Monday, May 25, 2009

Speak Out

I’ve been thinking about Republicans and why they are so clueless. Listening to Dickie Bird spout off in defense of torture I keep wondering what drives them. Then, last night we watched a PBS show on WW II, called “Behind Closed Doors”. Much of it is about Stalin and his approach to the Allies. Stalin was really another Hitler who probably killed more people over his career as Russia’s ruler than any/all of the Czars, and perhaps more than Hitler. Basically, he simply didn’t care about anyone else. Even his friends were not safe, as he demonstrated again and again after the war. He had no principles, save one-- win/preserve power at any cost. And that’s the apparent sole principle of Republicans. Dickie Bird, Rush, Newt, and the current crop of Obama opposers in Congress. All of them are focused completely on power and rescuing themselves from their own worst instincts. The fact that the American people so completely rejected them last November has been lost in the dim, foggy recesses of their little minds.
Even local Republicans seem driven by these issues that they use via coded language to awaken the party faithful--that hard core of Christian Taliban, and the super-rich who comprise their band of brothers. They continue to mouth off about Gay Marriage, as though it is a threat to the Nation, or even to the institution of marriage itself. Whereas, if you think about it, the real threat to the institution of Marriage is heterosexual weddings, half of which end in divorce and a considerable number of which end in domestic violence.
When people like Colin Powell speak out, to whom are they speaking? Certainly not to Newt, et al. And why I keep asking doesn’t the Republican literati ever speak out? I know that Billy Krystol is simply of a new breed—the first of its kind—Jewish Neo-Nazis. So, people like him will continue to support their hard core right wing. But George Will? He seems too smart to be in their court. And what about Susan Collins, and Olympia Snow in New England? How do they continue to associate with such thugs? It must be the intoxication of power and even proximity to power. Will, I suppose, simply makes too much money as the mob thinker/writer to quit. And the moderate pols are too star struck to extricate themselves from association with thuggery.
I am troubled by this association, because I worry about Dems, now in power. As I noted in my most recent posting, I worry about corruption, and how long it takes for power to corrupt. We need to watch for this—all of us who think. And we need to stand up and speak out when we see hints of corruption beginning to appear. The Nation cannot afford blind obedience to power. We must instead speak truth to power. On every occasion we get.
Speak out people.

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