A nice flourish in language and a bit of personality in one's writing are ever present temptations. And for a craft which can be dry and tedious, a writer should on occasion be allowed a bit of self-indulgence.
The government shutdown by the Tea Party neo Confederates is an easy target for rhetorical excess and pretty turns of phrase. Why? The visual of old white political cosplayers dressed up like zombie George Washington and Thomas Jefferson is absurd to begin with. Thus, there is a temptation to treat the Tea Party Republicans with the disdain they have earned.
However, the ability of a tyrannical minority to derail the governance of the world's only superpower is serious business. The 4th Estate should rise to the occasion by exposing the madness of the Tea Party GOP, as opposed to sinking down into the political muck and mire--aided by sloppy language and false equivalences about empirical reality--which birthed Right-wing populism.
The Tea Party GOP's shutdown of the United States government has been described by various news outlets, pundits, and politicians as "political hostage taking", a "kamikaze" or "suicide" mission, and as an act undertaken by "political terrorists" wearing "suicide vests".
It is true that the Tea Party is obsessed with trying to delegitimize the United States government and the country's first black president with appeals to violence, secession, and a second civil war. The label of "political thugs" and "bullies" who are flirting with sedition is an accurate description of the Tea Party.
But, the appeals to the language of "political terrorism", "kamikazes", and "suicide vests" masks and hides more than it reveals.
Suicide bombing has historically been used by an occupied people who are fighting a long-term struggle against a dominant power in order to break the latter's will. Japanese kamikaze pilots (what is translated as "divine wind") during World War 2 were fighting what they saw as a noble and final effort to protect, in the spirit of their Samurai ancestors, their Emperor and country from American invasion and domination.
As detailed by the empirical work on the topic, those young men and women who don suicide vests are not sociopathic or mentally ill. They are rational, politically dedicated and highly disciplined. In many cases "suicide bombers" are willing to sacrifice themselves for a political cause to ensure that their families will be financially provided for, and they themselves elevated to the level of political heroes fighting a righteous liberation struggle.
The Tea Party GOP is none of those things. They are agents of the 1% who are doing the work of the corporateocracy. The Tea Party is funded by the Koch Brothers and is just one more example of how poor people and Right-wing populists have been duped by the rich into advancing a set of policies which hurt the Common Good.
Whatever one may think about political "terrorism" and suicide bombing as tactics, they are the weapons of weak. The Tea Party is an agent of the powerful and the rich, and an occupying force which is trying to dominate the American people and subvert the People's will.
When we call the Tea Party GOP suicide bombers or kamikazes their actions are given more respect than they deserve. The Tea Party is comprised of useful idiots who have found a way to derail the United States government. To call them anything else is to give a bunch of know-nothings more respect than they deserve.
28 comments:
They've overstepped their bounds this time. The Rulers are set to 'take a hit' if the US Govt defaults.
As I said yesterday:
The Hitler Lesson: "Once a Political Radical grasps the Levers of Power, they cannot be controlled via cash." The Corporate State seems to have learned that lesson in regards The Oval Office. But they appear to have overlooked it in The House. And now the chickens have come home to roost.
Excellent points. Do you read The Rude Pundit? (Lee Papa) He is describing this as an "attempted coup" on the part of the GOP.
I dunno ... "Suicide bomber" and "Kamikaze" are used as pejoratives in our culture (less so with kamikazes as they were used on military targets - but they were often very young men and if I recall correctly, our sailors dubbed them "idiot bombs") and both definitely have the connotation of being tactics used in a lost cause. I would argue that in our culture suicide bombers and kamikazes ARE seen as "useful idiots" (I think it's a common perception that only an idiot, or weak-minded person, could be talked into blowing themselves up for a cause).
Conversely we see suicidal sacrifice as honorable in defense (e.g. throwing oneself on the grenade, "Don't grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh [the needs of the few]." - Spock), but not in offense.
So I'm actually pretty A-OK with the Tea Party getting labelled this way.
I take it your done w/Net Flix? Make no mistake about it; The Koch Bros. are the leaders of the amurr'kin Taliban just less earnest. I would say 'they' going to hell on a bobsled pushed by lolo jones but we already here, getting closer to the climax of this ultra racist/caste narrative...
Climax? When? I think these are the opening acts.
I hear you. Colloquial use versus real meaning. Hasn't that gotten all of us into big trouble?
I need to check that site out. What did he specifically say?
Was it Mussolini who said that fascism is when there is a paper's width between the corporation and the government? Sound familiar?
"Fascism is when you cannot slide a cigarette paper between business and government." ;-)
Chauncey DeVega:
When you see Black people's interests being attacked at the local level AND a high amount of buy in from them in support of the machine............
* Detroit - pension works who made contributions will see pennies on the dollar of their retirement benefits
* Chicago - "Safe Passage Zones" along school routes that prove that while the protest signs say "Education Is The Gateway To Equality" the OPERATIONALIZATION of that plan falls short when the community is asked to do their part..............
Why is it that you don't use such words relating to terrorism and destruction?
Might it be because it would be necessarily inclusive of YOU?
