Hating Americans
Liberals, the tired conservative slander states, hate America. That, of course, is nonsense. Liberals simply want to deliver on the national promise of a more perfect union, to shorten the distance, as Bruce Springsteen aptly put it, "between American ideals and American reality."
But if the past three Republican presidential debates are any indicator, it would appear that conservatives hate Americans. Or more precisely, some Americans. As audiences of the faithful booed an active duty U.S. soldier because he is gay and cheered the deaths of executed prisoners and the uninsured alike, the GOP White House hopefuls on stage remained silent. All because, it seems, they had to. Sadly, that complicity is apparently now a requirement to lead a Republican Party in which demonizing gays, minorities, immigrants and Muslims - that is, hating Americans - is increasingly a centerpiece of its politics.
For his part, Weekly Standard editor and conservative strategist Bill Kristol summed up Thursday night's GOP debate debacle in a single word - "Yikes":
Reading the reactions of thoughtful commentators after the stage emptied, talking with conservative policy types and GOP political operatives later last evening and this morning, we know we're not alone. Most won't express publicly just how horrified--or at least how demoralized--they are...
The e-mails flooding into our inbox during the evening were less guarded. Early on, we received this missive from a bright young conservative: "I'm watching my first GOP debate...and WE SOUND LIKE CRAZY PEOPLE!!!!" As the evening went on, the craziness receded, and the demoralized comments we received stressed the mediocrity of the field rather than its wackiness.
But Kristol's discomfort was with his party's messengers, not its message. And for years, that message has been unchanged. On this Republican Animal Farm, some Americans are more equal than others.
That was clear during the 2008 election. Before Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC) said - and then denied saying - "liberals hate real Americans," the sound bite was firmly established as a GOP talking point. A few days before, McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer explained that northern Virginia was not the "real Virginia. GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin amplified on the point during an event in North Carolina:
"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation."
To be sure, the Republicans' real Americans aren't Muslims. Long before Mitt Romney and Herman Cain first announced they would not appoint Muslim Americans to the Cabinet, Republican leaders and their amen corner were calling for their profiling, internment and worse. (Keith Ellison, the first follower of Islam elected to Congress, was welcomed by Glenn Beck demanding he "prove to me that you are not working with our enemies" and his Virginia House colleague Virgil Goode warning about "many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran.") It came as no surprise that Republicans demagogued the Park 51 cultural center, the supposed "Ground Zero mosque" Sarah Palin asked Muslims to "refudiate." (What is surprising is that Park 51 opened this week with only a whimper from its right-wing foes.)
Palin's Republicans seem similarly intent on "refudiating" that gay and lesbian Americans are "real Americans," either. Years before Rick Santorum used the Orlando GOP debate to denounce the "special privilege" gay Americans now receive by being allowed to serve their country, he introduced his frothy mixture of politics and hate by comparing same-sex marriage to "man-on-dog" relationships. It's no wonder that GOProud demanded an apology:
"That brave gay soldier is doing something Rick Santorum has never done - put his life on the line to defend our freedoms and our way of life. It is telling that Rick Santorum is so blinded by his anti-gay bigotry that he couldn't even bring himself to thank that gay soldier for his service."
For his part, Texas Governor and GOP frontrunner Rick Perry headlined "The Response" in August, an event co-sponsored by the American Family Association whose director Bryan Fischer explained in June:
"So it was homosexual thugs that helped Hitler to form the Nazi Party."
As for Michele Bachmann, whose husband Marcus' clinic received federal funds for helping patients "pray away the gay," proclaimed the "gay and lesbian lifestyle" is "personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement" and "part of Satan." Those views should win her the support of GOP officials like Oklahoma's Sally Kern (who repeatedly claimed homosexuality is "more dangerous" than terrorism) and North Carolina's Paul Stam (who explained that gay people are "things" whose relationships can be "treated differently.)
