Purist Robes

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"The Republican Party is like a dying tyrant, mad with syphilis, ironically like that very Stalin they would accuse their enemies of associating with. How else to account for their desperation to resurrect the wraith of Joseph McCarthy; the hammy and baffling utterances from high-level party officials like Boehner and McConnell; the blatant desire on their part to let the country fail out of sheer resentment; the wanton sedition of conservative shit-stirrers ranging from the quasi Madame Defarge Michele Bachmann to the porcine, pill-popping porcine propagandist Rush Limbaugh?

"It is an all-out assault on reason, on progress, on truth. What is the difference between the Republican Party and, say, the Taliban? A rogue by any other name would smell as rank. Their frantic accusations all churned out in a futile effort to explain their current pariah status is as pathetic and draconian as stoning a woman in the street." -- from Steven Weber's 4.11 HuffPost, titled "G.O.P. R.I. P."

The stakes and some of the particulars have changed over the last five years, but as noted in a December 2004 review of Adam Curtis's The Power of Nightmares, the differences between the purist Republican right and the Taliban are actually fairly slight.

"The film contends that the anti-western terrorists and the neo-con hardliners in the George W. Bush White House are two peas in a fundamentalist pod, and that they seem to be almost made for each other in an odd way, and they need each other's hatred to fuel their respective power bases but are, in fact, almost identical in their purist fervor, and are pretty much cut from the same philosophical cloth.

"They're both enemies of liberal thought and the pursuit of personal fulfillment in the anti-traditionalist, hastened-gratification sense of that term. And they believe that liberal freedoms have eroded the spiritual fabric that has held their respective societies together in the past. Curtis's doc shows how these two movements have pushed their hardcore agendas over the last four or five decades to save their cultures from what they see as encroaching moral rot."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 12, 2009 at 4:15 AM

comment #1

K. Bowen says ...

I love it when a person calls his opponents McCarthyites and then accuses them of being the Taliban. High comedy.

Reality is on our side. Enjoy your time in the sun. It will be brief.

Posted by K. Bowen at April 12, 2009 5:31 AM

comment #2

Bob Violence says ...

Hey Kevin, can I pee on your face

Posted by Bob Violence at April 12, 2009 5:32 AM

comment #3

rockne says ...

The first thing that comes to mind while watching this is: Where are the 'colored alerts' we used to see every day? Where are the threats against the banks and the power plants and the 'imminent threats' we faced every day during the Cheney "super-threat" years?
I suppose conservatives will say Bush saved us from the worst threat...we've been at war on numerous fronts the last ten years...

Posted by rockne at April 12, 2009 5:46 AM

comment #4

D.Z. says ...

Bowen: Speaking of reality being on your side, why is Iraq supposed to be a better place now, when our troops can't even take a shower there without being electrocuted?

Posted by D.Z. at April 12, 2009 5:53 AM

comment #5

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Wells to K. Bowen: Thanks for pointing out what is so utterly vile about you and your ilk. You're not thinking about the restoring some semblance of health to the economy, restoring the respect the U.S. once had, working together for the greater good, etc. All you care about is your "side" and bringing down the enemy. You and your kin are truly sick. If this was 1949 and I was Chou en Lai, I'd round you all up and have you shot. You're the ugly weeds in a lawn that's trying to grow clean grass.

Posted by Jeffrey Wells at April 12, 2009 6:31 AM

comment #6

George Prager says ...

"Reality is on our side." Really/ I seem to remember something about the "reality-based community"
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html

Those layoffs at the North Texas Pennysaver must have stung.

Posted by George Prager at April 12, 2009 8:04 AM

comment #7

Noah Redfield says ...

I just watched The Power of Nightmares last week. It is indeed an eye-opener. I don't trust anyone who uses fear as a weapon. Anyone.

Posted by Noah Redfield at April 12, 2009 9:02 AM

comment #8

allstar397 says ...

Noah, you must hate all politicians. The whole political system is based on fear. Vote for me or bad things will happen. Push this bill through or bad things will happen. and so on and so on. That and convincing us that we are miserable and they will save us is how politicians try to get votes/support.

Posted by allstar397 at April 12, 2009 9:39 AM

comment #9

MovieBob says ...

Good God...

The Democrats had EIGHT YEARS to get ready for this, and they really have no plan to deal with the Republicans as an angry, stripped-down minority (the form in which they're the most politically dangerous, incidentally)?

They're making the exact same mistake that the Republicans themselves made after Kerry lost. Do people not remember this? Right after that, MoveOn had a release in the news about how "they" (read: the hard-core base of the "left") had "paid for" and was now "in charge" of the defeated Dems. The rightie media had a big laugh about it - "ho ho! The angry little collegiates in the Che t-shirts and rainbow stickers are 'da boss' now?? Ha! We'll dominate them forever!"

