→ Politics
The GOP Speaks
| Wed Oct. 7, 2009 11:12 AM PDT
Conor Friedersdorf recently sent out an email questionnaire to Republican Party county chairmen throughout the country. Sounds dull. But it turns out to be surprisingly entertaining! Here's a sampling of opinion from local GOP leaders about Barack Obama and whatever else is on their minds:
....He wants to totally change it to a socialistic nation....His swift moves towards socialism....We should point out that the Blank Panthers, KKK, and ACORN are the shock troops of the Dem Party....Obama's socalist tendencies....Stop kissing up to the RINOs, the left, and the socialists!....Is he for America or against us? Hard to tell with some of his far right [sic], socialistic policies or legislation he wants to enact.
....Dems can have an openly queer sitting as chair and nothing is held against the party or the individual....We are rushing into Sosialism and that is where we need focus our energies in poing this out not on how many hail marys did you say....Obama is all about race [...] He wants payback....We feel we are marching toward the end of our liberties without having a chance to catch our breath....Despite what he said, this is not a Muslim Country, we do not need a Muslim majority ruling America. This is one decision that was made under the cloak of darkness.
....I seem to remember a similar charismatic socialist somewhere in middle Europe about a third of the way through the last century.... I think the most worrisome part of the Obama presidency is the blatant adherence to the socialist doctrine....The most worrisome part is that the Obama administration my put us on an irreversible course toward socialism....We should stop all measurements of race and actively fight the race-pimps who live off of division.
This is obviously totally unfair. I'm just cherry picking the most bizarro stuff I could find. Still, it didn't exactly take much effort, and frankly, a lot of this stuff is actually more bizarre in context. But here's my favorite line of all:
Einstein did not arrive at his theories of general and special relativity on the mandate of a government bureaucrat.
Yes! In fact, by making him spend all his time at the patent office, the bureaucrats in Bern did everything they could to stop him. Luckily, Einstein's entrepreneurial spirit was too strong for the jackboot of the Swiss government.
I'm pretty sure that Conor's goal was not to provide mockworthy material for smartass liberals like me. But when life serves you lemons.....
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Comments
Which one of these is not like the others?
Submitted by J.W. Hamner (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 11:35 AM PDT.
We should point out that the Blank Panthers, KKK, and ACORN are the shock troops of the Dem Party
I'm sort of morbidly curious as to what kind of mind can link those three organizations together as Obama's foot soldiers.
Nowhere Else To Go?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 11:44 AM PDT.
... The KKK?
KKK???
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Oct. 13, 2009 5:08 AM PDT.
During the years after the civil war, the KKK was mostly Democrat!!! There are plenty of "GOOD OL' BOYZ" in the Dem closet. I am of the opinion that most, if not all members of the "KLAN" have now migrated to the righthand side of ANY AISLE!!!
(read "now" as post JFK, LBJ, MLK).
Not quite "cherry-picking"
Submitted by woostery on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 11:56 AM PDT.
I presume each of these statements was given by a Republican County Chairman.
Quoting the craziest of them isn't "cherry-picking." Its not like nutster-divng for awful comments from random posters, or going to a mall and asking random self-identified republicans. These are all from County chairs of a political party.
And they're pretty revealing.
Einstein...
Submitted by ralph (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 12:18 PM PDT.
And ol' Albert made a TON of money out of that relativity thing, because he was so entrepreneurial. I think he basically got a teaching job.
As a conservative, I hate to
Submitted by Luther on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 12:24 PM PDT.
As a conservative, I hate to see Republicans pulling their punches. This is not a time for civility; it's a time to once again fight to preserve our freedoms from the commies and Musselmen, like B. Hussein Obama, Gog versus Magog.
Heureka!
Submitted by SRW1 (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 2:33 PM PDT.
OK Luther, now I get it: you're a parody troll. Sorry that it took me so long to realize this. I promise not to interfere any further with your slapstick pieces.
Commies, Musselmen and Gog, Oh my!
Submitted by NancyP on Fri Oct. 9, 2009 4:35 AM PDT.
You really need to start doing your own research and thinking. We are not going to turn Communist or Muslim. You don't seem to have a basic grasp of the issues. There is no move towards Communism or even Socialism and we have a majority that value religious freedom. We are a secular nation and we like it that way.
Sad state of the internet
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri Oct. 9, 2009 4:25 PM PDT.
It's pretty sad that internet comment are so stupid that people can no longer tell if someone is being sarcastic in their comment.
woostery writes: "I presume
Submitted by M (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 12:26 PM PDT.
woostery writes: "I presume each of these statements was given by a Republican County Chairman."
Not really. From the article:
"I’ve only sent e-mails to folks listed on an official GOP home page as a state chairman, a county chairman, a county vice-chairman, or a member of the county executive committee."