Then there are immigrants, legal and otherwise. Long before Rick Perry defended his record in Texas by telling his detractors "I don't think you have a heart," his Republican Party showed it didn't have a brain, either.
Four years ago, most of the Republican candidates snubbed debates sponsored by Univision and the National Council of La Raza (events which they later scrambled to reschedule). John Kerry carried only 53% of the Hispanic vote in 2004, but by 2006, Democrats won 69% support among the nation's 43 million Hispanics who went to the polls. President Obama similarly won their vote by a 2-1 margin two years later. Even in the GOP's 2010 landslide, Democrats earned the backing of 60% of Latino voters. (Subsequent studies suggest the actual Latino support of GOP candidates was much lower than reported.) As NCLR's Cecilia Munoz put it in September 2007:
"It's not just that they are not coming. It's that some of them are visibly insulting us."
And, of course, there is the case of African-Americans.
Slavery, unmentioned in the Confederate Heritage Month proclamations in Virginia and Mississippi, was in the words of Governor and former RNC chairman Haley Barbour "a nit." The GOP's neo-Confederate antebellum nostalgia runs deep. In 2009, Georgia Rep. Paul Broun declared, "If ObamaCare passes, that free insurance card that's in people's pockets is gonna be as worthless as a Confederate dollar after the War Between The States -- the Great War of Yankee Aggression." In February 2009, Missouri Republican Bryan Stevenson took exception to President Obama's support for the Freedom of Choice Act, legislation which would codify the reproductive rights protections of Roe v. Wade nationwide, announcing, "What we are dealing with today is the greatest power grab by the federal government since the War of Northern Aggression." So, it should come as no surprise that Arizona Congressman Trent Franks proclaimed in February 2010:
"Far more of the African-American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by policies of slavery."
In response to African-Americans' monolithic support for Democratic candidates - 89 percent in 2006, 95 percent in 2008 - Republicans have come up with a novel strategy. Keep them from voting. Draconian voter ID laws first introduced in Georgia, Indiana, Arizona and Missouri have expanded to other states, most notably Wisconsin. Despite the almost complete absence of vote fraud in the United States, voter identification laws have joined unprecedented redistricting, barriers to registration and Election Day ballot box challenges to suppress minority (read "Democratic) turnout. As Georgia Republican Sue Burmeister explained the GOP smoke screen, claiming that when black voters in her black precincts "are not paid to vote, they don't go to the polls." It's no wonder some Tea Party Republicans have called for restricting suffrage to property owners and, along with GOP presidential frontrunner Rick Perry, want to eliminate the 17th amendment to the Constitution which enabled direct election of Senators.
And the none-too-thinly veiled racist venom is directed at Barack Obama, the nation's first African-American President. While Newt Gingrich likened the Obama presidency to the threat posed by the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, the Republicans' Tea Party faithful have been even less subtle. While studies this year and last reflected the virulently racist attitudes of some Tea Party members, its elected officials called him "Tar Baby" and "boy" and have circulated emails portraying the President as a pimp, a monkey and a target for assassination.
After South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson interrupted President Obama's address to Congress by yelling out "you lie," supporters sent him hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign cash. (The Wilson episode was hauntingly familiar. In 1856, admirers sent canes to South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks after he viciously caned abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner in the Capitol. As one laudatory editorial back in Brooks' home state put it, "Meetings of approval and sanction will be held, not only in Mr. Brooks' district, but throughout the State at large, and a general and hearty response of approval will re-echo the words, 'Well done,' from Washington to the Rio Grande.")
And so it goes. Long after the Republican debates of 2011 are forgotten, the fear-mongering and demonization of some Americans will still be a staple of conservative politics. And right-wing bookshelves will still be populated with books like Treason, Guilty and Slander proclaiming things like:
"Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do."
IT IS OURS WE WANT ALL OF IT
Our 5% own 62% net wealth
Your 80% or 112,000,00 lazy loons own 15% and we want it We deserve it.
