« Get Well, Peter Gammons | Main | Let God Sort 'Em Out »
June 28, 2006
Distraction
In the Middle East, corrupt and incompetent governments in many Arab countries use demagoguery to distract their citizens from their own failures and crimes. It's much easier to demonize Israel and exploit emotions regarding the United States... and they do so in the weak and pathetic hope that their people will be so intense in their misdirected emotions that they'll fail to question the government's crackdown on individual rights and freedoms, assaults on a free press, violations of basic human rights, and forget to hold the government accountable for broad inequities in wealth, the existence of a permanent underclass at whose expense wealth is acquired by the few, and fundamental failures of leadership.
In the United States, the corrupt and incompetent government, and the Republican Party it represents, uses demagoguery to distract our citizens from their own failures and crimes. It's much easier to demonize gays and exploit emotions regarding the United States... and the Republicans do so in the weak and pathetic hope that Americans will be so intense in their misdirected emotions that they'll fail to question the Bush Administration's crackdown on individual rights and freedoms, assaults on a free press, violations of basic human rights, and forget to hold Republicans accountable for broad inequities in wealth, the existence of a permanent underclass at whose expense wealth is acquired by the few, and fundamental failures of Republican leadership.
Everything you ever need to know about the Republican Party, and conservatives in general, is this: when gasoline priced have increased by more than 50% in the last year or so, when our government stands accused by the world of human rights violations, when our government led us into a war on false pretenses, when jobs continue to disappear, concerns about the strength of our economy abound, when ethics scandals plague Republicans virtually continuously... when there are all sorts of issues that deeply impact the lives of the American people that need to be addressed... the Republicans are making it their highest priority to introduce Constitutional amendment on the symbolic but meaningless issues of gay marriage and flag burning.
They have nothing to offer you on any issue of substance, so they hope to distract you with demagoguery and symbolism. Kind of reminds you of a few other governments in history, doesn't it?
The fact is, this kind of demagoguery and cowardice is a disgrace to the very ethos of America. Those practicing it are shameful; only those who are feeble-minded enough to fall for it are more shameful. And if you honestly, truly believe that the most important issues this nation has to face right now are who can get married and what a few bedraggled hippies do with a flag, then yes... you are a feeble-minded disgrace to our nation and its ideals. Not only should we expect better of our leadership; we must expect better of ourselves. And anyone falling for the Republican agenda is failing us all.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.thechroniccurmudgeon.com/cgi-bin/mt/mtb.cgi/203
