CONNECT
NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Wednesday 29 August 2012
“Like his buddy Todd, Ryan has sponsored many bills to deny abortion to victims of rape.”
Welcome to GOP Nutland!
While it's hard to fathom right-wing nuttiness, it's sure not hard to find these days.
We saw it bloom spectacularly recently, popping right out of the head of Todd Akin, the GOP's Senate candidate in Missouri. The learned congressman gave America a twisted tutorial on the imaginary science of "legitimate rape," including an astonishing assertion of his belief in medical mojo. Akin explained that raped women don't get pregnant because — according to his grasp of reproductive science — the female body has ways "to shut that whole thing down."
Whoa! Screamed Mitt Romney and the entire Republican hierarchy, as they rushed to declare Akin out-of-bounds, unacceptable and ... well, nutty.
But wait. Guess who's presently cosponsoring legislation with Akin to impose this theological witchcraft on America's women? Why it's Romney's choice to hold the second-highest office in our nation, VP nominee Paul Ryan. Like his buddy Todd, Ryan has sponsored many bills to deny abortion to victims of rape.
Now, guess which party has just fully embraced Akin's nuttiness by including his absolutist "no-abortion-even-in-the-case-of-rape" provision in its national platform? Yes, the Romney-Ryan Republicans. Yet, that same party's panicked Poobahs have pronounced Akin's views so extreme that he should withdraw from the Missouri Senate race. Excuse me, but — logically speaking — doesn't that mean Ryan should also withdraw from his race?
Of course, in the fantasy universe of the far right, logic is an alien intruder, barred from interfering with either approved doctrine or political expediency. Indeed, here's their idea of logic: Akin, a devout worshipper of junk science, is a member of the House Committee on Science. Go figure.
And if you find that surreal, let me add that his committee assignment is hardly the only illogical perversion in the doctrinal right's carefully constructed NutLand.
Michele Bachmann, for example, is a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
While Akin's pseudo-scientific tommyrot about "legitimate rape" has surged him into the lead for the title of Dottiest and Most Dangerous Political Nut of the Year, never count out us Texans in any hard-nut contest.
Our state's DMDPNY front-runner had been Ted Cruz, currently the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate, who's deeply concerned that the United Nations is plotting to take over America's golf courses. Suddenly, however, a dark horse from Lubbock has shot past Cruz and seized the lead. County Judge Tom Head, perhaps suffering from the heat of August, shocked and delighted the right-wing-o-sphere by demonstrating in an Aug. 21 interview that it's actually humanly possible to get even nuttier about President Obama than simply ranting that he's a Kenyan Muslim socialist. I'll let Head speak for himself.
"In this political climate, what is the worst thing that could happen? Obama gets back in the White House," he answered to his own question. "No. God forbid," he added. Why? Plunging deeper into paranoid darkness, Head announced that a re-elected Obama is "going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the U.N." And that, warned Head, will lead to the worst: "Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war, maybe. We're talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy. Now what's going to happen if we do that?" asked Head as he built to his logical conclusion: "(Obama's) going to send in U.N. troops."
However, Head (who oversees emergency preparedness in the county) told Lubbockians not to worry, for if they approve a local tax increase, he will use the money to recruit and train more police to combat Obama's diabolical U.N. takeover scheme. "I don't want 'em in Lubbock County," Head said. "So I'm going to stand in front of their armored personnel carrier and say, 'You're not coming in here.'"
Thank you, Judge Head, for showing America just what you're made of: a sack of nuts and a bucket of silly putty.
Copyright Creators.com
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ABOUT Jim Hightower
National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
49 comments on "Welcome to GOP Nutland!"
September 02, 2012 11:24am
Strugglingtomakeit: An honest pseudonym if ever there was. I was waiting for the personal revelation concerning what ways you have had to suffer at the hands of some Liberal. Your August 30 @12:33PM post gave us all we need to know about you. You should probably stop now.
Being a liberal doesn't make me or the President a Marxist, a socialist, a narcissist. a baby killer, or any of the other names you wish to assign. It makes us persons who accept the platform of a Party other than yours as our best choice presently available. No more and no less.