Our 20% own 93% of financial wealth
Your 80% or 112,000,000 inept goof offs own 7% and we want it. All of it.
Our 25% take 67% of all individual Income
Your 50% of 70,000,000 undeserving take 13% and we want it. We earned it. It is ours.
You are calling Jesus? Ha Ha Ha.
That brown skinned lover of the poor cannot harm us.
You are calling Congress?
Ho Ho Big Joke. We own them. Have you never noticed big $$$$$$$$$ BUYS ANYONE?
You are calling “our” White House. We own it. We started in 1980 with good old Ron then good old Busheloon capped it off and now we own it 100%. Ours! You dummy.
You will go to the press? Wow! Are you out of the loop. We own it. All.
We are now in control we are now known as
THE UNITED STATES OF CORPOCRACY INC
viva la $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
clarenceswinney madmadmad at Inequality in America
political historian lifeaholics of america [email protected]
Democrats have the record of accomplishments
They do not have the Leaders who will promote it.
82 here is just a sample
of course. Democrats shalt never boast
82
Can anyone name ten for Republican Country Club Party
Credit for this “most” of this information goes to my friend, a great mind, and his terrific site
(Rev.Ray Dubuque—www. Liberals like Christ.org)
Republicans fought most of these plus WWII Draft
A good Fun Test-List ones Country Club Party fought tooth and nail
And wanted to drown in a bathtub
If it was good for Middle Class and Poor Conservatives fought most of them
Thanks to: Since 1980-- 20 years of three Conservative presidents—18 years of Conservative Senate-12 years of Conservative House-6 years of Total Conservative Control= 2 unneeded wars—destruction of Wall Street-- Housing Industry--and collapse of Economy to deep recession
Country Club Party got what they wanted—
Redistribution of Income-Wealth
1% own 21% of national wealth—10% own 71%
Viva Third World Nation
2009 Health Care Reform—70% want it per polls—Kill it say GOP
1. social security act
2. medicare
3. gi bill of rights
4.national industrial recovery act
5.national housing act
6.federal communications act
7.national labor relations act-wagner act of 1935
8.fair labor standards act (min wage & max hours laws)
9.public works adm-works progress adm
10.civilian conservation act
11.Tennessee Valley (power) Authority (TVA)
12.rural electrification act (REA)
13.full employment act
14.permanent school lunch program
15. Truman ended segregation in armed forces
16.veterans emergency housing act
17.public health service act
18.marshall plan
19.peace corps
20.aid to dependent children program (schip)
21.small business investment act
22.establishment of arms control and disarmament agency
23.consumer drug protection laws
24.equal pay act
25.manpower development and retraining act
26.clean air act
27.mental health and mental retardation act
28.college and vocational education act
29.civil rights act
30.voting rights act
31.mass transportation act
32.omnibus poverty act (office of economic opportunity, vista, job corps and public assistance programs)
33.war on poverty
34.head start (for pre-school children)
35.land conservation fund
36.permanent food stamp program
37.appalachia regional development act
38.elementary and secondary education act
39.higher education act
40.older Americans Health act (medicare and medicaid)
41.law enforcement assistance act
42.immigration reform act
great accomplis3.freedom of information act
44.clean water restoration act
45.coal mine health and safety act
46.Schip Health Care for 11 million children-Clinton bill 1997
Bush vetoed reauthorization twice. Is he sane?
Why do Republicans hate little kids?
Reauthorized in early 2009 under Obama and democratic senate
47.federal ethics code
48.civil service reform
49.creation of superfund (cleanup of toxic waste)
50.secretary of health joseph califano(fight tobacco health threat)
51.votings rights act extension
52.highway and mass transit funding bill
53.civil rights restoration act
54.head start expansion
55.Americans with disabilities act
56. small tax increase on the wealthy to fight
deficits created by Reagan-- 250B on top 1.2%
57.family medical leave act
58.attempted to extend/or improve health insurance coverage for millions of Americans—Truman--Nixon—Clinton--Obama
59.restoration of democracy to Haiti
60.restoration of peace to Bosnia
61.promotion of peace in South Africa
62.promotion of peace in Northern Ireland
63.promotion of peace in Israel and Palestine
64.increases in minimum wage
65.promotion of spending on inner-city schools
66.opposition to abolition of safety net for the poor
67.protection of social security and medicare from Newt raids.
