Republicans: Violent Losers - Frank Schaeffer/FDL

[WillyT]

(edited for copyright purposes-proud patriot Moderator Democratic Underground)whoops Unedited -Mods looked didn't see a copyright sorry to have rushed-pp)


Republicans: Violent Losers
By: Frank Schaeffer Friday March 26, 2010 1:29 pm

<snip>

With the Senate having now passed the final reconciliation changes to the health care reform bill, the Republicans from their "Tea Party" wing to their high priest of hallucinatory fantasy; Glenn Beck, are about to pay a historic price for the biggest miscalculation in American political history since Charles Lindberg sided with the Germans. The pundits all have it wrong. Obama’s victory on health care reform will result in the Democratic Party retaining the majority in both houses of Congress as well as Obama winning a second term.

Disclosure: As a former Republican and Religious Right leader who quit the movement in the mid 80s (for reasons I explain in my book Crazy For God) let me tell my progressive friends and all reality-based people why and how the Republican Party just consigned themselves to defeat by (amongst other things) opposing health care reform.

Why would the Republicans go down in flames siding with the insurance industry against the American people?

Because they (like all political-religiously-inspired fanatics) are in the grip of their own propaganda.

They have committed the ultimate act of political folly: they believe their own BS.

The Republicans have drunk deep at the well of their version of bad back woods moonshine. And their tainted moonshine of misinformation has blinded them. But when the facts are in the Republicans will pay a price. That’s because most Americans are not watching Fox News and still live on planet Earth with their eyes open.

So this – contrary to the pundits — is going to be a great year for Democrats.

Right Wing America lives in an isolation bubble. And now — like the American "patriotic" pro-fascists of the 1930s and 40s — they will pay the price for swilling willful disinformation and believing it.

Consider the fate of the reputation of Charles Lindbergh (the fly-the-Atlantic-solo hero). When Germany invaded Poland (in 1939) Lindbergh became the German’s most prominent public American spokesman. Speaking to crowds in New York City, Chicago and all over America, he was popular with the equivalent of his generation’s "Tea Party Movement" then called the "America Firsters." Like the Tea Party these folks did not trust their government and thought that they alone had the "facts" about what was "really going on," in their case over in Germany and what to do about the rise to power of the fascists in Europe.

The "Firsters" or the America First Committee, was against the American entry into World War II. They had about 850,000 members. After the attack upon Pearl Harbor in 1941 their movement collapsed because everything they had claimed about Germany and Japan (that they were no threat to America) proved to be a lie.

That day’s xenophobic and utterly ignorant Firster "patriots" lapped up the Lindbergh moonshine alternative reality. They also (like the Tea Party today) accused their President (Roosevelt) of "communism" because he opposed far right Germany. They too had their hate fed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh; in their day radio personality and fascist sympathizer Father Charles Coughlin…

Fast forward to last Sunday’s Tea Party rally in Columbus, Ohio when a man with Parkinson’s disease was bullied by the Tea Party protesters who shouted: "If you’re looking for a handout, you’re in the wrong end of town!" and to Washington (Saturday) where Tea Party "patriots" spit on a black congressman and taunted Barney Frank because he’s gay. Fast forward to right wing anti-Obama forces smashing the windows on Democratic Party regional HQs in 5 states.

Congressional Democrats report threats linked to the passage of health care reform legislation this week. Maryland Democrat Steny Hoyer said that he and Republican congressional leaders have discussed implementing new security precautions for lawmakers after an increase in threats following Sunday’s health care reform vote and accompanying anti-reform protests outside the Capitol over the weekend.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating cut fuel lines at the Virginia home of Democratic Representative Tom Perriello’s brother, whose address was posted online by a right-wing blogger who said it was the lawmaker’s address.

The anti-health care reform window-smashing intimidation specialists are the same sorts of folks who on the fringe of the "pro-life" movement have been waving signs wherein Obama’s name is plastered on the picture of a dead fetus’ and the word "murderer" is scrawled in bloody letters over our President’s picture adorned with a Hitler mustache. These people are represented by the likes of the congressman who yelled "Baby Killer!" on the floor of Congress and other Republican "leaders" who told America that health care reform meant unplugging grandma.

The leaderless Republican Party — or should I say the dwindling rabble of reactionaries who still identify themselves as Republicans — is not just politically leaderless, they’re also morally leaderless.

This, speaking metaphorically, is a lynch mob in the making. And they have just lost a big fight in our congress. What will they do next?

Why do the Republican leadership allow this mob to rule? Because they now have no choice.

The Republican leadership have literally gotten into bed with hate. And like all such bargains with the devil it was easier to begin their relationship with rube America than to end it.

