- May 24th, 2011 12:31 am CT
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I can be glib all day long, mock and poke fun at Republicans, talk about Herman Cain's missteps on Fox, how he doesn't know what the Constitution says . . . about Bachmann and Palin and other gun-toting "mama grizzly" tea party prom queens who know nothing and seem content with that. I can do that all day long - but that's just a cover for something else. Real fear.
I find myself bewildered and frustrated and disheartened and, yes, scared, when I read day after day about the newest and latest attacks on our Democracy by the right-wingers: From union-busting, such as Governor Scott Walker laid a shrine to in Wisconsin, to abortion-abolishing (49 states and 900+ anti-abortion measures), to city-stealing (which Governor Rick Snyder effectively did to Benton Harbor, Michigan), to Medicare-trashing (which the Paul Ryan budget effectively does) . . . it goes on and on. And it scares me - because I can't get a grasp on the thinking behind any of it. Like many progressives, I flail around and try to make some sense out of the nonsensical: It's like trying to trust someone who's completely untrustworthy, trying to believe someone who never tells the truth, trying to put square pegs in round holes and herd cats and believe that snow comes up out of the ground like grass and blows around. I've read a lot of true crime books - about Ted Bundy, about child-killers Susan Smith and Diane Downs, about rapists and murderers and conscienceless sociopaths . . . I swear, I understand all of them better than I understand what the right-wing faction of our country now stands for. What I realize is that with true psychopaths - such as described in the true crime books - they don't really seem human . . . they're so lacking in empathy for their victims, I don't even attempt to apply normal human emotion and compassion. Where I veer off course is when I try to attach a human element to the Republicans who are trying to violate the core of our American values - because really, their lack of compassion and interest in the average person is so astoundingly careless and lacking in human emotion that it's like we're being raped, psychologically - these right-wing zealots are simply legislative serial killers.
I see so many similarities between true psychopaths and those who seek to legislative our values and morals, the "social engineers" who, without the slightest care or interest in anyone's plight, are attempting to upset the apple cart: With every new bill against abortion, with every new attack on unions, with every new bit of cruelty, another apple representing American values and American integrity tumbles out of the cart, leaving only the remnants of rotten apples that have oozed out, their rancid insides coating the inside of the cart with fermenting fruit. The Republican Party, to me, has become the party of fermenting fruit.
I don't know where to go from here, where to turn. I go to rallies, and stand with others who feel like I do; I write about the injustices, about the cruelty; along with other progressives, I try to make the world aware of what the stakes are. When I read about the outrages that Republicans are trying to foist on us, I get the same feeling I'd get walking in a dark parking lot at night and hearing footsteps behind me. There's a menace, a danger, and fight-or-flight adrenaline kicks in. I'm sure I'm not alone in admitting that sometimes - when I read about particularly unconscionable bills Republicans are trying to promote or statements they've made - I gasp out loud. Reading about severed body parts couldn't shock me more.
Continue reading on Examiner.com The Republican Party: Terminally sociopathic, as scary as a serial killer - Chicago liberal | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/liberal-in-chicago/the-republican-party-terminally-sociopathic-as-scary-as-a-serial-killer#ixzz1NKrZcG7O
Have your ever wondered WHY a Republican or a Conservative might want to starve old people, or children, or deny them healthcare, or see them imprisoned unjustly, or glory in wealth, while others, through no fault of their own, endure grinding poverty? It isn't a tiny minority either - half of the politicians in the country, more or less, are Republican, and many are Conservative, and these politicians hold office because half or more of the general population agrees with their policies. Is it really true that about half of the American people delight in evil, rejoice in wickedness, and commune in hatred? Perhaps in your mind they do, as this belief has inestimable benefits: privileging your beliefs, your ideology, and most importantly, your self-worth.
ReplyDeleteIf Republicans are so intent on gaining power, control, money, etc., what does it benefit THEM that some persons or groups suffer? Are they like Hitler then, who was so focused upon exterminating the Jews (and the Bolsheviks - which he considered much the same people), that he put their destruction ahead of victory? Could it really be that Republicans and Conservatives live only for destruction, and have no greater goals, even greedy, low, or immoral goals? Such a belief is beyond comprehension, unless half the nation be Hitlers, Dahlmers, and Bundys.
Could it be possible that the Right sees market forces and competition as the best PRACTICAL road to prosperity, or that inequality is inextricably bound to productivity and plenty? Perhaps there is NOT an endless amount of money to pay benefits promised years ago by politicians who cared only for the political gains of the moment, and thought little of the demographic and economic trends of the future. Maybe Republicans see that the people want a social "safety net" bigger than they are willing or able to pay for, and that the best that can REALLY happen is that a lesser, but practical, accommodation be made for those in need, rather than a larger one, bound to collapse and fail.
And why doesn't the Left see this too? Is it all a matter of opinion and ideology? Haven't THEY read the CBO reports that project an ever accelerating runaway debt and fiscal collapse? Haven't they studied sociology, political science, and economics? Many haven't (or have, but in some center of academic Marxism), but many also have - and they don't care. Inevitable collapse tomorrow is more than acceptable to them, if the Right can be demonized for it, to political advantage, today.
I too have read of the "conscienceless sociopaths", the serial killers and thrill killers, and I've also seen a pale reflection of that psychopathy in politics, except that it is on the Left, where "eggs must be broken to make an omelet", casual evils must be ignored on the way to group benefits, and the ultimate utopia is rule by the wise, rule by the knowledgeable, rule by the Just, RULE BY THEM.
No, thank you, I'll rule myself, and be governed by a limited Republic of the people. And, I'm got just that touch of human evil needed to allow you your bloody sacraments, so long as I am not coerced into performing or paying for them. I do wonder: how many babies do you need to kill before your gods are appeased? So long as they are YOUR babies, I will stay my humanity, and to my shame, tolerate the barbarity of a barbarous minority. Don't ask more. Those with more humanity and mercy than yourself are weary of necessary evils, and have little tolerance left for unnecessary ones, or for the fools who further them.