Comments, relating to the topic, are welcome, add a great deal to a blog, but must be in English, with no profanity, hate-filled insults, or links (unless pre-approved).




Saturday, April 10, 2010

Roping a Whirlwind

Politics
If anybody thought that passing the health care bill was the end of bitter discourse, they were wrong. It seems to be just one more piece of wood on a fire that is building toward more and more violence. This is not new but it has more fuel now with the fear being stoked against President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Socialists! Hate this country! and worse insults being thrown.

We saw the recent arrests of a Michigan so-called Christian militia, whose members plotted to kill a sheriff, planning to bomb his funeral with the hope it would lead to civil war in this country [Armies of Hate].

[Oath Keepers] is another of these groups but one that is encouraging subversive action. Their members are part of our military or police force but have promised to not obey the laws of the land but to stand against the government for which they are currently being paid and have promised to serve. Lies only matter when exactly?

Where is this kind of revolutionary thinking taking us? Everybody knows about Timothy McVey, is that what is wanted by the extremists? If you don't win at the polling place, you start breaking things? Do people like those in that militia have any idea what a revolution would be like, what it would mean to have neighbor shooting neighbor, what it'd be like to force the government to declare martial law? That could be what they want but what do they gain by it?

For many years on talk radio, I have heard these groups out in the back country of the West. They are almost uniformly white. They fear change and differences. They treat those who disagree with them as the enemy. They have distrusted our government to some degree for a long time, but Obama's election and now the agenda under which he was elected is even more threatening to them. I am not sure most of them even understand what that is.

Hate groups want a world that never existed. They want a world where their values are the only ones that matter. It is becoming a mania but the question has to be for how big a part of the country? They are dangerous, but they think it's people like me who are dangerous. They are the ones who burned witches in the past because of hysteria aroused in them by others who profit from what they do. Anarchy might seem pointless until you find who is behind much of it, you find out -- then it's not so much.

The recent poll of the Republican party shows that a majority of them believe President Obama is a socialist. Over half of them believe he's a Muslim and about one-quarter of them think he's the Antichrist. These are the ones who will be choosing a presidential candidate soon to run in 2012. Within them are violent subsets but all of them will be deciding what kind of person should run this country.

Extreme righties, what we call wingnuts, don't get their information where you and I do. They get it from their own sources, the ones who say what makes them comfortable. They trust emails. They trust right wing blogs. They don't trust the media other than Fox and it will be interesting to see how much Fox would be trusted if it should say they are too violent or anything they don't like. They call it roping a whirlwind when you start something but you really have no control over it.

The extreme right does not trust the educated nor anybody who walks to a different drummer. They say they fear socialism but they operate in a totalitarian mode which they would subject the country to if they got into power.

The Republican party seems to be currently embracing them and people like Sarah Palin in an attempt to regain their own power. They have left behind their conservative principles for this new philosophy that is anything but truly conservative. I think they hope to use the tea partiers but they might get a surprise.

Before he was fired, David Frum said that the Republican party thought they were using Fox News but has discovered they are instead being used by it. Republican leaders have lost control, they can barely bring themselves to condemn violence, and unless the rank and file Republicans regain that control, it's going to get worse.

The health care issue is a good example of the craziness. If you read what is in it, you find it's mostly regulating and helping people get the kind of coverage most hoped they already had. What is being proposed by Republicans besides keeping the status quo?

One example of their ideas would be letting insurance companies sell across state lines. This would take the power of insurance companies possibly even out of the United States and as with the credit card companies, let them base themselves in the Marianna Islands where they can ignore any state regulations. The Republican party thinks this is a solution, taking away from states the right to regulate their own businesses? Currently, states like Oregon often have regulations limiting where a company can sell based on counties but the party that wants less federal control would instead hand this over to the corporations?

The anger and threats being stirred up by those who actually distrust democracy is going to get worse if responsible people don't stand against it. Are there any like that in the Republican party or do those who call themselves Republicans really only care about winning and it doesn't matter how they do it?

11 comments:

Paul said...

My fear is that the current political situation could lead some nut (and not just of the wing variety) to do something with terrible consequences. While I disagree with a good deal of Obama's work to date, I do not advocate violence of any kind. My action will take place at the ballot box. Some of these idiots have so little faith in our system that it makes one wonder what their true motivation is. The system works-electd officials are (in some cases) another matter.

Darlene said...

The violent types are the ones most lacking in education. They probably hated everyone who had more than they did when they were children and have transferred that hate to the government. They are irrational and scary because there is no reasoning with blind ignorance.

What they really hate is themselves,but that is too frightening for them to contemplate, so they have to focus it on someone else.

Kay Dennison said...

