A Needed Book

I'm thinking of writing a primer about Republicans. I have the title: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Complete Idiots.

Democrats lose control of Senate; defeat for Obama

So is that it?

Is socialism over?

Liberal Patriotism

I think I'm seeing something rather curious, at least for my generation: liberal patriotism.

Now, settle down. I know liberals (and radicals) are patriotic, but it's of a particular form and flavor; certainly far different from right-wing patriotism. Its vocabulary and tone is quite different from the foam-at-the-mouth crowd. Specifically, the sort of liberal patriotism that I grew up with takes the form of apologetics (I mean this in the classical sense of the word).

But in recent weeks, and specifically since Obama's decision to add troops into Afghanistan, I've been seeing patriotism expressed in more positive terms. It's focused on the soldiers. It takes the form of expressing concern for their welfare, welcoming them home when they return, giving them respect while they're here. It's as if because a liberal president sent them into war, it's okay to express support in these more traditional ways. It's not that liberals never did this before, but it's as though they've been outed. They can behave this way in public now, without embarrassment.

This is all subjective impression and maybe you media types should go and do a study, but I'm hearing it from mainstream media, in the tone of certain advertising, in local news stories, and even in the liberal press. There was a time when the critics of an unjust war criticized the soldiers as well, but that doesn't happen much any more. This is even weirder when you realize that during Viet Nam the soldiers were draftees whereas today the soldiers are volunteers. If the war is unjust then surely the privates deserve criticism as much as do the generals. More, probably, for the generals made their decision to go military long before we sent soldiers into the Middle East, whereas the privates knew exactly what they were getting into and knew all the criticisms of this campaign, so one has to assume they more or less agree with the underlying politics.

So, we elect a right-wing numbskull and the nation splits over how and when to be patriotic. We elect a moderate (no, Virginia, he's not a leftist) and the country is mollified and supportive, if not exactly unified. I'm party to it. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I hear the sportscaster send a message to the troops overseas, or whatever. Then the TV goes away and I get this creepy feeling. The sportscaster (or whoever) is sincere. The troops are sincere. It's just the war that's wrong, and I keep wondering if I've been played.

Press 1 for English

Just saw a Facebook group called "Why the HELL should I have to press 1 for English". I wanted to reply to the person who became a fan of this but I didn't want to insult the individual, who wouldn't have understood anyway, so I'm writing my response here.

Why? Because 1 represents the grand total of languages you can understand! You xenophobic cretin.

I don't mind stupid. I can hang with stupid all day. What I cannot abide is stupid and arrogant.

What Am I?

Just a quick question: if America is now run by socialists, and America is a socialist state, then am I a socialist? Is Rush Limbaugh a socialist?

I mean, all those people in Communist Russia were communists, right?

If a government is socialist does that mean that every government employee is socialist? Is my mailman a socialist?

If I agree with 10% of what my socialist government says and does, and disagree with 90%, am I free of the socialist taint? What if I agree with 90%? Where does one draw the line?

Okay, that was more than one question.

Comrade Sad Sack

Has the government gone too far? It appears so: they've socialized war.

It's true. The basterds have taken away the conduct of war from private business, which clearly could do a better job, and have given it to the government. Those bloated, overpaid fools now have complete control of tanks, airplanes, guns, you name it. It's the government--the Feds, for pity's sake!--who try to organize the complex system that is modern warfare.

Clearly this is a job for the free market. Do you really think the same jokers who run our freeways or who give a free pass to atheists and welfare cheats are going to be able to manage to run an army? Of course not! Armies are too complicated. We need a free market here, with each military unit free to form according to its own natural desire to fight and win. I mean, do you really want an army that is "too big to fail"? Do you really want your tax dollars to bail out troops?

No!

Let each brigade fail on its own merits. Let only the strongest survive, and if that means foreign troops are better than ours, well so be it! Nothing, and by "nothing" I mean nothing, is more important than the free market. Let war mean capitalism and let capitalism mean war!

Amen, brothers and sisters, and go in peace. When you're told to.

Nazis in the Suburbs

First they hijacked town hall meetings. Now they've had their March on Washington.. Reactions vary from mystified to irritated. (That's pretty much the entire emotional spectrum for the Left, nowadays, which lost its sense of outrage and fury in the 70s, so much so that they viewed the election of Clinton as a victory.)

Keep an eye on the extreme Right. They wear plaid shirts instead of brown ones, cowboy boots instead of jackboots, but their mentality is virtually the same and their methods are restrained only by an effective police force. The current atmosphere is reminiscent of pre-Nazi Germany, as noted in a previous post.

For the suburban Nazi the greatest danger facing America is socialism. It used to be communism but it can't be any more because communism collapsed and the great Bogeyman was dead. This was a terrible blow to the Right, but it gradually discovered that socialism was an even better Bogeyman because it was everywhere and nowhere. Socialism can't fall, so it can always be a danger. This danger is so grave that it justifies any act, any lie; indeed, to refuse to consider the extreme act is to show a lack of patriotism.

Many folks say this is laughable and maybe a little unsettling, but no more. That was the reaction of liberals in Germany. The things said by the Right were so obviously false, so melodramatically hysterical that one felt like a fool taking it seriously. In fact, the only ones who did take it serously were the Communists, who were likewise anathema to the political majority. No one in power took them seriously until they were the ones in power.

It can happen here, as Sinclair Lewis pointed out years ago. And as he noted then, there are three key ingredients to a takeover by the Right. They need a crisis. They need a leader. And they need a failure of will by the majority.

We've had a crisis, and I fear we have the failure of will, though that will has not yet been truly tested. The Right has yet to produce a real leader. They thought they had one in George Bush but he let them down; he was merely a fool, it turns out, and they cannot forgive him for that.

So I say it again. Watch out for these people. They are dangerous, because they are self-righteous. Like the suicide bomber, they have in their own minds justified every act they will ever commit. They repeat their political creed like mantras and they work their radios and remote controls like working a rosary, never straying outside the prescribed boundaries, for outside lies perdition. This is, in fact, precisely the mob that the Founding Fathers sought to protect our government against.

I've been watching these people all my life. They spat on us when we wore long hair and they kicked at us when we protested the Viet Nam War. They supported government spying, war without declaration of war, and flaunting of law national and international. They don't want the government telling them what to do because they're too busy telling everyone else what to do. They have that poisonous hatred that is born of a life lived in fear. They have always been here. And they've always been dangerous.