This comes to us from the amazing Thom Hartmann.
What does it say in the bible?
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
The Republicans act like they are filled with Christian goodness, and love for their fellow Americans, but the first chance they get they sell their constituents out to their corporate benefactors, like the Koch brothers, without even a look back over their shoulder at those whose lives have been destroyed by their avarice and stunning lack of conscience.
It could really not be any more clear folks. If you are for the American people vote Democratic, and if you are for supporting the corporations ability to make more money and to ship American jobs overseas than vote Republican.
And for God's sake you idiots forget the social issues. That is just the bait they use to lure the ignorant and uneducated into their clutches. The Republican politicians probably care less about gay marriage, abortion, and religion than does the man on the moon. But they know it is what brings millions of people to the polls and gets them to vote against their best interests.
As long as it works, why would they stop?
Ack! Gryph, you're doing it too:
ReplyDelete"If you are for the American people vote Democrat,"...
It's "vote Democratic,"
It must be true about hearing something so many times it becomes the norm, and they are WINNING.
~physicsmom
Good solid post!
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right when you say the Republicans use bait-and-switch techniques; luring low information and fundamentalists in with hyped-up values issues and moving quickly, once in office, to get to the real goals of benefiting their patrons and themselves.
Why hasn't Congress down away with its automatic pay increases? Why haven't they given up their Cadillac health care plans? Why haven't they cut subsidies to banks and gentlemen farmers (of which there are many in Congress - those who own country land and reap subsidy payments).
Thank you for posting that piece; it was great. As a former Republican, I saw the light early in the first term of Bush, the lesser.
ReplyDeleteThom is spot on - the party of Eisenhower and Nixon has indeed been hijacked by cult leaders.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with conservative ideology - I think there is a room for all ideas but what I abhor is the substitution of paranoia, fear and outright lies for the truth that is rampant on the Right these days.
It's about time Americans woke up to who is really screwing the middle class. Hopefully this is the turning of the tide.
I'm a conservative too and I find myself following "progressive" websites and blogs. I just feel more at home here.
ReplyDeleteLove Thom Hartmann, such a voice of reason, sanity and caring.
ReplyDeleteAgree!
ReplyDeleteI am a registered Republican. Have been since 1977. I voted for St. Ronnie twice (sorry but I did).
Today's republican party is nowhere near the republican party I joined more than thirty years ago.
It's become more and more obvious to me that my party has been hijacked. As a result, I find myself leaning more and more to the "left" even though my views really haven't changed over the years.
But then, if you're a Fascist, everyone else is a "leftist".
I hope we can see a real swing to the progressive side during the next election. If not, I fear it might be too late to make a course correction. With 'citizens united', and the unbundling of protections for the middle class, we may be so screwed that we'll be a second class nation, on a enviromentally doomed planet.
ReplyDeleteSo, it was not all in my imagination. When I first was allowed to vote in the 80s - after becoming a US citizen - I voted republican, because that party was what I felt closest to my ideals - supporting the working masses, supporting teachers (I was one in a European country), supporting social issues.
ReplyDeleteI don't know when exactly I changed, but DEFINITELY during/after Bush1. For the first couple of elections there, I got really confused and was questioning my sanity, but Thom Hartman just convinced me that I was not imagining it.
Same now with the Teabaggers. At first, I agreed with them and their agenda, but very soon I saw through it and realized that it was NOT a 'grassroots' type of organization, but that it was actually bankrolled by the likes of the Koch brothers, Murdoch, Ailes, etc.
Anon @ 2:15:
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the Dems have STILL not fixed our voting system, so I see that in the near future, our votes will be manipulated as they were manipulated since at least 2000. I do not see that people are still as vigilant/upset about our voting system with no prove of how we voted like they used to be under gwb [sic]. Somehow, it seems like people just assumed that with President Obama, he would take care of the obvious, and then people simply settled down.
BUT DIEBOLT IS STILL THERE - and still corrupt as ever!
Sarah Jones @ Politicususa
ReplyDeletehad a great article the other day on the states grabbing power. One elected individual - ruling over the state. But hell - isn't that what the t-bags wanted? State rights - ONE elected official making decisions, no debate, no discussion or honesty, no transparency.....
Reminds me of the medieval times with tales about British Kings, Dukes, etc. Royalty changed and the peasants remained only by the grace of the new master.
http://www.politicususa.com/en/rachel-maddow-michigan
and Welcome Anon @ 1:54
off topic: Gryphen did you notice that one of those soldiers who is getting courtmartialled for posing with a dead Afghani civilian was from Wasilla? Last name Morlock.
