Midterm elections are known for low turnouts, as if they don’t really matter. Here in Oregon the right puts its most egregious voter initiatives on the midterms ballots, because fewer independents vote, making their passage more likely. However, something ugly has happened in recent years that makes these midterms more important than those of previous years. Most voters don’t even realize it, bit what’s at stake could well be our national identity.
There is a clash of civilizations going on, and it has nothing to do with the Burlington Coat Factory Community Center. It’s more fundamental than Christian vs. Muslim. It’s reason vs. fear. Civilization vs. anarchy.
That clash is happening right here in America.
Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t believe that being a conservative equates with being evil. Over the course of our nation’s history, many conservative figures have raised questions deserving of an answer. They framed their issues with ideas that were testable. They contributed to the national conversation in a meaningful, beneficial way. They acted not just out of raw self-interest, but with sincere desire to do what they believed best for our nation and its people.
After more than two centuries of trials both at home and abroad, we have results from those tests. Conservative economics haven’t just brought on repeated failure here, they’ve done the same everywhere and in every time. Conservative social policies aimed at producing a country that’s joined around a less diverse set of ideas haven’t engendered strength through unity, but an inflexible fragility. Those questions have been asked and answered, but the results don’t mean those who raised the conservative position were any less dedicated to discovering the truth and serving the nation.
Only that’s not what’s happening now. Those conservatives, the men and women who argued with reason and passion for the positions they believed best for our nation, have been replaced by something else altogether. The two sides in our national debate can no longer be characterized as simply "left" and "right." In a remarkably short time, we’ve witnessed the overthrow of the right by something new… only it’s not really new at all.
For a long time I viewed this new crew with something of the same assumption that Jesus made on the cross: "forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing." Surely those tearing at the foundations of science would not have done so if they recognized the real danger their actions represented. Surely those calling for defense of the Constitution through limits on the freedoms it enshrines didn’t grasp the contradictory nature of their positions. Surely those working to wrest the last crumbs of control from the powerless and carry them back to the powerful were unaware of years spent and lives lost in obtaining even this modest share of equity.
I no longer believe this is true. When Rush Limbaugh blames the BP disaster on "eco-terrorists," I don’t believe he really thinks this is in any sense factual. When Newt Gingrich compares Muslims to Nazis, I don’t believe he does it out of ignorance. When Glenn Beck says that President Obama will force doctors to perform abortions and Michael Savage says that the president will disband the Marine Corps, it’s not because they are badly informed. When Sen. Pearce insists that the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to the children of immigrants, when Fox news moves the beginning of Obama’s presidency so that the disasters of the Bush years land on his plate, when those who were so shocked that Godwin’s Law might have been dented in a blog post two years ago are now shouting "Hitler" on the floor of the House and Senate — I don’t think it’s because they’ve been pushed there through no choice of their own. Death panels? Do you think the people making that claim really believed it? What about global warming being caused by sun spots? How about the threat of Muslim terror babies?
The question of protecting the nation or the principles on which it was built is no longer the focus of "conservative" arguments — it’s not even a side note — because this group no longer makes any distinction between the common good and their own self interest. They have reached the conclusion that their success is worth any price, even if that price is fatal to the founding principles of the nation. They have no canon but victory, no concept of restraint.
It’s not surprising that this generation of Republicans has made a hero out of Joeseph McCarthy. They admire the way in which he cowed his enemies and the way in which he distorted the meaning of liberty. They admire him because he generated fear.
The question of "have you no sense of decency" has been answered. They do not — at least not one that rises above their hunger for power.
For the unobservant, what’s happening this November is just another in two centuries of mid-term elections. The press is already dusting off their talks from past cycles, ready to note how the numbers of each party in the House and Senate have been altered. They expect to devote an hour — maybe two — to highlighting what these changes say about the popularity of the president. They may go so far as to discuss how the results affect the fate of some bit of legislation (but don’t count on it). You can bet that have some absolutely spectacular new charts prepared to show poll results and the rearrangement of seats in the legislative chambers.
But the story in this cycle isn’t just numbers. What’s at stake this November isn’t holding Democratic gains in the House and Senate. It’s not protecting Barack Obama’s mojo. It’s not advancing a progressive legislative agenda.
