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The Enemy in our Midst
Never think for a
moment that the radical conservatism we see today represents the intent
of our founders or their revolutionary spirit. That they claim to do so
is just another marketing ploy of feigned patriotism.
The truth is that our founders, from Washington
to Monroe, were deeply committed to the unity of our people,
to overcoming regional differences, to strengthening and improving this
nation with reason and compassion. On each of these scores radical conservatives
have taken an opposite stance, and then call themselves patriots.
What our founders fought against was a foreign potentate
who was oppressing them with taxes that went overseas, and Parliamentary
rule that did not represent them. They expressed their intent in the Declaration
of Independence. When the Articles of Confederation proved
insufficient, they carefully crafted a Constitution that would
extend federal power and create the very nation that today's conservatives
complain about, demean and would destroy.
Now, it is true that Congress is an inefficient
agency of public power. As the Federalist papers explain, however, it
was meant to be slow and not rash. The competition of many factions prevents
a single faction from dominating all the rest. We get frustrated with
the process, but it basically works. Congress was supposed to be the power
closest to the people and representative of their will.
Today, however, we see the Republican Party
as a consolidated force of peculiar factions that is trying to control
our government, when it is not dismembering it. The founders feared partisanship
for just that reason. They were hoping to avoid the monstrosity of a monolithic
party that would be so consolidated, so dedicated to a minority section
of the population and regional preferences, that they are disconnected
from the nation as a whole.
They are trying to take over this nation and force
their views on everyone. Their agenda includes religious views, economic
views, a distrust of educated people, and little concern for the environment
upon which we all survive. What kind of agenda for a free people is that?
They talk about freedom, but what they mean is their
particular view of freedom, which has little regard for the freedoms of
others. As they have proven over and over again, they have no qualms about
denying the civil rights of other Americans. They would end such benefits
as Social Security and Medicare if they could, even though the majority
of Americans support them, and many of our vulnerable citizens depend
on them. That is why they are vehemently against healthcare reform, and
will do or say anything to prevent it from happening.
Unfortunately, They have their own television network
and professional propagandists who are paid millions of dollars a year
to brainwash whomever will listen. Their claims are fantastic, including
death panels, accusing the president of being illegitimate by birth, outright
distortions of healthcare reform, secret plans for confiscating guns,
locking up conservatives in concentration camps, and a constant host of
others.
You cannot listen to a conservative spokesperson without
hearing tirades about fictitious fears and blatant distrust of government.
Most are talking points devised by think tanks and political strategists,
and are meant to be repeated so many times that they gain viability of
their own — at least to other conservatives, who are not open to
the opinions of other people.
Our nation has never faced a fundamental threat this
large or so engrained into the fabric of our population. With every year
they gain more ground, learn how to manipulate people that much better,
drift farther and farther away from a positive exchange of ideas. As seen
last autumn, they will shout down the kind of discussions that democracies
survive on, and try to intimidate people by bringing guns to political
rallies. They are trying to push low caliber people seeped in their own
prejudices into high government offices. By purposely exploit powerful
emotions like fear and anger, they are actually gaining ground.
Moderate Republicans are unwilling or unable to resist
this wave of factional takeover. And now Democrats are trying to appease
them. I am amazed at how intimidating liberals can be to shouting bullies.
Loud, irrational people often get what they want, and they know it.
This could lead to the takeover of our government if
it is not taken seriously. We act as if we are helpless to stop them,
and yet look at who the enemy is. People with tea bags hanging from their
hats. Half-crazed people who think that President Obama is a Muslim terrorist,
or was born in Kenya. A vice-presidential nominee who doesn't know what
newspaper she reads, and resents being asked as a trick question. Glenn
Beck.
This is not politics as usual. It is politics very unusual, indeed.