ReplyDelete"And for God's sake you idiots forget the social issues. . . . [T]hey know it is what brings millions of people to the polls and gets them to vote against their best interests."
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gryphen. If we say it enough, maybe some voters will wake up.
Anon @2:15... Well said!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to all you honest, moderate Republicans! I have always lived by the concept that I want all voting to be the most difficult choices we make in life. I want all the selected candidates to be so compassionate, visionary and competent to lead that every ballot is like a tough multiple-choice test. Voting is the most important thing we do in our democracy, but the consistent use of The Southern Strategy has turned The Republican Party into a gang of greedy thugs, or as Bill Maher calls them, escapees from the asylum.
ReplyDeleteAfter Wisconsin, you would not believe the republicans on the chat boards. It was all spilling out, like vomit after a bad night out. They were saying stuff they don't even usually let slip out. One guy used the phrase "entitled middle class" which I felt was unbelievable. I wrote back, I'm glad you admitted it in the open so everyone can see what your party's really about.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans have shifted from attacking what they call the liberal elite (wealthy progressives) to attacking what they've named the entitled middle class (teachers, electricians, plumbers, postal workers, firefighters, all unionists, etc). Amazing, eh?
They think they smell blood in the water. But what I think they smell is their decaying left leg. The gangrene is the fascist element of the GOP, and that rot will spread to the rest of the body soon enough.
I was thinking that day, maybe this is a good thing. Maybe this is what we needed, politically. It was a rare departure for Republicans from their "wither on the vine" strategy, which is what they use on everything else. This time, they took out a knife and stabbed Americans directly in the back, in broad daylight.
I'm thinking we need this with other causes, like the women's movement. Let them outlaw abortion outright, instead of making us go broke trying to defend it in 50 states. And when they do, women will wake up and mobilize, just as they are all around the world.
No one mobilizes here because of the boiled frog theory. A frog will jump out of boiling water, but if you place it in cold water and slowly increase the heat, it will be cooked to death. That's what they do to us, slowly turn up the heat. I'd prefer they set it to boil, like in Wisconsin.
I saw this earlier and it is oh so true.
ReplyDeleteSlowly but surely conservatives and Republicans with brains are realizing what the Nazicons are trying to do.
Hopefully there will be enough of them to realize that it is the quality of the candidate, not the party or the party's talking points that matter.
Mike has seen the light, now it remains to be seen if he can go into the booth and vote for the candidates and not just check the box for the party's slate.
But then, if you're a Fascist, everyone else is a "leftist".
ReplyDeleteWow, 2:11, you said a mouthful there!
I'm somewhere in between a conserative liberal and a liberal conservative, but I find that I'm repulsed by right-wing rhetoric.
Enay in E Mt, when teabaggers say they want small government, they mean really, really small.
ReplyDeleteLike, dictator small.
FloridaDem @4:37, fantastic post.
ReplyDeleteWell said!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading the 22 posts before me. Just a little "confession." I have been a true progressive for several years. But before that, and I am ashamed to admit it, I voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004. I was (and still am in my mind) pro life, & as the pro life philosophy is "life of the unborn over all but life of the Mother," I voted without question for "pro life" candidates, Democrat or Republican. However, I retired in 2008 and finally had time to devote to the study of politics and to observe the hypocrisy of many Republican politicians, especially Sarah Palin. The takeaways I want to leave from that experience is that 1)a lot of Republican candidates (and sadly some Dem candidates) find it politically expedient to say they are pro life, as it requires much less work and money to court the pro life vote than it does to court other types of voters. 2)Unfortunately, some prolife people would vote for the spawn of Satan, if said spawn professed to be pro life. Found that out when I pleaded with a local pro life leader not to endorse Palin in 2008. 3). President Obama is more pro life in his little finger, than Palin could ever be. Just wanted to share.
ReplyDeleteNixon wouldn't be allowed in today's Republican party. Neither would Regan or Eisenhower.
ReplyDeleteYou're an idiot. People work for corporations and own corporations. By pretending that the paradigm is 'people vs corporations', you are in effect saying 'people who do not work or invest vs people who have jobs and invest in the stock market.' Is that really what you are trying to set up, or do you not know what a corporation is? I think it's both- you're muddled and confused and want to lash out and the very things that provide you and me with jobs and investments, which is idiotic.
ReplyDelete