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It’s not April Fool’s Day, is it? One of the stalwart go-to blogs on the right — competing up there with rants at Freeperland several years ago was Charles Johnson’s Little Green Footballs. Even LGF has had enough of the lunacy coming out of the teabagger/birther/fundie wing. Enough to write this:
Why I Parted Ways With The Right
1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)
2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)
3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)
4. Support for anti-science bad craziness (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.)
5. Support for homophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.)
6. Support for anti-government lunacy (see: tea parties, militias, Fox News, Glenn Beck, etc.)
7. Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (see: Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Birthers, creationists, climate deniers, etc.)
8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)
9. Anti-Islamic bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing radical Islam, into support for fascism, violence, and genocide (see: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, etc.)
10. Hatred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories (see: witch doctor pictures, tea parties, Birthers, Michelle Malkin, Fox News, World Net Daily, Newsmax, and every other right wing source)
And much, much more. The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.
I won’t be going over the cliff with them.
It’s up to nearly 600 comments at the time of this post, and I hate to break it to Mr. Johnson, but the Goldwater conservatives and moderates have been put six feet under by the theocrats and know-nothings. I don’t know how you can wrest the GOP back from the crazies. I am under no illusion that Charles Johnson is now progressive or agrees with the Obama admin on policy (heaven knows we have enough beefs with the admin); I actually feel for him.
These low-brow conservatives that coo over Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush are sheep — no critical thinking whatsoever, in denial about how they are shilling for policies that hurt them, instead they focus on blaming on the “other” — that doesn’t look like them, worship like them, believe in reproductive freedom or isn’t heterosexual. With fumes that weak, how can that movement sustain itself? It’s an incredible feat.
Yet it also reminds me that this administration and Congress would need the 100% control on the Hill and a completely impotent GOP to find the spine to do anything of consequence without selling the whole farm to cover their political posteriors. It’s all a mess.
22 Comments
You are rightThe party cannot be wrested back now — nor in the short term of the next decade.
I leaped ship some time ago — and I’m a pretty classic Goldwater style, myself.
Then again, Goldwater was influenced by Teddy — who had a lot of flaws himself. One of them was splitting the party vote by running off and starting a new party.
Moderates have no place — we cringe at the thought of being Democrats, we can’t stand the wingnuts.
On the flipside, moderate Dems get some nasty stuff as well. And many a Blue Dog is a moderate Republican gone over ahead of the curve.
In a time of emotional responses that are knee jerk to soundbites that carry no deeper meaning and have little connection to anything else, moderates are lost.
And if you don’t have a strong, moderate, middle of the road presence — which neither side has right now — what do you end up with?
Two extremes that will never meet.
Finally!A friend and I had stopped reading LGF a long while ago, finding it just too aggressive, shrill and uncomfortable to read in the wake of its radical shift following 9/11 – before that it was in my mental “just another blog” category.
So we discovered via a link somewhere else that at some point the shift to the recent LGF happened, and we were intrigued as to what had precipitated that move, but backtracking just ended up taking too much time.
Now I can point her at this posting.
It’s at 1260 comments at this point by the way.
“Why To Leave The GOP”laid out beautifully… yet Olympia Snowe remains.
For the life of me, I simply do not understand why.
Why We Need to Keep the Faith- In Response to the TeabaggersIt’s a hopeful sign that even LGF has it’s limits. Pulling back the veil on who really backs the lunacy in the tea party movement is vital.
I’ve worked on a piece advocating that reality-based folks renew our commitment to the networks and connections that resulted in Obama’s election last year; I say this partly in response to the rise of the teabagger/Know Nothing movement and partly because I believe Obama needs us more than ever- to keep him connected to the movement that elected him.
The pressures from the Right and the advice a sitting President gets from Serious Counsel Villagers in Washington will continue to dillute Obama’s better instincts if he’s left alone in the bubble of the West Wing.
I hope to encourage more discussion about countering the lunatic Right and keeping Obama from falling (further) under the sway of the war profiteers and corporate lobbyists who dominate Washington. I’d appreciate Blender’s POV’s at: http://billsrants.typepad.com
“Strong, moderate, middle of the road”?Sounds like Obama to me. Well, all except the “strong” bit.
My guess is that she has hope that the Repugs will eventually see the light.Unfortunately she has not yet realised that “the light at the end of the tunnel” is actually the headlight of an approaching train. They say that hope springs eternal; unfortunately hope is no protection against a terminal encounter with an intercity express. It does, however, ensure that you do not get out of the way.
When she runs for re-electionI fully intend to ask her face-to-face, “wtf??”
Might phrase it A LITTLE NICER… but not much. I have been a supporter of hers since I could first vote- and I want to know what the hell she is thinking, staying in bed with this mess.
