The Republicans are sure teaching this country a lesson. But not the one they think they are.
As they continue to espouse scripture from their crazed, craven syllabus, there are of course those willing students who hear and absorb the fundamental components of their flat earth/scorched earth philosophy and go forth to apply what they have learned.
But what the Republican lesson plans don't account for is their own party's demise.
For every bandwidth crammed with vitriol, there is another, accidentally subliminal wave which radiates alongside, detected and absorbed accidentally by the human being's innate capacity for good, of knowing right from wrong. And the collateral damage is enlightenment.
In Germany, the lessons learned after experiencing life and death under National Socialism were ingrained into that nation's essence and passed on to subsequent generations who observe the consequences of their own terrible history with reverence and solemnity. Of course there are scattered cells containing remnants of the old guard, straining to remain relevant, and failing.
Here in America, the so-called Tea Baggers have regularly invoked Nazi imagery with little understanding of the labels they so callously and carelessly apply. This is because they have never known life under National Socialism, never known true oppression, never known the terrors inflicted upon them in the form of a steel toed boot to the face or the burning of a home by shrieking militia or the extermination of a daughter, father, mother or son.
They just "know" what they have been told is so. And just like their predecessors in early 20th century Germany, they trust the loudest, the most incendiary, the most divisive. It's easy math, easy grammar, easy learning.
But we are all finding out what life is like where the fruits of a Republican education are in full bloom. We saw what it yielded after eight years of Republican domination under Bush and we see what it yields with Republican fueled media outlets.
And someday the citizens who followed those teachings in tragic lockstep will find out that the education they received was as deceptive as the one their predecessors in early 20th century Germany received. And then, the lesson learned the hard way, the American people will really know.
And "Republican" will be a shameful, hateful word.
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Their hypocrisy generates a self-delusion they hold some non-existent high moral ground, and they're locked in some feedback loop of seeking dictatorial power, where they claim they're 'speaking for America' - though in the minority. Yet, they continue denying their violence and totalitarianism of attitude, and those delusions within that frame of reference are then cemented a little more firmly in place.
Between tea-potty challengers to republican'ts, the birchers of the tea-potty that WILL eventually be shunned, the ashamed ex-republican'ts now calling themselves libertarians and the truly Christian that no longer believe 'the right' bears the message of their savior - I have to agree, Steven, they're just about done. From this point forward there's likely no possible return to 'glory days' even should they find another Reagan, as it will be awhile before OUR country again falls for either 'tax-cuts to the wealthy', or a 'deregulation of business'.
OUR country waits for the day when pure capitalism is recognized for being similar in evil to what pure socialism has been shown. But just as China cannot sustain a world-level economy without capitalistic type business incentives, we've found OUR country cannot sustain a 'healthy' society with republican'ts completely anti-social about ANY 'social reforms'. A great portion of the rights hypocrisy stems from this republican't notion anything socialistic in OUR country - is automatically bad, when in truth OUR armed services prove otherwise - every day.
So parties can disappear, explode, implode... or they can change into something unrecognizable. Stranger than fiction, yes?
They just "know" what they have been told is so.
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No kidding. When asked some basic questions, their mindless, vacant-expressioned ignorance is in full springtime bloom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pilG7PCV448
- Tom
It might seem that the GOP is in decline. But I recall that an ideological purge preceded the rise of The Reich. There are dangerous times ahead. An amorphous ideology, just like a superstition, is a hard thing to overcome, internally or in opposition. It is also hard to observe in oneself, the repeating of history.
Obama, Democrats, and Republicans are playing a big kabuki theater among themselves to please partisan hacks on both the left and the right and hopefully a few independents, but in the end the only groups that are winning are entrenched corporate interests.
Republican is already a dirty and shameful word.
My feeling is that there are a few extremely wealthy conservatives who are far right ideologues. Way far to the right than your typical oligarch. They see a strong middle class and democracy as a liability. The teabaggers are enamoured with them and until someone convinces them otherwise they will continue to vote against their best interests.
Unable to successfully run on that agenda, they must instill fear of their opponents in the minds of people too lazy or mentally challenged to figure out they're being led to the extreme opposite of their own self-interests.
One of the most telling examples of mindless obeyance to the fraudulent Republican agenda, came in an interview with an elderly female tea bagger last year.
The woman was participating in the protests against HCR in DC. When she told the interviewer she was a retired nurse, he asked her what she thought of Medicare.
She absoluted glowed when she spoke of how wonderful Medicare had been for the patients she'd help over the past 40 years. Yes, she absolutey did think Medicare should be expanded to more people.
This woman was carrying a sign that read, "Bury Obama Care With Ted Kenedy."
I'm not quite sure how you get through to someone like that. Someone fighting against working towards the very thing she had so admired for 40 years of her professional life. A program she was no doubt enjoying herself in her retirement.
Education is clearly the key. Now, if only the Dems can figure out how to educate for the good, as well as the Repubs have mastered educating for the worst possible outcomes.
Alas, as it has historically been shown in totalitarian regimes, and now with the apparent conservative excommunication and "shunning" of David Frum for speaking truth to the propagandists, we see that, apparently, nothing short of a total collapse of that regime will ultimately work.
Fortunately, they're doing a very good job of self-destructing. Let's help the process along over the next couple of election cycles.
Or so I believe.