August 30, 2012 1:38pm
Christ Struggler, get a fucking grip already. What in the hell is wrong with you. Are you so mad at your husband for making you put him thru school that you need to unload on a man that has worked his whole life for others and his family? You need to get your doctor hubby to write you a script for something. Although, the way you sound I'm sure he already has. But for the love of your God, get a fucking grip!!!
August 30, 2012 4:17am
To paraphrase HL Mencken " Nobody went broke underestimating the sanity of the GOP "
August 30, 2012 12:31am
Now my story. My daughter was not a victim of rape. But..I was to be 40 years old when she would be born.
I was a Navy Dependent in San Diego. The Navy doctors sent me to a private Women's clinic, since they considered me high risk.
After being examined and talking to the OB-Gyn on staff, I was sent to talk to a woman. She advised me that I should abort my child. I was offended. I got up and told her that my child was a Gift from God...an unexpected gift...and I would not abort her, even if I found out she had defects!
My daughter was born on Veteran's Day in 1990. She was 10 pounds and I delivered her naturally after having a C-section with my first child. My little Sumo Wrestler is what I called her, that day.
She turned out to be not only physically beautiful, but very talented and may be a genius! She was once a model. Played the viola and the guitar. May still.
She ran for President of her class in the 6th grade. So we got to talking about her future. She told me she wanted to graduate college, with an acting degree and a political science degree. She would win an Academy Award and then run for President. Remember she was in 6th grade. She said her platform would be...EVERYONE..rich or poor...would pay a flat tax of 10% to the IRS.
When I told adults what she said...they said..."I would vote for her!" I thought it astute and cute!
In high school she kept a 4.o Average.
She is now in a University and has held a 4.o average. At her University, they pick one student's art work and put it on PERMANENT display at the University. Last year..they picked one of my daughter's works.
And....she has taken EVERY math there is...even the ones I cannot pronounce...and she has had a 4.o average in every one.
She is a certified Rock Climber, also.
And this was the child the clinic wanted me to abort. What a disservice I would have done to the world, by aborting her! Her talents will get her far in life.
And I am sure one day, some very lucky young man is going to thank me for not aborting his wife.
August 30, 2012 10:46pm
So now I guess you're going to say that anyone who would counsel a 40-year-old pregnant woman to consider abortion is a baby-killer and all that.
It is a known medical fact that the older a woman's eggs are when they are fertilized, the greater the likelihood the child may have Down's Syndrome or some other abnormality. (We now know that the age of the male sperm "donor" could increase the likelihood of abnormality in the fetus.) Of course, the decision was up to you, and you decided the way you did, and apparently it worked out well for you and the child, and I can honestly say I'm glad it did.
But no one kidnapped you and tied you down and tried to force an abortion on you. The whole point is about choice, and you had that choice. When abortion was illegal, a woman your age who was afraid of abnormality in her fetus or maybe had strong reasons for not wanting a(nother) child, had to resort to dangerous back-alley types of abortions that put her own life at risk.
I'm a progressive, and I can tell you that I oppose late-term abortions unless the mother's life is at stake. And I firmly believe in contraception so that abortions will be few. And even when a man and woman decide on an early abortion, I don't think it's an easy choice that is happily made. But I do want a woman to have the choice to terminate an early pregnancy if she has a valid reason for not wanting to carry the child to delivery.
I hate to see abortion used as a "birth-control" measure when the Pill, the Loop and the Condom are for that purpose.
August 30, 2012 10:58am
Thank u to StrugglingToMakeIt for writing about your daughter, and how proud u r of her. You should be pleased and honored to raise such a fine child, now woman. I also raised my own son & daughter although I was very young & circumstances less than ideal. I've never been forced to hv an abortion & would defend that right to make that choice at the risk of my own life. Will always defend any woman's right to make that decision. It is immoral for government to intervene. That is the issue. Not whether abortion is right or wrong. I totally believe it is wrong but only the mother has that responsibility to choose.
August 30, 2012 3:30am
Is the Republican Party really made up of atheists ???
The Constitution calls for a separation of church and state . . . the law says women have the right under law to an abortion - - their free will..
