Should Conservatives Go Straight to Armed Struggle?

Less than 24 hours from the last post, we have more claims about the Health Insurance Reform bill. This time the federal government is going to have access to your bank account (which they already have under the old Bush laws) and will tap your bank account to pay for Health reform. To be frank, this is a variation of my idea that federal hackers raid corporate acounts in tax havens to pay for the deficit--an idea I still support. A man openly carrying a gun with a sign "Death to Tyrants" appears near President Obama's Health Care townhall meeting. because the audience was well-behaved, our corporate media claimed the audience was hand-picked despite the Republicans the President called on. They liked Arlen Specter's townhall meeting where people screamed loudly, covering the gamut of issues such as how innocent lives will be lost when Guatanamo will be closed. Naturally, we had the office of a black Democrat in Georgia covered with swastikas--was this an advertisement for the perpetrator or a delirious accusation that now blacks are Nazis. It could go either way.

What's great is that Liberty College talking points on the health care reform bill were posted and made like they were really referring to a real text. Thank God, they point out that ACORN will get special discounts on their health care. ACORN as we all know rigged both the Presidential election and the Minnesota Senate race. One of the best statements came from a town hall in Missouri where one of the protestors claimed illegals would get heath care and take it back to their home country. Cool.

Part of the subtext of the manufactured outrage throughout the election period and through the pseudo issues raised from the day Obama became President is that the Left had all the fun in the 1960s and 1970s and the conservatives sat back and just took it. How does one explain the infatuation with Bill Ayres? Conservatives resent the fact that Bill Ayres didn't go to jail and has created a career as an educator. Currently, there are efforts under way to try and deprive him of his tenured position. Most amusing to me is the right's belief that the Rosetta Stone for understanding the Obama Administation is Saul Alinsky and his Rules for Radicals. Part of this is because the RNC did a large opposition research project on Hillary Clinton, who did her thesis on Saul Alinsky, so they can't let good material go to waste. Rules for Radicals is the new bible for World Net Daily and a virtual playbook to understand the Obama Administration. Rewind to the campaign when Alinsky's son was interviewed about this and he started laughing uncontrollably explaining that his father had died before Obama was even a teenager and he knew of no connection.

A right-wing website published an article last night that claimed the Left were not able to mount violent protests anymore and taunted to the Left as if the Right is finally going to even the score for what?--Vietnam, Watergate, Abortion, Drugs, Welfare, Iraq? If you look at the protesters at the townhall meetings they are basically aging Baby Boomers, some of whom may have moved from the left to the right as they aged. Others were those who felt they missed out on the 60s and 70s because "they lives responsibly"--the silent majority.

The new twist is really religious. Terry Randall of Operation Rescue vowed violence if the Health Care Bill paid for abortions. Of course, there is an explicit amendment prohibiting this. But Rev. Huckabee with his sweetest sincere voice urged all pro-lifers to work against the Healthcare Bill because it did fund abortion and that Obama was the most radical pro-abortion President we have ever had. (A note--the Left is a bit miffed because Obama keeps putting pro-lifers in the Administration on health care issues. I agree with this concern.) Huckabee went on to say that Obama is for partial-birth abortions, late-term abortions and, I expected to hear, post-birth abortions. At today's townhall meeting, a Republican started asking the President a question reciting his alleged positions in his earlier career--as if the man has not listened at all for the past several months.

I received an e-mail basically declaring war on the govermment, "which has turned socialist"--certainly one of the most amazing transformations in world history, and calling for the people to take the government back from the current Administration. This is a common theme these days about conservatives wanting "their country back." Josh Marshall at www.talkingpointsmemo.com had snarky comeback,"Can't you wait your turn?"

But I think it comes from a number of reactions to both demographic and ideological changes in the country. Conservatives are very crestfallen that the Holy War against Islam has been --at least rhetorically--dismantled, even though the counter-terrorism programs have been beefed up. Few of us really undestood how George W. Bush really was the culimination of conservatives' dream and ideal of a born-again Christian , who was totally devoted to deregulation and to corporate interests and willing to launch an endless war against islamic terrorism. After the Cold War ended, conservatives felt a deep vaccuum in their lives, which became momentarily replaced by the events of 9-11. Recall Glenn Beck's glycerine tears about "how 9-11 brought us all together" and how we should all unite again on 9-12 this year. Conservatives feel now that they are the "dispossessed white people", a prominent theme of both white and Christian nationalists since the 1990s. Of course, the fact that white control all primary financial and political institutions in this country doesn't quite seem to count.

The Republican vote against Judge Sotomayor--a moderate despite conservatives' complaints--looks suicidal except that Republicans are cynically banking on white outrage to propel them back into being political players. But to stay in tune with this fanatical base, Republicans have to start creating structures to accomodate the insurrectionary rhetoric of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and other right wing radio hosts. The last I looked calling for insurrection was against federal law. I know Thomas Jefferson called for a revolution each generation but we never took that seriously. Sort of like Glenn Beck not acknowledging his hero Tom Paine was an atheist.

Demographically, the tide is going against conservatives and their strange religious brethren. So far, we have been asked to endorse torture because Obama opposed, asked to keep Quantanamo open because closing will send a sign of weakness, asked to oppose the auto bailout because the car industry should fail, oppose the stimulus package because it would increase federal intrusion into the affairs of the states, support the 10th Amendment Movement because it will block Washington's--read Obama's reach, block health care reform (after bills have already been passed and simply have to be reconciled)because of --fill in the blank-- and protest Obama's tax increases, although people like myself have gotten tax cuts.

In my view, the Republican Party needs to develop an armed wing. I suggest calling it the Revolutionary Army of Baby Jesus after the terrorist group in the Luis Bunuel movie with Fernando Rey. This would allow them to at least exert some control over the people carrying arms into townhall meetings. There is a surreal--is the right word for it--triumphalism of the Right these days--a Devil May Care type of vanguardism, which used to show up in the Marxist Left, when they argued the greater repression by Nixon would lead to a general revolt. There is a lot of this going around and will lead to deadly events. The white masses will rise up and save the Christian nation. If you don't think this isn't being fomented, just wait and see the reaction to the immigration reform legislation when the draft bills are posted. The Left keeps thinking this is a reflection of racism and the fact certain people can't get over a black man--albeit one descended from the Mayflower--is President. Also, that white are seeking to preserve their privileged positions in society and now feel threatened.

It's far more complex than that. The radical religious right believes America is degenerate and must be purged ofits sinful nature. For them, the United States was created as a Christian nation and to lead to the triumph of Christianity across the globe. The last, best hope for mankind must impose its will across the globe and at home. When the Republicans lost power in both Congress and the Presidency, there was big bucks at stake. The Bush Presidency created $500 billions worth of grants for contractors and non-profits, which shared similar goals. It's no mistake that even the security contracts went to followers of the radical religious right. This has been unhinged and all these people have become unhinged as a result. Elections do have consequences but the radical religious right will not countenance this. Because they are Christianists, not Christians; they are in for the politics and the power.

Those like myself who believed the din would die down after a few months; that the Republicans would have been chastened by their role in creating the worst economic situation since the Depression and structurally probably worse; that they would sober up to play a constructive role as the loyal opposition, were the ones who are deluded. The endless deep pockets of the corporate world can pay for the teabaggers, the birthers, the deathers and all the extremes for a prolonged period of time. The question is whether the morale and stamina of the people being mobilized last that long. Will defeat after defeat finally break their morale? After if it does, then will this really lead to a new generation of Tim McVeighs?