Is there anyone who is surprised by the presence of replies like the ones quoted? I would expect a similarly wacko set of replies from a corresponding Democratic sampling, especially had it been made, say, 2-3 years ago. Heck, it'd be fun to do now, and we could all continue to focus on the more ignorant, dogmatic and grammatically challenged segments of the population, whatever their political stripe.
I presume
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri Oct. 9, 2009 11:11 AM PDT.
Why? I have not seen this type of stupidity from anyone left of right center.
well...leaving aside all
Submitted by andy (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 12:44 PM PDT.
well...leaving aside all that weird ranting, einstein was kinda socialist. he wrote letters to Monthly Review on why he thought socialism was the most ideal form of government.
FWIW, I picked sentences
Submitted by Kevin Drum on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 1:12 PM PDT.
FWIW, I picked sentences from nearly every reply Conor got. It's true that I cherry picked my favorite sentences from each person, but it's not as if this stuff is all from three or four nutballs. It represents virtually everyone who's responded so far.
Mind-blowing Stuff
Submitted by nepeta on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 1:40 PM PDT.
These people really don't like "socalist" people or "sosialism," do they? I know this is a petty criticism about spelling skill but it seems indicative of the general intelligence level here. I find these Republican comments just appalling.
John Holbo's "Dead Right"
Submitted by Michael Robinson (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 1:40 PM PDT.
The classic essay is excellent companion reading for The GOP Speaks.
"We are at this point very near the heart of what Frum styles his ‘conservative philosophy’. But at the heart of it is a sort of proto-cognitive itch; a sensibility, or feeling, or subconscious reflex."
--John Holbo
"I apologize for this rambling. It's difficult to put into logical words the disgust I feel for our so-called government"
--M. A. Taylor, Vice Chair, McLennan County Republican Party
The actual discovery of
Submitted by skeptonomist (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 2:20 PM PDT.
The actual discovery of fission was made in a government lab (Kaiser Wilhelms Institut) and the first reactors were made at enormous expense by the U.S. government - it was part of the war budget. Private enterprise probably would never have developed nuclear power and there is no reason to think private enterprise would sponsor the research to find any really new energy technology.
Much of the development of solar cells and many other electronic things (transistors) was done at Bell Labs, which was essentially a non-profit extracted by the government as the price for AT&T's telephone monopoly. It wouldn't have existed under current free-market conditions. Phones are cheap now, but the technology was not fostered by the free market.
Fission to the people
Submitted by Lawyerfan (not verified) on Fri Oct. 9, 2009 8:08 AM PDT.
The problem is that the government wants to control all the nukes. The bureaucrats don't believe in the Second Amendment. As far as I'm concerned, they can have my nuke when they pry it from my warm dead hand.
contradiction
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 2:25 PM PDT.
If Obama's agenda can cause "irreversible" harm to the country, someone should let Michelle Bachmann know right away, since her plan to re-take a Republican majority and pass lots of "repeals" against Obama-era legislation will be for naught even if it succeeds. Unless somone simply doesn't understand the definition of the word "irreversible".
Michelle Bachmann
Submitted by NancyP on Fri Oct. 9, 2009 4:46 AM PDT.
What scares me the most about Michelle Bachmann is that she's an attorney who doesn't seem to have read the Constitution re: her assessment of the whole purpose of the Census or history also in regards to the Census. Answering questions on the Census is the LAW and it always was about more than who many live in your house. The first Census asked questions like "How many Free White Males live in the house (as opposed to Bond servants)" etc. And you can get fined for not answering the questions - up to $5,000. Unlikely as that's going to be can you imagine if 1 million Republicans believe in her and refuse to answer the questions? Wouldn't that go a long ways towards closing budget gaps?
Census questions
Submitted by James Anderson Merritt (not verified) on Fri Oct. 9, 2009 7:19 AM PDT.
The question about "free white males," as odd and even offensive as it may seem today, was of course aimed at resolving the question of congressional representation, the determination of which is the core mission of the census, as declared by the Constitution. Other questions, such as those probing plumbing, occupation, etc., as have been asked in various censuses, do not fall within the census' official purpose and represent extra-constitutional mission creep.
The fair thing would be to survey local Dem chairs
Submitted by kth on Wed Oct. 7, 2009 5:20 PM PDT.
when they are as down and out as the GOP is now. Though maybe 2002 or 2004 would have been a better time, as the Dems aren't likely to be down a Presidency plus 60 in the Senate any time soon.
But I submit that, even in straits as dire as those, you wouldn't find county-level Dems as deranged as the responses to Conor's survey, at least not at that frequency.
Not Unfair at All
Submitted by Reason60 (not verified) on Thu Oct. 8, 2009 9:37 AM PDT.
As an authentic Eisenhower/ Goldwater-ish conservative, I am saddened to admit that this is a pretty fair snapshot of what has become of the Right.
