"Republicans don't seem to realize that they are no longer
individual members of a coherent "party," but are merely part
of a mean-spirited and dangerous movement that is theatening to sweep
away democracy as we know it."
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FREEDOM TO FASCISM -- A BUMPY RIDE
Posted October 13, 2004 thepeoplesvoice.org
By: Sheila Samples
"There's no end to the rascality of these flinty-hearted
bastards..." ~~Sen John Dingle (D.Mich) speaking of Republicans, quoted
on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Nov. 11, 2003
What is the matter with the Republican Party? As one born within a tiny,
tree-shaded Republican enclave in Missouri, raised by compassionate
family-values-oriented Christian conservatives, and whose entire family remains
staunchly, even militantly conservative, I think I have earned the right to ask
that question.
So--what the hell is wrong with you guys?
History bumps along from dateline to dateline with no regard for party
affiliation. That's why last week during the second presidential debate, when
President George Bush slid off his stool, assumed his arms-akimbo "Super
Hero" stance and childishly blurted out, "You can run, butcha can't
hide," I was jerked into the realization that it's not possible for such a
horrid, vacuous little creature to be the cause of the rampant madness
zigzagging throughout our society today. Bush is the effect of it -- the natural
result of a cruel, thoughtless and destructive movement within the Republican
Party that had lain dormant from its inception, but like Stephen King's evil
"Christine," shivered into life on November 22, 1963.
Both parties have been running and hiding ever since.
This is not a treatise on the assassination of a popular American President, nor
of the massive manipulations of an investigative commission to cover it up. That
tragic November day marks the "bump" in our history that began the
evolutionary implosion of the Republican Party into neoconservatism and the
sheer, bleak cruelty of a loveless Christianity.
Before that fateful 1963 bump, New York Govenor Nelson Rockefeller was truly the
face of a kinder, gentler Republican Party. Rich, philanthrophic, and
middle-of-the-road, as Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America in the
1940's, Rockefeller was responsible for the success of FDR's "Good
Neighbor" policy. During his four terms as governor, Rockefeller began
large-scale welfare and drug-rehabilitation programs, reorganized the New York
transportation system and built major public works projects.
At the 1964 convention, Rockefeller pleaded with a booing crowd to "keep
the Republican party the party of all the people." He warned them of the
danger of allowing extremists to gain influence, and of the threat they posed,
not only to the party but to the entire nation. "These extremists feed on
fear, hate and terror," he said. "They have no program for America and
the Republican Party."
Rockefeller sounded the alarm that hateful neoconservatism would only get
stronger and more destructive. "They operate from dark shadows of
secrecy," he said, and his warning that "extremist groups" would
ultimately subvert the values and morality of the Grand Old Party were lost in a
wave of jeers -- "We want Barry! We want Barry!
Rockefeller, in what was considered possibly his finest moment, lost the
ideological battle for the Party to Arizona's "Mr. Conservative,"
Barry Goldwater. The miracle it would take for either man to win the presidency
didn't happen, of course, but the ideology embraced by the conservative wing of
the party would result in a Nixon, a Reagan, and two Bushes -- all swept along
under the evangelical influence of a Pat Robertson and the warmongering cabal of
New World Order neoconservatives.
If ever there was a "flinty-hearted bastard," it was Barry Goldwater.
In his acceptance speech for the nomination, he brazenly admonished his
followers, "...Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice...and
moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue." Although Goldwater lost in
a landslide to Johnson in 1964, he succeeded in putting a new face on the
Republican Party. He achieved his goal of shifting control from the
"liberal" Eastern wing to the radical extremists.
"First let's take over the party," Goldwater told his aides.
"Then we'll go from there."
That's exactly what they did. And, they're still going -- still imploding, still
evolving. The faces change...yet remain the same. They do not intend for their
"forward movement" to be halted and, as the election date looms,
they're increasingly desperate. Frantic. Shrieking. Lying. Totally out of
control.
And that's just Rush Limbaugh. The self-proclaimed Most Dangerous Man in
America.
If Limbaugh -- Rush...El Rushbo...Rusty -- is not the "face" of the
Republican Party, he is its heart and soul -- and its mouth. He's the coward who
crouches behind the "golden microphone" at the Exellence in
Broadcasting (EIB) AM Radio Network and spews hate and filth 15 hours a week,
wallowing ecstatically in his own vomit. He's the guy -- married three times,
divorced three times -- who brags that he's a shining example for the "yoots"
of America.
He's the guy who accused the President of the United States of murder, the First
Lady of resembling a grotesque Pontiac hood ornament; the guy who referred to
the First Daughter as the "White House dog." He's the guy who recently
called John Kerry, a respected US Senator and Democratic presidential candidate,
a "stupid SOB..."
Limbaugh's the guy addicted to Hillbilly Heroin (OxyContin) now facing ten
felony drug counts who once declared that "too many whites are getting away
with drug use. The answer," he said, "is to find the ones who are
getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river..." For once,
as he so often reminds us, Rush is right. A trip up the river for Limbaugh just
might heal some of the wounds he continues to inflict upon this nation's once
proud Republican Party...
