Five Before Chaos

… has always been, I believe, rooted in capitalism and economic libertarianism. Basically, if anthropogenic global warming proponents are correct (as I believe they are), it basically means that we can’t just “do what we want” regardless of the consequences. One of those right wing definitions of freedom seems to be mind-numbingly simple , i.e. freedom is doing (or buying or destroying, but certainly not having sex with) what you want, regardless of the consequences. It certainly doesn’t take into consideration other people’s freedoms to be free from pollution, dirty water or having the public commons completely corporatized and exploited.

And of course, apologists for this worldview inevitably point to “market based” solutions and the convoluted illogic that regulations are hampering environmental progress, as though if there were no MPG standards, and they could build a car that gets 2 MPG, somehow people will miraculously all start buying hybrids. It’s really as crazy as what the Rapture-Ready™ crowd believes, but it’s more harmful, as it truly affects every single thing on the planet.

This free-market fundamentalism consistently fails to address a rather salient point… how do you fix things, when consumers, given a choice between something environmentally friendly or not, healthy or not, toxic or not, repeatedly choose the detrimental option? Nobody seem to be able to give me a decent answer on that, instead blathering on about “individual choice” and “it’s not my fault if people make bad choices”, or when all else fails, “who are you to decide what’s right?”, as though there are really upsides to lead paint or BPH that are somehow escaping me. If all else fails, some vague reference to the Soviet Union and waiting hours on line for a roll of toilet paper are thrown in for good measure.

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Overheard in a Facebook conversation with a conservative. Really:

Nothing wrong with 16th century thinking.. we need more of it because this world is in chaos now so imagine what it will be like 50 years from now!

Sums up the entire movement better than I ever possibly could.

… in that this is what a “million” looks like at last week’s anti-healthcare conservative shit toss in D.C.:

Meanwhile, the lead headline at the CNN website is “New Mom Inspired to Lose 71 Pounds”.

We are a stupid country.

Shorter John Cole:

There is nothing, nada, zilch, zero, nothing, that is bad news for conservatives. When they win elections, it proves we’re a conservative country. When they lose, it proves it. When we pass health care bills, it proves it. When we lower taxes, it proves it. When we raise taxes, it proves it. Everything proves it always.

Did you know that…

• - Obama wants to have all men in this country circumcised.
• - Obama wants us all to have the same healthcare (in a sense, that may be true, as in “access to”)
• - Obama wants us to all have the same alarm system (WTF?)

She “read it someplace”, so it obviously must be true, as “reading it someplace” is the only criteria for truth in conservative America (or “‘cuz Hannity sez so.”)

That’d explain religion, too.

It’s been a while since I’ve commented on the GOP implosion. Perhaps it’s so rapid and farcical, I’m having a hard time even digesting it. It’s as though all of the seediness, intellectual vacuity, and Randian selfish prickishness that so many of us  have known about for so long is finally getting so obvious that even Joe the Plumber could figure it out. Well, maybe that’s stretching it a bit, as there’s no coloring book or distracting shiny objects involved yet.

One of those things that I’ve talked about before is the split between the big money/country club Republicans, and the batshit-insane crazy uncle of the party, the social conservative/Godidiot wing. Anyone paying attention well knows that the real “base” of the GOP (the hypercapitalists) have more or less used the Christian Taliban for electoral success, all the while loathing the flat-earth/dark-ages viewpoint that they’re so vocal about. You know the drill.. vote against the gays, but get a capital gains tax cut, vote to “save your guns”, get a corporate deregulation. It’s so freakin’ hilarious, simply because of the fact, that on their own, both factions at this point would be faring even worse than they are now. The Godsquad pretty much would be more at home with some fringe party like the Constitution Party or something, where they would pretty much drop off the radar. The GOP keeps playing these people for suckers, yet, being “faith” based, they keep coming back for more. It’s quite obvious the distaste from the country club wing for the Godsquad is quite high. Do you think they really give two shits about abortion, especially considering quite a few of ‘em have probably knocked up their fair share and had to take advantage of abortion, lest they hit a setback in their careers and pocketbooks? C’mon.

RNC head Michael Steele has been a hoot lately, saying crazy-ass things faster than I can keep track. First, the “are you crazy?” remark about the GOP being open to civil unions, then the Rush Limpballs apology, and now the GQ interview we’re all hearing about where he inadvertently let slip that he personally probably isn’t opposed to gay marriage or abortion. I can’t remember who I was reading yesterday, but it said that one really gets the impression that Steele basically says whatever he thinks the interviewer wants to hear. I can see that, although I really believe his comments in the GQ interview reveal the schism that I talked about above.

Vote-fraud enabler and GOP hack Ken Blackwell  (the other prominent Republican black guy) had this to say:

“Chairman Steele needs to reread the Bible, the U.S. Constitution and the 2008 GOP Platform,” said Blackwell. “He then needs to get to work or get out of the way.”

See, that’s the GOP’s dilemma. A party who finds “reading the Bible” an important part of their schtick is in serious trouble, in regards to any long-term success, as the country grows ever more secular (and of course, one also has to put aside the achingly obvious conundrum of having a party that continuously boasts of being pro-life, yet seems to simultaneously fetishize war, torture and the death penalty). Most of the real leaders are really hamstrung by the Godsquad, they probably enjoy sex of all kinds almost as much as they love money and power, but have to toe the moralist hack line, and it’s killing ‘em. When are they gonna toss these crazies overboard? As the views of the religious right seem crazier and crazier to most normal Americans, what will be the tipping point when the GOP finally gives ‘em the old heave ho?

