Wake up, Mr. President - The GOP has Launched a Jihad Against America

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Wake up, Mr. President - The GOP has Launched a Jihad Against America

We all know you're a nice guy, Mr. President, but this is a seminal moment in American history. The Republican Party has revealed themselves to be the American Taliban. They're inciting insurrection, protecting corporate corruption, denying unemployed Americans subsistence, and they threaten to cripple the nation as a whole with their irresponsible use of the filibuster. The Republican agenda is to keep America ignorant and miserable at any cost. So at this point we don't need nice, we don't need bipartisanship, and we don't need a diplomat. What we need at this point in our history is a Commander-in-Chief to lead us in the fight against Republican tyranny. So it's time to suck it up and "fix bayonets," sir.

The Republican Party is a coalition of three separate constituencies with confluent interests. The first group is made up of traditional conservatives. These are highly patriotic Americans who believe in limited government, the primacy of the people over government, and fiscal responsibility. But the other two groups that have coalesced within the GOP are much more malevolent - international business interests, and social bigots.

It is the former of these two, international business, that controls the GOP. It's made up of highly educated individuals with huge resources and plenty of clout - and they use every bit of their resources and clout to manipulate what has become their citizen army - the social bigots. The social bigots are the people we see armed to the teeth at presidential speeches, disrupting townhall meetings, and fighting against their own interests. In short, these are the "Joe the Plumbers" of the world.

While the traditional conservatives are legitimately concerned about the direction of the country and assuring that the nation remains fiscally sound, big business could care less about the condition of the American people, because for the most part, they've become international in scope. That should be clear to anyone with eyeballs, considering how they first, created an economic crisis in this country, then used the very crisis that they created to gouge the American people.

So all big business is concerned about is making money at our expense, and more often than not, to our detriment. These are the very same people who have gouged America dry, given themselves huge bonuses, then rented post office boxes in other countries to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

And if that isn't bad enough, these corporations then used the very money that they avoided in taxes to buy politicians, who are suppose to be representing us, to feather their nests even further. They're also using the incredible wealth that they've managed to maintain - again, thanks to our tax dollars - to clog our airwaves with propaganda in order to incite every undereducated social bigot within earshot to near insurrection. They're using these people to distract us from examining the true issues that would serve to protect us from their greed.

And the social bigots are easy targets - not only because they have less than a tenuous grasp on reality, but in many cases, they're willing stooges. These are not true victims. Due to their bigotry - and I don't mean simply racial bigotry, but bigotry against anyone who doesn't happen to share their beliefs - and anger over losing the last election, they're willing to accept any kind of nonsense disseminated about the government, and you, Mr. President, in particular. Due to that blind anger they're perfectly willing to not only accept the most blatant nonsense, but they're also willing to cut their own throats, and that of their families, if it means striking a blow in the name hatred.

Take the issue of socialism, for example. Shouldn't even the most misguided idiot understand that there's a big difference between the government protecting its citizens from the greed and predatory business practices of large corporations, and their claim that government is taking over the free enterprise system?

Even a child should recognize that some things are just too important to our society to be left to for-profit business interests. Those things include police, fire, national defense, and public healthcare. Imagine calling the police to report your daughter has been raped or kidnaped and the police inform you that they were sorry but there was nothing they could do - your daughter just turned 18, so she's no longer covered in your rape/kidnap policy.

But the social bigots can't see that - they don't want to see it - because they've been whipped into a mindless frenzy by the corporate media. Yes, I said mindless - anyone who can be convinced to demonize the very person who is trying to protect THEIR families from corporations that just two years earlier came close to gouging them into another Great Depression, is by definition, ignorant and brainwashed.

That's a dangerous level of stupidity, Mr. President, and it is essential that you recognize that fact. You simply cannot be reasonable with people like that. Neville Chamberlain tried it prior to WWII. It didn't work then, and it's not gonna work now.

So you need to drop this (I'm sorry, Mr. President) irrational need to cater to these people. Yeah, I said it - irrational. That's why you're dropping in the polls. You're putting so much effort into catering to people that you'll never win over that you're allowing them to dilute legislation that they have no intention of voting for, and they're causing you to turn your back on the people who elected you.

Yes, Mr. President, you've accomplished a great deal in your short tenure - probably more than any other president in modern times. But unfortunately, you're also being judged on what you're FAILING to do. For example, Bush and Cheney should be under indictment for war crimes by now. You simply cannot sidestep your failure to act in this area. This is not a political issue where there's room for debate. This issue represents the rule of law, and the rule of law is THE most important component in any democracy. You're a constitutional scholar - you should know that.

You promised us a change we could believe in, Mr. President, but frankly, I ain't feeling it. So as Duke Ellington used to say, "We love you madly," but your falling poll numbers is our way of telling you, this ain't what we voted for.

So suck it up, my man, and be all that you can be.

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Why is President Obama Losing Momentum in the Polls?

