Sunday, February 21, 2010

CPAC: CONSERVATIVE, PARANOID, AND CRAZY!

CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conferencee,or, more accurately, Conservative, Paranoid, And Crazy), just wound up its annual meeting of 10,000 deluded loud fanatics, egged on as usual by the most ignorant, pasranoid, dishonest, hateful, and intolerant members of today's far-right Republican Party. There was the usual bevy of mean-spirited speakers: Dick Cheney, the man who lied and manipulated us into war in Iraq for the benefit of his company Halliburton, smirking and smugly declaring Barack Obama to be a one-term President (to thunderous applause); his spiteful daughter Liz peddling her lies about Obama being soft on terrorism; the mindless and opportunistic Sarah Palin sucking up to fanatical teabaggers and urging them to support Republican candidates this fall; the obstructionist Jim DeMint, insanely insisting that "free markets and deregulation did not wreck our economy." And then there was master conspiracy theorist and dishonest Fox "News" commentator Glenn Beck, spinning his nonsense about "progressivism is a cancer in America" and that America is being gobbled up by socialism.

Michele Bachmann didn't disappoint, either, with her fictional lie about Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt "turning a manageable recession into the Great Depression," and obscure and unexplained references to "Obama's thought police and Obama's speech police." The insane invective this woman spews forth never ceases to amaze me. She loves to parade and portray herself as a solid, God-fearing Christian, yet she constantly comes up with irresponsible, distorted, and wildly exaggerated lies for her political rhetoric. What kind of utter nonsense did they teach you down there at Oral Roberts University, Bachmann? Or were you asleep, or daydreamingly gazing out the window the entire time your professors of history, economics, political science, and theology spoke? SPARE US, O CRAZY
WOMAN!

Numerous speakers, including House Minority "Leader" John Boehner, actively reached out to angry teabaggers in attendance, promising things will be different if only they will elect a Republican Congress this fall. But, of course, such claims are patent absurdity, as are the very foundation of arguments CPAC is based on.

For Republicans HATE government. Unless, of course, it is they who are in control of it. They constantly talk about reducing its size, but they never do. The federal government GREW in size under Presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II, all of whom proclaimed themselves to be bedrock conservatives. And Republicans only hate government when it attempts to regulate greedy big business interests or protect average citizens from corporate excesses. Their naive belief in free markets magically correcting themselves and turning a blind eye to the very real threat Wall Street and huge corporations pose to average, everyday, working and poor Americans who make up the overwhelming majority of our population is unforgivable. So, once in office, Republicans allow these business interests to further erode workers' standards of living, as well as reward them with huge tax breaks and subsidies - even lucrative, non-bid government contracts.And, as we have seen, the conservative Republicans now act as saboteurs, never shying away from an opportunity to stonewall or derail some woefully-needed pro-people initiatives like health care reform, economic stimulus, or environmental protection. All of which requires major investment by the federal government.

The teabagger and conservative Republican premise is a severely flawed one. To really get this country going again, what is needed is NOT "less" or "smaller" government, but a MORE EFFICIENT one. There is far too much duplicity and lack of inter-departmental cooperation to meet our needs. What is needed is NOT lower taxes, but FAIRER taxes. Our wealthiest elite pay far, FAR less in taxes than do those of comparable wealth in all other countries. Yet we have MUCH greater poverty than is found in other developed countries, and this is unjust and wholly unnecessary. What is needed is an INCREASE in top-scale income taxes and a REDUCTION in taxes for lower and middle incomes. Huge tax breaks for the wealthy have NOT resulted in largescale investment or the creation of millions of higher-paying jobs here, as had originally been promised. Instead, these tax breaks for the wealthy have only resulted in a lazy, unproductive, and speculative upper class of useless elites. Our country needs and deserves better than that! What is needed is NOT a belligerent and aggressive foreign policy which results in unnecessary and costly wars for plunder and profit, but diplomacy and interaction. In this country, government is NOT an oppressive or dictatorial force, nor will it ever be. It is THE PEOPLE, working together to solve problems and pool resources for the common good rather than greedily channeling every endeavor into something producing self-serving profit. To hate government, then, is to hate the people, and the very country itself. Such a premise is self-destructive and unhealthy, and benefits no one.


Teabaggers and conservative Republicans alike love to point fingers of blame for our nation's problems, but they never offer any pragmatic policy ideas or real solutions. Their aim is to bring the current government down so they can sweep into power and magically cure all our many ills. But this is not civilized governance. Rather, it is treasonous, self-centered subversion. As such, until teabaggers and conservative Republicans become part of a real solution, THEY THEMSELVES are the problem!

17 comments:

Jerry Critter said...

You say:
"Our wealthiest elite pay far, FAR less in taxes than do those of comparable wealth in all other countries."

Hell! They pay less than many in THIS country. The top 400 earners paid an average of 17% in taxes. These are people who earned over a BILLION (not a million)dollars.

TomCat said...

Jack, this is excellent, and I agree, but I prefer my spelling:

CPUKE
Crazy, Paranoid, Unrepentent, Klanish, Extreme

Lisa G. said...

Jack - righteous rant!