IF their platform is one of religious belief . . .does that mean they are entering into a conspiracy to overthrow our Constitution
THEN COMES THE MUSLIM REILIGIOUS RESTRICTION OF ALL WOMEN's RIGHTS.... are they muslim???.
I understand their following Michael Milkin king of greed is good...BUT.....
think about it . . . . . . WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR AMERICAN VALUES???
August 30, 2012 3:10am
. . . First let me say I like your chosen handle "strugglingtomakeit"
the struggle is what makes it worthwhile
GOOD FOR YOU - THREE CHEERS - THUMBS UP
YOU THINK FOR YOURSELF ....AND DO NOT LISTEN TO NAY SAYERS
August 30, 2012 12:18am
Here is the true life story of an attorney who was a Child of Rape! I got this info from Free Republic online website.
Child of Rape Says All Life Has Value.
1/28/02
Posted on Monday, January 28, 2002 12:44:25 PM
Concord, NH -- Whenever attorney Rebecca Kiessling hears people condemn abortion except in the case of rape or incest, she feels a deep personal pain.
She was conceived during a rape. Her birth mother attempted to get an abortion, but they were illegal at the tim, and she ultimately decided against it. Her frightened mother gave up her baby for adoption instead.
Kiessling was adopted by a Jewish couple in Michigan, who raised her in their faith, and encouraged her to become a lawyer. Until her late teens, she had no idea of the circumstances of her birth, or the identity of her birth mother.
Last week, Kiessling spoke to about 350 people in Concord's Sacred Heart Church after most had just completed the annual March for Life from the New Hampshire State House to the church.
"The biggest message I have is... all life has value," Kiessling said.
Kiessling, 32, of Rochester Hills, Mich., is a semi-retired Christian lawyer, having closed her law office to take care of her family and speak around the country.
She still does some pro-bono legal work for women, and pro-life groups.
She and her husband, Bob, adopted their son Caleb, who often travels with her. His birth mother was 16 and conceived him at a rave party.
The Kiesslings also adopted a daughter, Cassie, who lived for only 33 days and died of DiGeorge syndrome, which is a rare group of abnormalities including recurring infections and heart defects.
"It's so sad that people could look at Cassie and say she wasn't as good," Kiessling said. Kiessling said society too often judges people by whether they are a burde, or benefit, without acknowledging the true value of each human life.
"It was an honor to take care of her . . . It was the most important thing I've ever done," Kiessling said.
Kiessling believes God has a special place in his heart for disabled children. "Each one of our lives makes a difference, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise," Kiessling said.
And if you google her name..you will see a picture of a very beautiful woman!
Many famous people in our past were children of rape. If they had been aborted, we would be without their talents..that gave us beautiful music and wonderful art, and fantastic Science! There are doctors, lawyers, architects and many other people who give back to society, who are children of rape.
Here are the names of a few well known people who were children of rape. Tell me would you not have missed their talent?
Female:
Tori Amos
Fiona Apple
Fantasia
Fran Drescher
Terri Hatcher
Oprah
Billie Holiday
Connie Francis
Maya Angelou
Male:
Axl Rose
Carlos Santana
Billy Connolly
Thomas Dekker
Rufus Wainwright
Henry Rollins
Marilyn Manson
Ozzy Osbourne
John Peel
Clyde Barrow
Sid Vicious
T.E. Lawrence
Galileo
I know one of the most famous composers, in the 1600's I believe, was a child of rape. Sorry, I just cannot remember his name.
Just wanted to show you...it is not the child's fault. So why not give birth to that baby, and let it thrive to the point of becoming someone who can give back to the world!? It is not a punishment to carry a baby in your womb. It is a remarkable and loving experience. I have forgotten all the inconveniences of pregnancy! Once that baby is in your arms...those memories just disappear, like a mist in the air!
