Marketing Idiots

The last Republican president who actually had a brain and a sense of compassion was Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was the very fact that Ike was capable of critical thought that led the corporate masters of the GOP to reconsider the strategy of running candidates with a 3 digit IQ. After eight years of playing golf and pretending to be president, Ike became aware of what the moneyed sponsors of his party had done under his watch and was shocked. His realization that a military-industrial complex (MIC) had grown unencumbered in both wealth and power compelled him to warn American citizens of the dangers posed by the situation.

Their next pick for chief executive was Richard Nixon who, although intelligent, was corrupt to the bone and more than happy to continue making war profits for the MIC. Nixon’s downfall was the result of absolute power corrupting absolutely as he believed he had the right and the power to ignore all laws.

Nixon’s act of desperation to avoid imprisonment was to appoint Gerald Ford as his Vice President who would assume the presidency when Nixon resigned. This insured that he would receive a pardon from his replacement, a man who couldn’t compose a coherent sentence or appear in public without embarrassing himself, but would show his gratitude for being allowed to play president.

Having been stung by Eisenhower’s betrayal followed by Nixon almost destroying the Republican Party and relinquishing power to the court jester, the CEO conservative king makers decided on a new marketing strategy to sell a president to the American people.

Name recognition is a time honored tenet of marketing and the Big Business owners of the GOP had been grooming just such a name in the arena of California politics for several years. Ronald Reagan, a one time Democrat and president of the Screen Actors Guild (God forbid – a union!), had become a Republican to further his political aspirations. His image makers had convinced him that appearing tough on communism would capture for him the elusive John Wayne persona he would require to obtain higher elected office. Reagan was accustomed to following scripts and therefore easily led by his corporate handlers to do their bidding.

After Reagan, Big Business felt secure enough about the government they now owned to allow George H. W. Bush to take a turn at the country’s helm. Yet, they used the opportunity for an experiment in public acceptance by having Bush name as his Vice President an individual whose stupidity would challenge the most loyal wingnut. Danforth Quayle, an Indiana Republican Senator occupying the office his Daddy bought and paid for, would have been better as a poster child for special education. Nevertheless, Americans ignored the fact that an idiot was a mere single step from the Oval office and ultimate power.

Bush the senior disappointed his corporate masters when he allowed reason to interfere with governance and reneged on his promise not to raise taxes. The Republican base, who have been convinced that no one has to pay taxes and government will still work, revolted against him and allowed the Democrats to get their candidate elected.

Four years later Bob Dole became the Republican candidate, but not the president and for all appearances seemed like the sacrificial lamb. The conservative party leaders realized that Clinton was still popular enough to win so they held back their secret weapon for the next election. This gave the Arkansas Project team another four years to invent crimes and other violations with which to tar the incumbent president and weaken the Democrats for the 2000 elections.

George W. Bush, son of the 41st president, was presented to the nation as the Republican candidate for president of the United States and a non stop string of lies and crimes have been perpetrated against the American people since that day. Bush has proven himself to be a total moron, yet he holds degrees from both Yale and Harvard to their never ending shame. He was the incompetent CEO of several failed oil companies and he depended entirely on the largesse of family friends for his livelihood, friends who continually came to his rescue financially (including Osama bin Laden's brother).

The Republican experiment conducted on or against the American people, depending on you point of view, had proven successful if the aim was to determine if it was possible to get the American public (with some minor assistance from the Supreme Court) to elect a complete idiot as president. If the aim was to determine if a complete idiot could lead the American people than the experiment was a miserable failure.