Thursday, November 17, 2011 7:36:07 PM
The GOP: The party of pain, punishment, misery, and death
Wed Nov 16, 2011 at 04:15 PM PST
by Jack Cluth .. 88 Comments .. (Also published at What Would Jack Do?)
What happens when an entire political party embraces the Dark Side? How does assuming the worst of Americans, being willing to ignore the social contract, and openly working to advance the interests of the richest among us make this country a better place? Those things don't do anything to improve America, of course, but that no longer appears to be of any concern to today's GOP. Today's Republicans care about two things and two things only- power and money. Our votes are valuable to them only insofar as they're a necessary prerequisite to gaining and maintaining power. Achieving that goal requires money- lots and lots of money- which is where entities like Citizens United, Crossroads GPS, and the Koch brothers come into play. In the new Citizens United era of unlimited money without accountability or disclosure, buying democracy is far easier than it's ever been. Republicans really aren't any different than Democrats when it comes to desiring power and being willing to bend (or break) the rules in order to obtain and aggregate power. It's just that Republicans have far exceeded Democrats when it comes to demonstrating that discipline, a lack of ethics, and a willingness to be purchased is the path to power these days.
Republicans will never admit to this, of course, but there's little doubt that today's GOP is defined by what they hate- immigrants, homosexuals, Liberals, the unemployed- and what they fear- Islam, health care reform, compassion, abortion rights. The GOP has devolved into a party that finds joy in the suffering of others, and revels in denying the less fortunate desperately needed assistance. They define the "have nots" as lazy, shiftless, and unmotivated- happy to suck at government's teat as they leech off those who work hard and create value. Those without health care insurance deserve to die. The State deserves the right to execute whom they please. Brown People are sneaking into this country to drop anchor babies and take our jobs. Radical Islamofascism seeks to enslave good, God-fearing American patriots and subject them to Sharia- not that many of them could actually define Sharia. Obamacare is a thinly-veiled scheme that allows evil, godless Liberals to force their Socialist, government-run healthcare upon Americans perfectly happy with their health insurance (never mind that 45 million Americans lack health insurance).
Today's GOP uses fear and loathing as an instrument of policy. In some respects, 9.11 was the best thing that could have happened to the GOP. 9.11 provided Republicans with a bogeyman they could point to whenever they felt threatened. By invoking the imagery and the understandable fear of another attack created by 9.11, Republicans have manipulated that fear to their own advantage. It's not about making America safer or protecting the Homeland from the continuing threat of terrorism. No, it's about Republicans using the fear created by 9.11 to generate enough hatred and loathing to deflect attention from their anti-democratic, pro-oligarchy agenda. It's about using that fear to gain power, and the money they secure from the oligarchy to generate the propaganda necessary to maintain and increase that power.
The idea of the social contract- the idea that we have an implied responsibility to one another- is anathema to today's Republicans. Self-reliance and Social Darwinism have been redefined as the highest social goal. If you can't make it in America, if you can't stay healthy, can't find a job, and/or can't keep a roof over your head...well, that's just too damn bad. Obviously you're a failure as a human being and deserving of your fate. If you just worked a little harder, you wouldn't be in the condition you're in. That those passing these judgments often live in the lap of luxury and know they'll never have to worry about where their next Big Mac is coming from is as hypocritical as it is reprehensible.
By the definition of today's GOP, compassion is synonymous with weakness as charity is with enabling sloth and indolence. If you're unable to do for yourself, whatever your situation might be, you have no right to expect government to do for you. Ill? Disabled? Uninsured? Unemployed? That's too bad, but it's not the responsibility of government to do for those unable to do for themselves.
It's as if Republicans have decamped from anything resembling compassion and migrated en masse to the Dark Side. They've rejected anything that smacks of humanity and embraced a Darwinian view of America as a place where the strong rightfully survive and the weak get what they deserve. I don't know about you, but this philosophy has nothing to do with the traditional Conservatism that Republicans profess to revere. Traditional Conservatism doesn't reject the social contract. It doesn't genuflect to the oligarchy and the military-industrial complex. It doesn't traffic in fear, hatred, and loathing. It doesn't reject science. It doesn't embrace fundamentalist Christianity as the ultimate and only authority on what America should be.