What we’re facing in a few short weeks is a critical test; one that I believe may do more to determine our future than any action inside our own borders for over a century. More important even than the election of Barack Obama in 2008. Because the ideas put forward by men like Glenn Beck are not "just like fascism," they simply are fascism. It’s the idea that personality can outweigh facts, and that force can author "justice" as well as any law. It’s the conviction that those with hard-won knowledge are dangerous, and need to be overruled by "common sense." It’s the view that history has an unfortunate bias, one that can be adjusted with a careful "correction" of the textbooks. It’s the doctrine that only a portion of the populace is Real Americans deserving of liberty, and the rest must be dealt with as enemies. Those poisonous thoughts are sickeningly familiar, and they have lost none of their vile potency in the last sixty years.
Those that have taken the place of the traditional Republican Party (and the once reasonable politicians who have thrown over their long held ideals to grovel for these new masters) are not just battling with some aspects of science, they’re waging war on reason. Not just tinkering with immigration policy, but sharply narrowing the meaning of the word "American." What’s at stake isn’t whether laws will be passed favorable to our positions, or whether laws will be passed that we don’t like — the real question is whether the United States will continue as a nation of laws… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Daily Kos>
This author validates what I have been saying for several years now. I saw the right drifting into fascism during the early years of the Bush/GOP Regime. Even before 9/11/2001, it was lurking in the position papers from AEI and PNAC, neocon think tanks. It became more clear as Bush and his Republican cronies trashed individual rights in the name of national security, made scientists research subject to editing by political hacks, instituted the K Street Project to establish one party rule, politicized federal agencies, embarked on aggressive wars to dominate energy supply, resorted to torture, lied to the American people, and the list goes on and on. Were the Bush/GOP Regime not so incompetent in everything they did, except ravishing the pittances of the poor and the stability of the middle class to benefit the rich, that they turned the people against them, they would have succeeded in establishing one-party rule.
From the above, it would appear that I really hate conservatives, but that is not true. Right here in Oregon, I voted for Sen. Packwood, a Republican. I would welcome a return by the Republican Party to principled conservatism. I just do not see that happening, because the old idea have proved false and they have no new ideas to replace them,
As I see it, unless we wipe the Republican Party off the political map, we risk losing the founding principles of our nation, everything that made us great. In the 1930, Germany was the most technologically and culturally advanced society in Europe, arguably in the world. Who would have thought that in just a few short years, through lies and hatred, The Nazi Party could transform that society into the Third Reich. If we think we are immune, we are fools.
These midterm elections are critical, because it’s is our best chance to nip this new conservatism in the bud, before that destroy our national identity.
28 Responses to “What’s At Stake This November”
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I would be lying if I said this is new information to me. I see and have seen Republicans more as an enemy then the opposition party. I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve experienced these people close up. I’ve been to some Tea Partys. Republicans and the tea party are the same for me. This is why I’ve been saying fight them, call out there lies. Expose the fear and hate. Try and bring back the fairness Doctrine. People say oh you can’t do that. Well then our other option is to play nice and see where that gets us. Guess I’m a bit fired up today.
I have too, Tim, but when I dropped in on Tea Party rallies here, there were only about a dozen loons present.
Tom Although i agree with your premise that the republican party is turning as fascist as Hitlers Germany I have to disagree with the reasons for the the rise of Third Reich. (although the methodology is strikingly similar between ultra rightists of today and the depression era Nazi’s which by the way were outlawed in most states of Germany during the Wiemar Republic days ) Germany was saddled with huge war reparations at the treaty of Versailles, debts that took a substantial portion of their yearly gross GDP. England and more so France were especially intractable about restructuring the debt while America was more centrist and tried to accommodate their economy somewhat through treaties that lengthened and lessened their payments.
In the 1920’s while the world was dumping money into Wall Street (the world was still on the gold standard and England and France had been sending heaping quantities of gold to America which is why they did not want Germany out of their economic slavery it was replacing the gold that they were sending overseas to wall street investments) Germany elected Hitler leader of the NSDSP (tea party) because he promised them a rise from their rampant poverty and hunger. Once he forced the Wiemar leader Hindenburg to appoint him chancellor he immediately told England and France and to some extent America to take their war reparations and stick them where the sun don’t shine. Kept those billions within the newly established single party government and put people back to work building the war machine that the axis powers would eventually use to run over Europe.
The differences here are where the similarities are. Hitler was anti-capitalist, the Republican party say they are free market capitalist but in truth are not capitalist but rather for the consolidation of fiscal policy in boardrooms which will then dictate wage and price policies, same as the Reich did, which also made the wealthy businessman wealthier.. The Reich used fear of Jews and outsiders to control the population which was beginning to see some prosperity during the Depression. today the propaganda of fear used by the Republicans is the same only with different targets for us to fear, Backs, Mexicans, Unions, Socialized anything (Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, Unemployment Insurance, etc.)
