This is exactly what is wrong with the Republican Party. While it’s true that the Tea Party has a lot to do with the “heavy handed rhetoric” being slung about, the GOP did not have to accept the baton it was being passed.
When the original Tea Party emerged (via Ron Paul), I was not the only citizen to think, “Hallelujah, we have another choice!” However, this “party” was short lived, and not necessarily the one you wanted to attend.
The Tea Party was quickly usurped by Dick Armey via Freedom Works (a conservative and libertarian lobbying group). At which point, many of the Republican Party’s financial backers now controlled that heavy handed rhetoric.
And control it they have …
If the suggestion is to further tax the wealthy or reign in the big banks, then it’s like Hitler invading Poland.
If the discussion is closing corporate loopholes or adding more scrutiny in regulatory processes, then you’re attacking the job creators, and we mustn’t do that!
If the president issues an executive order, he’s the imperial president, and must be impeached.
If the debt appears too high, and more money needs to be appropriated or the debt ceiling needs to be raised, then shut the government down!
Of course there may be concerns or issues with the above topics, but largely they’re fixable, so to speak, and not the end all. In fact, some of them are quite normal within the realm of governance.
However, of course, there is the inexplicable, such as a movement dedicated to the subject of a birth certificate, and we can’t forget Benghazi. Ever. Additionally, there’s the willingness to dictate in yet again a heavy handed fashion, on social issues. Which doesn’t win much support today.
There seems to be a recurrent theme here, and it “feels like” divide and conquer. If the rhetoric is strong enough, and often enough, then you will easily succeed in keeping people divided, and misinformed.
Of course this will also easily draw attention away from other far more important issues, such as jobs, infrastructure, education, healthcare, agriculture, and the environment.
Twenty or so, years ago, an older man said to me, “All I know is, is that this country is ripe for another Hitler.” When I reacted appropriately, he explained that it had to do with purposeful misinformation, attack rhetoric, the under-informed, and undereducated. He further explained that he believed the people were being too easily led to slaughter, so to speak. Perhaps, just maybe, he was on to something.
Shortly after Obama was in the White House I realized one morning, that I hadn’t been beaten over the head with the stick of fear, in a while. It was a joyous realization. Please don’t take this as a glowing endorsement, just an honest observation.
If the stick of fear is the go to tool for the Republican Party, then eventually, we’ll end up having that as our reality. It certainly seems, at street level, as if the natives are restless. They’re angry, in many cases impoverished, and want to blame someone for their plight.
The problem is that the natives pick up the message that divides and conquers, and stop there. They don’t look beyond the surface, scrutinize the details or apply critical thought. They adopt the talking points, and be damned the facts.
If, and we say “if” we’re to go the way of Nazi Germany, then this is the road map to lead us there. It’s only a matter of time before someone decides to use that road map in earnest.
However, there are already concerns of tyranny, such as the loss of many of our civil liberties since September 11, 2001. Thank you Congress, for the abominable Patriot Act, and all the other pieces of unnecessary legislation that have chipped away at our freedoms and privacy, and a big thank you for the encroaching police state.
So, today, the natives have a bit of a reason to be restless. They’re not secure in their persons or homes. They can’t display dissent or speak out against leadership. Their voices are drowned out at every turn by big, monied interests. They’re seeing their way of life, and living standards decimated. And if you buck the system, in any way, you too might be a terrorist! Ah terrorism, the perfect invisible boogeyman used ad infinitum.
I do believe if the Republican Party purged the Tea Party affiliates, and softened their message, we might (a big might) start to move forward again. Of course, rolling back the police state should go hand in hand with this, and should be a bipartisan effort.
Then again, maybe this is what our “shadow government” wants, agitation to the point of clamping down. The mechanisms are certainly in place, sadly. Even sadder is that only time will tell, but it honestly does not look good. Yes, we know how that sounds, but we find ourselves longing to return the simplicity of “your taxes hard at work,” as suggested in the middle image above …
but while in unison on occasion, they “tend to” err in different ways.