Four years later, the "far left" was organized and serious enough to yank the Democrat nomination away from the "unstoppable" Hillary and direct it toward a Junior Senator from Chicago who's policies they liked better. And now instead of LEARNING from that victory, they're just assuming that The Right can't pull the same thing off? Limbaugh etc. are many things, few of them good (I'm told that he's a swell guy outside his show, I dunno, I've never met him) but permanently-impotent just because they're out of power now ain't one of them. If Obama doesn't A.) stop stumbling himself and B.) get his party in line, they are going to LOSE at least one house of Congress next round.

Posted by MovieBob at April 12, 2009 9:46 AM

comment #10

mccool says ...

Any hard-line republicans or democrats are vile for equal reasons. Why even bother to make a distinction between democrats and republicans?? It's nothing but rhetorical nonsense. They're all vile crooks who care more about getting re-elected than actually making the hard changes that are necessary for the long-term survival of the American dream. Scratch that, they are ONLY interested in getting re-elected. Get your head of your ass, Wells. It's not until the american people stop playing into the politicians' game of distraction and finger pointing that any real change can occur. We need to unite against a corrupt, self-serving and frighteningly growing GOVERNMENT. Unfortunately, people like you, and equally the republican protesters here, are happier to serve their ideological masters, standing around in an ideological circle-jerk as our "leaders" literally rape future generations. Very progressive. You should be proud.

Posted by mccool at April 12, 2009 10:06 AM

comment #11

moviemaniac2002 says ...

Normally as you grow older and greyer, with a
nest egg(born of years of hard work)to protect and nurture, you tend to embrace conservative views and philosophies...
And I'd normally consider myself no exception to this rule....except..to me, the Replublicans have always seemed as cardboard and phony as an
old MGM backlot set....their goals and values always seem at odds with their actual behavior.
They abhor Big Government....except when they set themselves up as the moral police of
women's wombs and any other personal issue that's none of their business...(while corporations, banks and Wall Street ran rampant,
essentially anal-raping the country, Bush and company crawled like lice all over Terry Schiavo's
husband.....of course, when it suited their purpose, they happily paraded around Palin's unwed pregnant teen daughter and condom-challanged boyfriend)
My point is that Republican "values" are like
cheaply painted stage props.....designed to be
quickly moved and re-positioned to enhance whatever agenda they're pushing at the moment.
So although I'd seem a prime recruit at this stage of my life....my eye has turned too jaundiced watching the GOP in action....I've lived through two of their presidents (Nixon and Bush) who attempted to turn this country into some kind of half-assed Monarchy/Banana Republic....as conservative as I'm turning, I'll never join up...they're phony to their very core.

Posted by moviemaniac2002 at April 12, 2009 10:15 AM

comment #12

Sabina E says ...

Truer words have never been spoken about the RepubliKKKan party.

Posted by Sabina E at April 12, 2009 11:34 AM

comment #13

actionlover says ...

I agree with many of the people here, K. Bowen. I wish you would just shut up and DIE. We won't get better as a country until we can shut people like K. Bowen up and make sure they never get to spew their hate-talk again. Just shut up!

Posted by actionlover at April 12, 2009 11:56 AM

comment #14

Cadavra says ...

No, if we try to shut people like Bowen up, we're no better than they are. Let 'em rant all they want. They know their room is mostly empty now.

Posted by Cadavra at April 12, 2009 12:30 PM

comment #15

Noah Redfield says ...

Allstar397: I do, as a matter of fact. While the Republicans have terrorism on their side, the Democrats have the economy and climate change as their methods.

Posted by Noah Redfield at April 12, 2009 12:41 PM

comment #16

D.Z. says ...

Bob: The right can learn from the left, but it doesn't want to do so. The best it could come up with last time was a "compassionate" conservative who was anything but.
You don't seem to get that that party's akin to the Dems after '68, not '02. For the GOP to win, it's got to actually reach out to the groups it's been screwing over for the last 20 years. And that's not going to happen, because that would mean pissing off the fundy base.

mccool: "They're all vile crooks who care more about getting re-elected than actually making the hard changes that are necessary for the long-term survival of the American dream."

Rockefeller wants to stop HMOs from charging more for out-of-network care. Did any Repug take that initiative lately?

Posted by D.Z. at April 12, 2009 2:14 PM

comment #17

SpinDozer says ...

'The Democrats had EIGHT YEARS to get ready for this, and they really have no plan to deal with the Republicans...'