Yeah, we saw how well the 'free market' (unregulated I might add) corrected itself after the housing meltdown - by taking a socialist bailout from the government. These people are too stupid to inhabit the planet earth. Find a new one to destroy.

Michele Bachmann should be locked in a padded room drooling on herself, not a Rep in the US Congress. (She almost is already...) All she needs is a little push to put her over the edge...

Jack Jodell said...

Jerry Critter,
Thanks for stopping by and for making that point. It's downright criminal, isn't it? And then these people have the gall to complain about tax rates!
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TomCat,
"CPUKE" is far more accurate, descriptive, and comedic. Thanks for thinking outside the box and for sharing!
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Lisa G,
Yeah, it's maddening how this crowd can complain of socialism for any move that benefits average people but never screams about huge tax breaks for the rich or subsidies for oil companies. And I had a great bellylaugh reading your thoughts on Michele Bachmann---she's half nuts alright (if only they could find the second half!) :-)

Unknown said...

CPUKE?????? TC kills me!

Jack! A delight in rant! I agree also. These vex thee! Yeah, me too. Coulter was actually a flop. And folks are pissed that AP is now just reprinting Cheney lies and no other text... giving them some kind of validity? But Jack, I'm hopeful with you lending energy to it, Bachman the bat shit lady will be defeated in her bid for re-election. Great post professor. :-)

Mike said...

FDR turned a recession into a Great Depression? WOW, that's quite a re-writing of history. After something like that, it's amazing anyone - ANYONE - can take Bachmann seriously.

Some mighty fine invective in this post, Jack. Tip o' the hat from me.

Jack Jodell said...

Gwendolyn,
Thank you. Our corporatist media is failing miserably in calling out liars like Cheney and Bachmann. That's the end result of putting pretty face talking heads instead of real reporters in charge of presenting the news. As for that insane Bachmann, regrettably, she's in a fairly safe district, but you never know these days...
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Stimpson,
It's a sign of the times for far-right wingnuts like Bachmann to be out rewriting history and presenting their own fictional "facts." I am gratified by your tip of the hat: it tells me I'm on the right track. Thank you, sir.

Max's Dad said...

Sounds like Michele Bachmann turned a manageable mental illness into raving insanity to me. Keep the pressure on, Jack!

Oso said...

Jack,
Let's not forget Bachman on the House floor referred to the Hoot-Smalley Act (meaning Smoot-Hawley unless there's some obscure Hoot-Smalley Act hidden in history)as something FDR enacted which caused the depression, when outside of Bizarro World the rest of us know it was the child of two Repubs and signed into law by Hoover, FDR repealed it. Maybe to a teabagger that's splitting hairs.

Also let me add Great Rant man!

You nailed them to the wall with this.

Manifesto Joe said...

So, like, I work in mass media, and I never heard anything about Michele Bachmann's rewriting of economic history. I'm not a historian, but I recall that the Smoot-Hawley tariff was passed with Hoover's approving signature by a Republican Congress in 1930. And when FDR took office in March 1933, the U.S. unemployment rate was nearly 25%.

Journalists are supposed to correct such horseshit as Bachmann's , not just report it. Reporters are not just supposed to be stenographers with amnesia.

Commander Zaius said...

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC)

Problem is that they will take us all with them.

Jack Jodell said...

Max's Dad,
HAAAA! Love your turn of the phrase! You can count on my keeping the pressure on!
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Oso,
Not only was Smoot-Hawley passed 3 years before FDR became President, but by a solidly Republican Congress, too! Manifesto Joe has a great post over at his site on this very same thing today.

Bachmann truly is the unrivaled Queen of Bizarro World!
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Manifesto Joe,
Great post today, and you're entirely accurate in your claims. I backed you up with even greater detail in my comment there. Thanks for you dedication to truth and accuracy!
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Beach Bum,
Fabulous quote! I hope we can help "the gods" destroy them before we too are dragged down, though.

Holte Ender said...

Wonderful stuff Jack, what has to happen for them to be exposed for what they are, an impartial media would be a big help, but I don't see that happening, there a few voices in the wilderness, but way to few. Perhaps we should give all the journalists (for want of a better word) a history lesson before they can get their credentials.

TomCat said...

Thanks, Jack, and you're most welcome. When it comes to lambasting the right, my operative commandment is,'Thou shalt steal'.

Gwen, my deepest sympathy and sincerest apology over your demise. ;-)

Jack Jodell said...

Holte Ender,
I know what you mean. Surely Ed Murrow and Walter Cronkite are spinning in their graves! I'm so sick of these mindless pretty boy/pretty girl talking heads like John Roberts, Kiran Chetry, Robin Meade, John King, Joe Scarborough, Gretchen Carlson, and all the rest that I could puke!
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TomCat,
Way to go!

mud_rake said...

It was a gathering of misfits like that Island of Misfit Toys in Rudolph. It even had scary monsters!

Ah, the infamous 'conservative' ideology once again. Regression. Stuck in the mud.

It is so counter-intuitive to humankind and especially to our republic.

One might have expected then to die out like the dinosaur, but apparently, the gene pool is large and they breed.

mud_rake said...

Jack- Kathleen Parker's latest column is priceless: "The GOP's misguided hunt for heretics"

Link