Then I will work to support whomever attempts to run against her- and that upsets the hell out of me to say that…
Susie? Got no problem with getting rid of her ass- the sooner the better! But Olympia? That one hurts…
Still drinking the Obama KoolAidHe’s a homophobic Chicago machine politician. Not even a particularly competent one. Exactly how many times must this “fierce advocate” do what’s pragmatic in terms of votes for him personally, and with zero principles, before you see the bleedin’ obvious? If he can get one more vote from being anti-gay rather than pro, he’ll be anti. If he can get one more vote by being pro-gay than anti, he’ll be pro.
Look at what’s happened to the money from the “stimulus package”. Look at ACORN, or the SEIU.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/a…
http://www.quincynews.org/loca…
http://biggovernment.com/2009/…
These aren’t the rabid nutters at Free Republic.They’re too busy creaming their jeans over what Rick Warren has managed to accomplish in Uganda. You know, the guy Obama got for his inauguration, to secure the “Kill the Gays!!!” vote.
The Dems are going to get hit badly at the mid-terms, and their replacements will not be our friends. Or even remotely sane.
If the GOP had anyone even moderately acceptable, Obama would be buried at the ballot box. But as Charles Johnson has shown, they don’t.
Funny thing is, Why I will not vote for Democratic Candidates. I can sum it all up in a word, Spineless.
What is the use of having them in power when they wont even lead on the issues covered in the Democratic Party Platform.
Healthcare? doesn’t look like reform will happen.
War? More troops sent into Afghanistan.
LGBT rights and Equality? Yup, we got our ‘Fierce Advocate’
Granted, the Dems are not as off the rails as the religious right.
I have the same problem with my MP.In general I’m very lucky to have the MP I do, and I have every intention of voting from him next year. However every silver lining has a cloud, and his is that he’s a member of the Labour party. Admittedly they’re not my least favourite British political party, but that’s only because of the sheer range of even worse cretins our political system has managed to produce, such as the BNP (fascists) the DUP (fundamentalists) UKIP & the English Democrats (isolationists) and the Tories (who’d sell their own grannies into slavery to grab political power).
Looking for a “moderate” positionbetween the GOP and the Democrats is one of the most extreme exercises in tetrapylectomy I’ve seen in the last 10 years…
As time goes on, I tend to think “spineless” less and lessand more that it’s “willful disregard”. Once they got THEY wanted (our money and our votes) they could give a damn less about what WE wanted. This gAyTM is closed.
Sounds like the LGF are becoming more libertarian.With the right-wingers stabbing Dede Scozzafava in the back with a pickax and other forms of purging, I don’t blame the LGF at all.
Why on earth would you “cringe at the thought of being Democrats”?Except for the flat-earth/blatant hate-mongering fringe of the GOP, the parties are virtually identical. It would not be too much to say that the Democratic Party has become what the Republican Party used to be, before the loonies took over: pro-business, pro-war, loath to tackle civil rights issues, reluctant to deal with environmental issues, and on and on. In fact, if you consider yourself a moderate Republican in the Goldwater mild, you might actually find yourself allied with the liberal wing of the Democrats.
And they drove another thinking man out of the ranksThe crazee condenses further.
The machineLeaving the GOP would dry up fundraising, lose access to so much get out the vote operations. It’s a very, very drastic action.
First rule of wing walking: have another strut in hand before you let go of the first.
Would it compensate to convert to Dem, aligning yourself with a new machine? Specter stepped over, but it’s a tough road, and he may not survive, his polling is bad.
And the Dem base is beginning to revolt against the idea of welcoming cast-off Republicans. It will lead to more Blanche Lincolns and Ben Nelsons. If this sentiment in the Dem base takes off, Snowe could easily be primaried in a Dem primary.
What I find more than disturbingThe DARK F*CKIN AGES of Cheney wasn’t enough to have this dope jump parties.
13 anti gay referendums in 2004, the stealing of an election by Kenneth Blackwell in Ohio 2004 wasn’t enough to jump parties.
Is this guy “SPECIAL” or living with a learning impediment?
Yeech!This blog may try to call itself middle of the roiad, but the first ad I saw was for the moronic twit John Kasich (R) for governor of Ohio!
I didn’t even bother with registering to comment. I will save the post, tho…
1466 comments and counting…I think one commenter knows another “purge” by the extremists driving off the cliff is coming:
I am…Allied with the liberal wing of the democrats.
And in strong part because of the flip in the parties goals and natures.
Understand, though — for someone of my background, the old ideas of the Dems still have an emotional ring within me, that still gets buzzed when they do certain things.
I’ll get over it soon enough — running as an independent in AZ requires considerably more funds than I have available, so Dem I’ll be come this time next year, lol.
That assumesthat a moderate seeks to be between the two. When you are a moderate, you often find yourself wanting both the parties to kiss off.
Odd…I don’t see him as any of those things.
I see him as a party line guy with a strong populist outlook.