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Freedom To Fascism -- A Bumpy Ride
"There's no end to the rascality of these flinty-hearted bastards..."~~Sen John Dingle (D.Mich) speaking of Republicans, quoted on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Nov. 11, 2003
By Sheila Samples
10/12/04 "ICH" -- What
is the matter with the Republican Party? As one born
within a tiny, tree-shaded Republican enclave in Missouri,
raised by compassionate family-values-oriented Christian
conservatives, and whose entire family remains staunchly, even
militantly conservative, I think I have earned the right to
ask that question.
So--what the hell is wrong with you guys?
History bumps along from dateline to dateline
with no regard for party affiliation. That's why last week
during the second presidential debate, when President George
Bush slid off his stool, assumed his arms-akimbo "Super
Hero" stance and childishly blurted out, "You can run,
butcha can't hide," I was jerked into the realization
that it's not possible for such a horrid, vacuous
little creature to be the cause of the rampant madness
zigzagging throughout our society today. Bush
is the effect of it -- the natural result of a cruel,
thoughtless and destructive movement within the Republican
Party that had lain dormant from its inception, but like
Stephen King's evil "Christine," shivered into life on
November 22, 1963.
Both parties have been running and hiding ever
since.
This is not a treatise on the assassination of a
popular American President, nor of the massive manipulations of
an investigative commision to cover it up. That tragic
November day marks the "bump" in our history that
began the evolutionary implosion of the Republican Party into
neoconservatism and the sheer, bleak cruelty of a loveless
Christianity.
Before that fateful 1963 bump, New York Govenor
Nelson Rockefeller was truly the face of a kinder, gentler
Republican Party. Rich, philanthrophic, and
middle-of-the-road, as Assistant Secretary of State for Latin
America in the 1940's, Rockefeller was responsible for the
success of FDR's "Good Neighbor" policy. During
his four terms as governor, Rockefeller began
large-scale welfare and drug-rehabilitation programs,
reorganized the New York transportation system and built major
public works projects.
At the 1964 convention, Rockefeller pleaded with a
booing crowd to "keep the Republican party the party of all
the people." He warned them of the danger of allowing extremists
to gain influence, and of the threat they posed, not only to the
party but to the entire nation. "These
extremists feed on fear, hate and terror," he said.
"They have no program for America and the Republican
Party."
Rockefeller sounded the alarm that hateful
neoconservatism would only get stronger and more
destructive. "They operate from dark shadows of
secrecy," he said, and his warning that "extremist
groups" would ultimately subvert the values and morality of
the Grand Old Party were lost in a wave of jeers -- "We
want Barry! We want Barry!
Rockefeller, in what was considered possibly his
finest moment, lost the ideological battle for the
Party to Arizona's "Mr. Conservative," Barry Goldwater.
The miracle it would take for either man to win the presidency
didn't happen, of course, but the ideology embraced by the
conservative wing of the party would result in a Nixon, a
Reagan, and two Bushes -- all swept along under the evangelical
influence of a Pat Robertson and the warmongering cabal of New
World Order neoconservatives.
If ever there was a "flinty-hearted
bastard," it was Barry Goldwater. In his acceptance
speech for the nomination, he brazenly admonished his followers,
"...Extremism in the defense of liberty is no
vice...and moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue." Although Goldwater
lost in a landslide to Johnson in 1964, he succeeded in putting
a new face on the Republican Party. He achieved his
goal of shifting control from the "liberal"
Eastern wing to the radical extremists.
"First let's take over the party," Goldwater
told his aides. "Then we'll go from there."
That's exactly what they did. And, they're
still going -- still imploding, still evolving. The
faces change...yet remain the same. They do not intend for
their "forward movement" to be halted and, as the
election date looms, they're increasingly desperate.
Frantic. Shrieking. Lying. Totally out of control.
And that's just Rush Limbaugh. The
self-proclaimed Most Dangerous Man in America.
If Limbaugh -- Rush...El Rushbo...Rusty -- is
not the "face" of the Republican Party, he is its
heart and soul -- and its mouth. He's the coward who crouches
behind the "golden microphone" at the Exellence in
Broadcasting (EIB) AM Radio Network and spews hate and filth 15
hours a week, wallowing ecstatically in his own vomit.
He's the guy -- married three times, divorced three times
-- who brags that he's a shining example for the "yoots"
of America.
He's the guy who accused the President of the
United States of murder, the First Lady of resembling
a grotesque Pontiac hood ornament; the guy who referred
to the First Daughter as the "White House dog."
He's the guy who recently called John Kerry, a respected US
Senator and Democratic presidential candidate, a
"stupid SOB..."
Limbaugh's the guy addicted to Hillbilly Heroin (OxyContin) now facing
ten felony drug counts who once declared that "too
many whites are getting away with drug use. The
answer," he said, "is to find the ones who are getting
away with it, convict them and send them up the river..." For
once, as he so often reminds us, Rush is right. A trip up
the river for Limbaugh just might heal some of the
wounds he continues to inflict upon this nation's once
proud Republican Party...
