CHOMSKY: "The Democrats Are 'Moderate Republicans' & Republicans Are Off The Spectrum"

[kpete]

Chomsky: Republicans ‘dedicated with utter servility’ to the needs of the 1 percent
Scott Kaufman SCOTT KAUFMAN
05 DEC 2014 AT 09:08 ET

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“What’s happened over the past 40 years is that both parties have shifted to the right. The Democrats are what used to be called ‘moderate Republicans,’ and the Republicans are just off the spectrum — they’re not even a parliamentary party anymore.”

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“You can see it ever since the Obama election. (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell and others made it explicit that they have only one policy — ruin the country as much as possible, hope that people will blame it on the Democrats, and then we can get power back and follow our program of dedicating ourselves with utter servility to the needs of the very rich and the corporate sector.”

“Of course,” Chomsky said, “they can’t say that, so what they’ve is mobilize sectors of the population that have always been there…like evangelical Christians and nativists who are afraid that (immigrant)] are taking our country away from us. White racists and gun people, who are so terrified they have to carry their guns into church because someone might come after them.”

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“They’re facing this again,” Chomsky concluded, as “the base that they’ve had to organize — because their commitments are so far to the right — is one they’re having a hard time controlling. I don’t want to draw comparisons, but it has some similarities to what happened in Germany in the 1930s. I’m not the only one to point this out — leading German historians have pointed this out, and it’s frightening.”




Watch “Can We Save Our Democracy and History?” below via YouTube.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/noam-chomsky-republicans-dedicated-with-utter-servility-to-the-needs-of-the-1-percent/

[liberal_at_heart]

1. Yes thank you. That is what left of center liberals have been saying for years now.

[fredamae]

5. Nailed it! n/t

[LondonReign2]

18. Hell, that's what *Obama* has been saying

He admitted his economic policies are "1980's moderate Republican" and that "in many ways Nixon was more liberal" than he is. Yet our sensible centrists try to deny this while at the same time slamming Liberals.

[adirondacker]

20. +1000. It's why I can't STAND the "she/he is TOO FAR LEFT meme that several like to exclaim

ad nauseam

[Autumn]

2. Choices are moderate republicans or bat shit crazy republicans.

I'm gonna pick neither one. Fuck em

[hollysmom]

3. indeed

but what is really world is that the whole world politics have shifted to the right - what have I missed - is it all just dancing to the `1% song?

[woo me with science]

4. The TPP is not "moderate." Mass surveillance is not "moderate."

"Kill Lists," indefinite detention, criminalization of investigative journalism, persecution of whistleblowers, coordination with Wall Street to surveil and brutalize protesters...None of this is "moderate." It is, in fact, fascistic.

Cutting food stamps *again* in a nation with two and a half million homeless children is not "moderate."

Even *Reagan* defended Social Security to the nation.

Chomsky, who knows and has spoken eloquently of the collusion between the two faces of the United States' unitary "Business Party," is clearly talking about strategy and perception here, but I think it's important to point out that this characterization, taken out of context, vastly understates the malignancy of actual corporate Democratic policies.

K&R

[zeemike]

7. Yes but those are policies.

And the policies are to the right, while the speech is moderate...we are only supposed to listen to what they say not look at what they do.

[daleanime]

8. +1

[woo me with science]

13. Exactly.

[Enthusiast]

10. PLUS ONE, a whole bunch!

[Scuba]

22. + another

[progressoid]

6. Democrats could take a few pages from the Republican party platform of 1956

[Enthusiast]

11. Don't we just wish.

[JEB]

9. Not many real choices for us peons.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. Damn shame we only have two parties.

[certainot]

14. the difference the last 25 years has been the left's total ignorance of

republican radio- by far the right's most important tool for moving the political center or the perception of it to the right even if its through the use of a well coordinated minority that just looks big and legitimate because of the unchallenged volume they get with that radio monopoly- all that buzz is great for enabling the MSM to present them as legitimate and big.

by not knowing what's being blasted out of 1000 think tank coordinated radio stations where and how often the left and the dem party continuously have to play catch up. the analysts do not listen to the radio and they can't read it or study it- so it is ignored.

take the current protests- how many protestors does it take to be in the streets for how long to equal what one republican scripted blowhard on a statewide limbaugh radio station riding the mascot of the state university sports team as he makes excuses for police racism and brutality and militarization? and the asshole can do it for weeks after the protests and he can lie and distort over and over.

why do politicians have to listen to protestors with the same old made to order constituency (the talk radio tea party) of teabag dittoheads screaming into the phones at their staff?

reagan killed the fairness doctrine in 87 and since then ALEC's success skyrocketed and we set historic records for partisanship.

right now limbaugh is positioning against those in the republican party who argue a govt shutdown would hurt the republican party by saying it didnt hurt them before - they won big- so to stop obama on immigration repubs have to shut govt down. GO CRUZ!

and just like before the talk radio gods will push the country to the edge enabled by republicans intimidated and enabled by this ignored medium, and they will exact compromise from dems because they're not crazy. and then the left will call the dems spineless again while allowing 400 blowhards a free speech free ride to lie all day to 50 mil a week.

[madfloridian]

15. Amen

From the mouths of the party's policy makers.

It was planned so they did not need the lesser of the party, just the wealthy and influential. Mostly just the wealthy.

[geretogo]

16. Absolute Truth . I have seen the similarities to pre war Germany for years . How many millions of

Americans have to take to the streets to bring this evil right wing Junta to its knees ?

[Doctor_J]

17. Pretty much. And both continue to lurch to the right.

rec

[MisterP]

19. no, Weicker would never brag about being to the right of Nixon

[colsohlibgal]

21. Noam Nails It

There used to be sensible republicans who leaned more left than a lot of democrats now.

The people who tend to annoy me most are charlatans like Chuck Schumer and formerly Chris Dodd. They tend to talk a good game but have been totally in the pocket of Wall Street.

[myrna minx]

23. It's interesting that some here would label me some "ultra radical leftist" when I'm just some

moderate Minnesota DFLer. I haven't changed - the parties have. Those that claim there's an "ultra radical left" in the US - I'd wager - has never traveled outside the US and/or actually talked to a leftist or studied left leaning political philosophy. The stuff some folks on DU claim is ultra-radical - like removing corporate money from politics - is middle of the road stuff in the 80's. It's unbelievable.