The most significant takeover of the past decade isn't to be found among the telecoms, the big oil companies, or in Silicon Valley. The reconfigured entity is headquartered in Washington, but we can see and hear the results everyday on your television, radio, and computer screen. And America is much the worse for it. I'm talking about the takeover of the Republican Party by its lunatic fringe.
Reagan's GOP has been replaced by the dark, moldering, putrefied party of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Limbaugh, Coulter, and Malkin. Morning in America has given way to Midnight in America.
Of course, there the Republican Party has always had it Jesse Helmses, Spiro Agnews, and Lee Atwaters. But they were the minority, far removed from the mainstream of the Party -- Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, the first George Bush.
But these days it has become impossible to tell where the mainstream stops and the fanatical fringe begins. Just look at what the so-called "mainstream" of the party is endorsing
We have a mainstream on the right that supports torture, that is backing an Attorney General nominee who is agnostic on torture, and that rallies behind a president who refuses to define what the word "torture" means.
A mainstream that supports -- even applauds -- the behavior of Blackwater thugs.
A mainstream that continues to back the White House's delusions about Iraq at the expense of our military, our treasure, our safety, and our standing in the world.
A mainstream that supports the gutting of our civil liberties.
So, it can no longer be denied: the right wing lunatics are running the Republican asylum.
These days, the only thing that separates the RNC and Rush Limbaugh is a prescription for OxyContin.
The latest evidence: the ugly smear campaign mounted against 12-year-old brain injury survivor Graeme Frost and his family. This new-low-in-messenger-killing wasn't just the doing of the toxic talk radio, rabble-rousing right; it was Senator Mitch McConnell's office pulling together the talking points. And then lying about its involvement when exposed.
And notice the dearth of Republicans willing to distance themselves from the Swiftboating of a 12-year-old boy - a boy who has worked diligently to make a remarkable recovery from his devastating injuries, supported by a loving, hardworking, intact family. Aren't those some of the basic core values the GOP used to stand for?
Despite the fanatical right's takeover of the Republican Party, the traditional media -- with its obsession with "balance" and its pathological devotion to the idea that truth is always found in the middle -- has failed to properly document the metamorphosis. So much easier to see everything that's happening in American politics through the lens of right versus left.
Making matters worse, today's Democrats continue to tread lightly when it comes to holding accountable the fanatics running the GOP. Time and time again, the Democratic leadership allows itself to get played, run over, or distracted. Republicans want to deflect discussion of the war by arguing over newspaper ads and radio comments? Okay, Reid and Pelosi are game. Republicans want to avoid talking about children without healthcare by crying about Pete Stark's tough assessment of the president? Sure, here comes a Pelosi reprimand.
Democrats are in the majority today because their positions are in line with mainstream America. But if the lunatic fringe group now known as the Republican Party is to be stopped in its efforts to radically remake this country, the Democrats are going to have to step up and defend the mainstream that elected them.
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A clear predominance of an inferior grade of U.S. power, Guantanamo Prison: penalizing mere nobody’s without trial, imprisoning without review, confining bare-foot men by chain link fence tinseled with razor wire is no Valentine to humanity.
(And this makes many Republican presidential candidates feel exquisitely!)
take on and confront the lunatics might be
because Cheney and the DOD were listening
in on phone conversations long before they
took office much less before 911. The anthrax
letters were just a reminder. I doubt the
letters were sent by anyone connected with
our government, although DOD probably had full
knowledge. Humm...I wonder who the daring third
party could have been?
I refer, of course, to their divorced status. Why do evangelicals have a right to ignore divorce as a criterion for judging a candidate’s fitness for office, while at the same time continuing to judge candidates by their positions on such issues as gay rights, abortion, and stem cell research? If evangelicals are bound by the literal words of an inerrant Bible to determine a candidate’s fitness for office on the basis of their positions on those issues, why are they not bound by the literal words of an inerrant Bible to deny their support to Giuliani, McCain, or Thompson because of their divorces? In fact, why are evangelicals not required to openly label Giuliani, McCain, and Thompson as adulterers, and to call Mrs. Giuliani an adulteress?
Nothing less than the literal words of Jesus Christ require them to take that stand.
Matthew 5:31-32
But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. Mark 10:3-12 adds: What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
You can’t get more explicit than that. Jesus forbids divorce, except because of the wife’s adultery. If public office should be denied to anyone who does not adhere to the words of the Bible on such issues as abortion, gay rights, and stem cell research, it should be denied also to divorced persons. Further, Jesus makes it clear that Rudolf Giuliani, John McCain, and Fred Thompson are adulterers, and Judith Giuliani is an adulteress.
But do we really have the numbers, or are people all hat and no cattle?
Back in '80 Ronald Reagan decided to change the political nomenclature by labeling the Democratic party as the "Democrat" party, declaring that there's nothing "democratic" about them, and we've been living with that insult ever since.
So maybe it's time to fight back. Hey, they nicked our suffix, so why not nick theirs and henceforth refer to the GOP as the "Republic" party? Tit for tat, measure for measure, "ic" for "an."
A major bit of business it ain't, but wouldn't it be interesting if DEMOCRATIC candidates referred to their opponents in the same insulting manner and wait for them to get all righteous about it.
In the overall scheme of things there are probably far more semantic invocations of greater import and impact than this, but we might as well start somewhere...
I say it every day. No bolt of lightning.
Hmmm...
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
There are a lot of "whacko" things I believe. I believe in a strong America, private enterprise and capitalism, honesty in government, support for our troops as they try to liberate people in Iraq and Afghanistan, God, and those who believe many of the things I believe. I think that the people are better able to take care of themselves than the government and we need less government intervention. I believe in lower taxes and people having more control over their finances. I also believe we can be better than most liberals want to believe and that they should get our of our way to let us succeed. If that is being a right-wing whacko just like Rush Limbaugh, I'm guilty. I've never even had intercourse with a woman because I believe in moral behaviour. Talk about being a whacko.
All us lib'ruls want is for a lifetime of freeloading!
Well done, you.
Minor correction: our troops are not "liberating" anyone in Iraq, they are in the middle of a civil war.
Also, conservative media can distort and be counter-factual without restraint. The rest of the media has the burden of relying on facts to sell their arguments.
anybody else and the Cheney-Bush crime syndicate might face prosecution of their high crimes and treason. Who ever has the most campaign money by Groundhog's Day is the hand picked winner. All that money isn't donations as much as investments.Big Oil was Bush's main backers and it certainly paid off well for them. With computers doing the voting the fix is in.
WTC was the 'burning of the Reichstag' Fixed elections( in florida our ballots were taken from the polling place and put directly into truck mounted shredders, this was in the wee hours of the morning after the 2000 election. Our dog needed a late night walkie. I and my partner were eye witness. and when we tried to speak up I was libelled as a terrorist, put on no fly list and had our home ransacked without warrant or notification in 2003. While we were not home, neighbors witnessed men in 'unmarked black cars with federal tags' Every file and computer had been gotten into and there was a bottle of quarters (about 100$ worth) on the dresser, if it were a robbery the money and tvs would have been gone.