August 30, 2012 12:26pm
Even though I'm a liberal, I am more with you than against you on the abortion issue. I believe women are unique in having to consider life other than their own when that other life is inside of them. It truly is no longer a matter of "my body" and I'll do with it what I want. On the other hand it is also a matter where their feelings and opinions should be highly regarded . They most definitely should have an option if their own life is at stake. How many women aren't here today so that a list of them could be made as to their contributions to the world because they died in childbirth? Also the nasty treatment of living, breathing women by many on the right is quite evident in how, for instances, the vile Limbaugh degraded Ms. Fluke for wanting and needing just methods of birth control, never mind abortion. He was absolutely sickening. And the panel that was brought together to just discuss the issue left women out completely. That is just stupid and horribly dismissive. And that former presidential candidate Rick Santorum even took his low opinion of women to a child's level and berated a young boy for playing with a "pink" ball only shows the depth of the right's willingness to belittle women. Any group of people that so completely tell me I am "less than" at any chance they can is simply someone I will never, ever vote for in a million years. And Mr. Limbaugh's most recent disgusting remark saying maybe the latest hurricane will eliminate some of the poor so they don't show up to vote showed even more clearly the right's disgusting disdain for the living if they don't fit the right "mold". No thanks, I would never, never , never vote for that kind of mean spirited arrogance.
August 30, 2012 7:17am
Apperently legitimate rapes.
August 30, 2012 6:11am
20 out of how many? You go back 600 years or more. But way back then when their were wars their was rape and pillage. When were thought of by men as nothing but a commodity for their fun and pleasure. If we are to call ourselves a civilized society we must respect the rights of a woman and her body. Rape is brutal and most often those that bear the burden of pregnancy are not older mature woman but young girls still in their teens. Do you think to outlaw abortion will stop abortion? No it will go back to the backroom, the basement, the garage, for the poor person. Back to the girls aborting themselves with coat hangers and end up bleeding to death internally. For the those that can afford it it will go back to that discrete summer at the so called European health spa or a big under the table payment to a doctor in a sterile clinic after hours.
August 29, 2012 11:51pm
I don't understand WHY Mr. Hightower has to demean people when he reports.
Couldn't he just give you the facts, instead of injecting his deep seeded HATE for others?
On the subject of abortion for a rape victim. Let me ask...should the child suffer for the sins of the father? Is that child not innocent? Believe me...just getting rid of the baby DOES NOT help the mother FORGET! She will NEVER forget the rape...no matter what she does. How do I know? I have been raped! Twice! The details of both are burnt in my mind! They happened in the 70's and I still know every detail. I wake up in the middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep because of the dream I just had of one of the rapes!
And..I know what the Rep from Missouri was trying to get across...but he misspoke and really should have left that question alone, unless he could get the point across properly.
A woman's body is KNOWN to resist conception when utter STRESS is put upon her. For example...Say a couple was trying way too hard to get pregnant. They do not get pregnant. Why? Because there is too much stress on the mother...she cannot conceive. So they adopt. And after they adopt...she becomes pregnant. Why? Because her stress is gone! She can conceive. Women who are raped... who are ripe for pregnancy... usually will not conceive because of the HORRIBLE STRESS that is put upon them, at the time of the rape.
Now below is a comment from a woman who was born from rape. I hope it is not too long...tell you what...I will put it in another text box. Then I will also tell you what happened in California when the women's clinic told me I should abort my child.
August 30, 2012 1:43am
Mr. Hightower does not have a deep seated hate for others - he is a terrific guy - I've met him. He is simply being cynical, like Jonathan Swift, in his famous essay on the Irish famine where he suggested that eating children would help solve the starvation problem. Do your homework, get with modern English satire, and figure out that not all people are foaming at the mouth simply because they lampoon the idiocy of ideologues who have the backing of even more naive, emotionally immature constituents. Go Jim!
August 29, 2012 10:31pm
Let's not be so unkind to the poor Gops; they are suffering from a terrible plague of COAC -- Cranial Occlusion of the Ascending Colon. With this malady one can not only not see where he's going but has no trouble swallowing a lot of fecal material.
August 29, 2012 9:59pm
Two points here:
(1) Those who appose abortion for religious reasons must make an argument from some sort of foundation besides "The Bible told me so." So, they can't use science in the case of abortion, since the methods of science prove clearly that neither zygots nor fetuses are people, and people are the only animals that have a legal right to life.
