This is who they are.......posted on Fri Mar-16-07... by BobcatJH.,,outstanding post

[RedEarth]

...one of my all time favorites...

This is who they are

While yesterday I focused on the fact that the Republican Party is reeling, today - thanks to the latest outburst from Glenn Beck - I'd like to remind everyone of something equally important: This is who they are. The face of Beck, Ann Coulter, George Allen and so many other right-wing bigots, misogynists and low-down assholes is the face of the Republican Party. The face and, to be sure, the heart and soul. Take a good look, America, because the smiling faces you see on the right belie a cold, dark interior far more accurate than outward appearances. And remember what you see, because obscuring the truth about themselves is the only thing keeping the Republican Party from being marginalized to permanent minority status at the far fringes of society.

When Beck calls Hillary Clinton a "stereotypical bitch", he's speaking for the party. When Coulter calls John Edwards a "faggot", she's speaking for the party. When Allen calls a man of Indian descent "Macaca", he's speaking for the party. When Bill Donohue says things like "The gay community has yet to apologize to straight people for all the damage that they have done," he's speaking for the party. When Bill O'Reilly calls the victims of Hurricane Katrina "drug-addicted" and "thugs", he's speaking for the party. When Bill Bennett says things like "you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," he's speaking for the party. When Pat Robertson calls for Hugo Chavez's assassination, he's speaking for the party. When Brit Hume's first thoughts after the London terror attacks was "Hmmm, time to buy," he's speaking for the party. And when John Gibson wishes those attacks on France, he's speaking for the party.

Get the picture?

Make no mistake, these are the comments of terrible, terrible people. But not just any people. Prominent conservatives. People held in high regard* and who have repeatedly been given a soapbox from which to spout their dangerous, hateful rhetoric. People given the tremendous opportunity to speak both to and for other people. You and I don't have the same opportunity, nor do we have the same platform. Our words don't appear on cable news, on nationally syndicated radio or in national newspapers. Theirs do. So the next time a mindless Republican asks a progressive to answer for the words of a seeming nobody, remember that the hate speech you're hearing from the right isn't coming from a corresponding seeming nobody. It's coming from people of prominence. Not people of character, mind you, but people of prominence. And people whose warped sentiments speak for millions of their fellow travelers.

The truly sad thing about the Becks, Coulters and Allens of the world is that there's a little bit of each of them in every Republican. Every self-styled conservative caught defending their statements or, at the very least, looking the other way while they spew their bile is forgiving them for poisoning the debate. For cheapening it. For lowering the bar. For appealing to the lowest-common denominator. For pandering to the Republican base's very worst tendencies and beliefs. This is who they are: Self-styled moral scolds with a bit of an asshole problem. It's not that they simply never practice what they preach. It's that their preaching is an overt effort to mask their inner depravity. For today's Republicans, the phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover" couldn't be truer. Only now, with the cover rapidly deteriorating, the book itself is there for everyone to see.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3165673#3165754

.......link to his "the Republican Party is reeling, today " post on his blog.....

http://hughesforamerica.typepad.com/hughes_for_america/2007/03/a_notsosubtle_r.html

[Cleita]

1. "The truly sad thing about the Becks, Coulters and Allens of the world is

that there's a little bit of each of them in every Republican."

This is why they are so successful. They appeal to those hidden prejudices, greed and bigotry in conservatives and tell them it's okay to feel that way.

[Peace Patriot]

2. "...and who have repeatedly been given a soapbox..." - that's the problem!

"Make no mistake, these are the comments of terrible, terrible people. But not just any people. Prominent conservatives. People held in high regard* and who have repeatedly been given a soapbox from which to spout their dangerous, hateful rhetoric. People given the tremendous opportunity to speak both to and for other people."

-----

There are lot of real stupid shits in this world, but generally they don't become President or get on TV--until now.

This PROMOTION of shitty fascists and bigots and dirty mouths TO prominence is what we should be looking at. How does that work? Here's how: all news and opinion in this country is basically controlled by 5 rightwing billionaire CEOs, who decide what story we are going to be hold about our national political life, and hire reporters, editors and producers to shill for this narrative, and pay big bucks to assholes like Ann Coulter and George Allen to highlight the major psyops/disinformation points of the tale. The rightwing billionaire control of our national political narrative goes hand in hand with the fascist control of our election results, by three rightwing Bushite corporations, using 'TRADE SECRET, 'PROPRIETARY' programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls. The latter have gained easy--EASY!--control of our election outcomes. The former write and promulgate the invented narratives that go with those outcomes.

I will mention just one example: After the 2004 election, Cheney was asked what accounted for their win, and he replied, "Our get out of the vote effort in the churches." There is no evidence for a successful Puke GOTV "in the churches." In fact, the Democratic grass roots blew the Pukes away nearly 60/40 in new voter registrations in 2004. (Where did all those votes go?) But Rove had pre-written the narrative that gay rights would be an important issue, and had planted some anti-gay rights initiatives on ballots (not really ballots, but what happens when you push a button and activate electrons which then behave in pre-programmed ways--i.e., unverifiable electronic voting) to sauce the story. Then, when Cheney said it was their "get out the vote in the churches," everyone in the coroporate press understood that that was the pre-written narrative, and no one asked Cheney to prove it with numbers or facts, nor did they do any fact-checking to see if it was true.

The first coup (fascist/corporate media) has been coming on for while, in the slowmo takeover of all media by a few billionaires. The second coup is datable to the 2002 to 2004, and the fast-tracking of election theft machines all over the country, by the Anthrax Congress.

These stupid fascist shits who get on TV are no accident. They are hired to elaborate a narrative that will conform to the results produced by Diebold & brethren's 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines. BobcatJH is right. They have "repeatedly been given a soapbox." But "been given" by whom, and why, is what we should be focusing on, and--very important--we should be focusing on it STRATEGICALLY, for the long term struggle to, a) recover vote counting that everyone can see and understand--PUBLIC vote counting; and b) recover PUBLIC control of our PUBLIC TV/radio airwaves. These two goals are vital to our recovery of our democracy from the global corporate predators who have usurped it. Of the two, strategically, the first--restoring PUBLIC vote counting--is essential to achievement of the second. Not until we begin electing true representatives of the people, with transparent vote counting, can we hope to reform any other goddamn, fascist, corporate mess.