Gawd I Love Bob Herbert !!! - Re GOP: "It’s not a party; it’s a cult."

[WillyT]

Out of Touch
By BOB HERBERT
Published: May 1, 2009

<snip>

The incredibly clueless stewards of the incredibly shrinking Republican Party would do well to recall that it was supposedly Abe Lincoln, a Republican, who said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

Not only has the G.O.P. spent years trying to fool everybody in sight with its phony-baloney, dime-store philosophies, it’s now trapped in the patently pathetic phase of fooling itself.

The economy has imploded, the auto industry is in danger of being vaporized and more than half of all working Americans are worried that they may lose their jobs in the next year. So what’s the Republican response? To build a wall of obstruction in front of efforts to get the economy moving again, and then to stand in front of that wall chanting gibberish about smaller government, lower taxes, spending cuts and Ronald Reagan.

Snipped to 4 paragraphs to conform to DU's fairuse policy for copyrighted material - Lithos, DU Moderator

After awhile, it became all but impossible to overlook the madness of these true believers and the incalculable damage they had done to the country. Voters who hadn’t sipped from the Kool-Aid themselves couldn’t help but recognize that the G.O.P. was bizarrely detached from the real world.


<snip>

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/opinion/02herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

:applause::yourock::applause:

:hi:

[saltpoint]

1. Bob Herbert gets it done.

Over the last sveral years of the Bush administration, Herbert put the hurt on Bush officials and Bush himself.

When people complain about the New York TIMES, I hope they aren't including folks like Herbert and Frank Rich in that complaint.

[livetohike]

2. He said it all

Thanks for posting this :hi:.

[saracat]

3. This should be framed. its that good!

[otohara]

4. It will be back

scariest line in article.

[KittyWampus]

5. What a great, well-written rant.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. If not a cult, then organized crime.

[Echo In Light]

8. Ha, yeah! Don't give cults a bad name, call it what it is: CRIME SYNDICATE

[FredStembottom]

29. The two can go together.

The cult-like beliefs acting to "wash the blood" from the criminals hands (in their minds).

[HowHasItComeToThis]

24. BINGO FOR YOU

CRIMINAL IS AS CRIMINAL DOES

[kentuck]

7. Good read !

Sure to rankle the last remaining nerves of any Republican that might peruse it...

[monmouth]

9. Tony Soprano would take umbrage to the comparison...LOL....n/t

[1776Forever]

10. Bob Herbert IS one of the BEST journalist around today! Thanks for the post - Least we forget Bush!

This is their GOP legacy! Mission accomplished - You SOB's! It was on YOUR watch this exploded!

:grr: :nuke: :grr:

[Captain Hilts]

16. Go back and read his columns from 1999 and 2000 and you'll see how he helped give us GWB. nt

[redqueen]

32. Yes, he's strangely silent sometimes when things are happening.

Then years later he speaks up, maybe.

[niceypoo]

11. More accurately, a suicide cult

I work with a republican baptist minister and talking to him about religion or politics is one in the same.

When he talks about Christianity, it is mixed with standard GOP talking points. When talking about politics, everything he says is peppered with bastardized, apocalyptic 'end times' rhetoric or biblical rhetoric excusing greed. He twists Christianity to justify everything the republicans do. The scary part is that he actually believes what he is saying even though he will lie to further his claims, if need be.

Republicans do not know were Christianity ends and the GOP begins, they are one in the same to them.

Because we are in the 'end times' there is no need to address global warming, and wars against 'evil' are necessary to ignite the conflagration that every good republican prays for, Armageddon.

The Republican party is an apocalyptic suicide cult, period. I would love to see a pundit with the yarbles to actually throw this in Pat Buchanan or some other Republicans face to see how they react.

[WillyT]

12. Remember...

"After his unsuccessful (1988) presidential campaign, (Pat) Robertson started the Christian Coalition, a 1.7 million member Christian right organization that campaigned mostly for conservative candidates. It was sued by the Federal Election Commission "for coordinating its activities with Republican candidates for office in 1990, 1992 and 1994 and failing to report its expenditures"<20>

In 1994, the Coalition was fined for "improperly aiding then Representative Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and Oliver North, who was then the Republican Senate nominee in Virginia."<21> Robertson left the Coalition in 2001."

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Robertson

When Robertson was turned away from the presidency, he encouraged his flock to become politically active, and to even run for office themselves. Many did, and filled school boards, county supervisory boards, and many other grassroots types of offices.

