Friday, April 1, 2011

Movie Week Continues

Down in Laguna, we have time to watch movies in the evening...

Last night, we downloaded Casino Jack and the United States of Money from Netflix. It's the story of Jack Abramoff's rise and fall from star Young Republican in the Reagan era to jailbird. It's also about youthful fellow zealots like Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, Karl Rove and Tom Delay, who grew into the powerful right-wing core of the Republican Party and did their best to create that permanent Republican majority that was their ultimate goal. The path to their goal was paved with money. Abramoff's genius was to be able to attract it to their cause. That he, along with the rest of them, became a liar and a cheat, is perhaps attributable that skill. The movie carefully and persuasively documents how the combination of money, zealotry and ruthlessness led him steadily further into corruption.

If you still believe that corruption is found only in other countries than our own, I invite you to watch this chilling, deeply nauseating film. It's one of a number of documentaries that our naive Tea-Partiers should be required to watch. Some of their beliefs are called into question here, along with many of their heroes on the right.

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