Republicans: The Dark Story Behind Their “Unity”
Since most Americans think we need to get out of Iraq ASAP, you'd think this would be a no-brainer for Congress. Regardless of political party, it seems like political suicide to vote for staying in Iraq and digging ourselves deeper and deeper into Iraqmire.
You’ve gotta admire the Republicans’ unity. Whenever the Most Unpopular President Ever says “Jump!” his little congressional automatons keep saying “how high sir?!”
Is it unity, or is it more like a bunch of Brownshirts marching in lockstep?
A Republican Congressman from Maryland, Wayne Gilchrest, voted in favor of troop withdrawal. Gilchrest is a former Marine and a Vietnam veteran. But that didn’t stop some of the prominent chickenhawks in his district from lashing out at him at town hall meetings, calling him a coward and a traitor.
Bob Inglis (R—S. Carolina) also voted for the withdrawal timetable. Local GOP officials threatened him with a primary challenge.
Maybe these furious reactions were just spontaneous outpourings by concerned citizens. Or maybe they were the well-organized movements of a desperate Inner Party, clinging to its failed agenda. I suspect the latter.
Where does “unity” end and extortion begin? This sounds less like political activism and more like a bunch of Mafia goons springing into action when Big Vinnie orders a hit.
Labels: Bob Inglis, Iraq, troop withdrawal, Wayne Gilchrest
posted by Tom Harper @ 12:03 PM
12 Comments:
Bush to Gonzales: "you done good Abu. You got pinched, but everybody gets pinched sooner or later. You didn't give them nothin'. I'm prouda yuz."
Prague Twin: Good one. LOL.
It's gonna be really fun watching the Republicans go cannibal more and more as we move toward the next election. I'm sure a lot of them are already nervous about the public opinion polls.
J. Marquis: Going "cannibal," that's a good description. You're right, we'll be seeing a lot more of that in the next year and a half. No honor among thieves, as they say.
The Inner Party are the fundies who are controlling the purse strings. The November elections taught them nothing because they don't care about the will of the people, just the lobbyists. The blood of 3,352 lives, U.S. troops alone, has no meaning for them, either. Good Christians all.
Candace: Yup, good Christians they are. Big Business and the Religious Right have a stranglehold on the Republican party. Hopefully enough voters will realize this in 2008.
I find it amazing that big business and fundamentalist Christianity can peacefully co-exist, until I start thinking that fundamentalist Christianity has basically become a big business. And I believe it has. So what looks like a fragile union within the party is probably a stronger union than I have thought in the past.
Why doesn't the GOP want our troops out of Iraq? Well, of course it is probably in part because there is money to be made there, including eventual oil revenue from oil that isn't rightly ours but which we will claim. Maybe our troops can't fight Islam unless there are fighting the Islamists on their own turf, etc. ad nauseum.
But I'm cynical here... I think the GOP doesn't want to get the troops out of Iraq, because that way they know the war will still be going on when a Democrat likely takes the White House in 2008. The war will then belong to the Democrats. They will make a firm handoff, and say "Here you go! Good luck!"
If troops are pulled and there is even more carnage and chaos in Iraq than there is now, it will be viewed as the Democrats' fault. If the troops remain in Iraq, demands for them to come home will be viewed as having been ignored by the Democrats.
Unless the troops can start coming home prior to the 2008 election, Iraq becomes a huge liability for the Democratic party... unless... they start talking about a vision for a post-war Iraq. If there is no Democratic strategy for a post-war Iraq, their time of control in Washington, D.C. will be very short-lived, and I don't want to see the stage set for another eight years of GOP Hell from 2012 to 2020.
So let's talk about what we have to do about post-war Iraq, and let's also do whatever it takes within legal means to get Bush/Cheney out of office and to get the troops headed home before the 2008 elections. Otherwise, I think we're just setting the table for Jeb Bush in 2012.
Snave: I used to think that too, that this coalition of Big Business and the Religious Right was fragile and would come apart at the seams any minute. Unfortunately they have a lot of common ground. Ever since the 1930s there's been a lot of behind-the-scenes collaboration between "Christian" leaders, Big Business and rightwing extremists.
Corporations want to stay in Iraq for the profits; and lots of “Christians” are thrilled that we’re reliving the Crusades. Fetuses are sacred, but once you're born you need to get killed fighting for Christianity.
I think you're right, that the Republicans could have an advantage in ’08 if we’re still entrenched in Iraq. “Don’t change horses in the middle of a stream,” “the Republicans need to finish the war they started,” etc. But that could backfire. Lyndon Johnson lost in 1968 (he declined to run again, knowing he’d get trounced) because of being stuck in Vietnam; so that strategy can work both ways.
I can only hope that they'll go "cannibal" on each other, but I often think of the bumper sticker "Vote Republican: it's easier than thinking." They give you the answers so you don't have to question what you hear or read and don't have to think. Part of what I like about the Dems is the very thing that frustrates me at times: the trait of thinking and making one's own decisions and forming one's own views, which sometimes causes disunity due to slight (or big) disagreements. At any rate, I can only hope that the Dems can get their collective fecal matter in one unit of hosiery in time to take back the White House.
Mile High Pixie: I like that bumper sticker. I also like "Annoy a conservative: Think for yourself."
"get their collective fecal matter in one unit of hosiery" LOL. I gotta remember that one.
The GOOSE STEPPING REPUBLICANS are acting like the fascists that they are!... What else is new!
The big question is why are the DEMOCRATS so gutless that they are unable to overcome the unpopular continuing assaults on our civil rights and constitutional guarantees! Our constitutional rights are supposed to be regarded as sacred for our democracy to remain intact!
You would think that it would be a simple task to challenge the most unpopular president in our history and not cave in to his unpopular administration!
I feel betrayed by the democrats! They talk the talk but they do not walk the walk!
What a bunch of hypocrats!!
If the democrats do not nominate the person that to my mind is the only democrat that I can trust,DENNIS KUSINICH!! I will sit out this election!
You're right about the Democrats. Spineless, ball-less, unwilling to walk the walk. I don't know yet who I want in '08. I like Kucinich but I don't think he stands a chance of being elected. He isn't tall, suave or buff enough for the American electorate. And those are prerequisites for millions of dumb shallow voters out there, unfortunately.
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