What they can do is keep saying that zygotes and fetuses are people (they like to confuse the definition of fetus with child for even more emotional clap-trap), so they deserve the same rights as any person. Nope, there is no foundation for this position except opinion, but it gets traction from its emotional element.
However, those holding that zygotes are people and thus have a right to life get into trouble because the position isn't coherently sustainable in the case of having to chose the mother's life or the unborn baby. Since by their logic, both have equal claims to a right to life, thus they're forced into contradiction when medical procedures can save the mother, but not the baby--or vice-versa.
Where they are consistent is to say that there should be no abortions for rape or incest. Of course the entire argument proceeds from the invalid position that zygotes and fetuses are people, which they are not.
(2) Head understands that he needs to raise taxes for a multitude of reasons. One is possible anarchy when enough people have been disenfranchised and there is no social net to help them. However, being a good nut case conservative, he can't raise taxes because that's blasphemy. So he's come up with a solution that sounds good for the 6th grade mentality we've devolved into--I'll protect ya with those new taxes!
One problem: No county is ever going to fend off the National Guard if and when the time comes. Of course that pesky 6th grade bunker mentality gets in the way of seeing that fact.
August 30, 2012 10:02am
DWD...explain this...Why is it a felony if a person commits a crime, and a pregnant woman is a victim of that crime, and her baby dies in the womb.
Why is it considered murder? Wouldn't tearing a child apart in the womb with a vacuum ..limb by limb, and eventually taking the head out with prongs..be just as much murder..or maybe more because it is done intentionally, and for money? Ever seen a sonogram of the event? Horrible! The baby fights to stay alive..trying to get away from the vacuum!
If it is considered MURDER...then how can you say it is not a person?? You cannot MURDER a glob of cells!
August 29, 2012 8:52pm
The main reason cancervatives want to outlaw pregnancy termination in cases of rape is because not doing so limits their procreation options.
August 29, 2012 8:35pm
Judge Head is trying to predict the future. always difficult in any case. no one can accurately predict an unknown future, so Judge Head is winging it.
August 29, 2012 2:08pm
By focusing on the Republicans we give them much more influence than they are due. Lets focus on the good things and good policies and give them more publicity.
August 29, 2012 12:18pm
Right on the money Jim.. They should be selling brown shirts, bibles, crosses and flags in the mezzanine so they can push their fascist agenda wrapped in the flag and bearing a cross!
August 30, 2012 10:04am
Obviously, you do not know what fascism is. You truly need to read your history. Fascism is about to smack you right in the face!
August 29, 2012 12:10pm
I surely hope the pro-choice forces are not being "low-balled" by all this talk of rape and incest driven pregnancy.
My understanding of "low-balling" is what happens when you want to buy something expensive like an automobile and the salesman suggests a very low price to get you interested. He knows he is not going to sell it to you for that price but you let him give you his sales pitch because he "low-balled" you with the ridiculously low price. He then discusses everything about the car or other product and all the reasons you want to have it and then sells it to you for a much higher price.
I think what Ryan and Akin and Romney may be doing is letting us get so excited about their extreme views that when they abandon them we will all give a sigh of relief and let them push through an anti-abortion amendment or legislation that this SCOTUS would probably approve.. The result is that pro choicers have lost but the nuts like Ryan, Romney, and Akin will say, "But we gave you the exceptions you said were important."
Be very cautious.
August 30, 2012 11:22am
To richard cottingham. You hv brought up an important element of manipulation (low-balling) and a critical point - Please Americans. Do NOT UNDERESTIMATE the intelligence of Republican leaders. There is a great and dangerous intelligence behind the GOP platform but it is completely self-serving, arrogant and rooted in Greed. Support President Obama and Vote for his re-election. Don't be deceived by clever manipulations, propaganda and lies. Pray of you can, Trust in God, and vote with Faith.
August 30, 2012 1:48am
Good analysis, Richard. A very welcome viewpoint. Also, one could go back and look at the armed camp Miles Standish made of the Puritan settlements when the Red Man didn't immediately line up for Christian baptism. This Puritan vs. Savage struggle has colored all of American life, but is seldom pointed out.
