Listen to the chants; they happen at almost every Republican rally. I’m not talking about, “Drill Baby Drill” (which has more double entendre possibilities than could even be explored in just a few short pages). I’m talking about the groundswell of a chant, the one that starts after some supposedly patriotic statement has been made by some supposedly patriotic individual (my apologies to the REAL Republican patriots out there, you know who you are). It will begin innocently by one individual and spread throughout the crowd like fire in a a pure oxygen atmosphere. It is that “USA” chant, and what may have once been a source of pride, is sounding more like a mandatory rallying cry at a local Bund meeting, or heavens help us; a full scale replica of the 1932 Nuremberg Rallies. You can hear it in that distinction if you listen carefully from another room and hear it over and over again; in much the same cadence that those chants from Nuremberg echoed through the air. You don’t even have to see the images played in front of you, you can see them in your mind.
That was my experience while listening to the Republican Convention when I was in my office writing. Those chants would rise up, and suddenly the world would turn black and white, and Leni Riefenstahl would be swooping down all over the arena trying to get the best shot possible, and if it wasn’t just perfect enough…we’d do it again. If you know “Triumph of the Will”, director Riefenstahl’s magnificent opening scene is something to behold. The movie starts out slowly, as Hitler descends from the heavens on an airplane to convene a rally of the newly-elected Nazi Party in Nuremberg. The thousands upon thousands of people chanting “Heil!” throughout is an experience you never forget. The nighttime rallies with huge cauldrons of flame and masses of people carrying torches are indelible images, and iconic ones of Nazi Germany. This was not just a movie…it was a DOCUMENT, like so much of what the Nazis made because they were certain the Third Reich would last 1000 years.
Eventually, I had to capitulate and watch some of the Convention. Of course I just HAD to see Noun-Verb 9/11 Giuliani (can we get him his own Palin name from that Internet Palin Baby Name generator?). There he was, his comb-over long gone (along with his second wife and whatever relationship he had with his kids), standing in front of a giant view of NYC from the Jersey side on a huge screen behind him…with the two Towers prominently missing. As he slowly started to work up the crowd, the chant kept coming, and coming…and I looked at the faces at the people, and they were exactly the same frozen faces of adulation of over 70 years before. All that was missing were the torches and the cauldrons, but I don’t think Minneapolis Fire Codes would have permitted that. He was soaking up the chants of “USA! USA! USA!” in the same rhythmic cadence that the people of Germany threw at their leaders 76 years ago.
What was readily apparent at that last Republican Convention was that the old political party was DOA. It was replaced with a group of Neoconservatives and Evangelicals who plan on carrying out a very frightening agenda: nothing less than the total domination of a good part of the planet, all under the guise of “freedom under God”, for lack of a better term. Two ideologies for the price of one. One side gets to have their cronies and supportive corporations get rich; the othr gets to save the souls of the sinners as we sweep across the globe in glorious triumph bringing the light of civilization with us. Or perhaps the torch and cauldron too.
In the past few days we have had monumental events happen in the United States: a major hurricane that has decimated a great deal of Texas; two days where the stock market dropped a total of 945 points (or roughly 9% of its total volume), one major Financial Institution went belly-up, another was bought by Bank of America, and now the Feds are bailing out AIG by giving them a loan in return for an 80% stake in the company. Congratulations! You now own part of AIG! (I wonder if we get to see a dividend or get a discount?) Governor Moosebrain and her McCain lackey’s are trying to stop an investigation which she earlier agreed to support with her openly cooperating, bringing attention to a matter which should have been trivial…at least on the surface. When you get a cadre of eager attorneys sent up the the frozen North to work on what appeared to be a small, local affair…that means there’s more to what’s going on up there than is even on the blogs, let alone the MSM. Like the break in to a certain psychiatrists office, the firing of a beloved State Official could be the tip of an iceberg of corruption that would keep Polar Bears away; they’d rather take their chances with global warming and the North Atlantic than go near this one. McCain is reeling backward on the road, in his speeches, and it’s starting to show in the polls.
While it certainly looks as if the light of day is finally beginning to shine through the fog of falsehoods and outright lies, don’t count these people out yet. It’s not just the potential for voter fraud which is a danger to the Republic, it’s the voters themselves. WE are the danger to the Republic. Sooner or later this race is going to come down to some dirty politics and sheer stupidity, all of which the American Public will eat up heartily like Aunt Mary’s Irish Stew. Americans love their politics with a certain amount of dirt and tainted information, and those who don’t usually will not be heard because their voices are lost in the cries of “USA!” in a rally somewhere. Dissent is not permitted. Do not question what is being put in front of you, be it Republican or Democrat. Do not ask any more questions than you have to. Accept the answers as the truth, and go about your business. Move along, nothing to see here…
Americans cannot, and will not, think out of the political box. If we did, there sure as hell would be more than two major Political Parties in the United States. If we thought outside of the box, we would have qustioned George W Bush’s service record more closely and ask him just what he was doing for a few weeks when he was AWOL. If we thought outside the box, we would have tried to put the brakes on the Iraq War and pressure our Representatives and Senators to get concrete, indisputabe evidence that should be presented OPENLY infront of the American People. If we thought outside the box we would not have taken impeachment immediately off the table when the Dems came into power; we would have had enough evidence to put both the President and Vice President through the impeachment process, remove them from office, and charge them with war crimes.
