Posted by
Andrew Roman on Tuesday, October 07, 2008 3:42:47 PM
Republicans are slipping.
They used to be far better at conniving and manipulating situations – like during the “golden age” of the “Bush lied, People died” era, when they could peddle sweet deceit about weapons of mass destruction and simultaneously persuade the frightened citizenry that the Patriot Act was for their own good while progressively raping them of their basic rights.
*sigh*
No, they don’t make neo-cons like that anymore.
Making it all that much more notable, in retrospect, was that during the meat of the “lets-overstate-the-terrorist-threat” period (which is still in full swing today), Republicans were somehow – masterfully - single-handedly creating the mortgage crisis that could eventually (under the guise of a “rescue plan”) fill the pockets of fat-cat CEOs on Wall Street.
Man, those guys were good. They could do anything – like create sweetheart tax breaks for big corporations, steal food from the mouths of starving infants, acne, ring-around-the-collar, head lice – all Republican initiatives.
(Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end…)
These days, however, Democrats are either wising up or the GOP has lost its touch.
Following the lead of New York Governor David Patterson who, several weeks ago, suggested that Sarah Palin’s criticism of Barack Obama’s “community organizer” credentials was an implicit reference to race, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank – Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee - is doing him one better.
AP political reporter Glen Johnson, in an article posted at Breitbart.com, writes:
Rep. Barney Frank said Monday that Republican criticism of Democrats over the nation's housing crisis is a veiled attack on the poor that's racially motivated.
Wow.
How does Barney Frank do it? How does he know this? Does he have operatives at our meetings?
Man, he’s good.
The fact that Barney Frank could be that perceptive and intuitive isn’t even a surprise – or it shouldn’t be. After all, no one can have a brothel run out of their Capitol Hill apartment without realizing it actually existed, like he can. Nothing – I repeat nothing - gets by him.
Frank was quoted as saying:
“They get to take things out on poor people. Let’s be honest: the fact that some of the poor people are black doesn’t hurt them either, from their standpoint. This is an effort, I believe, to appeal to a kind of anger in people.”
Well said, Barney.
Indeed, Republicans “get” to take things out on poor people. That’s what Republicans all aspire to – the opportunity to take things out on poor people. It is, in fact, one of the first tenets pounded into the developing skulls of young right-wingers in fascist-camps all around the Southern United States and Alaska – “Poor people suck!”
The sad thing is, where Republicans used to be able to operate their white-folk favored, big-corporation supportive, anti-everything-that-helps-children agenda without serious detection, it just isn’t the case anymore.
It’s all coming apart.
I wish I knew why.
Democratic whistle-blowers are littering the landscape.
On September 24th, Florida Representative Alcee Hastings warned two minority groups to beware of Governor Sarah Palin because, as he put it, “anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks.”
(Damn him for ruining a good thing).
In August, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean was quoted as saying:
“Our party has been a majority party for a long time … We are the party of opportunity. We are an inclusive, accepting party. If you look at folks of color, even women, they are more successful in the Democrat party then they are in the white … I mean the Republican Party”
(Busted).
Even the term “black hole” – long a surreptitious favorite of right-wing ideologues to covertly express their disdain for black people (often cleverly employed as a “scientific term” of some sort) – has been uncovered for what it is.
As Dallas City Councilman John Wiley Price put it earlier this year:
“So, if it’s angel food cake, it’s white. If it’s devil’s food cake, it’s black. If you’re the black sheep of the family, then you gotta be bad, you know. White sheep, you’re okay. You know?”
Andrew Roman, Brooklyn, NY