So You Want to Play Hardball Eh?

So You Want to Play Hardball Eh?
by DarkSyde

as Found On DailyKos

They are vehemently against abortion, they resist progressive woman's rights. They view homosexuality as a crime against nature and God, some advocate the death penalty as an option for it. Separation of Church and State is despised by these folks; they insist the nation is founded on the principles of their religion, and they work hard to bring that de facto theocracy about. They deplore strong language, gay characters, and sexual content on TV and in the media. And they ignore the Geneva Convention when it suits their ideological purposes, including provisions against torture or due process. They're anti-stem cell research, pro-creationism, and generally distrustful of science. These folks are easily whipped into a state of frenzy with ideological manipulation to the point where they will commit violence, or at least tacitly endorse that violence is acceptable, if it advances their Divine agenda. They then take great pains to justify that violence, including unprovoked attack of civilian areas, under certain conditions, with convoluted theological gymnastics. They are almost to the man pro-death penalty ... Am I railing against the religious right again?
Could be, but my target here is actually Al Qaeda and related fundamentalist Wahhabism; the source of terrorism, the scourge of our planet, the Axis of Evil.
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Strangely, when I visited a blog frequented by GOP apologists this evening, all merrily playing the "Democrats are like bin Laden" sweepstakes, they were shocked, shocked I tell you, when the tables were so easily turned on them. They were outraged :::Gasp:: can you imagine? They were almost speechless when I pointed out the eerie parallels between Osama bin Laden and fundamentalist Islam, and the stated social policy goals of the extremist religious right currently running the so called Republican Party. Nope, they didn't like it one bit.
When the neocons say that Liberals or moderate Republicans are against America and for the terrorists, they could not have it more backwards. The extreme religious rightwing of the GOP is the closest thing to Islamo-fascism we have in our country, and no one is worried that Al Qaeda will be storming ashore on our beaches en masse, invasion style, anytime soon.
I was once a pretty staunch Republican, although I was always a moderate. But I've always thought the system works best when you have at least two parties to keep check on one another. I never wanted one party to extinguish the other from existence, and I'd like to see three or four robust parties. I was also constantly amazed at the shit the democratic campaign and image gurus allowed their extremist GOP counterparts to get away with. It never made a lick of sense to me that they wouldn't address it head on and/or use the same advertising tactics.
Currently I'm now registered as an Independent, and lately I vote democratic on every single issue. I'm under no illusions that Democrats would never try to feather their own nest if they happened to control all three branches of power and could thus rig the game. But the threat is not coming from the democrats, it's coming from the GOP, infested with the radical religious right, who hope to bring freedom and democracy as we know it and enjoy it, to an end.
What makes Democracy work half-ass, most of the time, is that politicians can't get away with too much naughtiness, especially if it hurts the interests of the rank and file voter. Or they'll get voted out of office by a hungry competitor who will expose them to voters who are fed-up.
What the Neocons have done is brilliant in its sick, slimey way. They've managed to convince a large segment of Christians in the US that cutting benefits and protection for the working class and poor, extending benefits to the wealthy at their expense, engaging in warfare based on lies and deception, and torture, are more central values to Christianity than mercy, civil rights, help for the poor and sick, and the shunning of wealth and power. It's a stunning achievement considering how backasswards that is to the Gospels and the entire New Testament.
And whenever the wheels look they might fall off on a specific bit of deception, and their own rank and file will notice the emperor has no clothes, the Neocons engage in calling their opposition, whomever they may be, unpatriotic, fags and lesbos, cowards, and terrorist sympathizers. The Big Smear. It doesn't matter who or what gets in their way, they'll do it to anyone, for the most trivial of reasons. George Washington could rise from the grave with Thomas Jefferson at his side, and if they disagreed with the agenda du jour of the WH or Tom DeLay, they'd be painted as cowards and traitors. The Neocons smeared John McCain, Max Cleland, John Kerry, and now John Murtha, and by proxy, the greatest generation. The religious right dutifully swallowed it all and spread it like a virus.
Enough of that crap.
If the WH and Culture of Corruption is going to fight back with ridiculous claims that anyone who points to the impressive list of failure racked up by George Bush and associated incompetent goons is an Al Qaeda mole, then they've opened a door to the shit house. And I strongly urge the democratic advisors to place a fan at that entrance to let that foul stink circulate for as long as the Rovians are dumb enough to let them.
Be crystal clear with expensive, repeating, ads about which party acts and thinks most like the terrorists who attacked us on 9-11, and which does not. I said last night that newscasters shouldn't be compared to bin Laden. But that doesn't apply to party ideologies, and we didn't start this bullshit.
They did.
So, if the shoe fits ... It's the Neocon, fundie dominated, GOP that is the closest thing to fanatical Wahhabism in our nation today and there's no major political faction anywhere near giving them a run for the money.