If Federal employees and those who receive entitlements (I DID NOT say that employees are "dependents" ) are so quickly impacted by the operation of the machine in Washington - who's DEBT is "The safest in the world" - What happens when the VOLUME OF DEBT but not the antics of the GOP causes a loss of confidence in this fiat economy?
TELL ME DIRECTLY CHAUNCEY - Are YOU satisfied with the ORGANIC DEVELOPMENT that the Black community has received from its INVESTMENT IN POLITICS and POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM?
Old Polar Bear: Can I ask you a question?
Do you believe that the USA's action in Libya was a COUP?
Did it bother you as much as you seem to be bothered with the Republicans?
His headline Thursday was "The Tyranny of the Minority: We Are Living Through and Attempted Coup." He made an interesting connection with the NSA issue, saying that legal means, or at least not-illegal means, are not always right. All the GOP tactics: filibuster, obstruction, etc. are technically legal but their ultimate aim is to destroy the government. Friday he called it "The Reign of the Cracker Babies," playing on the fake "crack baby" panic of several years ago.
He is a funny guy, savage on the right wing, and very, very rude.
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/
Another one was:
"All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."
(don't have the original Italian)
Also, in one of the movie threads I mentioned Le Pacte des Loups. The Tea Party is like that beast that the rich guy kept in the cellar and raised to feed on the peasants. Unlike the movie, the beast is now turning on the establishment GPO.
Why is Obama acting like a baby and putting up barricades around free standing open air monuments? What the Tea Party wants is to get rid of Obama Care, which will be a disaster. The government is NOT the answer, it is the problem.
The Tea Party represents limited government while the liberals represent more government and desire a nanny state to care for them. I prefer to take care of myself and be responsible for myself.
Foreplay?
The Tea Party is for limited government as long as the GOP isn't in charge of it. When the GOP is in charge, new bureaucracies are created, tax cuts go to the richest with barely a bone to the sub-rich, deficits don't matter, wars can be started with no plan to fund them or end them, democracy is what they say it is. The Tea Party is only in favor of their own freedom. For women, minorities, the poor, not so much.
Your rant is so replete with Faux Propaganda Network talking points it seems futile to refute them one by one.
I 'll summarize: You have no eFing idea what the hell you're talking about. There, thats concise.
Koolaid drinkers like you are what the article is talking about. The "useful Idiots", heavy on the idiot part.
I speak to other commenters because "useful idiots'" are not swayed by facts and evidence. You are comfortable in your cognitive dissonance. Jorge is a prime example of what we have to deal with. These people, left unchecked, will be the death of us and our pseudo-democracy (corporatetocracy)
I do hope that these cretinous morons die an agonizing death from the effects of the beliefs they hold. May we then be rid of their delusional and easily duped minds that make them ripe for the 1% to use them.
Goodness. People's exhibit number one about how Fox News and the Right-wing echo chamber are dangerous to a person's mental health.
Why don't we all pay the same tax rate rather the majority of taxes paid by 10% of the people. Handouts need to stop, it only perpetuates your need for government handouts. Does it make you proud to sit and collect welfare/food stamps. I hope not.
Fox News has nothing to do with my comment. Responsibillty for yourself obviously is not a concern of yours.
Chauncey, I am sure this quote drives you crazy. Stated 100 years ago and is applicable today. I believe this black man directed it to people like you:
"There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well."
From my perspective, I do also desire a less intrusive and less powerful federal government, but the idea is not so simplistic as 'the government is not the answer, it is the problem.'
The government is the answer, it is really the only answer. The government as the problem leaves only on recourse for resolution, which is revolution. Government as the answer leaves only another recourse as the solution, seizing control. That is what the Tea Party and their leaders have done with this action. They have demonstrated they really do have a large measure of control.
That is what they desire, not no government, but government which is responsible to their ideals for reality, yet these ideals are supposed to be open to debate and at the end of the day there must be a decision. Building a coalition is important, but so is listening to the experience of others. These Tea Party politicians don't seek to listen to the concerns of others, not that many politicians do.
holy moly, just read the first post on the Rude Pundit, that shit is funny!
It's Bush's Fault.
People's exhibit number two on how MSM, MSNBC, Left-wing echo chambers are dangerous to other persons' mental health. Liberalism is a Mental Disorder. Please give away all that you own to an Illegal Immigrant / Daesh who will be by to collect your things and cut your head off. "Useful Idiot" indeed you are.
Wow. Delusional much? Put the Kool-aid down. The only easily duped here is obviously those of you who think the Tea Party is the problem!?!?;pfft. It is all those such as yourself and those like you who use "identity politics" period that are delusional and a shame. Washington was the only one who understood this, parties only destroy and are a cover for those who don't wish their actions to be discovered. Anything else is just liars using it as cover for their own actions.
Really? You need to pull your heads out of your asses. Harry Reid has prevented most congressional bills (Bills that have passed the House with/without both parties support, over 280 of them piling up on his desk, and Filibuster isn't a GOP tactic moron, it's been part of the Senate rules for over 200 years. It has been used by all parties. Democrats had unfettered and complete control of government for 2 years under Odumby, yet accomplished almost nothing (except blaming Bush). Stay in politics guys, you all wouldn't make it in the real world, because none of you blaming, unintelligent, echo-chamber sycophants are capable of it.
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