OFFS

From the third paragraph of Time's expansive "Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?" comes this gem:

[Deanna Frankowski, 49, of Leeds, Alabama] has been hit hard by the economic turmoil of the past year. Short of funds to make the trip [to protest in D.C. last weekend], she painted an American flag on a pane of glass and asked people at her church to chip in toward her expenses, with one of them taking home the flag. She would like to share a house with her soon-to-be husband, but first she must figure out how to get free of the house she has — the one with the underwater mortgage. Some left-leaning writers argue that people in her boat must be deluded to oppose Barack Obama, but Frankowski is skeptical that her interests are being served by trillions in new government interventions. So she said, "I've paid my mortgage every month. And I'm getting no help. I'm just saying, Let capitalism work."

LET CAPITALISM WORK?!?!?!?!

I'm not sure if she's saying that the Bush and Obama administrations shouldn't have bailed out the banks, and should have "let capitalism work," or if she's saying that they should have and now the banks should be using that government money to help her with her mortgage, but, in the former case, letting capitalism work wouldn't have changed her financial situation at all and arguably would have made our collective situation worse, and in the latter case, what she really means is "let pseudo-socialism work."

Either way, "let capitalism work" is an absurd and totally asinine thing to say.

Especially, frankly, following immediately on the heels of: "And I'm getting no help." Who the fuck does she expect to help her? Capitalism?

The truth is that she expects her government to be helping her, as well she should. But the rightwing media machine has played three dirty tricks on people like Ms. Frankowski:

1. They've convinced them that the government is helping people other than them.

2. They've convinced them those other people are undeserving of that help, by virtue of their alleged laziness, entitlement, desire for "special rights," immigration status, or some other bigoted bullshit.

3. They've convinced them, by concealing the reality that the only "people" the government helps anymore are corporations, that "capitalism" is the answer, which creates more demand for the government to capitulate to free marketeering and abandon industry regulations that protect consumers.

In other words, they've convinced people like Ms. Frankowski to demand that the government help them less, even as she desperately wonders why, despite playing by the rules and paying her mortgage every month, she's still hurting and no one's helping her out.

It would be hilarious, if it weren't so fucking tragic.