More Thoughts on Facilitating a Right-Wing Agenda -- Don't hate us!!!!

[Cats Against Frist]

because we're radical!! :)


Okay -- I believe there was election fraud -- so don't call me naive.

I believe in decimation of the GOP -- so don't say that I'm "rolling over."

I believe that Evangelicals did make the difference in the final overall numbers -- so don't call me a "tin-foil hatter."

And I believe in egalitarianism, unions, feminism, and gay rights -- so don't call me a "turncoat."

Seems one of the more interesting discussions in "Fighting and Acrimony" has been the idea that we go along with the GOP in order to triangulate and isolate the extreme right, somehow. The other idea was to use our creative, intellectual and monetary power to starve the red states, by promoting federalism and abolishing the federal income tax.

Some DUers, particularly the liberal-left Democrats have been incensed by the very idea -- principles and all, but I want to remind you of a couple of things:

-- Right now, as they're talking about "healing" out of one side of their mouths, out the other, they are ridiculing us, talking about how they're going to USE us to pass their agenda, calling us "losers," -- they were calling Kerry "delusional" when he didn't immdediately concede.

-- Diebold -- need I say more? They've pushed for a paperless, recordless voting system, in the hands of Republican operatives.

-- They've traded three thousand of our bodies for 100,000 of those in the Middle East. And the freepers talk about killing us EVERYDAY.

-- Rush, Hannity and their other propagandameisters take marching orders from a VERY elite intellectual core, and somehow convince Johnny-Know-It-Not that they're on HIS side.

-- Despite the fact that, in the grand scheme of things, we are up against a far-right, authoritarian GOP, they've convinced millions that they are for "freedom" and "small government."

-- They have refused to join the ICC or respect the Geneva Conventions, creating a nation-based moral relativism -- WHILE preaching that the "liberals" are the "moral relativists."

-- They've de-centered our language, reframed our debates, and have raised sensationalism, the false dilemma, the ad hominem and ad populum logical fallacies to an art form, and have a VAST media empire by which to distribute their false binaries to people who have totalitarian psychological characteristics. We're talking "Orwell come to life" here.

-- They play off of classical liberalism, and pretend that they're "in touch" with the founders, when what they ARE is a corpo-fascist, far right, authoritarian police state and empire builder.

-- They have COMPLETLEY created a narrative that has re-written the Bible, and history and has "washed clean" any altruistic, Rousseau-ian or Jeffersonian claims to government -- (unless it's doled out by the church, which we'll get to later.

-- They have shown UTTER RUTHLESSNESS in dividing the nation with wedge issues -- going as far as to threaten the Constitution with their shenanigans.

-- And this quote:

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'' (from the NYT Suskind article)

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And some of you are sitting around here playing "applause-o-meter" with our message -- trying to see if we "just need to move a little farther to the left" or "we just need to move a little farther to the right" and then, we'll simply "talk them into it."

Give me a break.

Understand this: THEIR constituency and OUR constituency is COMPLETELY FOOLED into thinking that they're "free marketer anarcho capitalists" who want to acquire indiviual freedom for the common person by abolishing the federal government. THEIR constituency is FARTHER fooled into thinking that they are "small government" while the "liberal commies" are BIG FUCKING BROTHER.

The argument is not about whether to move right or left, or whether to concede issues (though I do agree that's in order) or stick with our principals.

The object is to destroy them. To take apart the apparatus that has given them power.

Here are some myths about the GOP:

THEY WANT FREE MARKETS

They do not want free markets, because a true "free market" would not be able to co-opt the power of the military, or the court, or the police. A true "free market" would not allow government or farm subsidization (pork) wouldn't be able to regulate pornography, television, drugs, cigarettes, liquor, prostitution, gambling, etc. In a free market, they wouldn't be able to keep us from buying Canadian drugs, or taking away our purchasing power.

THEY WANT STATES' RIGHTS

Wrong. Now that they have full federal power, and may be appointing wing-nut justices, federalism is going to be a harder-fought battle.

THEY DON'T BELIEVE IN WELFARE

They certainly do believe in welfare -- not only the entitlements they're always ripping on, but also corporate welfare, farm subsidies, military welfare, red state welfare, etc. They also believe in the welfare state, because the stability that it helps create keeps them from getting their heads chopped off by starving teeming masses. They know what happens when the poor get TOO poor, and it NEVER turns out good for the nobility.