August 29, 2012 2:09pm
Thats an interesting strategy to be aware of.
August 29, 2012 11:58am
One of the interesting things about Tom Head's comments is how he is concerned with the UN Troops coming to his town. Only problem is that the UN doesn't have any troops or equipment like personnel carriers. When the UN goes into trouble spots in the world the troops wearing the blue helmets are from various countries who offer to contribute troops for that mission only. They are from the USA, Canada, India, etc etc. Also, a UN mission involving troops will have to be approved by the UN security council, where the USA happens to have a veto. This whole thing really is absurd and paranoid. Is there something in the water down in Texas?
August 29, 2012 11:04am
I gotta agree with RON IN NM and PSzymeczek. Racisms fanned by talk radio insanity, a 24-hour "news" channel devoted to GOP talking points, post-Citizens United, anything goes election laws . . . . The GOP could accuse the President of being a tomato and a significant portion of the population would believe it. Nutland indeed!
August 29, 2012 10:02am
You sure can come up with some "gems," Jim! Too funny!! It certainly is comforting to know that dumb and dumber Michele Bachmann, squats on a seat at the House Intelligence Committee. That fact is certain to raise confidence accorded to the US, by the rest of the worlds' countries!
August 29, 2012 9:59am
The GOP forgot to put a huge banner on the stage at the convention. "The Reason Were All Here Because We Anit All There".
August 29, 2012 9:56am
As Voltaire said, those who can make you believe absurdities can also make you commit atrocities. This maxim is why Americans should be more alarmed about the current GOP's mythologized view of the world. Too dire, you say? Look at what Judge Head said; actually read the words and think about them. In 2008 Obama was elected by the American people with the largest presidential-vote victory margin in the preceding 20 years. And if he's elected again to the Presidency by a popular vote of the people, we should just get ready for insurrection? Wow . . . I grew up in the Air Force, and although moving around the country every few years was not easy, I would never trade for it now. I learned that all Americans are my countrymen, black or white, rich or poor, religious or not, Southern, New Englander, Westerner or whatever. And I want my kids to grow up that way, not as factional, selfish right-wingers dedicated only their own myths, feelings, and personality quirks. And so I, a man who voted for Ronald Reagan twice when I was young, would simply clear out today's GOP if I could. I would simply fire them all. I would fashion a new GOP with the likes of George H.W. Bush, and John Tower, and other adults who, although "conservative," are strong enough to recognize our common causes and our shared sense of what it means to be Americans. Sadly, however, I can only observe the modern GOP's moral bankruptcy and dangerous descent into paranoia and a twisted sense of survivalism.
August 30, 2012 1:54am
Great comment, Rob. I have traveled a bit, and too have learned that all people are people. Especially, "Country is Country", no matter where you are. The purpose of propaganda is to dehumanize the enemy. You get on the ground in a "hostile" area, and find out that anyone who has to grow their own food is very much alike to anyone else who has to grow their own food, i.e., nominally Communist, or otherwise - it's all lip service to be let alone until you can harvest and eat!
August 29, 2012 9:55am
Wisconsin Republican teabagger Michele Bachmann is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. I wished they'd sell, rent, lend, or give her some.
August 29, 2012 8:11pm
Bachmann's welfare check receiving farm is in WI. But she's against entitlements and farm subsidies for anyone else. She also no longer lives in the district she wants to represent. Really, if WI wants her, they can have her so long as they promise to keep her.
August 29, 2012 10:57am
Of course, Michelle Bachman is from Minnesota, not Wisconsin. But "my representative" from Wisconsin, Jim Sensenbrenner, is the co-chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, and claims that global warming is all a hoax! This is the same Congressman Sensenbrenner who made a fool of himself last winter by criticism Michelle Obama's derriere, and was featured on Jay Leno's monologue showing of picture of him in full jowels.
Yes, the patients are running the assylum, aren't they?
August 29, 2012 10:05am
She's actually from the magnificent State of Minnesota. By way of a well strategized districting that looks remarkably like a colon!
August 29, 2012 10:15am
Ascending, transverse, descending, or the whole thing?
