Joseph Palermo, HuffPo: The Republican National Convention: Where Social Darwinism Meets Theocracy

[highplainsdem]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/rnc-romney-ryan_b_1830782.html

At the 1988 Republican National Convention, Vice President George H.W. Bush talked about a "kinder and gentler" America. Four years later Patrick Buchanan scared the hell out of the country by declaring a "culture war." In 2000 George W. Bush gave us "compassionate conservatism." The Bush stratagems were cunning responses to focus groups and public opinion polls that show beating up on the poor and the weakest among us can make people feel uncomfortable. In 2012 we can expect more culture war rhetoric, but it will be clouded by the soothing sounds of reasonableness and moderation.

The trick thus far for the Romney-Ryan ticket has been to pretend to want to "save" Medicare even while putting forth Ryan's "voucher" plan that would end Medicare, not only "as we know it," but end Medicare period. The lies and distortions about their schemes for privatizing Medicare (which have been swirling around Republican circles for decades) are the 2012 election's equivalent of "kinder and gentler" and "compassionate conservatism": empty slogans designed to beguile voters.

What we'll hear all week at the RNC are expressions of an ideological witch's brew, a fusion of Ayn Rand's Social Darwinism with the Reverend Jerry Falwell's vision of an American Theocracy. Rand glorified sociopaths. Falwell believed the Bible foretold a nuclear Armageddon. They've got no choice but to pander to their Christian evangelical base as well as to their corporate overlords; a bone goes to Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council while a juicier chunk of meat will go to the Koch brothers.

The Romney-Ryan Republicans are giving us Rand's Social Darwinist economic prescriptions, which hold that if an individual lacks the wherewithal to thrive in a "free" capitalist society that person deserves to die in a gutter somewhere, merged with Falwell's social diktats banning abortion (even in cases of rape and incest), gay bashing, a militarized foreign policy, and a continuation of the "War on Drugs."

-snip-

Palermo points out that this is Social Darwinism without Randian libertarianism, religious strictures without compassion -- "the worst of both ideologies...secular yet religious, amoral yet moralizing."

And this menu of ideas serves the ruling corporate elite perfectly.

So far Palermo's article has been shared on Facebook and tweeted only several hundred times.

Let's make that thousands. He's nailed Republican ideology here, and this should be read by as many people as possible.

[longship]

1. Nice post, esp. Your summarization.

Always appreciated by us low BW DUers.

R&

I have been beating the Repukes as social Darwinists drum for some time. It is nice to see others have seen the same.