BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
Could GOP Leaders Possibly Believe Their Own Rhetoric?
Is it possible that Republicans truly believe that President Obama is both a socialist, and a fascist, who wasn't born in the United States, and that providing affordable health-care to American families is a plot to destroy America? Could they possibly believe that Dick Cheney kept America safe, or that George Bush was protecting the American way of life? And is it possible that they consider their incendiary rhetoric simply innocent speech, and don't recognize that during this time of severe hardship they could very easily incite insurrection within the country? It's not likely.
Thus, it is way passed the time for anyone who truly loves America to realize that the Republican leadership is a threat to our way of life - and as always, I want to emphasize the huge distinction between true conservatives, and those currently running the Republican Party.
The current Republican leadership is a vastly different breed than anything we've ever seen in America before. Even during the Civil War, though wrongheaded, the insurrection of the South was led by people who truly believed in their ideals. But this group of insurrectionists have no ideals. This is a group that is perfectly willing to tear America apart for no other reason than to promote their own power and personal greed. In short, they're nothing less than common thugs engaged in a nationwide protection racket against the people of the United States.
In the recent contest in New York's 23rd Congressional District, we just saw that, contrary to Reagan conservatives' eleventh commandment of "Thou shall not speak badly of another Republican," that this group was more than willing to eat their own, against the will of the vast majority of Republican voters for what they consider "party purity." Where have we seen that before?
And the mere fact that the GOP is willing to espouse outrageous propositions, then use incendiary rhetoric to incite reactionary wingnuts to try to shove their agenda down America's throat, clearly demonstrates how dangerous the GOP has become as a political entity. It shows that they hold the intelligence of the American people in absolute disdain, and that they believe that propaganda, if repeated often and loudly enough, will overwhelm America's common sense. And again, it also betrays a chilling and grossly irresponsible willingness to throw America under the bus in an attempt to regain power during a time when the country needs solidarity more than ever.
The GOP has left President Obama with two wars, the worst financial decline since the Great Depression, and a national infrastructure that is literally falling apart. Yet, instead of responsibly stepping up to the plate to help find viable solutions for the hardships they've left on the American people, they're indulging in obstructionism, the protection of fat cats to the detriment of the average American, and the incitement of social bigotry through the use of subliminal messaging. These are clearly the actions of people who are totally devoid of any sense of Patriotism.
While the GOP claims to be fighting for "small government," that's transparently not the case. The fact is, while they want a government too small in its oversight capabilities to regulate their corruption and greed, they were more than willing to violate the law to ensure a government that was expansive enough to spy on American citizens. And while they claim to want lower taxes, they only want lower taxes for fat cats and corporations, while they fight to ensure that those very same corporations are allowed to, literally, "tax" the average citizen out of life and limb, by inflating the price of gas, food, housing, health-care, and every other staple of American life. So even if they do fight for lower taxes, it's only so they can transplant those funds from government coffers to their own.
They also claim to believe in state's rights, but they're only for a state's right to deprive the citizens of any rights that the corporations failed to abolish at the national level. That accounts for the proposed amendment allowing states to "opt-out" in the event that a public option is passed to health-care. The right to block affordable health-care at the state level would be their final opportunity to protect their cash cow - the insurance industry.
But the key to selling their bogus claims is dependent on deluding the American people into thinking that a huge grown swell of Americans support their fraudulent point of view. The GOP tries to do that by whipping some of the most undereducated people in the country into a frenzy, and then promoting raucous demonstrations as photo ops. By doing so, they're betting on the fact the American people are so dumb that they don't realize that with a population of 308 million people in the United States, it's easy for Fox News to squeeze enough people into a television screen to make virtually any issue seem like they have a ground swell of support from the masses. But through the use of that technique, one can even show a ground swell of support for child molestation.
There are 686,515 registered sex offenders in the United States. If the GOP could turn out (excuse the pun) all of those sex offenders before a camera, they could use that photo op to make the case that these sex offenders represent a majority of the American people. And that's exactly what they're doing, but instead of using sex offenders, they're enlisting Fox News to gather up every social bigot and wingnut they can find to squeeze before the camera.
It's time for America to wake up (liberal and conservative alike) and put a stop to these people. They're gradually chipping away at American ideals and replacing them with their own. In eight short years they've amended the American ideal that torture is un-American to read, "Well, that depends;" that America should only invade a sovereign nation in self-defense to, "Unless we don't like them;" and that all Americans have the right to privacy and due process under the law to, "accept if some bureaucrat decides that ain't cool."
The behavior of the GOP suggests that they believe the following:
1."The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one."
2. " I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator . . ."
3."The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force."
4."The [Republican party] should not become a constable of public opinion, but must dominate it. It must not become a servant of the masses, but their master!"
5."Sooner will a camel pass through a needle's eye than a great man be 'discovered' by an election."
All of the above quotations come directly from Adolph Hitler and his book, Mien Kampf.
So this is not just an exercise in hyperbole. It is essential that Americans take this assault on our way of life seriously. It is incumbent upon all Americans - again, both liberal and conservative - to look back at how far we've drifted away from our ideals during the Bush era. Even Bush himself said, "I have no problem with a dictatorship. Just as long as I'm the dictator." Just imagine the kind of firestorm that would result if President Obama said something like that.
So if you're a liberal, consider the gross assault that the GOP mounted against our constitution and civil rights. If conservative, consider the GOP's reckless waste of the nation's resources as they passed billions of dollars out to their cronies without a shred of accountability. And at the same time, they were forcing our troops who were wounded in battle to pay for their equipment left on the battlefield, and requiring them to pay for their own meals while lying wounded in the hospital. And this, by people who, almost to the man, moved hell and Earth to avoid their own military service. Dick Cheney had five (5) deferments.
And their agenda? Here's a note to Rush Limbaugh from Rep. Michele Bachmann before her anti-healthcare rally, as reported by thinkprogress.org: "We'll have a meet-up at the Capitol steps and then the insurgency begins."
So it is past time for all Americans to put their differences aside to fight an internal enemy that is much more insidious than Al Qaeda. It's time to recognize that it CAN happen here - and if we don't wake up soon, it will.