TBT: The Brutal Truth

The Transformation Is Complete!

As history has shown us, whenever blind nationalism, religion, and government has joined hands and marched in perfect cadence together, the results are always the same: a country permeated by fascist totalitarians that will literally run roughshod over everyone that doesn't fall in step with their sanctimonious agenda or even dares to express even a minute twinge of dissent. Such things as Constitutional or Civil Rights change from being self-evident into being just capricious, socially-engineered, gadgets that are doled out or taken away all at the whims (and entertainment-value) of the empowered elite, leading one to the ultimate conclusion that the only people that really have any rights are the very self-appointed tyrants and baron-lords that use Lady Liberty's throat for an ottoman.

Of course, we're not totally under fascist rule yet, and with polls suggesting that 89% of Democrats, 72% of Republicans, 84% of liberals, 76% of conservatives, and a whopping 68% of white evangelicals all supporting the rulings of judges that precided over the Schaivo case tells me that there's still hope for us that the "yet" part stays that way. But the recent attacks on judges from the likes of Senators DeLay, Cornyn, and Santorum as well as Edwin Vieira's unconscionable use of Stalin's own rhetoric as a context (perhaps pretext?) for impeaching judges is something that just can't be ignored. Thanks to the glut of Conservative pundits in the so-called liberal mainsteam media, these attacks against judges are being served up as a pancea to the Christian right and Dr. Bill "Cat Butcher" Frist is right there in the middle of the entire slophouse passing out that panacea in little dixie-cups and encouraging the fundamentalists to gorge themselves on it by the bushel. This greatly implies that the atmosphere for a "Christo-Taliban" mob coming to power here is not only ripe but there are people we voted into public service (and thus pay with our tax-dollars) willing to imitate Judas Iscariot by selling us out, too. So what's really the bottom line here? Simple: The "Schaivo Republicans" and the Christian Fundamentalist are essentially equating the demands to legislate their morality along with the ability to practice their faith. Certainly with more opened minded people, they're not one and the same and when the spin and the self-serving bias is stripped away, the truth is there is absolutely nothing baring Christians from public service in America except for their own broken and twisted logic.

What is really the sad irony in their militant crusade for destroying the philibuster and impeaching judges is that it reeks of an intolerant and myopic worldview that's completely divorced from the certainty that Republicans will not dominate the three branches of government forever. They don't fathom the idea that Republicans won't always be the majority and concerned Americans could vote in droves for Democrats, Greens, or Libertarians at any moment. When that happens, the Republicans will inherit a very large public backlash that they'll no doubt try to blame on anyone other than themselves (most likely by arguing that if the Democrats would've approved the 10 justices in the first place, they wouldn't have had to pull the plug on the Philibuster). Another sad irony in this whole mess is nearly every judge that precided over the Schiavo case has been appointed to the bench by President Reagan and the only judge that showed any support for reinserting Schaivo's feeding tube was a Clinton appointee. Yet these facts doesn't stop the Republicans and their party-line pundits from schlacking them all with the same "activist" paintbrush or - as in Edwin Vieira's case - glorifying Lenin.

This all just goes to show just how different and dangerous the Republican party has become in their pandering and grandstanding towards their fundamentalist base. Even the late Senator Berry Goldwater saw that handwriting on the wall way back in 1981 when he said the following on the Congressional floor:

However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.'

Decades prior to this in 1964, Goldwater said the following in his Presidential Candidate acceptance speech:

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions of equality, ladies and gentlemen. Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

I'm convinced that if Barry Goldwater we're still alive today, he take one look at the Republican party and - provided that the visual doesn't give him a coronary - he'd see exactly what I see ... and that's a freak with two heads. The difference is I notice one head as belonging to the late Republican senator serving to remind the party what conservatism stands for (or perhaps reminding them of all they had forsaken) and the other is ... well ... pick your own well-known Christian evangelist. The freak was created by their pandering to religious extremists, giving them and their Bible lipservice, and promising them a seat at their multiple, $1,000 a plate "last suppers" in exchange for money and votes while secretly harboring the intention of keeping the Christian Fundamentalists in the ol' "outer darkness". It's the equililent of a man giving a woman a wedding ring when he has no intentions of marrying her. The result? As the Bible says, the "outer darkness" is a place of much weeping and nashing of teeth but the difference here is those tears and gnashing teeth are of sheer anger. The far right Christian fundamentalist base is unglued. They're ticked off at those Reagan-appointed "liberal activist judges" that "killed Terri Schaivo" and they're also livid with Jeb Bush whom they believe dropped the ball. To put it all differently, the Republican party has imploded (or is about to) and - like a dog with rabies - they're snapping at anything real or imaginary. If the Republicans wish to keep their trifecta of power, the party needs and made a serious decision and fast: Which head of that freak they're going to listen to the most?

With Frist and DeLay showing no signs of backing down and pressing forward with thier crazed agenda, it's apparent they've made their choice already. Now, Howard Dean and his bastion of mostly spineless Democrats have to make a decision of their own: Do they sit on their hands and allow this two-headed freak to run roughshod over the American people or will they stand up in defiance with slingshots in hand, using their bodies to obstruct the warpath this two-headed freak slouches upon in the name of Christian Fundamentalisms' fake Jesus? Howard Dean has made his decision. Whether or not his army of spineless whelps put it into practice is anyone's guess (or hope) but regardless it will also decide whether or not the libertarians within the GOP remain loyal to the Republicans or listen to Lew Rockwell and exit stage left. Granted, libertarians have no love for left-wing liberals but when the nation is confronted by a rapidly statist-leaning Republican party peppered with judge-hating "Fristians" itching to bring about a Taliban-esque rule, they would rather put aside their differences and instead encourage and rally the Democrats to "SLAY THE BEAST" that threatens everything.

Democrats need to heed those cries, gather their spine ... and aim true!

posted by Sizemore at 4:49 PM