August 29, 2012 11:07am
I would say transverse and descending...it is a completely fabricated district to include the "brightest and best of the conservative, narrow-minded, bigoted, racist 'geniuses,'" Minnesota has to offer the rest of the Universe!
August 29, 2012 9:34am
The political theater became clear to me when I saw the movies: The Ruling Class and another one: King of the Heart.
Leave it to a mass of lunatics controlled by special interests to destroy a society under the banner of politics which has become a game of smoke and mirror, a far cry from the Greek times when people gathered to talk rationally to solve collective problems. Political gatherings in the US seems more like an ANIMAL FARM where utterances are made by the representatives of the rich and powerful rather than that of a collective effort to discuss issues/solutions rationally, systematically, logically for the betterment of the society.
August 29, 2012 10:16am
Time to reread "It Can't Happen Here."
August 29, 2012 7:56am
Jim Hightower always come up with some gems, and this essay is no exception. This Judge Head character seems like nothing more than a character out of Looney Tunes, but I'm not doubting Hightower's facts.
I too have heard that the Prez is a Kenyan Muslim Socialist. He's also a Commie, and the early screamers against health reform branded him a Nazi. They can't seem to make up their mind what he is, but if it sounds good, and raises temperatures of the Tea Party crowd, why, heck, USE IT!
I live in a very conservative town, and I don't put Obama stickers on my car because I don't want my Honda Civic to be defaced by some of the aggressive wingnuts in town, of which we have an excess. But I saw something in the library the other day that really sickened me. They have a table, on your way out, that includes some freebies, things that you can take if you want.
Anyway, there was this amateurish-looking periodical with an unflattering photo of Obama, and I started reading the text below it. The writer called Obama "arrogant, treasonous, incompetent, a pretender, unpatriotic," and a plethora of insulting and derogatory terms, and I wondered, why are the wingnuts so damned angry, mean-spirited and uncivil? This guy is the president, after all.
Look, I disagreed strongly with Ronald Reagan's policies when he was president, and I wrote letters to the editor many times, expressing my disagreement; but I never attacked him as personally, as viciously, as the wingnuts attack Obama. And when Reagan was shot, I was so glad that he didn't die from the bullet, not because I loved him, but because he was the president, and I didn't want to see another president killed while in office.
So we can joke about the right's vicious attacks on Obama, because I guess we have to, to cope with the crass mean lunacy of it, but I still blame Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel and Talk Radio for the sheer incivility in political discourse these days.
And I'm an old white guy who wonders: would the wingnuts hate Obama so much if he wasn't black, or half-black? I mean, really, most of these vicious attacks come from mostly southern states, and I think many of these people simply can't accept the image of a black guy in the White House, but they don't want to admit, perhaps even confront, they own latent racism, so they create all these lurid fantasies and recite them endlessly to try to justify their hatred.
And I'm a guy who was born in the deep South, so I'm not just fantasizing.
Anyway, keep us informed, Jim Hightower, and help us laugh, but the hatred I see often sends a chill through me.
August 30, 2012 10:23am
Hmmm...Herman Cain comes to mind...gee he is Black!
Dr Thomas Sowell comes to mind...gee he is Black!
Former Secretary of State Rice comes to mind...gee She is Black!
Rev CL Bryant comes to mind..gee he is Black!
Rep. Allen West comes to mind...gee he is Black!
Lloyd Marcus comes to mind...gee he is Black!
Allen Keys comes to mind...gee he is Black!
Your statement on the racism from the Right...holds not truth. As you can see above...there are many Black men and women that would make great Presidents. Just some people have to put them down because of their faith, or their beliefs in a certain way of life.
This racism ploy is just that,,, a ploy that was cooked up in the Saul Alinsky book, Rules for Radicals. And by Marx. Did you know that Alinsky gave kudos to Lucifer in the front of his book? If there is no God..then from where did Lucifer come?
But in truth...Political Dissent is NOT Racism!
August 30, 2012 10:25pm
I don't know where you've been hiding, but in my neck of the woods, rednecks are quite open about their hatred of the President, and virtually every reason offered for this hatred is based on lies, and really big lies.
