This is Ann "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building" Coulter, whose books are huge best-sellers. Read a few of her columns and then come back and tell me I'm over reacting.
This is Rush "Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream" Limbaugh, who has an adoring audience of many many millions, who intoned in his nice baritone about the US policy of torture at Abu Ghraib:
"I'm sorry, folks. I'm sorry. Somebody has to provide a little levity here. This is not as serious as everybody is making it out to be... This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin people's lives over it, and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You [ever] heard of need to blow some steam off?"
How about Sean Hannity, on whose show a young woman caller, to much acclaim, pronounced that she was voting for Bush "because President Bush likes war. Kerry doesn't like war. So I'm voting for Bush."
Who said, apparently with a straight face:
"[After 9-11], liberal Democrats at first showed little interest in the investigation of the roots of this massive intelligence failure...[Bush and his team] made it clear that determining the causes of America's security failures and finding and remedying its weak points would be central to their mission."
Michael "Savage" Weiner, who, while voicing his contempt for San Francisco's homeless and the efforts to help them, Savage, a long time Bay Area radio personality, said that female students who come from a Marin County private school to feed and provide services to the homeless "can go in and get raped by them because they seem to like the excitement of it..." These and other comments suggesting sexual activity between homeless people and minor students were peppered throughout the three-hour broadcast.
These people
And these
This group
Check 'em out! They want you dead. Don't you think you should be aware? Browse their sites and comment boards and then come back and tell me you can reach them, educate them, live in peace with them. Or that you want to.
And don't forget this guy:
Who wrote, after the election:
"If anyone needs to work to 'bring the country together' it's those on the left who have divided it so badly. Those who sought to destroy this great man should get down upon their knees and beg the victors for mercy. And maybe, just maybe, we'll let a few of them linger on for the simple reason that they amuse us. My life's goal is to see the Democratic Party virtually obliterated and left as a rump of people like Stephanie Herseth who both mostly agree with us anyways and are easy on the eyes.
"That's the future of the Democratic Party: providing Republicans with a number of cute (but not that bright) comfort women.
"Let's face a hard truth: this was the bitterest Presidential campaign in living memory. The Democrats and their allies staked everything on the defeat of this President. All of the resources they had accumulated over a generation of struggle were thrown into this battle: and they have failed. Despite all of their tricks, despite all of their lies, the people have rejected them. They mean nothing. They are worth nothing. There's no point in trying to reach out to them because they won't be reached out to. We've got their teeth clutching the sidewalk and our boot above their head. Now's the time to curb-stomp the bastards."
All of whom are wildly popular, hugely influential, make tons of money, and who want us dead.
Who just voted for Bushco.
The section I quoted beings with the statement, "these are not Conservatives" It then goes on to absurdly note the following:
To accept that would clearly be denying reality on our part.
Political philosophies are not abstract, and are not fixed in time by immutable definitions. The textbook definition of conservatism is irrelevant, as are most textbook definitions. The way words are used in contemporary culture is the only true way to determine their meaning. The way a philosophy acts once it is in power is a far better way of determining its definition than reading the original political treatise on the subject.
Fellow liberals, all of the people mentioned in the above rant, including George Bush, is how modern conservatism functions in action, in power, and in contemporary usage. These people are conservatives. What they write, say and how they govern is how conservatism is currently defined. They are all conservatives. In fact, they are the very definition of conservatism.
This was the seventh consecutive Presidential election when we failed to achieve more than 20% of the conservative vote. How many more elections where we receive less than twenty percent of the conservative vote will we have to endure before we realize that we are not going to get much, if any more?
This is the fifth consecutive self-proclaimed conservative President who has run up an enormous debt. How many more conservative Republican Presidents will have to do this before we realize that massive overspending is a hallmark of, rather than antithetical to, fiscal conservatism?
Definitions are dynamic, and determined by usage. How many more Anne Coulters, Rush Limbaugh's and Sean Hannity's will have to become wildly popular among self-proclaimed conservatives before we wake up and realize that these people are actually conservative?
Receiving 85% of the liberal vote and 17% of the conservative vote currently requires us to receive 60% of the moderate vote in order to win a national majority in a Presidential election. How long will it take for us to realize how difficult and nearly impossible a task that is, no matter how centrist we try to become?
How long will it take us to realize that the only long-term way out of this mess is to grow liberalism and/or shrink conservatism?
They control everything, and still want us dead. They want to crush liberalism into the dust, and our politicians are too afraid to even call themselves liberal to fight this trend. They don't call themselves liberal, as though that somehow prevents them from being defined as liberal. We are getting our butts kicked, and we need to stop believing that we can either tell self-identifying conservatives what real conservatism is, or that we can use conservatism as some sort of wedge issue to split the Republican party. We have failed to do this for seven consecutive Presidential elections. We clearly have failed to teach them anything about reality.
We are in a lot of trouble, and denying reality will only make things worse. These people are modern conservatives. Let's at least face up to that.
|
|
|
Permalink :: 31 Comments :: Post a Comment
|
In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.
If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.
