Oh what fools these mortals be.
Apr. 8th, 2009 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pasitheaThe republicans are getting really sick, sad, and scary. Stuff like this really worries me:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/7/717472/-By-all-means-necessary
Now here's the thing. I worried that I was blind to the political leaders with views more akin to mine saying similar things. I searched around. Couldn't find anything of note. (Please please please correct me if I'm wrong on this)
Kucinich did push for impeachment of Bush, but that's a formal process and was based on a large set of legal claims, not simply saying "He wants to be a dictator."
Yes, _I_ personally have said Bush was installing a police state, pressing for the removal of my civil rights, and aiming at dictatorship, but I am not an installed political figure. I'm not even a member of the press. I have an audience of perhaps 50 at the absolute most. As a citizen, I can and should express my worries about the government.
Newt Gingrich on the other hand is part of the government and it's dangerous and foolish for him to get on national news and spew baseless nonsense like this. He has the power to work within the system for change. He should not be inciting crazy people to panic. At best, it's unproductive, at worst, it's going to make a few loons fly off the handle and start hurting people.
The Republican senators still going on about Obama's birth certificate should likewise be ashamed of themselves. It serves no useful purpose for the american people and incites unstable people to act in irrational and dangerous ways.
These are the same guys who, a few years ago, said if you didn't support Bush 100%, you were a traitor. It's sad that they're as childish in defeat as they were in victory. They are a FAR greater threat to this country than Obama so far.
Don't get me wrong. An economic dictatorship, like the claim Obama is trying to create is much more effective than a military dictatorship like it seemed Bush was going for. We should watch the banking issues VERY closely, and we should criticize and question every step of the way. HOWEVER. We should do that from a base of being well-informed and thinking both globally and long-term. Stirring up violent misinformed knee-jerk response is NOT what this country needs, yet it seems to be what the majority of the Republican party is Hell-bent on doing.
Personally? I'd be happy to let the banks burn and watch all the Boomers retirement funds go into the toilet. None of it would affect me a bit. I have a broad enough range of skills I could survive and probably even thrive in a total collapse. However... The number of other people who'd suffer greatly is simply not worth it for me. I may think myself better than them and believe they're a bunch of mindless wads of meat who're a waste of oxygen, but so what? Just because an animal isn't pretty, intelligent, useful, or edible to me does not mean I'd enjoy watching it suffer.
The republicans are playing a dangerous game. Come summer when there are a lot of stressed people without work, unable to afford to run their air-conditioning, with a lot of free time on their hands, and a heart full of racism, homophobia, and xenophobia, there's a real potential for violence. This summer may well prove to be the most dangerous one the US has faced in quite some time and the Republican leadership seems to be doing all it can to encourage that.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/7/717472/-By-all-means-necessary
Now here's the thing. I worried that I was blind to the political leaders with views more akin to mine saying similar things. I searched around. Couldn't find anything of note. (Please please please correct me if I'm wrong on this)
Kucinich did push for impeachment of Bush, but that's a formal process and was based on a large set of legal claims, not simply saying "He wants to be a dictator."
Yes, _I_ personally have said Bush was installing a police state, pressing for the removal of my civil rights, and aiming at dictatorship, but I am not an installed political figure. I'm not even a member of the press. I have an audience of perhaps 50 at the absolute most. As a citizen, I can and should express my worries about the government.
Newt Gingrich on the other hand is part of the government and it's dangerous and foolish for him to get on national news and spew baseless nonsense like this. He has the power to work within the system for change. He should not be inciting crazy people to panic. At best, it's unproductive, at worst, it's going to make a few loons fly off the handle and start hurting people.
The Republican senators still going on about Obama's birth certificate should likewise be ashamed of themselves. It serves no useful purpose for the american people and incites unstable people to act in irrational and dangerous ways.
These are the same guys who, a few years ago, said if you didn't support Bush 100%, you were a traitor. It's sad that they're as childish in defeat as they were in victory. They are a FAR greater threat to this country than Obama so far.
Don't get me wrong. An economic dictatorship, like the claim Obama is trying to create is much more effective than a military dictatorship like it seemed Bush was going for. We should watch the banking issues VERY closely, and we should criticize and question every step of the way. HOWEVER. We should do that from a base of being well-informed and thinking both globally and long-term. Stirring up violent misinformed knee-jerk response is NOT what this country needs, yet it seems to be what the majority of the Republican party is Hell-bent on doing.
Personally? I'd be happy to let the banks burn and watch all the Boomers retirement funds go into the toilet. None of it would affect me a bit. I have a broad enough range of skills I could survive and probably even thrive in a total collapse. However... The number of other people who'd suffer greatly is simply not worth it for me. I may think myself better than them and believe they're a bunch of mindless wads of meat who're a waste of oxygen, but so what? Just because an animal isn't pretty, intelligent, useful, or edible to me does not mean I'd enjoy watching it suffer.
The republicans are playing a dangerous game. Come summer when there are a lot of stressed people without work, unable to afford to run their air-conditioning, with a lot of free time on their hands, and a heart full of racism, homophobia, and xenophobia, there's a real potential for violence. This summer may well prove to be the most dangerous one the US has faced in quite some time and the Republican leadership seems to be doing all it can to encourage that.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-08 11:43 pm (UTC)"Politics as usual" involves the Dems being reactive while the Republicans are proactive. Unfortunately the Republicans have discovered that the easiest way to be proactive is fear-mongering. "Obama's going to create a dictatorship" is really no different from "the Democrats will raise your taxes," "Iraq is going to attack us using their plentiful weapons of mass destruction" or "Gay marriage erodes the core of family unity in the USA." I'm happy to see the Dems being more proactive, but of course the Republicans are going to stick with what's familiar (they're human, after all).
I especially loathe Newt Gingrich though. I despise Georgia politicians and the fact that, years after I escaped that miserable armpit of a state, Georgians and their elected representatives are still trying to make my entire country into the place where I grew up. Fuck that.