Friday, October 2, 2009

Planned GOPsolescence


The year is 1875 and you're a horsewhip maker, and you're hearing rumors that something is being developed that could put you out of business, or impact it greatly if you didn't adapt. That rumor, if you believed it, could throw you into panic, couldn't it?

Now move ahead several decades, and turn the corner into the twenty-first century, and you have a similar situation, but it's not horsewhip makers panicking, but a political party. It's the year 2004 and you're hearing about this scrawny senator from Chicago, with a funny name, who may have presidential ambitions, and who, as keynote speaker at that year's Democratic National convention, has brought the crowd to its feet admist thunderous applause, and if you're Republican and a presidential hopeful, or just a Republican hoping to replace Bush with another Republican, your heart may flutter a bit.

And then you learn that the speaker is also black. If you're a Republican you may not panic right away, but you sure as hell want to keep a close eye on what could possibly be a dark horse: You may have thought to search for that outdated buggy whip you've been holding onto for such an occasion.

And if you heard any part of that black man's speech that night to the Democratic National Convention, you still may not panic, but a tinge of worry would certainly leave foot prints across the surface of your mind, as he spoke the following:

"Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us--the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of "anything goes." Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America-- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America--there’s the United States of America."

And you may not have panicked when Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee claimed huge wins in Iowa, with Obama edging out Hillary Clinton, garnering 38 percent of voters. You may not have panicked, but worry lines would be seen forming across your weary brow, as Huckabee took in a respectable 34 percent of the voters, but was still four percentage points below the Democratic front runner. And you'd note: The press saw Obama's victory as a win for change over experience. And still you'd see no cause to panic.

If you didn't panic when Obama won Iowa, worry lines would certainly began to deepen when he defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton in a heated contest to represent the Democrat Party against rival John McCain, who made a surprise, come-from-behind showing to become the Republican Party nominee.

If you managed to keep your composure up to now, you noticed that GOPers were beginning to show the first signs of panic at McCain-Palin rallies, when cries of "terrorist," and "kill him," in reference to then Democrat candidate Barack Obama punctuated rally speeches. You would also notice: The signs of panic became full-blown terror when posters of Obama flanked by Osama bin Laden, Curious George dolls, and boxes of "Obama Waffles" for sale, and racist e-mails began to surface.

You think: If this scrawny black guy with the funny name (which GOPers abundantly made fun of) actually do the unthinkable, win the presidency, with his laundry list of social programs, then the GOPers had more to worry about than a black man in the White House.

Their very existence was at stake.

If Obama succeeds, then conservatism fails. People would come to see the benefits and advantages of liberalism, especially if that dreaded healthcare reform law, with that "public option" is allowed to pass. If Obama does what he promises, then liberalism will be preferred to conservatism--and where would that leave Republicans. Liberalism had to be stopped at all cost. Its success would spell the death of the Republican party, and conservatism will have met its Waterloo.

Republicans would have to bring out the big guns, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and concerted Republican resistance to any and all things Obama attempts. They all had a stake in destroying Obama, and the party he represented. With liberalism on top, succeeding where conservatism failed, then the Republican Party would be obsolete.

Then you'd know the awful truth: Obama must be stopped. Must be stopped at all cost. And you'd tell fellow GOPers why he must be stopped:

For one, Obama would usher in a post-racial age, narrowing the racial divide. No longer could race be exploited, and white voters be counted on to vote for the white guy in local and national elections. Something had to be done. GOPers's strategy: keep reminding all voters, Democrats as well as Republicans, of Obama's race, of his African-Americaness. Draw him into a debate on race, thinking that would surely alienate white voters. Tell whites that his health-care plan was little more than a black give away, a reparation for blacks. And when everything else failed, attach his blackness to his policies.

Call blacks racists, including the president, himself. Talk secession. Talk "taking the country back." Talk civil war and arming militias.

For two, Obama would usher in liberalism-socialism. Take Obama's message of "change," and distort it. Tell Americans that he's moving to fast, seeking wholesale change, where incremental change is all that's needed. Tell them that he's a socialist, and that socialism is bad, and that capitalism and the free market made America strong (although greed, and a lack of regulatory restraints on financial institutions had plunged the nation into a recession that threatened to become a depression).

For three, an Obama presidency would end the careers of talk show hosts, Rush Limbaugh and a number of other Republican and conservative pundits that make a pretty damn good living exploiting every thing from race to religion, from pitting one party against the other to putting loud, and disruptive plants at town hall meetings, to replacing actual turf (grassroots movements) with "AstroTurf" movements paid for by affected corporations and institutions.

