Rank And File Anger Out Of GOP Hands

The Nation: After Inspiring The Worst In Its Base, Republican Party Cannot Control Irrational Fear And Resentment

(The Nation)  This column was written by Richard Kim.

---

In case you haven't heard, there's a guy running for president named Barack Hussein Osama Nobama. This Nobama was born outside America and secretly schooled in Islamic terrorism at a Wahhabi madrassa. He then moved to the United States to take up the radical '60s teachings of the Weather Underground's Bill Ayers, while also organizing for ACORN, a subprime-lending, voter fraud-committing collective of affirmative-action welfare queens. All this happened before he became an elitist celebrity advocate of socialism, infanticide, the sexual abuse of children and treason.

Suffice it to say, this caricature stretches even the limits of comic imagination. The real Obama's Christianity, his patriotism, moderation and commitment to capitalism, law and order, and national security are matters of abundant public record--some of which displeases the left wing of his party. But this is of little import to the Republican rank and file. For them, the fallaciousness of the whole counts for less than the suggestive appeal of the parts. All John McCain, Sarah Palin and their surrogates need to do is raise the insidious question--"Who is the real Barack Obama?"--and the zealots conjure the rest, along with cries of "Treason!" "Kill him!" and "Off with his head!" The virulence of such rhetoric makes even Palin seem thoughtful; she at least inserts whole verb phrases like "palling around with" in between nouns like "Barack Obama" and "terrorists."

Such scenes are alarming not only because of the McCain campaign's willingness to stoke such murderous mania but also because of its apparent inability to control the madness once it has been unleashed. At more than one rally, McCain has been booed by the audience for attempting to interrupt panicked rants about the impending socialist or terrorist takeover of America. The crowd's immediate anger is directed not at Obama and the Democrats but at their own party's standard-bearers, who should be "representing us" but have so far refused to "take the gloves off" and "take it to Obama" and "hit him" in "a soft spot." If the GOP leaders don't give these folks what they want, they had best watch their own soft spots, for there is no shortage of backbenchers ready to seize the helm. Take Jeffrey Frederick, the 33-year-old chair of the Virginia Republican Party, who said that Obama and Osama bin Laden "both have friends that bombed the Pentagon." Denounced by the McCain campaign, Frederick has defiantly refused to apologize for his remark.

Perhaps he knows which way the wind blows: the Republican Party's electoral strategy of sowing resentment and fear--sprung from Nixon and nurtured by admen like Lee Atwater, Floyd Brown and the Swiftboaters--has finally taken on a life of its own. It thrives as a postmodern pastiche of conservative hate speech that no longer requires a master--a Frankenstein monster freed from his creator. What holds this beast together is not the fear and loathing of any particular despised identity so much as the idea that America is under siege, disordered, on the cusp of imminent and total collapse, threatened by terrorists abroad and undermined by enemies at home.

Of course, certain pariahs are useful in certain times. In the old lexicon it was Communists, feminists and gays who peopled the right wing's paranoid imagination, and if the sheer breadth of the slander by association against Obama is any indication, these bugaboos are still of value. But this time around the terror has been most sharply drawn along the lines of xenophobia and racism, a potent combination of hostile drives of which trolls like Andy Martin, the anti-Semite behind the "Obama is a Muslim" e-mails, are but minor instigators. The real enablers are demagogues like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck, who have made careers out of inciting frenzied aggression at anyone to the left of Joe McCarthy. Only now it seems that even these right-wing pundits have been outdone by their formerly loyal listeners. Coulter, whose contempt for Muslims ("invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity") is surpassed only by her scorn for liberals ("even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do"), has yet to call for the assassination of Barack Obama. But if she genuinely believes that liberals are more dangerous than Islamic terrorists, she should follow the courage of her convictions and do so.

To pre-empt such embarrassing displays of weakness, softer propagandists like Andrew Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens--who once brayed on and on about the left's "hatred of the United States" and its role as a "fifth column" "in favor of surrender and defeat"--have declared their support for Obama. But as Hitchens's recent endorsement in Slate amply demonstrates, he is not quite ready to give up the poisoned sword. Obama, he writes, is not a "capitulationist," even if he does "accept the support of the surrender faction."

