A course of leeches

[arendt]

A Course of Leeches
by arendt
(with apologies to Black Adder)

Driving home tonight, I made the mistake of listening
to the libertarian Tom Ashbrook's "On Point" show. He
sucked me in with a line about how hard-right conservatives
were deserting Bush. But, after the first sentence from
one of his guest ideologues, it was clear that this was going
to be a conversation between rival Napoleons in the back
ward of a looney bin - only the looney bin was my
country.

I listened to Richard Vigurie begin by chastising Ashbrook
for calling him a member of the "hard-right". Of course,
Ashbrook caved in to that, and to every other ideologically
extreme statement made by his exclusively extreme right
panel. (The farthest to the "middle" was a pro-Bush pollster
from Texas who insisted that Vigurie and some harridan
from Phyllis Schafly's Eagle Forum were "Washington
elitsts" - to which the harridan replied that it was the first
time she had ever been called an elitist - ROTFLMAO!)

In excluding any left wing voice that might put these crazies
into context, Ashbrook continues to advance the meme that
the only valid part of the political spectrum in America is
between the far right and the theocratic right. (And this is
NPR.) I mean, if Richard Vigurie isn't a hard right rabble-rouser,
who is?

But, to the point, this part of the political spectrum reminds
me of nothing other than a bunch of 16th century quack
doctors who believed in bleeding and leeches; and if that
didn't work, more bleeding and another course of leeches.
It is a very profitable enterprise for the quacks; but a very
debilitating experience for their victims. The extreme right wing
has been fattening on bleeding America for twenty years, and
the patient keeps getting sicker.

Just today we had another Robin Hood in reverse tax break for
the rich/service cut for everyone else. And, the farther right the
court system is pushed by Federalist Society appointees, the more
these people scream about "activist judges". Of course, the illegal
selection of W in 2000 is never mentioned.

These people are medieval. Their retarded and inconsistent logic
is medieval. Their remedies are medieval. Their murderous intolerance,
tribal hatreds, and superstitious ignorance are medieval. Their worldview
is so out of touch with a world full of nuclear weapons, genetic engineering,
and instantaneous communication, that it can only exist in the media bubble
of total unreality.

Richard Vigurie is a rich man because of his cynical exploitation of the
fears of the medieval mob he feeds on and culitvates. The Eagle Forum
is full of highly educated women who hypocritically encourage women
to re-enslave themselves. Tom Ashbrook is a gutless libertarian who
is well-paid for selling out his adolescent Randian convictions.

Someone should give the lot of them a course of leeches and see
how they like it. Or, would the leeches refuse on the grounds of cannibalism?

[arendt]

1. So, posting this at the start of last nights Daily Show sure was dumb...

not one response.

Nobody finds Tom Ashbrook to be worth dissing?

arendt