Discussion: What Conservatives Willfully Ignore When They Cry 'Tyranny'

If it had been Mohammed Tyriq who screamed “don’t touch my Koran” at a TSA airport checkpoint, Krauthammer would have described the outburst as “the anthem of the radical Islamist, the suicide bomber, the late-life anti-Semite, the midterm election sabotager.”

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You quickly see how serious these alleged Republican libertarians are about government non-involvement in business when you suggest that all state and federal subsidies, tax credits, and tax exemptions for businesses and corporations should be eliminated. Then all of a sudden you’ll hear them jabbering about “leveling the playing field” or other whiny justifications for special treatment.

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This is good article and contains one critical insight, that the cause of equality is regarded by conservatives as in and of itself tyrannical. But what we are seeing unfold politically now is the result of what conservatives have been saying for many decades, ie, they regard the Enlightenment and history since as one huge mistake. Read Allan Bloom’s “Closing of the American Mind” or Dnesh D’Souza’s “The End of Racism”, just for two examples of seminal tomes that have marked the intellectual pedigree of modern conservatism.

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You said it!

What bugs me more than just about anything else is the willful, deliberate, calculated, pandering stupidity the GOP consistently displays. Critical thinking is disparaged as is any amount of intelligence. And voters love that they do this. ((lays head on desk))

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“they regard the Enlightenment and history since as one huge mistake.”

One of the great hallmarks of the Unitarian church from its beginnings has been its wholehearted embrace of the Enlightenment. (Yep, as the son of a longtime UU minister I’d recognize the chalice anywhere…)

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Curiouser and curiouser. Because they looted the stores and broke things.

But given the system they were living in in Ferguson, really, what other response could they have. The commercial interests regardless of ownership have been protected by the local “government” much to the detriment of the citizenry. But people have this amazing ability to make intuitive leaps, whether they can articulate or even fully understand them or not doesn’t make those leaps of judgement any less valid, so they seem to have responded in an effort to maybe even things out a little in the system? How long has this ticket revenue stream scam been going on, how many black citizens have been jailed and denied their Constitutional rights to prop up the revenue stream that serves the capitalist masters?

How long has this ticketing thing been going on, anyway, since the former City Manager came aboard 8 years ago? Before that? Did he just refine and improve the collection system with the added feature of keeping the uppity blacks and other subgroups down on the farm?

How many black kids from Ferguson have been able to go to decent colleges, how many are unemployed and trapped in the town, how many are in prison or have been in prison, which makes them even more unemployable, and can they vote still or are felons banned from voting in MO?

What have their elected State and Congressional leaders been doing for their constituents, and have they taken a stand on this situation since some of the facts have leaked out?

Do Republicans think that this is an okay thing, this abuse of power, and have any of them spoken out about it one way or another? Has Sen. McCaskill commented on the situation? Here’s a chance for her to step up and show the people of her state her values and how she stands up for her people.

This situation is shocking, shocking and depressing, and infuriating, and embarassing. I’d like to know what Congress plans on doing to address this situation, a situation that is not unique in this country I’m sure. I’d like to hear Mitch McConnel’s thoughts and what he plans on doing about it, and Boehner too.

Instead of their disgusting meddling with the Iran negotiations, maybe they could turn their eyes to the people they are supposed to represent in our government, eh.

(Not holding breath)

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Republicans who use voter ID laws and vote dilution gerrymandering to disenfranchise minorities now are the descendants of those who supported the use of billy clubs and truncheons to do the same then. Then they disingenuously claim it was Democrats that were the descendants of the slave owners who blocked integration and voter franchise without adding those Democrats became Republicans with the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

…As if the Republicans who would not be seen anywhere near the Pettis bridge last weekend would have supported the peaceful demonstrators over the truncheon-wielders in 1965.

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I’d say this is a pretty good rebuttal to those who insist it was liberals alone who were blocking civil rights legislation (you’ve heard this I’m sure-- the southern Democrats, all of whom were white, and who left the party en mass to become Republicans when LBJ signed the Civil Rights bill is the basis for their argument. . . as if back then Democrat meant “liberal” like it generally does now). Of course this article will confuse anyone simple enough to claim “liberals are the true racists.”

The Wallace quotes about “tyranny” are so juicy. Apparently “freedom” means “freedom to oppress others” and little else.

Hah!

I’m glad I had put the coffee down when I read your post.

My computer would have been ruined.

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What does it take to get the media – even the alternative media, like TPM – to acknowledge the truth?
The truth being, today’s Republican Party, dating from Goldwater, Nixon and (especially) Ronald Reagan, is nothing more and nothing less than the reincarnation of the Dixiecrat Party? Which itself, was nothing more and nothing less than the putrefied corpse of the Old Confederacy? The Party, in short, not of Lincoln, but of this nation’s arch-enemy, the traitor Jefferson Davis???
In short, the Republicans are the Party of the South, the Party of the Old Confederacy, the Party of the Ku Klux Klan, the Party of racism and infantile self-interest. That’s it. That’s all they are. They are NOT “Republicans.” They are home-grown American traitors.

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What you are stating should be the introduction for many a seminar focus group for a great many youngsters, who have done well in the part dealing with interactions between and among people of different colours BUT could use some historical anchoring.

Interesting footnote to Wallace’s life is he recanted his racist views and asked black Americans to forgive him later in life (when he was no longer governor of Alabama). See this:

“NPR’s Debbie Elliott reports on George Wallace, the former Alabama Governor and Presidential candidate, who died yesterday in Montgomery at age 79. Wallace had Parkinson’s disease and a severe bacterial infection. During the 1960’s, he personified resistance to racial equality and the Civil Rights movement. During the 1972 Presidential campaign, he was paralyzed in an assassination attempt. In later life, Wallace recanted his racist views and asked for the forgiveness of black Americans.”

Masking racism in fancy philosophical analogies is the new GOP, with “states rights” the classic go-to default value or code.

How about willfully calling these teabagging racists conservatives, that’s a basic avoidance of reality. You either call the bigots, bigots, or you dance around the truth.

Today’s conservatives fancy themselves Prima Donnas, above the mundane acts of caring for others, helping or giving without incentive, being all inclusive and all equal. And especially, paying their fair share. Its easier and way more fun to just declare yourself superior and put all effort on others to find a way to rise up to your self-proclaimed eliteness.
Equality just is, it takes a supremacist or racist to create a difference. The white supremacist feels an inborn entitlement and thus believes that sharing is having something taken away from them. Its somehow magically their decision to make of whom is allowed to do what and how much they are doled out. Of course, that is based on race as well as arrogance.
Tyranny is not the feeling they have that they are somehow being put out, that is just their inner Royalty speaking out against Democracy.

Bu-bu-but the Civil War WAS about states’ rights – the right to own slaves!

And of course, the CSA’s Constitution states that any new territories would automatically be pro-slavery – so much for states’ rights.