68.promotion of justice for victims of racism
69.protection of children from cancer inducing tobacco industry
70.Gop constantly frustrated efforts to enact thorough campaign finance
71.appointment of many minorities and women to cabinet positions
72.resolution of long-standing black farmers discrimination issues
73.leadership role in Nato’s campaign to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
74.major efforts to challenge the dangerous proliferation of assault weapons in America. Bush cancelled Clinton exec. order banning import of killer machines. How many slaughtered in schools since then? Police killed?
75.ameri-corps
76. Pay Their Way Party— all American party=Democrats
1960 to 1980—National Income grew 418%--Debt grew 210%
1980 to 1992 National Income grew 102%--Debt grew 300%.
Democrats= Income increased twice as fast as debt—
Republicans= Debt increased three times as fast as Income
Democrats Pay Their Way-Republicans party of Spend And Borrow-our kids pay Tomorrow
77. party for strong defense—carter increased defense spending by 50%--
Democrat presidents in charge in WWI—WWII--Korean—Kosovo
Bush I was great in Gulf War—
Son was disaster in two illegal wars
Nixon-Ford cut Army troops by 41% and Reagan-Bush cut by 11%
Clinton cut due to death of Cold War mentality by Military-Industrial Cadre
Clinton targeted Pentagon Spending to Hi Tech weapons which gave us in 2003, per GW Bush, “The Greatest Military in History”
Bush Sec. Of Defense, Rumsfeld, planned to follow Clinton with small, fast reaction units with air power not massive ground troops.
78. Party of Integrity---Reagan had more(138) charged with crimes than cumulative total for all presidents of 20th century. (One) person convicted of a felony committed while working for Clinton.
Even though Newt Congress spend $110 million on Hearings and Investigations in an effort to destroy the Clinton administration. $110 Million number from GAO. Thirteen hearings on a simple innocent land deal Whitewater which they used as Platform to launch attacks. Evil people.
79. vacation with pay
80.trade union schools—forerunner to community colleges
81.worker retirement pensions
82.veterans administration
83.earned income tax credit—senator russell long bill
84. Fair Pay Bill passed 1-09
85. Cobra-2008—health care for laid off workers
86. HEALTHCARE REFORM????????????
Great Gop achievements—
Eisenhower initiated Interstate Highway
Reagan signed Martin Luther King holiday
Nixon signed affirmative action law
Nixon initiated EPA
Nixon initiated OSHA
Bush created two wars, moral and economic collapse
Ike was good--Ford was good--Bush I was good
Reagan + Bush II were bad for America And the world--Unrestricted Gambling=Disaster
Redistribution of Wealth & Income Upwards via 2500 Billion in Tax Cuts mostly for rich and increase by Spending and Borrowing.
2500B Tax Cuts and borrowed 5700 Billion to pay for them and major increases in spending(80% Reagan + 65% Bush II). Clinton + 24%.
Which party won every 20th Century War but one??
Which President created most jobs per month?
Which President increased Total Stock Market Value by more than thrice all predecessors combined
Which President never told the people a single lie on policy.
Which President got more of his Legislation passed in first two years under a Democratic Congress than all but one President (LBJ).
Which President released more secured documents than total of all preceding presidents?
Which president implemented more anti-terrorism programs than any in history?
answer below
LORD WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON
In smears please use numbers not guesses.
OK Amigo! Si Senor!
[email protected]
political research historian
lifeaholics of americahmets of democrats part II