There are many frightening things about Limbaugh,
but none more so than the influence he exerts upon his
millions of robotic "Dittohead" listeners, many
of whom I suspect would do anything he asked them to. He
launched them into a scary crusade against the music group,
The Dixie Chicks, one of whom dared to criticize George Bush.
Think how easily they accepted his explanation of the torture,
abuse and even murder of Iraqi citizens held captive at the now
infamous Bahgdad Abu Ghraib prison.
When a caller suggested in early May that the
helpless pile of naked bodies -- the hooded, electrically wired figure
forced to stand on a box -- were nothing but "fraternity
pranks," Rush
shrieked, "Exactly! Exactly my point!
... This is no different than what happens at the skull and
bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it
and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are
going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You
know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking
about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of
emotional release? You ever heard of need to blow some
steam off?"
If that's not enough to make the few
Republicans who still have the ability to think for themselves
remove their partisan earphones, carefully back away from AM
radio, and race out to make an honest effort to retreive their
party from the edge of the abyss, maybe they should
consider that Bush 41 routinely calls Limbaugh
during campaigns -- that Vice President Dick Cheney
is a regular caller to the "Limbaugh Institute for
Advanced Conservative Studies."
I would like to think there are some
Republicans who would even agree with those of us who
think it a bit strange that three of the most powerful men in
the world, when faced with a critical necessity to
address all the citizens of the United States would
choose to dial up a foul-mouthed, lying egomaniacal
college drop-out and stroke a bunch of Dittoheads.
Republicans don't seem to realize that
they are no longer individual members of a coherent
"party," but are merely part of a mean-spirited
and dangerous movement that is theatening to
sweep away democracy as we know it. For example, on C-Span's
July 31 Washington Journal show, Kellyanne
Conway, CEO and president of the Polling Company, angrily
demanded -- "Where does the middle class get the idea
they're entitled to a big house, foreign cars and tuition for
all their kids? We got off track in the mid and late 90s
-- we need an administration that will get people back to the
reality..."
Reality? Well, according to George Bush's
little brother and Florida governor Jeb Bush, some people
just can't handle the truth. Jeb once told
retired Naval Intelligence Officer Al Martin (cited in
Bushwhacked, Sept. 2002, by Uri Dowbenko)...
"The truth is useless. You have to
understand this right now. You can't deposit the truth in a
bank. You can't buy groceries with the truth. You can't pay
rent with the truth. The truth is a useless commodity that
will hang around your neck like an albatross -- all the way to
the homeless shelter. And if you think that the million or so
people in this country that are really interested in the truth
about their government can support people who would tell them
the truth, you got another think coming. Because the million
or so people in this country that are truly interested in the
truth don't have any money."
Each generation of Republicans appears to get a
little more malicious, more dangerous to the common good --
more, well --flinty-hearted. Oklahoma Republican Senator
James Inhofe, who is no less than God's spokesman here on earth,
was recently outraged at the release of photos of the Abu Ghraib
inhumanity. "These prisoners wake up every morning
thanking Allah that we are torturing them instead of
Saddam." Inhofe snarled self-righteously during a
nationally televised Senate hearing on the abuse.
Where have all the good guys gone? Where
are the "Rockefeller Republicans?" Do
they all buy into the "new" conservative ideology
espoused by ultra right-winger Adam
Yoshida in Insight Magazine, that social programs
shouldn't be viewed as an effort to "help" anyone
because those who depend upon the government are "beyond
help" anyway?
Yoshida does not advocate cutting off benefits,
because he warns doing that "will simply rouse them from
their stupor and get more of them to the polls on Election Day.
Rather," Yoshida continues, "we should consider
maintaining (or even increasing) their benefits while, at the
exact same time, making it harder for them to vote."
This compassionate conservative admits that it
"might cost the government some extra money in the
short-term to keep the dregs relatively happy and silent but, in
the long term, it will be a great investment, as fewer of them
vote and therefore allow us to make up for the money spent by
electing wiser governments which will allow for faster economic
growth."
Yoshida says keeping the "dregs" poor
but happy is "a necessary amputation. We will
discard a diseased limb to save the whole..."
Americans -- both Republicans and Democrats -- must
face the reality that, since November 1963, we have
evolved from a government of all the people to pacification
and amputation of the most vulnerable and needy among us.
Think about it.
Americans are on this trip together, and
together we must work to change direction. We
can no longer run and hide. Because we are hurtling
headlong into a deadly fascist wall. And that final
bump will be fatal.
Sheila Samples is an
Oklahoma based freelance writer and a former US Army Public
Information Officer. She will accept praise and atta-boys at: rsamples@sirinet.net.
Complaints and death threats should be directed to her cousin,
Junior Samples, at BR-549.
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