So you cite the names of a few token blacks in the Republican camp; what is that supposed to prove? Does that prove that the right wingnuts aren't racists? Not in my book. I mean, really, how many names did you cite? Six, seven? Does that somehow prove to you that the hatred expressed for Obama by rednecks isn't based on racism? Out of the millions of Republicans in this country, you cite seven names? Wow! I'm underwhelmed.
Behind all that talk about Obama "not being one of us," or "not being our kind" and "taking back our country" is a fair streak of racism, in my opinion. Why else would people hate the president so? And all this BS about Marxism and Socialism is just a smoke screen to hide the racial bias behind. On the one hand, you've got one school of wingnuts calling Obama a tool of Wall Street, and on the other hand, you've got emotionally undisciplined yahoos calling him a Marxist and a Muslim and what-have-you. My contention is that if Obama was a totally white person, with a white family, he would be getting a far different treatment than he's getting from the wingnut party of the 1%.
How many black faces have you seen at the Republican National Convention? Sure, there were a few, but damned few, and you know it.
And don't tell me I'm a Marxist or any of the slanders you reserve for the president. Name-calling may be therapeutic for you, but it doesn't generate any meaningful dialogue.
August 30, 2012 2:10am
A very thoughtful comment, one that would be ignored by the agenda-driven right-wing. I lived briefly in Alabama, and found that whites were not overtly racist unless you challenged their belief system, much the same as fundamentalists (Christian or otherwise). The problem is that in any heavily structured belief system, if you allow one exception, then the whole thing falls apart, so people get defensive and release all this hostility because their natural tendency to be reasonable has been repressed by their belief system, and its symbolic representatives. I live "rural" and most of my friends or associates are "right-wing", but they don't hate anyone - they just want to agree with each other because it, basically, simply saves time! As the Jack Nicholson character said to the Dennis Hopper character in the film, "Easy Rider", "No, they don't (act afraid) - it makes 'em dangerous". Some of these venom-spewing people simply will not check their facts, and are VERY disappointed that the Ponzi scheme of the corporate-backed, shareholder-funded American Dream ran out during their lifetimes - they're too embarrassed to admit that they've been had, so they blame the easy target. It's been said (Journal of Psychohistory) that anyone who tries to moderate between to extreme factions becomes a "poison container" for both sides. We are living in very dangerous times, and there could be a violent backlash if Obama is re-elected, and he will be blamed for any response he makes, because he's "the wrong guy".
August 29, 2012 8:19pm
Ron, it think there are many people who hate Obama because he mother's white and his father's black. Back when Obama and I were young, there were States that considered us half white, half black people to be evidence of a felony. They considered our parents to be the worst type of traitors, not only to their country but to their race.
August 30, 2012 10:33am
Actually...it is his Marxist ideals that people do not like. I could care less if he were orange. It is his ideals, and in my honest opinion... that he is a narcissist.... No I am not a doctor...but I lived with a Narcissist, a doctor I put through med school... for 16 years and KNOW who is one, and who is not. It is like I can smell them a mile away. Narcissism is not only a mental disorder...Narcissists are some of the most dangerous people in the world. And since I have had discussions with narcissists...I can tell you that every one of them told me they wanted to be "dictator of the world"! I researched narcissism.
You guys are in for a very big disappointment if he remains in office. And I believe he will. By hook or Chicago crook politics...he will make sure he keeps his power. You see...without power or adoration..narcissists wither away to nothing...some go mad.
And let's make something clear about me....I believe BOTH sides of the aisle are corrupt! There are probably some good people on both sides in politics...but very few.
August 29, 2012 10:20am
After the election of 2008, and before the inauguration, my in-laws put a picture of the President-elect on their refrigerator with "Antichrist Baby-killer" written on it. And we live in Arizona. Is there any doubt that this irrational, visceral hatred comes from deep-seated racism?
August 30, 2012 10:34am
Do you know WHY they said he was a baby killer?
August 29, 2012 10:29am
Of course blacks have been in the White House for years, serving many presidents. In fact mostly black labor built the White House. What really galls the racists is that a black man sits in the Oval Office as CEO.