THESE became the people who ran the GOP conventions, writing their planks, and giving or taking away their support based on their religious litmus tests. And THESE are about all the GOP has left in its ranks now, having chased virtually everyone else out.

:shrug:

:hi:

[bluedawg12]

13. These nihilists asshats decided to spread disinformation about science

This is a book that has documented the rw tactics - and the confusion we see today is part of a reichwing process that started 30 years ago as a concerted decision to keep people off balance and confused.

Global climate change deniers often were paid shills for Big Energy and Big Business.

RW also used confusion about science to push their wedge issues and social agenda, which was a great way to keep people in line and voting on social issues even against their own broader political interests.

This link has some free excerpts by a book writen by Chris Mooney, it's fascinating reading to see what lengths the rw has gone to in order to disseminate confusion about science, naturally, they want people to fall into line with their greater agenda. Of course their greater agenda now seems really bankrupt of any merit.


>>http://www.waronscience.com/book.php
Science has never been more crucial to deciding the political issues facing the country. Yet science and scientists have less influence with the federal government than at any time since the Eisenhower administration.

In the White House and Congress today, findings are reported in a politicized manner; spun or distorted to fit the speaker’s agenda; or, when they’re too inconvenient, ignored entirely. On a broad array of issues—stem cell research, climate change, abstinence education, mercury pollution, and many others—the Bush administration’s positions fly in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus.

In The Republican War on Science, Chris Mooney tied together the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of our government’s increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.

Now, in a revised and expanded paperback edition, Mooney brings us up to date on the war on science, relates the phenomenon to the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina—and ends with a call to arms to scientists and their allies.<<

[pleah]

14. K&R

[Captain Hilts]

15. Then why'd he slime Al Gore? Still does. nt

[lolly]

22. I think that was Frank Rich

Rich slammed Gore mercilessly; it's one reason I don't like him even when he's spot on about Bush.

He was one of the prime movers of the "Bush and Gore are exactly the same" meme.

As far as I know, he's never acknowledged his error, much less apologized for his role in helping Bush into office.

[Captain Hilts]

28. So did Herbert. nt

[Danascot]

17. Succinct summary of the GOPs problems:

"It is losing all credibility with the public because it is not offering anything — anything at all — that could be viewed as helpful or constructive in a time of national crisis. And it has been unwilling to take responsibility for its role in bringing that crisis about."

Great column. I only disagree with his last line: "It will be back. Someday." Every day they're going deeper and deeper into crazyland and will continue to marginalize itself until they've lost the support of anyone to the left of Dr. Strangelove.

[Historic NY]

18. I think the Moonies took over the GOP....

they were a cult until Raygun said they were a religion.

[yardwork]

19. (all-too-frequently with feckless Democrats following closely behind)

An important phrase in Herbert's piece, not to be overlooked.

[malaise]

20. Great Op Ed but

You're only allowed four paragraphs and you posted the entire article.

[cbayer]

21. WillyT

Please be aware that DU copyright rules require that you limit the posting of copyrighted material to four paragraphs or less with a link.


Thanks,

cbayer
DU Moderator

[certainot]

23. it's a talk radio cult - the cult of limbaugh

the last 20 years of american/GOP politics have been dominated by the talk radio monopoly.

[Joey Liberal]

25. GOP is the Nazi party n/t

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

26. Herbert points out that the Repugs suddenly had an epiphany on the Road to Damacus

and are trying to fool the public and their zombie followers that somehow they are now the conservatives. This, after they sat in the halls of Congress for 6 years and passed every spending bill measurable; creating a massive deficit. Now they at as if the deficit was actually created by Obama while they sit helplessly on the sidelines. Not once have they admitted that they caused this message. It's all Barney Frank's fault, right?!?!? And their followers are worse! They believe everything these goons have been propagandizing for 30 years; they are mindless and absolutely cannot think for themselves!

[BumRushDaShow]

27. And don't forget

that the same cast of "small government" RW lunatics created a whole new department, which stands as the http://www.govcentral.com/careers/articles/402">3rd largest behind DOD and DVA. In fact, the top 5 (per that link) show how far towards gestapoism we are... :banghead:

[WestSeattle2]

30. This about nails it. n/t

[Faygo Kid]

31. Herbert is a treasure.

No mealy-mouthed inside-the-Beltway crap from him, like Broder.

[firedupdem]

33. Herbert knocked it out of the park! n/t