Then again, this isn't about Conservatism. It's about doing whatever it takes to acquire, maintain, and increase power and control. It's about enforcing Social Darwinism and Fundamentalist Christianity as the basis of the American experience and the law of the land. It's about using fear, hatred, and propaganda in order to manipulate the American Sheeple into doing your bidding.
Welcome to American Democracy: the bidding is now open.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/16/1037223/-The-GOP:-The-party-of-pain,-punishment,-misery,-and-death?via=spotlight
my emphasis .. see also ..
In the Twilight of the Social State: Rethinking Walter Benjamin's Angel of History .. by: Henry A. Giroux
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=58416258
.................
lol .. GOP Debates: Shock and Aww Two More This Week!? .. two nips ..
They don’t believe in climate change or evolution – just punitive hurricanes and social Darwinism.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=69083295
.................
Is Anders Behring Breivik a Christian terrorist? Let’s not mince words .. a bit ..
Objection! You're doing the same thing we are, only instead of blaming Darwinism, you're blaming Christianity.
Reply: No, I think humans have done evil throughout their history, and are always willing to grab any convenient rationalization for their behavior, whether it's science or religion or twinkies. Science doesn't dictate morality, and it's also rather clear that religion does a piss-poor job of it, too.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65674006
.................
Column: Republicans Are Not Anti-Science – They’re Just Pro-Politics
On September 13, 2011, in Column, by Tina Dupuy
http://www.tinadupuy.com/column/republicans-are-not-antisciencetheyre-just-propolitics/
It’s not easy denying evolution while championing Social Darwinism. The
Republicans have a delicate two-step to perform: pro-some-Bible and pro-some-science.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67095394
.................
Seven Billion .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68280817
.................
The Kochs: paying to keep America dumb
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54094598
.................
A Society Consumed by Locusts: Youth in the Age of Moral and Political Plagues
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=48630909
.................
How the Servant Became a Predator: Finance’s Five Fatal Flaws
What exactly is the function of the financial sector in our society? Simply this: Its sole function is supplying capital efficiently to aid the real economy. The financial sector is a tool to help those that make real tools, not an end in itself. But five fatal flaws in the financial sector’s current structure have created a monster that drains the real economy, promotes fraud and corruption, threatens democracy, and causes recurrent, intensifying crises.
1. The financial sector harms the real economy. [...]
2. The financial sector produces recurrent, intensifying economic crises here and abroad. [...]
3. The financial sector’s predation is so extraordinary that it now drives the upper one percent of our
nation’s income distribution and has driven much of the increase in our grotesque income inequality.
4. The financial sector’s predation and its leading role in committing and aiding and abetting accounting control fraud combine to:
• Corrupt financial elites and professionals, and
• Spur a rise in Social Darwinism in an attempt to justify the elites’ power and wealth. Accounting control frauds suborn accountants, attorneys, and appraisers and create what is known as a “Gresham’s dynamic” — a system in which bad money drives out good. [...]
5. The CEO’s of the largest financial firms are so powerful that they pose a critical risk to the financial sector, the real economy, and our democracy. [...]
Caution: Never Forget the Need to Fix the Real Economy
Economic reform efforts are focused almost entirely on fixing finance because the finance sector is so badly broken that it produces recurrent, intensifying crises. The latest crisis brought us to the point of global catastrophe, so the focus on finance is obviously rational. But the focus on finance carries a grave risk. Remember, the sole purpose of finance is to aid the real economy. Our ultimate focus needs to be on the real economy, which creates goods and services, our jobs, and our incomes. The real economy came off the rails at least three decades ago for the great majority of Americans.
We need to commit to fixing the real economy by guaranteeing that everyone willing to work can work and making the real economy sustainable rather than recurrently causing global environmental crises. We must not spend virtually all of our reform efforts on the finance sector and assume that if we solve its defects we will have solved the other fundamental reasons why the real economy has remained so dysfunctional for decades. We need to be work simultaneously to fix finance and the real economy. .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=42599905
Wed Nov 16, 2011 at 04:15 PM PST
by Jack Cluth .. 88 Comments .. (Also published at What Would Jack Do?)
