Tim The Right Wing Tool Man and the New McCarthyism

“To insanity and beyond…”

I like watching TV, like most Baby Boomers I was raised in front of the tube, and most of all, I like comedies.  I thought that Tim Allen’s new show “Last Man Standing” was pretty funny, as he is adept at finding funny situations in domestic family life as the pretend father of three daughters.  He did this before as the pretend father of three boys in his previous “Tool Man” show. Lately, I find Mr. Allen’s new show not funny at all as he increasingly slips into his plots his not so subtle unhappiness with what he calls “Obama’s America”.  Mr. Allen has decided to preach to his audience about Marxism, free enterprise, and the “meritocracy“, despite the fact that this makes his situation comedy as awkward and silly as lessons from Glenn Beck University.  

It seems that right wingers, like Tim the Right-Wing-Tool-Man, are on some kind of automatic pilot (to insanity and beyond), where any policies or politics that they have a disagreement over become in their minds socialist or Marxist.  It seems as though the Republican Party platform has adopted a Joe McCarthy plank, reintroducing McCarthyism into the political discourse, even in routine commonplace venues such as prime time television situation comedies.  Today, many so-called conservatives, and/or libertarians, whether in the Republican Party or not, have adopted this McCarthy-ite stance. 

Tim Allen ended one of his last shows at the top of a pretend mountain, emphasizing that the US is a “meritocracy” in which only those people who actually climb the mountain should get the rewards for doing so, and presumably, those lazy bones, (you know who you are) who refuse to do any work should not get the same rewards as the so-called mountain climbers like Tim.  Much like Glenn Beck University, Tim Allen’s political lessons are devised and presented by dullards for the consumption of dullards.

If Allen had the capacity to earn a degree beyond the level of Glenn Beck rodeo clown, he would understand that the vast majority of Americans don’t want something for nothing, but only want the opportunity to climb that mountain.  I wonder if Allen ever heard of President Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham?  She worked her way up to vice-president at a bank as she saw men who she trained getting promoted over her.  Republicans will continue to lose elections if they don’t learn that Americans do not want “free stuff“, as the gap between rich and poor widens in America, what Americans want is social justice.  

Social justice is not about getting free stuff, it’s about being treated fairly.  It’s about getting the opportunity to climb that mountain, not about getting rewards for doing nothing.  It’s about getting a fair, living wage, and getting opportunities for advancement and training, and not being bankrupted because of a serious illness or financing a college education.  

Dr. King didn’t invent social justice, but it is synonymous with his name.  In fact, he was in Memphis fighting for social justice when he was murdered. He was there supporting black sanitation workers who were paid less and were treated more poorly than their white counterparts.  At that time, a black sanitation worker was crushed to death  in the back of a dump truck because they were not allowed shelter from the rain as white workers were, so they went on strike to protest working conditions, and to protest for equal pay because their white counterparts were paid more for doing the same job.

Many of our presidents have recognized the need for social justice and have fought for it.  Thomas Jefferson recognized that worthy, intelligent young American men were not being educated simply because they were poor.  He fought for the establishment of public schools that could be funded through local property taxes. FDR passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which granted many of the workplace rights we enjoy today, Harry Truman
integrated the Army, providing equal opportunity for advancement and training for all soldiers black and white. John Kennedy called for the Congress to pass a civil rights bill to bring an end to discrimination. Unfortunately for many of today’s new McCarthy-ites on the conservative side and in the Republican Party, educated in Glenn Beck’s school for rodeo clowns, social justice equals socialism, despite the historical fact that progressive presidents such as Jefferson, Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy were certainly not socialists, and did not advocate for socialism.  

So keep it light Tim, get rid of the lessons for dullards ala Glen Beck, leave education to the public school professionals, you are only insulting the intelligence of your audience who like you so much better when you are trying to be funny.