If the polls are any indication, Obama will endure this smear campaign just fine, with or without the backhanded compliments of apologetic neocons. And if his election is not quite the ringing victory for civil rights and liberties, diplomacy and cosmopolitanism that we might like, it will at least beat back for a while the idea that defaming these values as traitorous constitutes sound electoral strategy. If Obama wins, and the barbarians do not show up to rattle the gates, what will the conservatives do next? For them, the barbarians were a solution, of sorts.

[tallyman2008]

Limbaugh, Coulter, others today - naw, rookie wannabes


Here is your History Homework Assignment

Discover a Pair of Originals, Two of the Masters:


Father Charles Coughlin

Joe Pyne


(hint, hint - try YouTube and Wiki)

[gingersnap19]

Ausus, thank you for engaging in a discourse where we could both express our views. Obviously, we will vote for different candidates in the upcoming election but, hopefully, regardless of who wins we will both give the next President of the United States a chance to prove himself.

Gotta go. Thanks again. Regards, if not luck, to a fellow American.

[gingersnap19]

Hey, Ausus, glad you are still around. As I said in a previous post, if Rev. Wright''s speeches cause violence, then the law should step in. As to past riots and political assassinations, I have never pointed the finger at Republicans for these events. Again, my belief is that violence is a crime, regardless of the name or cause in which it is invoked.

As to being totalitarian, I have never in any post said that people should be jailed because I disagree with what they say. Quite to the contrary, our constitution guarantees freedom of speech. What I did say is that when anyone uses inflammatory rhetoric to incite emotions and violence erupts, then our laws require the court to step in and determine if there is a causal link.

My point is that no one is above the law, not political campaigns and not over-emotional supporters from either side.

[ausus-2009]

gingersnap19,

If you jailed everybody who said something offensive or could be interpreted as inciting hatred, up to half of the contributors to CBS blogs would be in jail, depending on the topic. Take that to newspaper blogs and all of the other types, you could increase the US jail population by millions. There would be no room for rapists, murderers and those that destroy property.

[gingersnap19]

Wombat681, yes, by all means Palin should file a civil suit against the idiots with the obscene tee-shirts. And if you can find quotes that prove the DNC and the Obama-Biden campaign has urged supporters to voice this type of obscenity, then include them in the lawsuit, too.

Apply the same principle to both sides. When Republican or Democratic supporters break the law, rein them in. When candidates incite unfounded fear and distrust aimed at an individual or specific ethnic group, make them own it.

Contrary to popular belief, political campaigns are not above the law.

[ausus-2009]

gingersnap19,

I would not equate "palling around with terrorists" with "Burn baby burn" or some of the words of the Rev. Wright.

It is interesting to note that none of the major riots in the past have been instigated by Republicans - Watts (twice), Chicago, Detroit or even 1958 Little Rock. The assassins of JFK and RFK were certainly not Republicans.

To jail someone because you don''t like what they say is certainly totalitarian. Neither McCain are advocating violence or a course of action that includes violence.

[gingersnap19]

Ausus, if you are still reading, please see my previous two posts. The robocall cited ends by stating, "This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee at 202-863-8500." McCain is currently giving TV interviews where he defends this robocall as true and accurate. Palin gave numerous speeches in which she used the "palling around with terrorists" language. These are not surrogates, these are the Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates.

If no violence erupts, we can count ourselves lucky, and there is no criminal offense. However, if violence does occur -- and many people are afraid that will happen -- then a case could be made in court that this rhetoric was a direct incitement.

Again, when your country is at war, it is no small thing to state that a United States Senator has worked closely with your country''s enemy.

[ausus-2009]

j_salerno,

Do you want to add Fascist and Nazi to your list or are you being selective?

[jsalern3]

We''re marching, marching to shibboleth
With the eagle and the sword...

How is it that people can still be moved by appeals to their lowest instincts? Why do they still allow themselves to be manipulated by meaningless tag lines like ''commie'', ''socialist'', etc? If you let this kind of bull influence you, you are by definition dumber than a robot phone caller.

[dmgenet]

There are fascists in every wing of politics in this great nation. So keeping Fox off the air, even if sober minded Democrats are talking about will not become real. People vote with their off button and remote changer and Fox as well as others know this. Bottom line is the advertisers.

[ausus-2009]

My concern is the censorship that is being seriously discussed in Democratic Party circles. Some wish to shut down Fox news, right-wing radio commentators and anybody who opposes Obama.