I’m really enjoying the Republican meltdown, immensely. Aren’t you? As I’ve said before, they suck at introspection and self-reflection, big time, with the dominant narrative being that “they just weren’t conservative enough”, which is based on this false notion that we’re really a conservative nation, and not just a conservative one, a borderline retarded, batshit-insane conservative nation.

The UK Telegraph has a nice piece right now about how the GOP is pants-pooping about a landslide election that could potentially give Obama a huge mandate and even more power. But the best line is at the end, after the GOP blowhard they talk to is going on about how those conservative “intellectuals” who think Palin is a cancer are now “dead to the party”, and even funnier is this line here. I practically pissed my pants:

He said: “Win or lose, there is a ready made conservative candidate waiting in the wings. Sarah Palin is not the new Iain Duncan Smith, she is the new Ronald Reagan.” On the accuracy of that judgment, perhaps, rests the future of the Republican Party.

“The accuracy of that judgement.” Snicker. Will the fun ever stop?

Sirota also has more on this over at Open Left. Worth a read.

were nowhere to be seen at the entrance of this McCain rally:

Somehow I suspect they won’t be going to any other ones, either. Remember, McCain said at the last debate that he is very proud of the people who show up at his rallies. Go figure.

I’ve often lamented how many modern conservatives, in their neverending pander to Redneck Nation®, have taken anti-intellectualism and low culture to an art form.  If you don’t praise gay-hatin’-the-world-is-only-10,000-years-old Jesus, believe the best way to support the troops is to keep getting them killed, eat iceberg lettuce, read books with pictures or monosyllabic words, and drink the cheapest swill you can find in a can, you’re just not a real Amurricun. Hence, the phony outrage over Obama’s recent comments on the importance of Americans learning a second language at a young age. But for once, even a conservative has had it with the ridiculousness of it, and in the process, succinctly defines the problem in stark, no-bullshit terms:

Frankly, all this seems to be is a pathetic attempt to feed the “Barack Obama is Unamerican” narrative. A narrative that, I might add, has the result of making Americans sound like ignorant hillbillies. “He’s got a funny name!” “He likes food that tastes good instead of crap that’s fried in lard!” “He likes foreigners!” “He wants to speak other languages!” “He’s educated!” “He played basketball instead of football!” Embarrassing, really.

Indeed.

Oh, and Senator Obama, thanks for bending over on FISA yesterday. Somehow I suspect our asses hurt more than yours do right now.

No, don’t worry, this isn’t a post abut my favorite and thoroughly unhip rock band. It’s the reaction I had when I read John Dolan’s Alternet article, Fighting Words: How to Humiliate — and Convert — a Right-Winger.Being one who’s often stressed the importance of not making nice with the wingers (I often mention “ripping out their spines and jumping up and down on their heads”), let’s just say that the article struck a nerve with me. Dolan summs it up quite nicely in his intro:

I’d like to suggest a very simple strategy for American liberals: Get mean. Stop policing the language and start using it to hurt our enemies. American liberals are so busy purging their speech of any words that might offend anyone that they have no notion of using language to cause some salutary pain.

Hallelujah and amen to that, brother. One thing that many liberals fail to see (or simply don’t know how to deal with) is the fact that for the right-wingers, they’re not interested in negotiating.  Whether it be Rush Limpballs saying how we are “snakes that need to be destroyed” or  Ann Coulter’s inane, belligerent B.S., or Dick “go-fuck-yourself” Cheney, it’s obvious they’re not into making nice. This viewpoint that somehow they are somehow able to be reasoned with is naive and incredibly harmful. And I’ve often been critical of the absolutist pacifist perspective, in that it denies us a sometimes effective tool, and often puts one’s own moral purity above saving lives:

Liberals aren’t generally perceived as fighting the robber barons — they appear as a secular clergy far more obsessed with cleaning up our gloriously obscene language than fighting back.

Note that I’ve used the word “fighting.” Americans are a violent people — and I mean that as a compliment. We are a magnificently violent people who value courage above all else. In this, the ordinary American is in total agreement with George Patton, John Paul Jones and John Brown. They were all violent leaders, who sent a lot of Redcoats, Nazis and secessionist slaveholders to an early grave. I consider that glorious; so do most Americans.

And so the argument goes that we shouldn’t embrace their tactics. Well, considering how effective their tactics are, perhaps that needs a re-examining. We should fight like they do, with one difference: don’t make stuff up. Now, I know that there is a wide, diverse range of opinion on our side. And of course, some of you may accuse me of being captivated by machismo, or whatever, or romanticizing violence. Whatever. Sorry, I just tend to look at it as having an understanding of human nature that’s not so idealistic. Most of my arguments with my fellow lefties are not over the goals or aims of our movements, rather over the effectiveness (or more often, non-effectiveness) of the tactics that people use. Simply put, it’s time to stop being so goddamn nice all of the time. The time for politeness and symbolic gestures has long passed. Dolan gets that. As Putney Swope once said, “Don’t rock the boat. Sink it!”