Tags
Election 2012, God Particle, GOP, Higgs-Boson particle, Islamophobia, Phyllis Schlafly, right-wing hate, rightwing nuts, teabaggers
I’ve said this before. In a manner of speaking. I’ve theorized that the GOP elite is basically throwing this election by giving the extremists within the party control. Of course this presupposes that they will flame up and then die.
Some are starting to agree with me, albeit from a completely different angle.
They see the landscape, and they wonder: why in the world is the GOP intent on killing itself? They are on the wrong side of so many issues that it is barely possible to remember them all. They are out of touch with mainstream America.
They conclude that this is a party that is basically re-living the Goldwater years. They argue that Goldwater and his insiders did not seriously expect to win the election, but they were fighting for control of the party.
This is what some now see as going on with the GOP. Rather than the insiders letting the TeaNutz® run the party over the cliff, and then picking up the pieces and going on as usual, they see the TeaNutz® ignoring a mainstream electorate precisely because it has yet to be educated in the finer points of Teanuttery. Like Goldwater, they believe that this is a process, and they must suffer the loss in order to solidify their control, and grow.
So says Jeffrey Toobin. He argues that the madness might be explained by looking at the Goldwater election and it’s deeply embedded goal of turning this country away from New Deal policies and toward the kinds of policies favored by Tea folk today, namely a restructuring or elimination of social programs designed to provide safety nets to citizens.
Paul Waldman makes essentially the same argument. He, however, nuances it in suggesting that the delusion of some in the GOP is such that they really think that what they believe is so obviously correct, than any candidate they nominate will surely get that across to the public.
In any event, these theories do work to explain, from one side or the other what has otherwise been inexplicable: why the GOP seems determined to remain utterly out of touch with the opinions of most in the country.
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Hey, think fast. What has the mass of 125 hydrogen atoms?
Give up?
Hint: God is watching!
It’s the Higgs-Boson. Yep physicists think they may have located the elusive bugger.
Life will never be the same.
I’m may have to take the day off just to figure out how my life will be changing.
I can’t wait to find out. But don’t forget, they still don’t have the 3-sigma statistical significance, so we still have time to shop for Christmas!
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And then there are those who do not seek irrelevance, but have it thrust upon them. Sometimes they seek it too.
WorldNetDaily, that bastion of true-blue Christianist bible-thumping rectitude, decided to beat a dead horse publicly with a banner fly over a football stadium during a game. The subject: why, the imposter in the White House: the non-citizen, one Obama.
Zee problem?
God forgot to tell them the dome was closed.
Oh Drat!
Foiled again!
God knows a good joke when He sees one.
Refund?
Oh, don’t forget to order your “freedom seeds” for your “freedom garden” and get your “freedom gold” from Beck’s gold meisters.
Armageddon is a comin’ doncha know.
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Speakin’ of hate, old (and I do mean that, she is OLD) Phyllis Schlafly’s new group, Eagle Forum, has a manifesto it is asking Congressional candidates to sign, ala Grover Norquist. Oh the list is so precious. Come take a look. (From Joe.My.)
1. Will you vote to protect the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)?
2. Will you vote for federal school appropriations to require informed, written parental consent for curricula, surveys, classes or books that may be privacy-invading or offensive to religion or conscience?
3. Will you support legislation for Congress to use its Article III power vote to deny jurisdiction to the federal courts over areas where we don’t trust them, namely, the definition of marriage, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Ten Commandments, the Cross on veterans’ memorials, and the Boy Scouts?
4. Will you vote to prohibit the federal courts from hearing challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) or similar state laws respecting the definition of marriage?
5. Will you oppose federal hate crimes laws?
6. Will you vote against any legislation to help Puerto Rico to become a state?
7. Will you vote against any legislation to pretend that the District of Columbia is a state or entitled to a state’s representation in Congress?
8. Will you vote to end federal funding of so-called bilingual education (teaching immigrant children in their native languages) which the voters of CA, AZ, and MA have rejected?
9. Will you vote to revoke the citizenship of naturalized citizens who betray their oath of U.S. citizenship by claiming “dual citizenship” with their native country?
10. Will you support federal funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?
There are more, just suppress your gag reflex.
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Yesterday, we reported on the withdrawal by some 65 or more companies of ads for a Muslim reality show. We have located a full list of all those companies that withdrew their ads. While it may be hard to withdraw your patronage from them all, please do the best you can, and let them know via e-mail or in person your displeasure at those who help to foment hatred in this country.
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Enjoy your day.
Existential Ennui 
Hope springs eternal, even for the wicked.
After the 1930 German elections an upstart party winning only a 1/5 presence in the Reichstag used tactics similar to the 2010 GOPTP to bring governance to a standstill (in days of deepening economic depression) by swingvoting with other conservative blocks to obstruct as much legislation as possible (against the best interest of the German majority). The fanatics (allied with Industry against the parties of social progress) were playing a waiting game. In the next elections two years later more and more Germans were turning up at the polls sick of the lameness of the Weimar government and constitution.
Conservatives hate government – because they’d rather rule without one.
Here’s what the rulership party’s leadership is looking at right now I think:
1. They might be able to buy this thing outright by manipulation of the campaigns. Karl Rove has a quarter-billion dollar superfund ready to pay for lying attack-ads against Democrats and against all GOP who do not toe the TP line.
2. They hope to spin the Occupy movement as radical – especially in the streets outside the Democratic Convention a la Chicago 1968 (OWS has said they will be there, and so the corporate media will be in place and the GOP need only ‘warn’ local and state law enforcement and the send in a few hired ‘ringers’ to get violence started).
3. America is being trained to think of voter-fraud in terms of individual ‘illegal voters’ and not as hacked voting machines and strong-arm tactics by GOP State Secretaries. America has been prevented from going back to hand-counted ballots to protect its most sacred institution (free elections).
4. plus, there’s always the chance of some international dust-up in the Middle East, Pakistan, etc.
John, very insightful remarks. I agree with you. The OWS movement is being painted by the right as dangerous and run by the Muslim brotherhood. The only stories you read about it in rags such as Blaze and similar places, is stories about violence and absurd stories that fit their narrative, either real or imagined. Voting is the key here, and the GOP is working very hard to suppress voting under this guise of fraud. We must stand up against this. This is not the time to bemoan what we haven’t achieved, but really to stand strong against the horrors that will come from a Gingrich. The crazies in the GOP really are not at all concerned about people dying in the street. They think it worth that to rid America of all the unwanted, “unproductive” elements. The fact that most of those are brown and black is more to the better for them.
I’m just amazed that such a tiny little fringe group had such an impact.
I suspect that has a lot to do with the ability of everyone to find an outlet for whatever they want to spew. We live in an information overkill I guess. Therein lies the danger of attaching too much importance to small groups.
Yes, let’s dispense with nominating or voting for a candidate based on their past and recent votes and positions, or for their qualifications – why bother with that boring exercise in a responsible democracy? We’ll vote for them based on whether they signed some mandate by a self-serving lunatic with extremely divisive goals. Because, honestly, aren’t we moving away from having to think for ourselves?
Yes SDS, we are moving toward cookie-cutter candidates who simply have to present their resume of “pledges” and nothing more need be said or asked.
Interesting GOP analysis. Like what John A says.
John has very good points.
awesome statment!!!!!!!!
why thanks!