There are many frightening things about Limbaugh, but none more so than the
influence he exerts upon his millions of robotic "Dittohead"
listeners, many of whom I suspect would do anything he asked them to. He
launched them into a scary crusade against the music group, The Dixie Chicks,
one of whom dared to criticize George Bush. Think how easily they accepted his
explanation of the torture, abuse and even murder of Iraqi citizens held captive
at the now infamous Bahgdad Abu Ghraib prison.
When a caller suggested in early May that the helpless pile of naked bodies --
the hooded, electrically wired figure forced to stand on a box -- were nothing
but "fraternity pranks," Rush shrieked, http://atheism.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm
?site=http://mediamatters.org/items/200405050003 "Exactly! Exactly my
point! ...This is no different than what happens at the skull and bones
initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to
hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because
they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm
talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of
emotional release? You ever heard of need to blow some steam off?"
Three months later, George Bush, the Dittohead in Chief, called Limbaugh, who is
an "official unpaid advisor" http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site
_091304/content/eib_extra.guest.html to the Bush/Cheney Campaign, from Des
Moines, Iowa, to explain that we really could win the war on terror after
admitting to Today Show's Matt Lauer that we could not win the war on
terror.
If that's not enough to make the few Republicans who still have the ability to
think for themselves remove their partisan earphones, carefully back away from
AM radio, and race out to make an honest effort to retreive their party from the
edge of the abyss, maybe they should consider that Bush 41 routinely calls
Limbaugh during campaigns -- that Vice President Dick Cheney is a regular caller
to the "Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies."
I would like to think there are some Republicans who would even agree with those
of us who think it a bit strange that three of the most powerful men in the
world, when faced with a critical necessity to address all the citizens of the
United States would choose to dial up a foul-mouthed, lying egomaniacal college
drop-out and stroke a bunch of Dittoheads.
Republicans don't seem to realize that they are no longer individual members of
a coherent "party," but are merely part of a mean-spirited and
dangerous movement that is theatening to sweep away democracy as we know it. For
example, on C-Span's July 31 Washington Journal show, Kellyanne Conway, CEO and
president of the Polling Company, angrily demanded -- "Where does the
middle class get the idea they're entitled to a big house, foreign cars and
tuition for all their kids? We got off track in the mid and late 90s -- we need
an administration that will get people back to the reality..."
Reality? Well, according to George Bush's little brother and Florida governor
Jeb Bush, some people just can't handle the truth. Jeb once told retired Naval
Intelligence Officer Al Martin (cited in Bushwhacked, Sept. 2002, by Uri
Dowbenko)...
"The truth is useless. You have to understand this right now. You can't
deposit the truth in a bank. You can't buy groceries with the truth. You can't
pay rent with the truth. The truth is a useless commodity that will hang around
your neck like an albatross -- all the way to the homeless shelter. And if you
think that the million or so people in this country that are really interested
in the truth about their government can support people who would tell them the
truth, you got another think coming. Because the million or so people in this
country that are truly interested in the truth don't have any money."
Each generation of Republicans appears to get a little more malicious, more
dangerous to the common good -- more, well --flinty-hearted. Oklahoma Republican
Senator James Inhofe, who is no less than God's spokesman here on earth, was
recently outraged at the release of photos of the Abu Ghraib inhumanity.
"These prisoners wake up every morning thanking Allah that we are torturing
them instead of Saddam." Inhofe snarled self-righteously during a
nationally televised Senate hearing on the abuse.
Where have all the good guys gone? Where are the "Rockefeller
Republicans?" Do they all buy into the "new" conservative
ideology espoused http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/09/06/National/
Ideology.Vs.Practicality.A.Hamiltonian.Gop-714588.shtml by ultra
right-winger Adam Yoshida in Insight Magazine, that social programs shouldn't be
viewed as an effort to "help" anyone because those who depend upon the
government are "beyond help" anyway?
Yoshida does not advocate cutting off benefits, because he warns doing that
"will simply rouse them from their stupor and get more of them to the polls
on Election Day. Rather," Yoshida continues, "we should consider
maintaining (or even increasing) their benefits while, at the exact same time,
making it harder for them to vote."
This compassionate conservative admits that it "might cost the government
some extra money in the short-term to keep the dregs relatively happy and silent
but, in the long term, it will be a great investment, as fewer of them vote and
therefore allow us to make up for the money spent by electing wiser governments
which will allow for faster economic growth."
Yoshida says keeping the "dregs" poor but happy is "a necessary
amputation. We will discard a diseased limb to save the whole..."
Americans -- both Republicans and Democrats -- must face the reality that, since
November 1963, we have evolved from a government of all the people to
pacification and amputation of the most vulnerable and needy among us. Think
about it.
Americans are on this trip together, and together we must work to change
direction. We can no longer run and hide. Because we are hurtling headlong into
a deadly fascist wall. And that final bump will be fatal.
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Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma freelance writer and a former US Army Public Information Officer. She is a proud member of the Order of Saint Barbara -- the Field Artillery's Patron Saint. She will accept praise and atta-boys at:
rsamples@sirinet.net.
Complaints and death threats should be directed to her cousin, Junior Samples, at BR-549.
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