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We need to meditate on Gingrich, Anita Hill and the Contract on America

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jdj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:06 PM
Original message
We need to meditate on Gingrich, Anita Hill and the Contract on America
Edited on Fri Feb-18-05 02:08 PM by jdj
For those of us who are having trouble with how to frame the Gannon scandal, and nervous about how to handle the so-called "gay angle" without offending gays (my personal take on this is with what I have been through in my life as an out gay person, trust me, I can take it).

I think alot of people have swallowed the belief that gay=liberal, =democrat, even though we have just been handed the smoking gun to prove it equals nothing of the sort. We may be more out, but we aren't more gay. Hell, for all I know we may even be LESS gay.

I can still remember what I felt like during the Lewsinsky days, I can still remember what I felt like during Anital Hill, I can remember how it felt to have to confront the smugness and smarmyness of Gingrich on the tube every day acting like the beacon of virtue despite his treatment of his cancer-stricken wife. I can remember Anita Hill sweating and struggling to keep her composure before congress as she testified, and I think Gannon needs to be put in exactly the same position, in front of the cameras before the nation. I want to see conservative senators try to lob him softballs without appearing to be on his side, or I want to see him betrayed by his own people.

I think it will be a tragedy if Dems miss the boat on this. This is our time, this is our Monica, and the question is, do we really have the balls to rise to the occasion?
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fertilizeonarbusto Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:09 PM
Response to Original message
1. We do and we will
It hit the networks last night and we got it there. I think there is a consensus among us that we will do everything possible to keep it alive. As H.R. Haldeman famously said, "It's very hard to put the toothpaste back in once it's out of the tube." That's toothpaste all over the floor.
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jdj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:11 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. yes, I think the Daily Show showed a clip of where the CNN
anchor took credit for America Blog's scoop by saying "we found it" and then corrected herself and said, well, the bloggers found it. I think she actually sited America Blog. Just goes to show there is a wealth of info out there if you look for it, which they clearly are not.
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whistle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:16 PM
Response to Original message
3. Politics is about making all of us feel uncomfortable, fearful, angry
...passionate and whatever else the power structure needs to ram their political agenda through. Like it or not those in power are getting their goals achieved while those of us not in power feel powerless.
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NAO Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:24 PM
Response to Original message
4. Provoking the anti-gay fanatics causes a Reductio ad absurdum
I have gay friends and believe gay rights is an important issue. I think writing incendiary letters about the Gannon issue is very useful and does not offend gays.

To act as an agent provocateur for nut-jobs like Radical Cleric James Dobson and his loony followers in the extremest group "Focus on the Family" does not insult gays. It causes bigots to "out" themselves as bigots, and make fools of themselves.

In case anyone did not already get this concept, Dobson recently furnished an example of how it works with SpongeBobGate.

Firing up the anti-gay religious Bush supporting nuts about Gannon serves many purposes.

- It drives a wedge between the plutocratic, corporatist neo-con cabal and their electoral base, the fundamentalist evangelical Christians.

- It 'outs' anti-gay bigots as bigots.

- Their extreme behavior serves as a self-refuting reductio ad absurdum of the anti-gay agenda.

Properly understood and worked, Gannongate has TREMENDOUS potential to damage both the Religious Reich and the Plutocratic Corporatist Republicans; the two most destructive forces in America today, IMHO.

*****

The Swift Advance of a Planned Coup:
Conquering by Stealth and Deception - How the Dominionists Are Succeeding in Their Quest for National Control and World Power
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheSwiftAdvanceOfaPlannedCoup.htm

The Despoiling of America:
How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

Video on the Christian Reconstructionist Dominionist Theocratic Agenda
http://www.theocracywatch.org/av/video_dominion.ram

The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party
a public information project from TheocracyWatch.org
http://www.theocracywatch.org


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jdj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-18-05 02:30 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. yes, I think that the importance of the wedge can't be understated
because this is the 2nd most prevalent (behind abortion) big govt vs. small government issue.

The two wings of the party are at complete odds with each other no matter how much they protest.
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