The Anatomy of Demonization

Someone named "MM" commented on my message to Senator John Thune regarding the Samuel Alito Supreme Court nomination.

He/she wrote: "Ohhh I feel that groundswell rising against Alito. I Am Scared. You dems really really scare me... Yeah, I'm scared. Scared that you idiots would ever have power again in this country."

My reply:

Oh, there was a groundswell, MM. Just because most democratic senators ignored the the thousands of emails and faxes that each one received, and the mainstream media completely ignored the story, doesn't mean it didn't happen. I saw it happening. If you don't believe it, there's nothing I can do about it.

Furthermore, MM, this is the United States! Please stop demonizing the political party/philosophy to which you do not belong. Those are the tactics of the Communist Chinese, North Koreans, Cubans and former Soviets, to name just a few. The fact that republicans do it now on a daily basis speaks volumes about the sort of people who have taken over that party in the last two and a half decades. Your arrogance is astounding. You actually seem to believe that your party can do no wrong, and the other party can do no right (which is laughable since the neocons have done nothing right since Bush stole office). "Lefties" and "liberals" are no threat to democracy or freedom. If anything, they want too many "liberal" freedoms that conservatives find reprehensible (one or two of which I am not too thrilled with myself, but that's what democracy and compromise are all about, MM; in the U.S., no one is allowed to have it all his or her own way). At least those "leftist liberals" are in favor of excessive freedom, whereas you and other conservatives are not. You clearly appear to be in favor of forcing everyone to live life according to an ideology that is a weird cross between John Wayne movies and "Leave It to Beaver," even if it means passing restrictive laws to get us all to live that way. The problem is that you cannot legislate culture or religion, except in the Middle East. Those people excel at legislating culture and religion. By all means, let's be more like them.

Democracy dies when only one party holds the reins of power and demonizes (lies about) all opposition (more on this here).

To the rest of my readers (who number in the ones, I'm sure), I say that we cannot argue with modern republican neocons. They don't want to hear any opinion but their own. We can only watch in resignation as they finally get a chance to impose their long-cherished fantasies (many of them criminal) on the world and then watch as those fantasies fall apart around them (or rather around all of us); and that's what is now happening. Every one of Bush's delusional fantasies is falling apart. When it's all over with, we will get to say, "Told you so," as we reassume the reins of power and clean up their world-class messes (only I think it's too late to fix their messes in many cases). Many of us non-rocket scientists predicted these negative outcomes several years ago, including my newest hero, Paul Craig Roberts, who was President Reagan's Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and later wrote for the conservative Wall Street Journal and was also a contributing editor at the ultra-conservative National Review. You may read many of his reviews at the preceding link and the above link. He, too, is sure that putting Alito on the Supreme Court is a terrible mistake (in fact, he sees Bush himself as an abomination). However, he says it much better than I do. See for yourself. Why don't you demonize Roberts as a "leftie" too, MM? Oh, I know. You probably will, even though you would be totally off base.

Modern republicans don't like anyone who disagrees with even the smallest aspect of their republican neocon party line, not even other republicans. Such people cannot see anything but pure black and white. Even the slightest shade of "off-black" (aka "gray") is considered pure white to them and is demonization material. The fact that I am not a "leftie" would fall on deaf ears if I were to proclaim it to MM. For instance, I voted for Reagan in 1980 (although I quickly grew to hate him and am now somewhat embarrassed to admit that I voted for him). In 1992, to get rid of Evil Bush Number One, I voted for Bill Clinton. I quickly lost all respect for him because he became a sellout to corporate interests. I voted independent in 1996. I would have voted for McCain in 2000 (a mistake, I now realize), if he had gotten the nomination; however, Goober "Al Capone" Bush's puppet masters resorted to dirty tricks to defeat McCain. Instead, I voted independent again. I despise John Kerry because he is a complete Washington insider and corporate crony, but, thanks to idiotic democratic primary voters, he was the only alternative in 2004 to the truly evil Bush. I did not like Gore at all until this year, when he gave one of the most inspiring speeches that anyone has given in decades and forced me to reassess my earlier long-held opinion of him (come on, now, MM; break free from that North Korean philosophy of yours; click the link and listen to what the "opposition" party has to say; be an American). Finally, I would gladly consider voting for Chuck Hagel for president in the future, but NOT until the criminal republicans are a microscopic minority in congress.

In conclusion, I am an American who believes in freedom at all costs (NOT neo-conservatism at all costs nor politically correct liberalism at all costs), but that declaration would also fall on deaf ears wouldn't it? I am an independent and have been since I was old enough to know what politics are all about. If I was forced to choose against my will, though, I would say that I presently consider the democratic party to be the lesser of two evils, because I cannot help but see the self-righteous, self-centered arrogance and greed of the conservatives who have hijacked the republican party and falsely demonized their opposition. I desperately want a third party to gain enough traction to scare both the republicans and the democrats into becoming honest again.