Spinning the Spill

Reading newspapers in print and online, one expected, surely, to find that all Americans would be united in their support for the victims of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Wouldn't all of us reach out to the innocent, while condemning those guilty, namely BP, Transocean, and Halliburton? Shouldn't every U.S. citizen want those responsible for this tremendous environmental tragedy to pay for the damages?
Apparently, for the right wing in this country, the answer is no. Now, it took awhile--they either hadn't figured out how to spin the spill, or were smart enough to wait for the initial horror of the disaster to wear off. In any case, the line of the right wing on this one is simple: how dare President Obama demand that BP pay for the cleanup, and why is the U.S. Government trying to cut down on the profitability of this poor corporation? And of course, we know that this leads back into the right wing's constant and baseless accusation that Obama and his fellow Democrats are socialists trying to take over the very corporations that are trying to lead us out of our economic woes.
That Republicans and Tea Partiers believe this nonsense is absolutely shocking. It is akin to a person whose house burned down due to a spark caused by faulty wiring, coming to the defense of the company responsible, and then telling the fire department to leave when they show up to put out the flames, after cussing the individual firemen out and accusing them of being no good communist reds. One would hope that if this is truly their stance on the matter, everyone who believes this tripe ought to give up all of their legal rights when dealing with corporations so as not to negatively effect the economy.
Clearly, Fox News and other conservative media outlets are unbelievably effective in influencing their consumers, so much so that on a regular basis, Republicans and Tea Partiers argue against their own rights and best interests for the sake of their corporate masters, and at the same time, do so with the righteous indignation of a populist movement trumpeting freedom and individual liberty. It is patently bizarre.
The real problem is that if this movement gains steam, and Republicans win offices as they are expected to this fall, we, as a nation, may completely lose our way. Right now, we are in desperate need of pragmatic ideas and solutions for the challenges we face in the 21st century, but as long as our politicians and media have to pander to the irrationality spawned on the right wing, we simply cannot move forward, with or without BP.