What happens when an entire political party embraces the Dark Side? How does assuming the worst of Americans, being willing to ignore the social contract, and openly working to advance the interests of the richest among us make this country a better place? Those things don't do anything to improve America, of course, but that no longer appears to be of any concern to today's GOP. Today's Republicans care about two things and two things only- power and money. Our votes are valuable to them only insofar as they're a necessary prerequisite to gaining and maintaining power. Achieving that goal requires money- lots and lots of money- which is where entities like Citizens United, Crossroads GPS, and the Koch brothers come into play. In the new Citizens United era of unlimited money without accountability or disclosure, buying democracy is far easier than it's ever been. Republicans really aren't any different than Democrats when it comes to desiring power and being willing to bend (or break) the rules in order to obtain and aggregate power. It's just that Republicans have far exceeded Democrats when it comes to demonstrating that discipline, a lack of ethics, and a willingness to be purchased is the path to power these days.
Republicans will never admit to this, of course, but there's little doubt that today's GOP is defined by what they hate- immigrants, homosexuals, Liberals, the unemployed- and what they fear- Islam, health care reform, compassion, abortion rights. The GOP has devolved into a party that finds joy in the suffering of others, and revels in denying the less fortunate desperately needed assistance. They define the "have nots" as lazy, shiftless, and unmotivated- happy to suck at government's teat as they leech off those who work hard and create value. Those without health care insurance deserve to die. The State deserves the right to execute whom they please. Brown People are sneaking into this country to drop anchor babies and take our jobs. Radical Islamofascism seeks to enslave good, God-fearing American patriots and subject them to Sharia- not that many of them could actually define Sharia. Obamacare is a thinly-veiled scheme that allows evil, godless Liberals to force their Socialist, government-run healthcare upon Americans perfectly happy with their health insurance (never mind that 45 million Americans lack health insurance).
Today's GOP uses fear and loathing as an instrument of policy. In some respects, 9.11 was the best thing that could have happened to the GOP. 9.11 provided Republicans with a bogeyman they could point to whenever they felt threatened. By invoking the imagery and the understandable fear of another attack created by 9.11, Republicans have manipulated that fear to their own advantage. It's not about making America safer or protecting the Homeland from the continuing threat of terrorism. No, it's about Republicans using the fear created by 9.11 to generate enough hatred and loathing to deflect attention from their anti-democratic, pro-oligarchy agenda. It's about using that fear to gain power, and the money they secure from the oligarchy to generate the propaganda necessary to maintain and increase that power.
The idea of the social contract- the idea that we have an implied responsibility to one another- is anathema to today's Republicans. Self-reliance and Social Darwinism have been redefined as the highest social goal. If you can't make it in America, if you can't stay healthy, can't find a job, and/or can't keep a roof over your head...well, that's just too damn bad. Obviously you're a failure as a human being and deserving of your fate. If you just worked a little harder, you wouldn't be in the condition you're in. That those passing these judgments often live in the lap of luxury and know they'll never have to worry about where their next Big Mac is coming from is as hypocritical as it is reprehensible.
By the definition of today's GOP, compassion is synonymous with weakness as charity is with enabling sloth and indolence. If you're unable to do for yourself, whatever your situation might be, you have no right to expect government to do for you. Ill? Disabled? Uninsured? Unemployed? That's too bad, but it's not the responsibility of government to do for those unable to do for themselves.
It's as if Republicans have decamped from anything resembling compassion and migrated en masse to the Dark Side. They've rejected anything that smacks of humanity and embraced a Darwinian view of America as a place where the strong rightfully survive and the weak get what they deserve. I don't know about you, but this philosophy has nothing to do with the traditional Conservatism that Republicans profess to revere. Traditional Conservatism doesn't reject the social contract. It doesn't genuflect to the oligarchy and the military-industrial complex. It doesn't traffic in fear, hatred, and loathing. It doesn't reject science. It doesn't embrace fundamentalist Christianity as the ultimate and only authority on what America should be.