This is not Venezuela, Cuba, Zimbabwe, North Korea or China we are talking about. This is the USA. I think some right-wing commentators say some pretty nutty things but I still value the basic freedoms - press, speech, religion and assembly. To curb comments of those you oppose is heading down the slippery slope of totalitarianism.

[caldwellptr]

GUTTER POLITICS = GUTTER GOVERNMENT

[ausus-2009]

gingersnap19,

You didn''t answer the question. You sound like a true politician. I repeat, give me a direct quote from McCain and Palin (not their surrogates) that you think deserves jail time.

[dburfears]

THE GREAT DANGER: Far-right stoking anger

Make a NOTE of this:

If Obama wins, the practice of this kind of dangerous political hysteria will lead to another Lee Harvey Oswald. The anger being planted by these Far Right Wing extremists will boil and fester until it explodes. I fear that it may even extend beyond a single act, and may create an anti-government underground movement of domestic Right Wing terrorists aimed at bringing down any non-Right Wing government. Out of anger, many in the less radical right will give silent assent to such a movement.

I hope I am wrong. However, I see a growing radicalization of Right Wing politics in this country.

[dburfears]

MERCHANTS of HATE and FEAR ARE HAVING THEIR EFFECT

It''s clear that Steve Schmidt, Hannity, Rush, Coulter, Malkin, Kristol, Liddy, and FOX NEWS are finally having their desired effect. The hate filled mobs attending these McCain and Palin rallies are the harvest from years of seeding hate and fear, while spreading the slander of the far right.

I suppose these MERCHANTS of HATE AND FEAR make a lot of money trying to keep their party in power and spreading their filth. However, the COST TO THE COUNTRY and our political health is incalculable.

These people who spend their radio and TV time ginning up hate and fear should be ashamed. They are the most UN-American public figures we have seen in quite a while.

What is worse is that the once proud GOP has become dependent on these MERCHANTS of HATE AND FEAR. The GOP is becoming the party of the unruly mob. They cater to the fears of many good Americans who are looking for an answer to their anxieties about the direction of the country.

The GOP''s MERCHANTS of HATE AND FEAR tell these Americans that is is OTHER AMERICANS (!) who are the ENEMY. They divide. They overtly state that people who disagree with them are NOT AMERICANS- that those who do not follow the MERCHANTS of HATE AND FEAR are "not like us".

Shame on these MERCHANTS of HATE AND FEAR and their disdain for their fellow Americans.

[carolrieger]

McCain/Palin have tapped into the dark side of America. If the polls are tight, then we are teetering on the verge of hope or dispair. Which side will win? The forces that would like to take us back to the black days of McCarthism? The forces that sees hope and common goals when looking to the future? I''ll cast my vote for hope every time.

[noloyalisti]

Isn''t it time to STOP the right wing robber barons? Or should we wait until they get us way into a depression? Because that is what they want for the poor and middle class. This should be 90-95% of the American people voting for Obama vs. 5-10% who are greedy and are doing well in this economy.

[dnsallday]

How can MCCain say "country first" and pick someone who is NOT prepared to be President like Palin???

Posted by apple2pie
***********************************************************
What he means is that rather than lose an election he will destroy the COUNTRY FIRST!

[upto1947]

In case you haven''t heard, there''s a guy running for president named Barack Hussein Osama Nobama. This Nobama was born outside America and secretly schooled in Islamic terrorism at a Wahhabi madrassa. He then moved to the United States to take up the radical ''60s teachings of the Weather Underground''s Bill Ayers, while also organizing for ACORN, a subprime-lending, voter fraud-committing collective of affirmative-action welfare queens. All this happened before he became an elitist celebrity advocate of socialism, infanticide, the sexual abuse of children and treason.
************************************************
This is the onl true thing on here. And to think, some of you nuts are going to voute for this no good ***** B((**&*&((()())**()*())*(B )*(. You fill it in.

[mswolfestock]

"The Nation: After Inspiring The Worst In Its Base, Republican Party Cannot Control Irrational Fear And Resentment"

But this is what they''ve been doing since the Sixties. They didn''t think they had to be careful about what they wished for, and that is just too freaking bad. Irrational fear and resentment is what Rush Limbaugh incites every day.