Nice jibber jabber here, what exactly does this have to do with the Power of Nightmares? Secondly, are we to understand that following the stolen election of 2001, the Democrats should have initiated planning for the Presidency of Barack Obama and, nearly as important, how to deal with the Republicans as "an angry, stripped-down minority"?

Really?

Here's a bulletin for you, the Republicans are always angry. Thankfully, you don't post very often, cos when you do, it's piffle. Thanks for the warning that the dickheads are gonna take over one of the houses, we'll let you know when we're concerned.

Posted by SpinDozer at April 12, 2009 4:15 PM

comment #18

mccool says ...

Forget about republicans for a second. Are some of you here actual democrat nutters who believe they will lead us into the promised land? Are you honestly contending that the current crop of dems actually have your best interests in mind and are moving this country in the right direction?

Posted by mccool at April 12, 2009 6:12 PM

comment #19

SpinDozer says ...

'Are some of you here actual democrat nutters who believe they will lead us into the promised land?'

'Are you honestly contending that the current crop of dems actually have your best interests in mind and are moving this country in the right direction?'

Much more so than any viable political party.

Posted by SpinDozer at April 12, 2009 7:20 PM

comment #20

MovieBob says ...

"You don't seem to get that that party's akin to the Dems after '68, not '02. For the GOP to win, it's got to actually reach out to the groups it's been screwing over for the last 20 years. And that's not going to happen, because that would mean pissing off the fundy base."

Yeah... here's the thing, man: Obama won by about three to four percentage points. All the GOP has to do to win a presidential election is get BACK about half of the demographic they lost the most of last time (white upper-middle-class college-educated women primarily from the upper-midwest, in case you're wondering.)

Meanwhile, Congressional elections are much more hazardous: Obama has succeeded in remaining an "above the fray" figure to an extent, which is how his numbers stay up despite how angry people are with Congress right now. Problem is, that's largely robbed the Democrats of being able to use HIS glow to their advantage: They're vulnerable as hell right now, and if the elections were today I'd wager they lose at least one house.

Posted by MovieBob at April 12, 2009 7:36 PM

comment #21

D.Z. says ...

Bob: "Yeah... here's the thing, man: Obama won by about three to four percentage points."

Actually, seven precent. You're confusing it with Bush's "win". But then your party rigged the system to take away the "popular" vote, so why do you care now? Oh, yeah, because of Franken and that New Yawkah, right.

"All the GOP has to do to win a presidential election is get BACK about half of the demographic they lost the most of last time (white upper-middle-class college-educated women primarily from the upper-midwest, in case you're wondering.)"

And how many women do you even have in the party? Snowe and Palin? The minute any of your candidates say they're pro-choice or even for fair wages, they get black-balled by the party machine. Hell, the only reason Bush got the nomination in 2000 was because he brought up the "horror" of McCain having a child with a black woman. Yeah, you totally have the finger on the pulse of middle-aged middle-class women.

"Obama has succeeded in remaining an "above the fray" figure to an extent, which is how his numbers stay up despite how angry people are with Congress right now. Problem is, that's largely robbed the Democrats of being able to use HIS glow to their advantage:"

Is that why more Americans identify themselves as Dems than Republicans? Or why they consider the banks and Bush to be bigger reasons for our non-economy than the Dems?

Posted by D.Z. at April 12, 2009 8:18 PM

comment #22

Mowkeka says ...

How dare you resurrect Joseph McCarthy...you...you...TALIBAN!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH...

Posted by Mowkeka at April 13, 2009 7:13 AM

comment #23

JohnnyM says ...

From the mouths of the tolerant and educated ones:
"I'd round you all up and have you shot"
"I wish you would just shut up and DIE"

Comedy gold

Posted by JohnnyM at April 13, 2009 7:52 AM

comment #24

Mowkeka says ...

"If this was 1949 and I was Chou en Lai, I'd round you all up and have you shot."

Why would you phrase it like that? Can you imagine the outrage from tolerant liberals like Jeffrey Wells, if Rush Limbaugh said, "If this was 1933 and I was Adolf Hitler..."

Posted by Mowkeka at April 13, 2009 8:21 AM

comment #25

MovieBob says ...

Um... DZ? You... realize I'm NOT a Republican, or even a "conservative" (whatever the hell that means now) right?

Overall, Obama is alright by me thus far. I don't adore the guy, but so far he's not quite as objectionable as Bush overall. All I've got is eyes and sense, and both are telling me that the Democrats are blowin' this "big chance" in several key areas.

Posted by MovieBob at April 13, 2009 2:21 PM

comment #26