Jeb and Mitt and Newt and Bill Maher: Confessing the obvious

Jeb Bush recently said, vis-a-vis the Republican debates:

"I used to be a conservative and I watch these debates and I’m wondering, I don’t think I’ve changed, but it’s a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people’s fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective and that’s kind of where we are."

Is this mere rhetoric? Is Jeb simply positioning himself as a moderate, just in case he's asked to play the "white knight" role in a brokered convention scenario?

That scenario is fanciful. So what prompted Jeb Bush to say those words?

Please don't misunderstand: I despise the Bush clan -- always have, always will. Nevertheless, I suspect that Jeb was speaking from his tiny little heart. The plutocrats have held onto power by erecting an ultra-reactionary media infrastructure which has become a national psychotoxin. Jeb seems to be saying: "The madness machine has served our interests well -- but can we still control it?"

The Republican party is now divided between religious nuts and financial predators, and neither faction cares much about preserving the union. The Jesus maniacs dream of theocracy -- and, failing that, secession. The money maniacs want to strip-mine the entire nation of its assets, just as the Russian oligarchs did when Yeltsin came to power.

There must still be a few conservatives left in this country who don't care for these outcomes.

Speaking of predation: I have, at the top of this post, embedded a video from the unlikeliest of sources. The video is called King of Bain: When Mitt Romney Came to Town. The movie was made by a group called Winning Our Future, which claims to be unaffiliated with any candidate even though they push Newt Gingrich.

I dislike Newt even more than I dislike Romney. So why should you watch a video made by transparently disguised Newt-ites?

First: This work is surprisingly hard-hitting. I doubt that the Dems will produce anything so scathing and bold during the general election. Perhaps some truly independent progressive film-makers out there will use this video as a how-to-do-it template. (With modern equipment and software, you can make a documentary like this for very little money.)

Second: The Newtians are willing to speak a message that the Dems should shout but fear to whisper: Finance capitalism isn't capitalism. Unfettered finance capitalism does not foster American industry; it eats industry alive and then spits out the bones.

Bill Maher made much the same point in one of his recent New Rules segments, embedded below.

If both Bill Maher and Newt Gingrich are willing to confess the obvious -- finance capitalism isn't capitalism -- and if even Jeb Bush is willing to admit that the right-wing agit-prop machine has spun out of control, then perhaps hope yet lives in freedom's land.