Ideas like balancing the budget, how activist our international policy should be, and where to divide public good from private opportunity are worth debating, and good ideas can be found on both sides;
But there really isn't room for any reasoned discussion on the right anymore- it isn't just the fevered swamps of nuttiness on blogs, but serious, policy-making party officials are spouting this stuff.
This isn't even good (in the long run) for liberals; the Right got this way when the Left collapsed in a similar way in the 70's.
from creep to creepy
Submitted by cld (not verified) on Thu Oct. 8, 2009 11:22 AM PDT.
Anyone else had the opportunity to talk with a bunch of real Republicans lately? I have.
They've gone from creep to creepy.
It was like they were playing nice with me, just shining me on, until they had a chance to do something. --and politics never came up once.
It's Pathetic Really, to Hear the Parrots of FOX
Submitted by Floridatexan (not verified) on Fri Oct. 9, 2009 3:53 AM PDT.
These people think they've received some gift of enlightenment by listening to the frantic lunatics of the Reich wing, when in fact they just spew the latest talking-point subterfuge of the treasonous corporate-sponsored talking heads. I would love to be a fly on the wall of FOX studios at this early hour, as they scramble to pick apart Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. Happy trails, psychos.
Obama's Nobel Prize
Submitted by James Anderson Merritt (not verified) on Fri Oct. 9, 2009 7:30 AM PDT.
You don't have to hate the President, be a racist, or fall in line with Faux news talking points, to believe that the Nobel selection was very premature. When I challenge Obama supporters to explain why we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and preparing to escalate in the latter country -- after voters clearly expressed a need to end our middle-eastern adventures when they elected Obama, I am told, "give him time, it's too early to blame him for continuing the wars he inherited from the evil Bushies." OK -- he's not yet a year into his Presidency yet and getting out of war can definitely be tricky. But by the same token, it is way too early to laud him as a peacemaker, especially with the Nobel Peace Prize or anything of similar prestige. Just getting elected -- even if it is symbolic of the population's renunciation of wars started by your predecessor -- is not enough to earn a prize of that importance. On the other hand, the Nobel is now somehow less credible and less important, because it has been given on the basis of sheer potential, not solid accomplishment.
believe that the Nobel selection was very premature
Submitted by Mark_13 on Fri Oct. 9, 2009 7:58 AM PDT.
I have to agree with James Anderson Merritt, even though I do hope for the best with this President. " ...the Nobel is now somehow less credible and less important, because it has been given on the basis of sheer potential, not solid accomplishment."
The Right-Wingnut (i.e., Republican Base) Agenda
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri Oct. 9, 2009 8:52 AM PDT.
1. Criminalize abortion--prosecute both the doc and the mother.
2. Teach Christian theology in public schools.
3. Criminalize homosexual behavior; ban same-sex marriage and any of the rights that accrue to married persons: child-raising, inheritance rights, tax benefits (joint filing), hospital-visitation and medical representative rights, etc.
4. Minimize voting participation of blacks and Latinos.
5. Maximize the influence of money in government by abolishing restrictions on campaign contributions. I.e., end the ban on corporate contributions and the dollar limits on all contributors.
6. Minimize environmental and health regulation of private enterprise.
7. Oppose or minimize almost all government activity except military and espionage programs.
8. Oppose any initiatives that are proposed by Democrats, regardless of possible merit.
Got a question: Are all of
Submitted by Mrs. Garside (not verified) on Fri Oct. 9, 2009 11:32 AM PDT.
Got a question: Are all of those typos (Blank Panthers?) in the original?
Does anything more need to be said?
The Good Friday accords
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat Oct. 10, 2009 2:57 AM PDT.
The Good Friday accords would never have happened without the pricipals becoming nobel laureates 9 MONTHS IN ADVANCE!
As for past accomplishements, OK slim: Arms reductions (pullback from Cheney's missle defenses in Poland and Czech Rep. amoung others); Being the first US president to call for immediate Israeli compliance with the Road Map (using the term: occupation); The reach out to the world of Islam from Cairo (no Congressional foot drag required); The (now blocked) resolve to end the Guantanamo camp x-ray- Baghram etc swamp; The strong arming for the struggle against the Finance Crisis (which brought global relief from the view of the "Brink"; extension of Jobless benefits and the authorization for EPA action vis a vis Climate Crisis; The fresh love letters to the peoples of the world following years of contempt from the Cheneys of the US...
Give me a minute or 2 I will tell you a few other justifications for the award.
Get a memory, people, its only been 9 months! Plus thereis a huge Lbby/ hate radio/ assasination pastor/ Klan-sponsored resistence against B.H.O. despite his numerical advantage in Congress.
If you can't support the only close thing we ever have had now you can look forward to a future of Giulianis and Becks and Birther revisionist Corporatochracies way into the future.
Count your blessings you mopes!
Gods bless the Nobel Committee!
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