Interesting article in Slate by Ron Rosenbaum, “The Tea Party’s Toxic Take on History,” points out how Tea Party enthusiasts misuse terms from history. “Listen to Tea Partiers on cable news—or read the signs they hoist or their Internet comments—,” Rosenbaum writes, “and you frequently encounter the flagrant abuse, the historically ignorant misuse, of words such as tyranny, communist, Marxist, fascist, and socialist.” He gives examples of signs showing a picture of President Obama photoshoped into a Hitler uniform.

Rosenbaum says it is ridiculous for Tea Party people to use the word “tyranny” — “because one side lost a health care vote in an elected legislative body.” He is amazed that TP speakers call the president a “communist” and says, “For many Tea Party members, the word is not just a vile epithet; it’s a realistic political description.”

Recently, Rosenbaum discovered a rare copy of Nikita Khrushchev’s secret speech denouncing Joseph Stalin — delivered in 1956 to the Communist Party’s 20th Congress in which Khrushchev shocked his listeners by graphically denouncing the crimes of Joseph Stalin. (I found a copy of the speech here.) Rosenbaum says that people in the TP movement should read such material to understand what “tyranny” actually looks like.

Rosenbaum writes, “I would argue that history demonstrates that historical ignorance is dangerous and that it can have tragic consequences, however laughable it may initially seem. And thus the media, liberals, and others are misguided in laughing it off. And educated conservatives are irresponsible in staying silent in the face of these distortions.”

Great article this morning in the NYT by Frank Rich, “Fight On, Goldman Sachs!”, about Wall Street’s “sleazy role in the Great Crash of ‘08.”

Rich writes about “capitalism’s worst ‘innovation’ in our own Gilded Age: the advent of exotic, speculative ‘investments’ that have no redeeming social value,” and tells about trader John Paulson who in 2007 alone made over $10 million every day. Rich reports that, “the financial sector’s share of domestic corporate profits, never higher than 16 percent until 1986, hit 41 percent in the last decade.”

About the economic melt-down that cost the economy eight million jobs, Rich writes, “As many have said something is fundamentally amiss in a financial culture that thrives on ‘products’ that create nothing and produce nothing except new ways to make bigger bets and stack the deck in favor of the house.”

Magnetar is a hedge fund where, Rich tells, “Bankers who worked on Magnetar deals walked away with their huge bonuses well before disaster struck.: He quotes a program from a radio program by Ira Glass, This American Life, “Bankers made money even when they were buying things that eventually blew up the bank.”

The Glass program commissioned a Boardway Show song — ala “The Producers” — on how to become rich. It is well worth a listen here. Rich writes, “Go online, listen to it and laugh. But the fact remains that those who truly hurt America are laughing harder still, all the way to the bank.”

In response to my post, “In Kettering, The 6.9 Mill School Tax Levy Might Help Inspire Formation Of New Grassroots Group,” a Kettering voter, Dick Dungan, replied, “I would like permission to copy your letter and forward it to the neighbors on my street.”

I responded by sending Mr. Dungan a PDF — sorted to use as a walking list, showing the 374 voters in his precinct, Kettering 4-F, most likely to vote in this May 4 Primary election. I also made a one page, a short version PDF, of this very long post for him to print if we wished to do so.

Here is the PDF of the long version.

If you would like to be part of a grassroots effort, and walk your precinct delivering this one page message, make a comment here with your full name and I will prepare and post a PDF of voters in your precinct as well — or, if you want to receive the walking list by e-mail, contact me at MikeBock@citizenstogether.com or telephone me at 937-985-3737

Written By Mike Bock