When he was booed at last night's Tea Party "debate," he was booed as a Liberal, not as the dogmatic, theory obsessed, quasi-anarchist and not-too-bright demagogue he's been portrayed as. He was booed for not bleating and re-bleating the recorded message about why "they" hate us, which, if truth ever be told, isn't for our freedom: a thing which in fact has a larger following amongst Muslims that can be allowed by the Jingoistic braying of the party for which the jackass is not the symbol -- but for the reality.
The reality is and the reality has been that not only al Qaeda but others have hated the US government for interfering in Middle East, for rightly or wrongly supporting Israel, for building military bases in places they see as sacred and for supporting oppressive governments because they were "anti-Communist" and willing to exploit their resources for our benefit.
Who else in the Republican Party is willing to step outside the passion play and challenge the formula: they hate us because we're all good and always good and so we have to hate them -- all of them, all of the time?
“This whole idea that the whole Muslim world is responsible for this and their attacking us because we’re free and prosperous, that is just not true,”he said last night. But what set the snarling beasts off their feed was
“Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have been explicit, and they wrote and said that we attacked because you had bases on our holy lands in Saudi Arabia, you do not give Palestinians a fair treatment,”which quite plainly is true.
The Tea Party picture of human and natural events needs to be presented in such high contrast that any smudge of darkness on our pure white character must be erased; there are no grays or colors and one is either the favorite angel of God or Satan's most foul smelling demon. To admit that any of our sacred military endeavors was not waged in defense of our alleged "freedom" puts one on the odiferous side and so yes, the Battleship Maine was blown up by the evil, freedom hating Spanish between bouts of raping American women and God really did want us to have the continent and our conquest thereof was just like the rape of Jericho only slower. It's anathema to suggest that we were not protecting our freedom by killing millions of Vietnamese or destroying Iraq and those who think and those who know must then be devils for suggesting that anything we ever have done might ever have made anything worse for us or anyone else of God's elect.
We have to believe, as we've been told, that "liberals" would have preferred to "psychoanalyze" al Qaeda than to retaliate, that Democrats unanimously voted against the odious Patriot Act when in fact their support was (sadly) unanimous. Facts don't matter and for the Tea Party only feelings matter and the only feelings they have are greed, anger and hate. If you're not unquestionably in support of everything we do; if you don't hate enough and hate whom we tell you to; if you don't think everything we do in anger isn't ipso facto God's will, you're our natural enemy even if you're Ron Paul and even if most people think you're so far right, you're wrong.
This time Ron Paul is right and it's time to question the people who say government is always wrong when they simultaneously say it's always right.
“… it's time to question the people who say government is always wrong when they simultaneously say it's always right.”
ReplyDeleteThe same can said of Ron Paul too. On the issue of U.S. intervention in the Mid East, the Elder Paul is right; but in the same debate, there was another defining moment when Wolf Blitzer asked this question: What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and does not have health insurance:
"Are you saying society should just let him die?" Blitzer asked.
"Yeah!" the crowd yelled back.
Ron Paul’s answer was appalling pretzel logic. First he dismisses government healthcare as “welfare-ism and socialism” claiming everyone should practice as they please and then take responsibility for themselves; then he longs for the good ole days before Medicare when churches and charities ministered to the sick. I wonder how this dude reconciles his Hippocratic oath with his libertarian leanings.
All these candidates, Paul included, are pandering to the Tea ochlocracy, the mobile vulgarus, who want to dismantle civilization and return our nation to the stone age - and a savage and callous disregard for human life.
Yeah, let them die! So what if a wage earner is holding down two jobs and still can’t afford health insurance when one of the kids gets sick or has an accident? None of these candidates live in the real world, and the Tea Party is merely an angry mob.
It is a sorry state of affairs when Ronald Reagan appears downright liberal compared to this rabble - when his daughter Patti Davis writes in Time Magazine:
“Note to Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and especially Newt Gingrich — you can invoke my father's name until your tongues fall out, but you will never be anywhere near his shadow.”
Pfew! It took FOREVER to post the above comment. Blogger problems galore!
ReplyDeleteSeveral experts on Middle East policies have spoken out about the root causes which led up to our being attacked, not just on 9/11 but all the other attacks as well in this country and our presence throughout the globe. Most of these intellectuals have been vilified, had speaking engagements canceled, and even been labeled as "traitors". They dare to speak the truth and offend the American-flag-lapel-pin patriots.
ReplyDeleteAt least Ron Paul didn't offer up the usual mindless patriotic babble; I'll give him credit for that.
Yes, there's some value in Ron Paul's view for the very reason you state: he's so far "out there" that at some points he doesn't cotton to the usual Republican lies (er, "talking points") -- he's a loose cannon on the Right, which is at least healthy. Of course, there's always that pesky and hopelessly wrongheaded insistence of libertarianistas that "the market" is the ground of all freedom and the answer to every ill....
ReplyDeleteYou're very right, Robert. Remember when Bill Mahr got fired for saying that no, these terrorists weren't cowards? Funny how those who said Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 and had no nuclear or bilogical weapons or programs were right but are still villified - perhaps all the more so.
ReplyDeleteYes, the market or should I write the holy name in red letters? Like nature, the market is beyond cruel, uncaring and arbitrary and as much as I love nature, I'm not about to live like an animal waiting for some other animal to devour me while my fellow hominids go about their business, devouring or being devoured.