The Rogue Party ... the true face of the Republican Party

[Pepperbelly]

I have been thinking about this for a bit, nibbling around its edge but something I read on MWO today regarding Karl Rove's involvement in the California recall of Davis sparked a firestorm of realizations in my addled brain.

Everyone is familiar with the concept of the Rogue elephant from the Bwana-great-white-hunter movies set in Africa, deep in the interior. The operational concept is, of course, an elephant that no longer acts how an elephant should act, an elephant that has gone vicious, and elephant who has forgotten its manners.

As I read the bit in MWO, I saw it clearly: for the gop, the political process is but one tiny part of their insatiable lust for power, their urge to piracy and looting, their anything-to-win attitude, and their seeming mad rush toward doing every single thing that they can to undermine all of the progress made since the Emancipation Proclamation.

The particpate fully in the political process but they still lead the charge in corrupting it as much as possible, whether through campaign finance activities, voter suppression, election day hijinks, interference with the counting, and, of course, the rat-fucking that goes on during the campaign. But it doesn't stop there.

Not even.

Consider the case of Bill Clinton. Lee Atwater, in 1988, started collecting oppo research on the good governor, sort of political pre-emption. When Bill Clinton announced, they started the smear campaigns immediately, trotting out horeseshit after horseshit, and then, when BC WON, that is when they went ape shit. This-gate, that-gate, none of them amounting to a popcorn fart in a hurricane, steadily smearing, constantly, like the tides wearing on the beach.

And when they got the chance, they took it into another arena, another area where their outright mendacity, corruption, and power-lust is displayed for all to see in a place that should have none of those things: the Courts. District courts, appeals courts, the Supremes (the Felonious Five starrring Fat Tony and the Pirates), special proseutors, luncheon meetings, the elves, Richard Melon Scaife.

It is incredible.

But then it hit me ... these guys will literally ... LITERALLY do absolutely ANYTHING for power. They do not care about its legitimacy, only the results.

Am I so naive that I am only now realizing exactly how voraciously EVIL these bastards are?

[gulliver]

1. They are angry at the world.

They feel justified in going rogue. Their world is slipping away, and they blame us liberals. That's why they are willing to cheat, bite ears, game the system, abuse power, etc.

We liberals are not responsible for the dying world of the conservatives. If anything, liberals are now more apt than anyone to care about preserving tradition, culture, the natural world. One day, the scales will fall from conservative eyes and they will see who the real enemy is.

Liberals should just say, "Look you hot-headed bastards, liberals are not to blame for all of your problems! But those corpo-kooks over there are shipping your jobs overseas like you are nothing. Wake up."

I think if the conservatives stopped unfairly and irrationally blaming liberals for the scary social, historical, and environment trends we are seeing, they wouldn't be able to bring themselves to be uncivil, unethical, and dismissive towards us. Bush would be a goner.

Am I apologizing for conservative cheating? No. I think you are talking about the leaders, and they are true bastards.

[greekspeak]

11. Are you sure their world is slipping away?

My fear is that their hate-filled money-lust fest is just warming up. They just keep winning. They have made a mockery out of politics in Texas. Now, it is California that they are trying to add to their warped Borg collective. I think you have to include Anniston, AL in there too, where the conservative anti-environmental policy has become a threat to human well being. I keep wondering when somebody with actual power and to the left of the John Birchers is going to do something to stop this right-wing jugernaut. The strongest Democratic leaders in government act more like borg drones than opposition leaders, slapping Shrubby on the back for his destructive machinations. Several people have compared dealers in this new conservative backlash to robber barons. I think even Gilded Age robber barons knew where to stop.

[Clete]

2. They are fascists.

The sooner you allow that word to penetrate your mind, the sooner you will understand that we are in the midst of a fascist revolution. This is the method they use, exactly as you wrote, until they are in control and then you will see the real evil faces of these people.

[w4rma]

3. The return of the robber barons (n/t)

[teryang]

4. Couldn't agree more

Also think that they are fascists.

As far as the courts go, this is where the rubber meets the road. Short of street violence and revolution, disputes and injuries must be resolved in the courts.

Fascist corporatists want to make sure that they always win. Litigation is very expensive. But corporations having more money than individuals isn't enough to guarantee victory every single time. So you have to constantly change the laws and rules of procedure to further favor the corporations over people. Rigging the rules isn't enough. Someone still might get justice. So, card carrying corporatists must take over the judiciary. Ever been involved in litigation? Ever seen judges decide for the corporation EVERY SINGLE TIME over the course of thousands of cases involving the same issues of law but completely different facts? Then you know what fascism is all about.

