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The Big Con.

This is what ties it all together: tax breaks for the super rich; privatization of government programs and the military; regulatory relief for big corporations; corporate welfare; promiscuous globalization without safeguards for labor standards and the environment; and the appointment of corporate violators to head government agencies that are supposed to regulate them.

Actually, the list could go on and on.

Jonathan Chait, Editor of the New Republic, proves his bonafides (given that the New Republic sometimes prints commentaries that are not entirely progressive) with this lacerating critique on the follies of supply side economics, a term used to provide a justification for further enriching the already rich.

The opening paragraph of Chait's introduction concludes: "American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing economic extremists, some of them ideological zealots, others merely greedy, a few of them possibly insane."

Tell us how you really feel, Jonathan!

He continues, "The scope of their triumph is breathtaking. Over the course of the last three decades, they have moved from the right-wing fringe to the commanding heights of the national agenda. Notions that would have been laughed at a generation ago -- that cutting taxes for the very rich is the best response to any and every economic circumstance, or that it is perfectly appropriate to turn the most rapacious and self-interested elements of the business lobby into essentially an arm of the the federal government -- are now so pervasive, they barely attract any notice."

Amen.

We should note that Chait is so scathing that he tries to occasionally distance himself from far left liberals, of which we guess he would include BuzzFlash, because people such as us believe in "conspiracy" theories, which are actually just common sense to us, as in we read about them and then just connect the dots.

But that's okay, Chait's got his own conspiracy theory going, and he drives it home with convincing outrage and vigor.

The Big Con is essential reading for those who want to understand how the corporate lobby and the wealthy campaign donors combined with the hawks and the evangelicals to form an alliance of convenience. Everyone would get what they wanted out of it, with the understanding that the non-rich would have to be hoodwinked as they were being pickpocketed.

What is most remarkable about the "Big Con" is how the GOP uses demagogic appeals to U.S. sovereignty to advance a global corporate agenda that supersedes nationalism.

Forget the U.N., as the Busheviks have done.

What we have now is a de facto U.C., United Corporations of the World steamrolling over individual nations.

Chait, in his conclusion called, "Plutocracy in America," quotes a University of Chicago professor, Carles Boix, who observes:

"In an unequal society, the majority resents its diminished status. It harbors the expectation of employing elections to drastically overturn its condition. In turn, the wealthy minority fears the outcome that may follow from free elections and the assertion of majority rule. As a result, it resorts to authoritarian institutions to guarantee its social and economic advantage."

Now that is one cogent, succinct paragraph, ain't it?

From Publishers Weekly:

The author, a senior editor at the New Republic, is best known for declaring I hate President George W. Bush in 2003. This book traces the roots of his dislike back 30 years, when supply-side economics took over the Republican Party and made cutting taxes the GOP answer to all political and economic questions. American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing economic extremists, Chait declares, some of them ideological zealots, others merely greedy, a few of them possibly insane.

To which he adds, the Republicans' success at defeating the democratic process explains why it has been able to enact its agenda despite a lack of popular support. The rhetoric is inflammatory, but the case is laid out with clarity. Chait claims that traditional Republicans, religious people and social, fiscal and foreign policy conservatives have been cheated as much as liberals, and that unparalleled corruption and ruthless cynicism in Washington and the timidity of nonpartisan media allow the minority to rule

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