You are soooooooo right here. I believe in the two-party system and have never voted a straight ticket in my life because I truly believed that there were good ideas coming from both sides.
That could change. Faux news and their nut cases frighten me terribly. What's next? Neo-nazis?

I am afraid of the price of the craziness that is occuring in this country. Will men and women of good faith stand up against it? Or will we sit idly by as the fascists take over?

Taradharma said...

I fear we will be waiting a long time for some upstanding GOP leaders to start a reasonable conversation instead of being swept up in the Tea Party debacle. You're so right, they have lost control and no longer have any credibility. I take heart, though, because there are journalists and thinkers who are calling out these boobs and the more light that is focused on them the better.

Yes, when did they lose their faith in democracy? The thing they so bitterly decry losing, they are running away from. Like Paul, they should take their ideas to the ballot box.

Mary Lou said...

from what
i am hearing up here, is that the Fundamentalist CHURCHES are leading the pack. GREAT! Another act of violence in the name of a GOD who supposedly abhors violence. Things are definately getting out of control. I really am starting to fear what will happen to our country. I am not afraid of Obama, nor am I afraid of Republicans, I AM afraid of those who use the pulpit to stir the pot, and they are talking to the uneducated, or non-thinkers, who will follow what they put down as God's Will. SCARY!!!!

Anonymous said...

The gun and ammunition dealers are profiting from the deepening political divisions. Also, the people who are training militia could profit. The car manufacturers who sell military-like vehicles as well as clothing manufacturers selling outdoor gear must have a finger in the pie. Where there is fear and tention the population might be more prone to look for escape through drugs. Now the drug cartells are probably gaining the most.There are textbook manufacturers who rewrite history to suit the far right love selling more books. I wonder who is getting rich and how rich.

Paul said...

Historically speaking, a lot of bad people thought God was on their side. We might all take note !

Anonymous said...

Rain--As an avowed Atheistic, abortion-rights advocating, Republican, I can only shake my head. I do not agree that the only people to fear are the uneducated. Some highly-educated people still stand on suspect, religious-based vindictiveness. I tend to think that the higher the population density becomes, the nuttier/more militant people will be.

OTOH: People have been killing people for centuries. Sometimes it gets bleak out.
Cop Car

Dick said...

I tend to be fiscally conservative but don't like the directions I seen the Republican Party moving. On the other hand, I am not happy with the Democrats either. I guess what I'd like to see is a middle of the road party that is strong enough to actually have a chance to win in our elections. Neither of the major parties excite me but not voting isn't a good alternative, either.

Ingineer66 said...

Excellent comments Paul and Darlene. I agree there is no need or room for violence in the political process in this country. The folks advocating violence are likely uneducated just like the people that voted for Obama only because he was black or didn't vote for him only because he is black.

We have no shortage of morons in this country and they apparently vote. Look at the idiot the voters in De Kalb county GA elected to represent them in Congress. He thinks that the island Guam is going to tip over and capsize because we move 8000 Marines to a base there.

I think many of us in this country are just as concerned about how far left the Democrat party is going just as much as people are concerned about how right the GOP is going. As for fascism it seems the White House and the Democratic leaders in Congress are moving towards fascism or totalitarianism just as fast as any Tea Party people.

Dick you have an excellent point about people in the middle. I think most Americans are in the middle and maybe lean a little to the right. But any time we get a moderate candidate from either party it seems they get sabotaged by both their party and the other party. Look at McCain for years he was considered a moderate and almost half Democrat then he runs for President and the left says he is just another W. and far too conservative and the right says he is too liberal. He was not my first choice but he probably would have made a decent president and definitely would have been better than what we got, but then I think Hillary Clinton probably would have been better than what we got. Hindsight always is 20/20.

Rain Trueax said...

McCain better? You are kidding, of course. He picked Palin as the next possible president. It was a package deal and besides McCain lies about whatever suits him like today he's not a maverick and never was except he has a lot of ads out there claiming he was. Which McCain would you be hoping to get? You want a hothead in charge of our military choices? Or a woman who has no real idea about anything beyond soundbites?

Whether Hillary would have been better depends on how someone saw Bill. Don't forget the one who helped our financial downfall was Clinton. Hillary is doing a good job as Secretary of State and I respect her brains but anybody who tried to get through health care reform would have been attacked by the right. Anybody who tried to get a stimulus package would be attacked. It's what Obama is doing to try and fix the ills of the system that is upsetting people. Don't count on that lasting as the results actually show up for what happened versus the lies.

Obama is doing what he ran on doing and of course you don't like it. I didn't when it was Bush; so I can relate to how you feel. Although Bush ran as a compassionate conservative, and sure never told anybody he had a lengthy war in mind. Obama has done exactly what he said he'd do. That's bad?