If Cheney had actually been president instead of the power behind the throne we would already be a one party system and a nation of slaves, to government control of movement and work.
German did not become a culturally or economically advanced nation until AFTER Hitler came to power and stopped importing goods at great cost and started German manufacturing for Germany in Germany back up again.
So in the end if Obama and the Democrats do not quit acting like Neville Chamberlain trying to appease the Nazi’s we better get used to a single party system and a loss of personal liberties of speech even though some who sign patriotic (nationalist) documents will be able to carry a gun to keep the rest of us in line.
Mark, thanks for your detailed comment on this. I was not trying to give the entire history of Hitler’s rise to power, just draw analogies where they exist. Their economic crisis was cause from without. Ours was caused from within by “starving the beast”. Hitler was against the capital;ism of Adam Smith, but all for the plutocratic capitalism practiced today. I don’t think I claimed that Germany was economically advanced. The historians I studdied in college called the culturally advanced, and as for technology, both sides opf the cold war were fueled by German techology for years.
I agree about Darth, and your conclusion and mine are the same.
TomCat,
Thank you for sharing that brilliantly perceptive, profoundly accurate piece from the Daily Kos.It did an excellent job of exposing the differences between today’s so-called conservatives and the genuine ones of not that many years ago. It also defined the modern Republican/teabagger movement perfectly. The Republican Party has been invaded in a hostile-takeover bid by new killer bee-type radical reactionaries who wish to stamp out truth and knowledge and replace it with their own ignorant and short-sighted form of “me first and only me” social authoritarianism and anything goes-economics. They are ruthless and unrelenting and want to destroy anyone in their way. This nation, and especially the Republican Party, needs an extra-strength dose of Raid to rid the hive permanently of these malevolent beasts!
Thanks, Jack. The only thing I would question is that the Republican party has been invaded. They opened their doors willingly.
Thank you for your post. I could not agree more and share the same feelings towards the new GOP… I just cast my early vote in the GOP primary here and while it looks teabagger Rubio will get the spot, I just cannot see letting the ideals that this person represents seize control of this nation…
Hopefully moderates and independents do come out to the polls and help to keep the right-wing out of office…
Kevin, I would love to see the Republicans become the loyal opposition that the Democrats were when the Republicans were in power. I just don’t see it coming true.
Everyone else said it better than I would so I’ll leave it at that. Whoever wrote that Daily Kos editorial deserves a medal because he/she is dead on. Get your voting hats on Dems – this midterm may be the most important of you life. Watch out for kooks left over from Halloween.
Lisa, I agree. I considered it too important not to share.
TomCat, you may have addressed this point before, but — if the Republican party were to be “wiped off the political map”, what do you think all the people who currently vote Republican would vote for? At least 40% of voters vote Republican pretty consistently, for whatever reason, and those people aren’t likely to suddenly become Democrats.
Infidel, I have. The Democratic party is so conservative, that it could easily attract the moderate Republicans, leaving the hardcore 20% Neocons,Theocons, Hateocons, Coprorocons, and Plutocons homeless. At the same time, a more progressive party could form to the left of the Democrats. As an alternative, there could also be a move to a multi-party system, which in my estimation, would be best.
I too think the GOP has run off the rails. I don’t know that is is redeemable at this point. The point is the crazies only listen to themselves, so you can’t persuade them. Who the middle listens to, I have no idea. All I know, is that if the economy and more particularly the employment rate doesn’t improve, we are gonna get drubbed. And God knows what will happen. Pure deadlock I assume.
Sherry, that’s the big concern. The problems is that the Republicans have done such deep damage to our economy that complete recovery will take decades.
Good point about the Right using midterm elections to advance their agenda, knowing that independents and liberals are less likely to vote in these “less significant” elections. I always vote; I don’t think I’ve ever missed an election.
A similar rightwing tactic is stealth candidates in local elections. They count on the public being unaware and uninterested in the local school board, Superior Court, county/city offices, etc. I’m guilty of this myself. Every time I go over the ballot and see all these local names, I think “WTF? County Records Clerk? Who cares?” And then years later we all read about some teabagging Biblehump demagogue who comes in out of nowhere, only this person has been cultivating power for years in the local school board or county office.