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE Why is President Obama Losing Momentum in the Polls? President Obama is beginning to lose the politically essential enthusiasm of many independent voters. The primary reason for that is that he seems to be deviating from the message that got their support in the first place. During his campaign, candidate Obama promised "A Change that We Can Believe in," but now, President Obama's vain attempt to appease the GOP is only serving to water down the very change that he promised, and America expected. We embraced Obama because we understood that many of the problems in this country was a direct result of the logjam caused by the endless feuding between the far left and right fringes of American politics. We had the sense that Obama wasn't a partisan player, so middle America rose up, put race aside, and selected him as a refreshing change. And as president, Obama is indeed a refreshing change in that he's neither liberal nor is he conservative. He's a pragmatist, so unlike most, his thinking is not distorted by a one-size-fit-all, pre-chewed and regurgitated ideology. He assesses every issue on its own merit, and he bases his decisions on what he believes is in the best interest of America as a whole. But ironically, it is that very pragmatism that's currently undermining his efforts. Political pragmatism has led President Obama to mistakenly believe that the best way to resolve the nation's problems is through reaching out in bipartisanship to the Republican Party. That sounds good in theory, but it can only work if the Republican Party is acting in good faith, which it isn't. The Republicans have no interest in bipartisanship - especially if it means helping to resolve America's problems. Their only interest is in undermining Obama's presidency, serving their corporate contributors, and stoking the flame of division among the social fringies in the Palin\Limbaugh wing of the party. Clear evidence of that is apparent in Sen. Jim DeMint's (R, S.C.) comment indicating that if they can block healthcare reform it will break Obama - never giving a thought to the negative impact that would have on the families of millions of jobless Americans. So the president's good will is being used against him, and based on the latest polls, with increasing effectiveness. The Republicans are using his attempt at bipartisanship to water down his initiatives to point where they're close to meaningless, then voting against them anyway after he's compromised in an attempt to accommodate them. The president's accommodating nature is allowing Republican nihilists to have their cake and eat it too. First, they're sabotaging his bills with so many amendments that they're rendering them ineffective. Then, if the initiative is effective, they claim that the only reason it worked was due to their amendments. But if it's ineffective, they tell the American people, "See, we told you he didn't know what he's doing." As a result, the polls show that many Democrats and independents are becoming increasingly weary with what's beginning to look like Obama's incessant catering to the whims of the right. Many of the president's supporters are now openly saying, we might as well have a Republican in office if he's going to give them everything they want. And it's becoming harder to argue that point with each day that passes. In spite of the fact the every member of the administration has sworn an oath to uphold the constitution, the Obama administration is doing a better job of protecting Bush and Cheney from accountability than they did for themselves, and it's absolutely unconscionable. The Bush/Cheney regime mounted a blatant assault on the United States Constitution, caused the death and injury of thousands of American troops and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, and they committed war crimes so heinous that they have all but destroyed the reputation of the United States throughout the world - and all for the purpose of political and financial gain. So why are they walking around with impunity? While one might argue that the president fully intends to address this issue, along with the matter of sexual bigotry within the military, his economic stimulus and healthcare reform is under attack, so it's simply impractical to also alienate the Bush apologists and homophobes at this time. I don't think that argument stands up. The class of people who represent the homophobes and Bush apologists are going to be hostile to the president's initiatives regardless to what action he takes, or fail to take. So by failing to promptly address the mandate that got him elected, he stands to lose his base of support without gaining a thing. And further, if the GOP were kept busy trying to protect the Bush/Cheney legacy, they wouldn't have the time to distort the president's healthcare reform at their leisure. But most importantly, President Obama is a constitutional scholar, so he should know better than anyone that it's not up to him whether or not these men are held accountable. Their accountability is dictated by the rule of law, and either a nation believes in the rule of law, or it doesn't. Thus, by turning his back on his responsibility in this matter, Obama is setting a precedent that tells the world, and posterity, that in America the powerful are above the law, and the rule of law is secondary to political pragmatism. By taking this position he's placing the future of this nation in serious jeopardy. If Richard Nixon had gone to jail for Watergate, and Ronald Reagan had joined him for his excesses during the Iran/Contra affair and flooding our inner cities with drugs in order to finance it, the Bush administration wouldn't have dared to engage in the criminal activity that they engaged in. The only reason Bush and Cheney felt free to mount an assault on our constitution is because a precedent had been set with Nixon and Reagan that the powerful was above the law. Now, with President Obama talking about "looking forward," that precedent threatens to be set in stone. If that becomes the case, what can we expect from the next generation of demagogues? So it's understandable that the polls are beginning to show that many Democratic and independent voters are beginning to question the president's approach to this matter. It's nothing close to a change that we can believe in. As they see it, it is one thing to be a nice guy, but it is something altogether different to completely ignore the rule of law - even in an attempt to be pragmatic. As Neville Chamberland learned after his warm and fuzzy moment with Adolf Hitler - it never pays to kiss a snake.  Eric L. Wattree wattree.blogspot.com Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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