Romney and Ryan: Reverse Robin-Hood and Little John

Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration and prolific Huffington Post blogger, has had his share of quotable one-liners. But in today's article he had a bunch.

There's clear reason for Democrats and Independents to fear Romney and Ryan -- their reverse Robin-Hood budgets that take from the poor and middle class and reward the rich; their determination to do away with Medicare and Medicaid, as well as Dodd-Frank constraints on Wall Street, and ObamaCare; their opposition to abortion even after rape or incest, and rejection of equal marriage rights; their support for "profiling" immigrants; and their disdain of the "47 percent," to name a few. 

And the thought of the next Supreme Court Justices being picked by someone who thinks corporations are people should strike horror in the mind of any thinking American.

Reich has consistently shown his awareness of the mechanics of manipulation and regularly rails against key exploiters Karl Rove, Roger Ailes, Fox News and his newly and aptly coined term: yell radio. He goes ballistic whenever fear is provoked and the big lie shushed.

For four years the GOP and its auxiliaries in Fox News and yell radio have told terrible lies about our president -- charging he wasn't born in America, he's a socialist, he doesn't share American values. They've disdained and disrespected President Obama in ways no modern president has had to endure. 

They've drummed up fear in a public battered by an economic crisis Republicans largely created, while hiding George W. Bush so we won't be reminded. And they've channeled that fear toward President Obama and even to the central institutions of our democracy, casting his administration and our government as the enemy. 

They've apparently convinced almost half of America of their lies -- including many who would suffer most under Romney and Ryan.

Not-so subliminal fear mongering.
Ronald Reagon's quote on tee shirt in Romney campaign store:
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.

Many have asked why people so often vote against their own best interests. Fear and emotion are the why and how people decide to vote. This is evidenced by multiple books and articles on the subject. Reich has laid it out in a nutshell: The GOP, Fox and yell radio have methodically told lies and instilled fear about our president, our system and our futures so that there appears no other choice than to vote for Romney.

As Reich concludes in his article: The challenge for Obama, Biden and the rest of us over the next four weeks is to counter their fearsome lies with the truth.