Like Lindberg who lived out the rest of his life in ignominy — once we went to war with Japan and Germany — the Republicans will find little room to maneuver as the reality of the good that the health care reform bill will do sinks in with ordinary Americans. And if one of the Tea Party-type loons flies another plane into some federal building again – as recently happened in Texas to the IRS – and there is a huge tragedy, the Republican/Tea Party game will be over.

Either way: be it the next right wing act of domestic terror or the realization by the American public that the Republicans are just plain wrong on the facts; the Republicans are on their way down.

They have made a historic miscalculation on health care reform. They have embraced a group of potentially violent and always embarrassing fellow travelers. The American people may have been confused about the facts but they soon won’t be. And most Americans are not hate-filled people who applaud other Americans spitting on congressmen or throwing bricks through office windows– or worse to come.

Count on more far right violence. Count on the Republican and (Fox media) not speaking out and stopping it. Count on the Democratic Party doing well in November and beyond.



<snip>

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of Crazy For God How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back

Link: http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/37562

:kick:

[Dappleganger]

1. k&r

[Zoeisright]

2. Love Frank Schaeffer. He's so right.

Happy to be the fifth K&R

[WillyT]

3. LOL !!! - Love How This Got UnRecc'd...

Guess there are some who want the Republicans to do well in November.

Who'd a thunk it!

:rofl:

:evilgrin:

[musette_sf]

5. there are some republicans

who specially hate Franky Schaeffer for leaving the fundie fold and joining the sane people of the world.

[depakid]

10. More likely due to pathological hatred of Firedoglake.

[depakid]

11. dupe

[POAS]

4. K&R

[Spazito]

6. Wow, he is right on point...

I particularly liked this point he made:

"They also (like the Tea Party today) accused their President (Roosevelt) of "communism" because he opposed far right Germany. They too had their hate fed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh; in their day radio personality and fascist sympathizer Father Charles Coughlin…"

History does repeat itself in a way I had forgotten. Hate radio is not new.


Recommended.

[chill_wind]

7. I'm probably a bad person who will go to Hell

for saying this, but I really loathe what this man helped foment and create over the decades in this country. And while I don't begrudge him all the mea culpas in the world or his right to find redemption in his own new ways, he says nothing about the politics and actions of the RRR we don't already know. I don't understand why anyone thinks he deserves such great weight among liberals.

[npk]

8. I thought the guy that flew his plane into the IRS building was a lefty

I could be mistaken. I thought I had read he was a Democrat. Still though I agree with every thing else in the article.

[Jade Fox]

9. "they believe their own BS."

Exactly.

What's really frustrating is virtually all of the media and a whole lot of Democrats believe the GOP bull too. My greatest hope is that this has been changed by the HCR victory.

[applegrove]

12. If true this is great news.

[dmr]

13. WillyT

Please be aware that DU copyright rules require that excerpts of copyrighted material be limited to four paragraphs and must include a link to the original source."

Thank you

[WillyT]

14. My Apologies dmr, But...

This IS the original source (FDL, which I linked), and I can't find a copyright warning anywhere. It is a diary posting from FDL, and I thought that the 4P Rule didn't apply here.

Again, my apologies if I am wrong.

Too late for me to edit at this point.

:blush:

:shrug:

[ProgressOnTheMove]

15. I'm so glad to have Shaeffer on our side. When they see the light they run for it with all they're..

worth. This is why I have a good feeling about Specter "WAIT A MINUTE, WAIT A MINUTE"

[John Q. Citizen]

16. I would quibble only with Shaeffer's comment

"Why would the Republicans go down in flames siding with the insurance industry against the American people?"

It appears that he believes his own BS here.

The insurance industry was on board for the Senate bill from day one. AHIP went to all the White House meetings, they testified in numerous committees, they didn't attempt to derail this bill.

Baucus has long deep ties to insurance and Baucus spearheaded the bill through the finance committee and made sure it had no public option.

And insurance stocks went up significantly the day the package passed.


Schaeffer apparently assumes the insurance industry doesn't want another 20 million or so paying customers, and hasn't been on board generally and in principle since day one. He probably also assumes that the insurance industry had no idea that the Obama administration promised early on that there would be no 'Public/Private Option.'

i think Shaeffer is wrong about this one part, and i think it's because he's buying his own BS.


The Repos opposed this bill (and any health reform bill regardless of content) because they made the determination early on that if a bill passed they would lose, politically. I think the Repos are right about this, and that's why, as Shaeffer says, they are currently losing. The Repos already know they are in the minority. They saw the vote count in Nov 08.

So what are the Repos supposed to do? Say, "We were stupid to oppose this bill. We changed our minds."

I don't think you will see that happen. So they are instead pretending reality is different than it is. They have kind of boxed themselves in. They got used to the Dems folding, and this time they didn't fold and the Repos are pissed off. Tough, eh?