For four, it would spell the death of Fox News. Fox has "made its bones" on holding liberals at bay, supporting George Bush's policies, his war in Iraq, attacking Cindy Sheehan on every occasion, and Dr. Tiller, "the baby killer." If liberalism succeeds, if the people are actually shown to benefit, then Fox News would have no natural adversaries, no cause, nothing, and no one to fight, no standard to bear, nothing to do but fold up its tent and steal away into the night, as ratings drop, in a desperate effort to reformat programs, and restructure how it delivers news-propaganda.

You'd remind them: If the GOP becomes obsolete, those who depend on it for their own survival, will also become obselete: Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and a host of conservative poltical strategists and pundits. Their livilihood and fortune depended on Obama failing. They know this, and early on, they announced their intentions to destroy him politically.

You'd remind them: Medicare has been such a success, that any government run program that emulates it, and expands it, must be attacked. The GOP can't give the Democratics this poltical edge, and neither can Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and those of his ilk.

You'd remind them: Survival at all cost. There's still some use for whips, but not as much as before the twentieth century. If President Obama and liberals succeed in reforming health care, actually finding ways to increase competition, and dramatically cutting the cost of healthcare for Americans, the GOP may not be, in this century, as useful as whips.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Black Diaspora, you see! you see! you see!

Black Diaspora, these people are fighting to survive! they have to come up with new ammunition day by day, the REP/CON depend on the Rush Limbaugh's to keep them alive!

You know, what I see is a Breed of American's that have been reduced to a Subhuman nature! the thing's they say and do are beyond what a Human being's nature should be,I have been using the word (SUBHUMAN) a lot lately, I have my reason's.

Now, it is said FOX NEW'S promote's Propoganda, well, it go's deeper than that, they use the word's (FOX NATION) code word for Segregation, Division and Superiority, well they do have a few Minority's, but, that's for show!

When you are told you are no longer the Majority, you scramble to look as if you are yet in control! the REP/CON are holding up that Health Care Bill, this is one of their TRUMP CARD'S! they have to hold on to that card! The Health Bill is like a life line for the REP/CON, but, they have to let go! for it is time for the President to have a Major Victory!

iseeisee

Black Diaspora said...

iseeisee, you're the first to respond to this blog entry. I was beginning to believe that the program had a glitch, and that the blog entry wasn't showing up for all.

You're right: There's a method to their madness, and a madness to their method: They reek of fear

Only desperate men use fear as a weapon. Republicans are now the "fear-mongering party." It's their only agenda. They're using fear as the only weapon in their arsenal to defeat President Obama.

Bush used it to win support for his attack on Iraq. He used it to assure himself a second term. He used it to give Republicans a firm grip on Congress during most of his presidency--and Republicans are continuing to use this methodology in their attempt to defeat Obama.

They say Obama's too soft on our enemies. They say he's going to bankrupt the country. They say he's building an army of Obama soldiers. They say he's taking the country in the wrong direction, down the wrong path, toward socialism and away from a free-market economy.

They're conveniently forgetting that it was the free-market economy that got us into this mess in the first place--that and unbridled greed.

Without fear, Republicans would have no counter plan, no counter policies, and no counter direction for the country.

They have, indeed, become the "Party of Fear," as though fear should drive our foreign and domestic policies.

Ernesto said...

The Republicans have truly become a fringe group over the last 20 years, and are pretty much extinct outside of the Old Confederacy and a few pockets of Aryan resistance in the Wild West. They might as well have their next convention at one of those neo-nazi compounds in Idaho.

Why are we even wasting time talking about them? Oh, because a few billionaires have media conglomerates dedicated to spewing their warped delusions all over the airwaves.

Black Diaspora said...

@Ernesto: "They might as well have their next convention at one of those neo-nazi compounds in Idaho."

Now, that's funny. It wouldn't surprise me if they did.

There's a few Republicans beginning to break ranks: One congressperson whose name I've forgotten, and a Republican adviser of a sort.

Even they are sick of the lunacy.

vanishing point said...

Black Diaspora,
Well, it took me a while to take in this post, it was such a good perspective on the Republican view point that it took me by surprise.

I hope that there are some Repulicans who break ranks, what they don't realize is that people voted for change, and they aren't working toward change.

Black Diaspora said...

Hi, kathy, and thanks. Those Republicans who have broken ranks with their party have to be prepared to fend off Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News.

They descend upon them like some avenging angels.

It's pathetic: If they don't walk lock step with Rush, he'll cut their legs right from under them.