Bowman told NPR, this system is especially effective because ‘you have legislators who will ask questions much more freely at our meetings because they are not under the eyes of the press, the eyes of the voters.’

Recently, a campaign was launched by Color of Change and other activists to hold some of the enterprises bankrolling ALEC accountable for their support of the extremist organization. They include Altria, AT&T, ExxonMobil, Phizer, Wal-Mart, and, of course, the Koch brothers. The campaign has enjoyed some success in compelling Coca-Cola to terminate their relationship with ALEC. Pepsi, Intuit, and Kraft Foods are also severing ties with ALEC.

This citizen-driven movement is effective because free people in democratic societies are entitled to express themselves and redress their grievances with public and private institutions that have an impact on their lives. However, some rightist defenders of the ruling elite are appalled that ordinary citizens have found a way to join together and make their concerns heard. One of those is Breitbart editor Dana Loesch, who had this to say on her radio show in response to Coke’s announcement:

“Coca-Cola decided to side with an admitted Marxist, 9/11 truther, cop-killer supporter […] This is the guy whose company Coca-Cola is siding with. This is what happens. Progressives will target businesses and try to shut them down if they support those who are telling the truth. It’s a fascistic movement. Fascism is alive and well in the United States on the left.”


The alleged Marxist to whom Loesch is referring is Van Jones and her allegations are verifiably untrue. Jones is a firm believer in the ability of free markets to empower people and advance the goals of the American dream. In fact, he wrote the book on it. He never supported the 9/11 truth movement and even proved the allegation to be false. And his efforts on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal cannot be portrayed as supporting a cop-killer if the evidence shows that Abu-Jamal is innocent. Abu-Jamal’s death sentence was rescinded last year in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Also, Jones left Color of Change over two years, so Loesch’s attempt to associate him with this campaign is merely her way of trying to demonize the organization by associating it with a public figure who is hated by right-wingers because of their prior and continuing efforts to demonize him.

With everything that Loesch has gotten wrong in this affair, it is unsurprising that she also doesn’t understand political theory. Her accusations of fascism directed at a citizen effort to persuade Coke and other corporations to refrain from funding an extremist right-wing organization demonstrates her ignorance of the subject. She may want to consult the words of a man who is known to be something of an expert on fascism:

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” ~ Benito Mussolini

So Loesch is aligning herself with giant multinational corporations who are seeking with ALEC to integrate their power with that of government, while simultaneously calling those who oppose such activity fascists. If anyone can plausibly be regarded as having fascist leanings it is the American right. Their obsession with advancing the interests of corporations and wealthy oligarchs, to the detriment of the people, is closer to the fascist model than anything else in the American political spectrum. Why do you suppose that Republicans and the Tea Party are funded so heavily by corporatists like Rupert Murdoch, the Koch brothers, and the rest of the Wall Street One Percenters? And is it just a coincidence that Mitt Romney, the GOP’s likely candidate for president, is from the same fraternity of elitists who want to decimate the government programs that benefit the poor and middle classes? Mussolini also said that fascism is revolutionary against liberalism “since it wants to reduce the size of the state to its necessary functions.” Sound familiar, Grover?

Ordinarily the twisted observations of Dana Loesch would be insignificant and harmless, but for their dimwitted asininity. Her radio show, and her work for Breitbart, are confined to the narrow world of uber-rightists who have already bought into the lies and slander of propagandists like Loesch. The problem is that Loesch is also a paid political analyst for CNN. It is wholly inappropriate for an allegedly credible news enterprise to employ someone who accuses millions of Americans of being fascists simply because they exercise their constitutional rights and participate in civic affairs.

Loesch has also accused the president of “siding with terrorists” and defended soldiers who urinated on the corpses of Afghan combatants. Now she maligns civic-minded Americans as akin to tyrants and perpetrators of torture and mass murder. Is that really the caliber of character that CNN wants to project? Unfortunately, based on the direction the network has taken the past couple of years, with the addition of people like Will Cain and Amy Holmes (of Glenn Beck’s Internet operation), and Erick Erickson (of RedState), it appears to be inescapably so.