Then again, this isn't about Conservatism. It's about doing whatever it takes to acquire, maintain, and increase power and control. It's about enforcing Social Darwinism and Fundamentalist Christianity as the basis of the American experience and the law of the land. It's about using fear, hatred, and propaganda in order to manipulate the American Sheeple into doing your bidding.
Welcome to American Democracy: the bidding is now open.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/16/1037223/-The-GOP:-The-party-of-pain,-punishment,-misery,-and-death?via=spotlight
my emphasis .. see also ..
In the Twilight of the Social State: Rethinking Walter Benjamin's Angel of History .. by: Henry A. Giroux
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=58416258
.................
lol .. GOP Debates: Shock and Aww Two More This Week!? .. two nips ..
They don’t believe in climate change or evolution – just punitive hurricanes and social Darwinism.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=69083295
.................
Is Anders Behring Breivik a Christian terrorist? Let’s not mince words .. a bit ..
Objection! You're doing the same thing we are, only instead of blaming Darwinism, you're blaming Christianity.
Reply: No, I think humans have done evil throughout their history, and are always willing to grab any convenient rationalization for their behavior, whether it's science or religion or twinkies. Science doesn't dictate morality, and it's also rather clear that religion does a piss-poor job of it, too.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65674006
.................
Column: Republicans Are Not Anti-Science – They’re Just Pro-Politics
On September 13, 2011, in Column, by Tina Dupuy
http://www.tinadupuy.com/column/republicans-are-not-antisciencetheyre-just-propolitics/
It’s not easy denying evolution while championing Social Darwinism. The
Republicans have a delicate two-step to perform: pro-some-Bible and pro-some-science.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67095394
.................
Seven Billion .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68280817
.................
The Kochs: paying to keep America dumb
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54094598
.................
A Society Consumed by Locusts: Youth in the Age of Moral and Political Plagues
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=48630909
.................
How the Servant Became a Predator: Finance’s Five Fatal Flaws
What exactly is the function of the financial sector in our society? Simply this: Its sole function is supplying capital efficiently to aid the real economy. The financial sector is a tool to help those that make real tools, not an end in itself. But five fatal flaws in the financial sector’s current structure have created a monster that drains the real economy, promotes fraud and corruption, threatens democracy, and causes recurrent, intensifying crises.
1. The financial sector harms the real economy. [...]
2. The financial sector produces recurrent, intensifying economic crises here and abroad. [...]
3. The financial sector’s predation is so extraordinary that it now drives the upper one percent of our
nation’s income distribution and has driven much of the increase in our grotesque income inequality.
4. The financial sector’s predation and its leading role in committing and aiding and abetting accounting control fraud combine to:
• Corrupt financial elites and professionals, and
• Spur a rise in Social Darwinism in an attempt to justify the elites’ power and wealth. Accounting control frauds suborn accountants, attorneys, and appraisers and create what is known as a “Gresham’s dynamic” — a system in which bad money drives out good. [...]
5. The CEO’s of the largest financial firms are so powerful that they pose a critical risk to the financial sector, the real economy, and our democracy. [...]
Caution: Never Forget the Need to Fix the Real Economy
Economic reform efforts are focused almost entirely on fixing finance because the finance sector is so badly broken that it produces recurrent, intensifying crises. The latest crisis brought us to the point of global catastrophe, so the focus on finance is obviously rational. But the focus on finance carries a grave risk. Remember, the sole purpose of finance is to aid the real economy. Our ultimate focus needs to be on the real economy, which creates goods and services, our jobs, and our incomes. The real economy came off the rails at least three decades ago for the great majority of Americans.
We need to commit to fixing the real economy by guaranteeing that everyone willing to work can work and making the real economy sustainable rather than recurrently causing global environmental crises. We must not spend virtually all of our reform efforts on the finance sector and assume that if we solve its defects we will have solved the other fundamental reasons why the real economy has remained so dysfunctional for decades. We need to be work simultaneously to fix finance and the real economy. .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=42599905
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