Foaming Republicans -- A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

[Demeter]

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/06/06/con06220.html

by Larry Beinhart

Today’s Republican Party is a stool that rests on three legs of fear: fear of foreigners, fear of dark people and fear of sex. The issues that touch on these fears are usually called hot button issues. But a better term is ‘foam at the mouth’ issues. Because they make Republicans foam at the mouth. As does any person or any idea that challenges that foaming.

Foaming is now most visible around the “immigration” issue. The “immigration” issue is not about immigration. It’s about Mexicans, those dark foreigners. There are no Minute Men, or Second Men or Hour Men for that matter, out to patrol the frozen wastes from the Straits of San Juan de la Fuca to the St. Lawrence Seaway. There are no foamers screaming for the Navy to get out on Lake Superior and shoot those Canadian canoes out of the water before the illegals reach Minnesota and take up residence in Lake Woebegone.

The reality is that the illegal immigration may be a problem, but it’s not a big problem. Their impact on health care, for example, is utterly trivial compared to our real health care problems. Their impact on wages is irrelevant compared to congress’s refusal to raise the minimum wage. Their impact on jobs is minor compared to the wide variety of ills that affect the American job market; globalization, the growth of corporate power, America’s disinvestment in infrastructure, the weakening of unions and the misplaced economics policies of the government (if you take at face value the claim that they are designed to stimulate the economy and create jobs).

When Republicans are in full foam at the mouth mode it does no good to discuss reality with them. That only makes them foam more. Rightly so, because reality is their enemy.
George Bush usually knows this. He normally, and constantly, pushes the hot buttons that produce the foam. But with the immigrant issue there are multiple constituencies. Number one is the party professionals, the guys who track demographics and voting blocs, who believe the Latin vote can be peeled away from the Democrats. They’ve been telling Bush he needs to appear pro immigrant. Many of his backers in various business groups, especially agribusiness, want cheap, cheaper, cheapest labor. As does anyone rich enough to employ domestic help.






Larry Beinhart is the author of Wag the Dog, The Librarian, and Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin. All available at nationbooks.org. He can be reached at [e-mail].

[Demeter]

1. The Part About Sex IS Precocious, Too

"Foamers routinely deny their fear of foreigners, dark people and sex. That’s why they love code words so. It allows them to pretend that they are doing what they do for high moral reasons. It allows them to pretend, not just to others, but to themselves as well.

That’s why anti-abortion fastened onto the name ‘right to life’ and they are so hysterical that what they are doing is ‘protecting the unborn.’ All realistic studies show that good, honest sex education is the way to cut down on abortion. But sex education makes foamers foam that teaching sex will lead to sex. Which is what they really fear. They don’t want to end pregnancy and disease. Pregnancy and disease are desirable as enforcers that will protect us from people having sex.
If there is any doubt, notice that abortion foes are now becoming foes of birth control. Because it leads to sex for pleasure.

If we are going to change politics in this country we need to understand foaming at the mouth. Sometimes defuse it, sometimes harness it, even sometimes use it.

In the meantime, it’s a pleasure to watch the Republicans lose control over their own foamers, and watch them turn on each other, the white stuff bubbling all around their mouths."

The whole article is great!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. I've got The Librarian and Fog Facts and the shelf right beside me

and I recommend them both. :)

[OneBlueSky]

3. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" . . .

this famous FDR quote might just be the most appropriate campaign slogan for Democrats in the coming elections . . .

"Vote For Courage Over Fear -- Vote Democratic"

[Democrats_win]

4. These aren't the Republicans of "Our Town" instead "Cape Town" apartheid.

(The fictitious town of "Our Town" in NH was over 80% Republican in 1901.)