THEY WILL LET THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT HAVE WHATEVER THEY WANT

Wrong again. For now, I believe that the religious right is being manipulated for their votes. Why? Because many of the things that they want would cause capitalism to take a hit. It would also increase the welfare state. Do you really believe that the multinationals want people to DONATE TO CHARITY? My god -- how would they buy Jessica Simpson albums? And without federal taxes, how would they pay off the churches that come begging for money from the federal government? Porn is a multi-billion dollar industry. Advertisers depend on sex to sell their products. Abortion is necessary to keep "the minorities" from overpopulating the whites.

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So, one of two things is the possibility -- either the GOP is a UNIFIED CHRISTO-FASCIST PURITAINICAL TOTALITARIAN FACTION OR they're a party that's waiting for a civil war between their moderate and loony freeper-fundie factions.

I'm betting on the latter, and that the real "power people" who control the GOP are actually the "holders of the means of production and distribution" and fewer the religious ideologues or the neocons. It's just that the former teams up with the latter two, to manipulate the populace with fear and religion.

And the most important part is that THEY USE US AS SCAPEGOATS. We're part of their plan. The intellectual left is part of their plan.

The last thing in the WORLD that they want is to see ANY of the big, sweeping campaign promises on which they run, to come to fruition.

They are BIG GOVERNMENT, RIGHT-WING AUTHORITARIANS.

Going this far left, or that far left, is not going to stop them. They are not interested in healing or compromise. They are interested in pushing this country as far to the authoritarian right-wing as they can -- and it is only, in my opinion, a matter of time before they're no longer a coalition of "manipulators" and "the manipulated," but they're only one or two generations from becoming totalitarian.

They've already shown a contempt for our Constitution and Bill of Rights -- straight out of the totalitarian handbook -- how many anti-totalitarian quotes have I seen talking about "trading liberty for fear?" Their team of 59 million automatons apparently will let them go right along with it.

I think it was Walt that said, "we don't know how to give them a name, because it's nothing we've ever seen, yet."

I also read a quote from someone the other day on DU -- I don't remember, or I'd give them credit.

"No one ever walks away from an empire."

Right now, they're busy getting ready to push out the moderates from their party, and there are still tens of millions of evangelicals that they can pull in that HAVEN'T YET VOTED, who are having children out the wazoo.

You saw how many conservatives turned against Bush. You've already seen -- less than 24 hours after Bush "wins" the presidency, the battle between Arlen Specter and Bush.

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This might be a betting game -- but letting them choke on their own rhetoric is an OPTION. It might hurt some of the people that we've been fighting for, in the short term, but if we REMOVE ourselves as obstacles -- even taking up parts of their agenda -- what will they propagandize about? Who will they talk about on talk radio?

For them to actually "get their way" would actually upset and de-stabilize this country more than they EVER would want.

And don't get paranoid, because federalism might actually BE GOOD for the left, at this time. Not good for everyone, all the time -- but before I have to get my "Mammon Christ" identification tattoo, I'm willing to do something drastic.

And you fight authoritarians by being more RADICAL. We've LOST the battle between left-wing authoritarianism and right-wing authoritarianism. What's left is to decentralize.

If we beat them to it, they either have to become the obstructors to their own rhetoric, or they go along with it, and it upsets their little wedding between corporation and government.

There are many different ways to do this -- and many nuances, but it should not be dismissed, out of hand. This is something to think about. And I find it EXTRAORDINARILY FUNNY that so many Dems are onto this THE DAY AFTER -- it's a "collective unconscious" thing or something. If you believe in an idea, like that, it would only make sense, in the ebb and flow of human power structure that humans should have "instinctual" ways to react to being threatened.

The totalitarians have always been with us, and calling them by their names is not "offensive." That's just another part of their propaganda. Howard Dean is "crazy," Al Gore is "wild eyed," and you should NEVER, NEVER call totalitarians by their name.

But they do it all the time. They've won because of it.

This idea might be hard to implement -- but it isn't impossible.

[Cats Against Frist]

1. I will kick this

I spent a lot of time writing this, you know. :)

[Cats Against Frist]

2. kick

[smirkymonkey]

3. Great post! Bookmarked and Kicked!

:kick:

Sorry, too fried and tired to comment right now, but hopefully it will still be going tomorrow! :)

[Cats Against Frist]

4. Thanks

I don't know if it will be going, though -- it's long, somewhat sanctimonious and there's a lot of "fighting and acrimony" going on in here. But please respond, if you feel like it. I'm pretty serious about this stuff.