Subject: A Republican’s Appeal to His Own Party…’STOP it Already!’

[katanalori]

Subject: A Republican’s Appeal to His Own Party…’STOP it Already!’

August 6, 2009

Republican Autoerotic Asphyxiation

By Allan Goldstein

One glance at the birthers and the town hall screamers tells you all you need to know. You don’t even need to see it, you can hear it in their strangled cries. The Republican party is a junkie, addicted to hate.“The base is on fire!” the Republican spokeszombies shout, spittle flaking their bloodless lips. ‘We’re back!” they spew, “bigger and better than ever!”Hate is a rush, hate is a drug. When all your plans and dreams have gone to hell, when everything you stand for has been repudiated, when the people have abandoned you and it feels like God himself has forsaken you, hate will give you a reason to live.

The problem with hate is that, like any drug, you develop a tolerance to it. Last year a Republican mob could get into ecstasies of joy by chanting the lie “Obama is a Muslim!” That worked for a while, but then they had to up the dose. “Obama is a socialist!” was good for a nice hate buzz, but it got old in a hurry. Now mere lies don’t cut it anymore. Now it takes blood libel to feed the monkey.“Obama is an illegal alien! Obama hates white people! Obama wants to slit granny’s throat! We hate him, Hate him, HATE HIM!”

This isn’t party politics, this is delirium tremens, and what comes next is rigor mortis.Liberals, moderates and even rational conservatives–those few who haven’t gone on the junk–hear this stuff and are terrified.I can’t blame them. It is scary. When you can’t have a town hall meeting without a shrieking, 140 decibel, bussed-in, paid-for mob doing everything in its malevolent power to scare the bejesus out of everyone and make democratic debate impossible, it’s easy to cut and run.

<snip>

The hatred is “energizing the base,” it’s “firing up the party,” it’s “bringing us back.”No, it’s not. It’s killing you. And it will keep killing you until you decide you don’t want Obama to fail more than you want America to succeed.For just a few moments of bitter joy, the Republican party is murdering itself. Those screaming crowds, the frightened Democrats, the rising ratings of right-wing radio ranters, Obama’s slipping poll numbers! It’s such a rush! We can’t stop, it feels too good!

But it’s not good, my conservative friends, it’s death. What you are feeling is the fatal bliss of autoerotic asphyxiation.“One glance at the birthers and the town hall screamers tells you all you need to know. You don’t even need to see it, you can hear it in their strangled cries. The Republican party is a junkie, addicted to hate.

“The base is on fire!” the Republican spokeszombies shout, spittle flaking their bloodless lips. ‘We’re back!” they spew, “bigger and better than ever!”

Hate is a rush, hate is a drug. When all your plans and dreams have gone to hell, when everything you stand for has been repudiated, when the people have abandoned you and it feels like God himself has forsaken you, hate will give you a reason to live.

<snip>

“Obama is an illegal alien! Obama hates white people! Obama wants to slit granny’s throat! We hate him, Hate him, HATE HIM!”

This isn’t party politics, this is delirium tremens, and what comes next is rigor mortis.

Liberals, moderates and even rational conservatives–those few who haven’t gone on the junk–hear this stuff and are terrified.

I can’t blame them. It is scary. When you can’t have a town hall meeting without a shrieking, 140 decibel, bussed-in, paid-for mob doing everything in its malevolent power to scare the bejesus out of everyone and make democratic debate impossible, it’s easy to cut and run. The fight-or-flight reflex kicks in and even the strong are tested.

Many fail. The Blue Dogs hear the furor and turn Yellow. “Let’s take August off and hope it all goes away. These issues are just too contentious.”

But “the issues” have nothing to do with it. Do we really think those mobs give a crap about the intricacies of health care reform? Has fear made us that stupid?

The birthers, the “just say no” crowd, the “Cash for Clunkers is a failure because it worked” idiots don’t really care about any of those things. All they want to do is hurt Obama because they hate Obama.

They hate Obama because he beat them. That inescapable fact is what’s driving the right insane.

All they care about is driving down Obama’s poll numbers. But why? Seriously, my Republican brethren, are you really so delusional that you think you can beat him in 2012? Obama is going to eat Mitt Romney and crap Bobby Jindal in three years. What’s the point? Don’t you have a country to help run, or would you rather run it into the ground?

The right thought it was America. It turns out America is bigger than that. Forty years ago the left labored under the same delusion.

Crazy-ass, bug-eyed, screaming imbeciles, drunk with hate and high on anger are always with us, on both fringes. The terrible failure of conservative leadership today is their refusal to repudiate those foaming fanatics in the harshest, clearest words possible.

Conservatism is a serious intellectual project. It has a long, proud history of standing foursquare against the rule of the mob. There is only one moral response a true conservative can have, when confronted with ignorance, hatred and lies, lies, lies about the duly elected President of the United States of America: “We renounce you, root and branch.”

But they don’t because it feels too good. The hatred is “energizing the base,” it’s “firing up the party,” it’s “bringing us back.”

No, it’s not. It’s killing you. And it will keep killing you until you decide you don’t want Obama to fail more than you want America to succeed.

For just a few moments of bitter joy, the Republican party is murdering itself. Those screaming crowds, the frightened Democrats, the rising ratings of right-wing radio ranters, Obama’s slipping poll numbers! It’s such a rush! We can’t stop, it feels too good!

But it’s not good, my conservative friends, it’s death. What you are feeling is the fatal bliss of autoerotic asphyxiation.

http://www.theopalinism.com/blog/2009/08/06/a-republica... /

[Kind of Blue]

1. Excellent post. Hilarious but oh, so true. n/t

[FSogol]

2. K&R. n/t

[Jester Messiah]

3. A Republican talking sense... I may faint. [nt]

[Kievan Rus]

4. There aren't many conservatives who think anymore

And the ones that do are being drowned out by the frothing-at-the-mouth wingnuts.

[Fuzz]

5. Don't recommend this! Wait, they won't listen anyway.

K & R

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. This is why so many former Republicans are repudiating their party

They are voting Democratic or third party. And the GOP is left with the crazies as their base--not an attractant to conservatives I know.

[ThoughtCriminal]

7. I think I remember this - Anti-Civil Rights in the 60's

The Klan was active, church bombings and lynchings, George Wallace becoming a national figure, lots of screaming. And then outrage and backlash isolated them.

Later, very few people were willing to admit they had ever been a part of it.

[MadMaddie]

8. My favorite line

<snip>
What you are feeling is the fatal bliss of autoerotic asphyxiation.
<snip>

[progressoid]

9. And it falls on deaf ears. n/t

[quiet.american]

10. Good stuff, but can't help but wonder about the curious comparison to "autoerotic asphyxiation."

Is that a conservative thing? :)