The problem is, we like to compartmentalize everything and place it into little boxes that we cannot get out of. We have created our own prison, and we are jailer and inmate at the same time. We have the key to free ourselves, we just don’t use it. The true danger to the Republic is not one man, or political party…it is US, the American Voter who would rather do what they are told and believe whatever you are told in whatever box you have placed yourself in. The biggest danger to the Republic is the American Citizen.
So while the Neocons go off and try to force democracy and freedom and our version of God down someone’s threat as we hold a gun to their head and tell them to accept it like some modern day Spanish Inquisition, we must remember this.
Freedom is not given at the point of a gun, nor is it “allowed” by Government. It is the birthright of everyone on this world. Freedom to BE who and what you are, and the RIGHT to carry that journey with no interference from anyone with no harm to anyone.
Our Founders knew this to be true. Our Constitution GUARANTEES the Freedom of the Journey that I just described. It is up to the individual to take that opportunity for “life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness”.
We just need to fulfill the hopes and dreams of our Founders and take this journey honestly, with no hesitation and no doubts. We have the means to achieve that in this Election and we should be faithful to the trust they put in us to maintain their idea of a “more perfect Union”. We cannot be a Union if we are Divided…Lincoln and the brave men in our costliest war proved that, and died for the cause.
Lincoln said it better than I ever could:
“The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. -Abraham Lincoln”
TOMORROW: the next to last part of the Republic Series. Both of these final pieces will deal exclusively with John McCain: “A Danger To The Republic Part IV: John McCain”
Intersections In Real Time 
Got Rudy’s Palin name: Molten Contra Palin….
still reading wtbl (will type back later)!
I have said elsewhere that the McCain/Palin Republicans are post-Post-Modern Republicans. Perhaps this is the definition of that ugly creature: a distillation of the things that the Republican Party has tried to force down the throats Americans: Christian-evangelical-style family values, a strong caretaker government in foreign lands and a hands-off-states-rights government in our own land, the right to bear arms against our neighbors, foreign and domestic, human or animal, War War War on drugs, porn, abortion, equality, free speech, privacy, consumers. The “I’ve got mine f-you” mentality. There really was a time when Republicans had a soul… Lincoln & Emancipation, Teddy Roosevelt & Conservation, Nixon & EPA, Eisenhower & Interstate Highways, Teddy Roosevelt & Anti-trust. And even though one could argue successfully against each of these things, where would our world be without them. BUT…Those Republicans are not the Republicans we have today — that soul has been sold. McCain threatened Emancipation recently in conversation with Whoopie Goldberg on The View… he did back off of his “strict interpretation of the original Founding Fathers” intent when she asked him if she needed to prepare to go back into slavery. Find me a Republican that thinks conservation, ecology or the EPA is a good idea and I will sell you a Bridge to Nowhere. Interstate Highways… well, they might still like those since they are the only ones who can afford to buy the gasoline to travel on them. And Anti-Trust? Bah! Take a good look at what is going on in almost any industry… if you can still find one that does business in the United States.
I guess the point of my rant here is that I find myself longing for the Good Old Days of Barry Goldwater… the borderline Libertarian (foreshadowing Ron Paul) with his back-room pressure on Nixon to resign or Goldwater would vote with the Dems to remove him. This is the kind of Republican you could count on. But those kinds of Republicans are gone and we are left with the simulacra of the simulacra… a parody of a parody of Republicans past… (sigh) Today, would Barry be Recoil Mush Palin?
Very good post. But I have to disagree with something you said up there “Sooner or later this race is going to come down to some dirty politics and sheer stupidity”
The “sooner or later” and “is going to” lines are in the wrong place, they don’t go with the rest of that sentence, it should read “this race has come down to dirty politics and sheer stupidity”.
Harassing and threatening voters, eliminating voters who are in foreclosure, eliminating soldiers because they are not at their U.S. addresses, sending out over a million fake ballots for absentee voters. Sounds like it’s pretty dirty already.
As for sheer stupidity,,,, Ummm, can you say “Sarah Palin”?
Other than that, excellent post. and now that I know about it, you are getting added to my blogroll too. See ya back in the “Flats”
Oh yeah,, Swineprincess, remember when Goldwater tried to sue The Beatles over their song “Come Together”? I was all for Barry back then because he was all over Nixon on several issues (the bombing of the dikes, the decision to go into Cambodia, etc.) but I did think that lawsuit was kinda silly.