[starroute]

5. They want to control everything forever

It used to be that both parties expected power would change hands between them on a regular basis. This kept them fairly honest, prevented them from overreaching when they were in power, and made them willing to compromise and work out bipartisan agreements. Particularly in foreign policy, the need for consistency during changes in government was a great stabilizing factor.

The Republicans these days don't observe any of that. They act as though they expect to stay in power forever. They will use any sort of crime or fraud or intimidation to maintain their power because they don't believe it will ever catch up with them. They shut the Democrats out of decision-making, prefer brute force to compromise, and are willing to alter long-established policies on a dime.

As they do all this, or course, they have to be getting somewhat nervous about what will happen when they do lose power -- but that just makes them even more desperate and unscrupulous about retaining it.

I don't think I believe in evil. But I do believe in chaos theory -- and the Republicans are doing their very best to destabilize our system and throw it into a chaotic state that might well destroy it. Yes, they have gone rogue -- and that makes them my enemies, and the enemies of anyone else with a dream for what America might be.

[iangb]

6. Yup..absolutely....definitely.....

.....and?

We are defining the problem without offering any realistic solutions.

If you think selecting a great candidate for '04 matters........think again.

These guys know that they can cancel/postpone elections 'In the interests of preserving Freedom' (or whatever).......and they will.

What exactly are you going to do?

[Pepperbelly]

8. and ...

one seldom has solvency courses appear at the same time as problem realization.

:D

I am simply now trying to figure out how far these guys will actually go for the power.

[maggrwaggr]

7. it is a shocking realization

I had it, too, some time ago.

It's what drove me to DU. Here I've at least been able to vent and realize there are a lot of people who feel the way I do. If you just look at the media it's like you're living in a world gone completely mad. Or a bad dream.

To keep from completely hating my fellow Americans, I'm convinced that most people just don't want to believe the truth. It will shatter everything they've been told from infancy about our country and our "system".

But our system is broken.

It's like that scene in "Speed" where they trick the bad guy by showing fake videotape of the bus.

Only the bad guys are showing us videotape of a patriotic nation doing the right thing blah blah blah blah blah.

People are starting to wake up and see that the videotape is fake.

Just a little bit, though ....

[charlie]

9. Yes, the Republican party has gone bughouse insane

They're shameless, brutal, and relentless. The only thing that'll keep them in check is making them fear that we might return in kind. Since that rarely happens, their appetite and bravado has swollen to enormous proportions. It's one of the reasons I don't have much patience for the pleas that we don't "get down in the muck with them." I understand the sentiment, but we're facing opponents that will never be placated and will gleefully exploit any constraints we impose on ourselves.

When Tom Foley ascended to the speakership after the Gingrich crew torpedoed Jim Wright, they immediately began a whisper campaign against him -- he was secretly gay and cruised bathhouses getting some on the side. This kept up for a few weeks. Then Barney Frank booked time on a couple of Sunday shows, went on TV and said if the shit didn't stop he was prepared to out 10 Republican congressmen. The smears stopped immediately. You've gotta do whatever you've gotta to to nail these slime.

[Isome]

10. Barney Frank's complete quote:

"I threatened to out six people on the Republican side," recalled Frank with a chortle. Although he now admits he didn't have anyone specific in mind, the insinuations about Foley were never heard again. There must have been a few members who thought Frank was talking about them.

::Link::

There was an excellent article on the March for Justice site. The author, Luciana Bohne, wrote how ignorant we Americans are, and proud of it. She referred to it as our having learned to be stupid (not ignorant).

Sadly, I have to agree that too many of our fellow citizens are just that and when presented with evidence that refutes their circumvoluted positions on issues of import, they cannot intellectually process it.

[Pepperbelly]

12. Barney is the BOMB...

Fighting fire with fire. It is ALL these psychopaths understand. If it doesn't involve some pain for them, they do not give a drizzly shit.

[charlie]

13. So it was a ruse?

...makes the story all the sweeter. Thanks Isome.

[leftofthedial]

14. welcome to the club

what kept you?

you are absolutely 100% correct.

pure evil

[maggrwaggr]

15. You can only fight evil with force

but we're not allowed to talk about that here.