And I agree that teabuggery is nothing new. There’s a sinister shadowy coalition of phony “Christian” leaders, racists and Big Business that goes back at least to the 1930s. These people were on the extreme fringe of the Republican Party until Reagan got elected. Even Reagan referred to them as “the crazies in the basement.” They kept getting more powerful and more front-and-center, and by the time Dumbya got elected they were in control.
Tom, you’re so right. Every election, I spend hours trying to find out who these local people are and what they represent. I don;t mean to brag, but I have superior research skills, and I still find it a herculean task.
As a Canadian, it amazes me how much politics in the US have become polarized. It seems that every issue becomes political — left or right — and instead of being debated on the merits, it becomes debated as to whether it is a “Democrat” or “Republican” issue. Unfortunately, life is not always so simple. If I were an American, I would definitely not be a Republican. But on the other hand, I don’t always agree with the issues as viewed from the Democrat’s viewpoints either. Case in point is the community centre/mosque in New York. It is not a black or white issue, but has varying shades of grey, because it involves very real people on both sides of the issue. But it has now become a political football, with Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other, and it will never really be resolved to anyone’s satisfaction because of that.
I do think the Democrats tend to be almost as guilty of polarization as the Republicans — at least from where I sit. It would be wonderful to see the two parties come closer together, and debate issues without all the name-calling. That is the way the US would end up being a strong country again
But, that’s just my opinion… 🙂
Jo, I remember that early in the Obama administration you used to complain that he and the Democratic leadership had no spine. The reason it appeared that way at the time is that they were bending over backwards to do just what you are suggesting now. I’m all for bipartisanship, but it is impossible as long as Republicans refuse to negotiate in good faith.
Specifically on the issue of the Muslim center, you may not be aware that Republicans are fighting to stop the construction of over 25 different mosque/community centers across the US. The fact that this one is 2 1/2 blocks from the corner of the ground zero property (actually 5-6 blocks from the memorial itself) is pure hype.
Repugs want to finish what Bush started, the killing of FDR’s legacy, social security, Medicaid, and Medicare, as that is socialism and aiding the elderly sickly and retired are bankrupting their version of America. You who truly love this country as it was meant to stand better stand up and be heard especially at the polls to beat back those who want to stop the restoration of our America. I happen to agree with Biden who said he would bet we will do well if it wasn’t illegal. We all have to make sure people remember the Palin’s and nut case Bachmanns and what Republicans will do if they get back in control and get out to vote. In the end it is up to us the independents and democrats!
Jim, I fully agree.
We are fairly well protected against a Hitlerian rise to power. The reasons are easy to understand; Adolf had a basically homogeneous population to work with, people who had the same culture and the same mores. This country isn’t Germany, and no Hitler figure can rule over all of it. Over SOME of it, for sure, and that will happen, make no mistake. But not all of it.
Having said that….. I have seen the Rushpubliscums degenerate for far longer than Chimpy. No one should forget Willie Horton, or Saint Ronnie’s “strapping young buck.” They’ve known EXACTLY what they were doing for a long time; we’ve just seen them manage to purge out the politically unreliable among them over the last few years.
JR, that is a good point, but once in power, they can still manipulate the law to make it virtually impossible for the majority to regain power.
It scares me that so many educated conservatives are so willing to pray on the ignorant to get there vote. It scares me that so many stay willfully ignorant. It bothers me that many don’t know the difference.
I’m trying something different on my blog. Letting some conservatives write some posts. I’m hoping it may foster some discussion and decrease polarity, at least in my little tiny part of the blogosphere. I’ll see if the experiment works.
Excellent excellent post.
Sky, I fully support what you’re doing at your place and encourage all here to visit you. Any conservative who wishes to discuss issues here through comments is welcome do do so without abuse, which I do not permit here. There are a few progressive bloggers, who refuse to come here, because I deleted comments in which they personally attacked conservatives instead of debating the issues.
Awesome post and everyone has made far better points than I could.
I agree with Jo, some liberal groups more than willingly rise to the partisan bait cast out by the repugs and go one further.
Beach, the difference is that the wing-nut fringe on the left is just that: a wing-nut fringe. The wing-nut fringe on the right is the Republican Party.
Seems Republicans have got caught up in using hate and fear to motivate the American people, because it worked. When they start talking about rewriting the Constitution to fit their plan (which they have been doing for years) they truly dangerous to America.
True, Tom, but rewriting the Constitution is just a smoke screen. In practice, they won’t change it, but just ignore it instead.