The Bad Dad

I know there has been a lack of posts lately. There are a lot of new developments and I prefer to let them sink in for a while before blabbing some knee jerk reaction. I also have a lot of personal priorities that I have been dealing with lately. One of them is my role as a father. The right mix of stern take no crap and still maintaining a loving relationship with my children.
Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the growing authoritarian nature of the right. A prime example of this is this conversation between Keith Olberman and John Dean.
It occurred to me that the radical right is becoming the mean, unloving, brutal dad that most never want to have or ever want to be.
They condemn those who disagree or fight for the Constitution as treasonous. Just get out of my family!
Did the left ever call the right treasonous under Reagan during Iran Contra when they were selling arms to our enemy Iran? Did they roll out vitriol and hate when we were distracted for years from the peoples business with there obsession with a bj and whatever other minutiae one may want to add? Was the press treasonous for telling bad things about President Clinton and reporting every leak that flowed on an almost daily basis? We had a war and terrorism was happening then, but for the right it wasn't a big enough issue when you have a stain on a dress to talk about. No, the left did not use these tactics. It's the family approach for them. The it takes a village theory. Only the right attempts this mass jettison from society of all their opponents.
Many times on the talk show we would discuss how there apparently were a certain percentage of the population that would hang on to their hate and defeatist policies under any and all circumstances. They could never be brought to the goal of consensus or to consider new ideas. Even old ideas like maintaining the Constitution and balance of powers is poo pooed by the unrelenting authoritarians. They call everyone that disagrees with them Bush haters and say that their thoughts are just because they hate Bush. It has been pointed out multitudes of times that it is the policies that are hated but they won't listen. They call them America haters. They call them Saddam lovers, Al Quedas' best friend and on and on. Mind you this is what they call people in their own family, their fellow Americans. They're the bad dads that turn out children with all kinds of problems and issues. Usually either very angry or overly timid. They invoke more anger and hate. I use to read and comment on a right wing blog. I quit because that is what it was doing to me..making me angry and hateful. Not what I choose to be. Try it for a while and you will see what I mean. If they rule for much longer they won't have to kick me out of the family. I will find a new one. It's not where I want to be..or my country to be. I am proud to be a liberal. Especially when I look at the alternative.
I agree with some conservative principals and could compromise and come to a consensus on others. I understand the need for a strong resolute father but a brutal one destroys himself and his family.

The Days Of Fear And Guilt

The news has been ominous these last several days. The radical right continues to attack journalists as treasonous. At least some of the journalists.

... why are all of the Bush supporters celebrating the unauthorized leak to the Daily News of the FBI's arrests of alleged terrorists who were talking in Internet chat rooms about blowing up the Holland Tunnel ..?...One Bush follower after the next who has been furiously protesting the publication of leaks by the NYT and other newspapers -- almost all of whom has accused the NYT of treason, of providing aid and comfort to their Al Qaeda friends, etc. for reporting leaked classified information -- have written today about this leaked story. But all of them are ecstatic over this story, celebrating it as a great and heroic blow for the Bush administration and as proof that The Terrorists really are the Epic Threat they've been claiming. And almost none of them are protesting the unauthorized leak...Instead, they are celebrating it. The only discernible difference between the leaks of the NYT and this leak is that the NYT leaks (as well as those of USA Today and The Washington Post) resulted in political embarrassment for the President. Those leaks resulted in reports that the President was breaking the law when eavesdropping on American citizens, or creating secret, lawless gulags in Eastern Europe, or compiling massive data bases of all domestic calls placed and received by Americans with no oversight or Congressional authorization. None of those leaked stories depicted the President as a Hero or glorified the administration. They were thus attacked as treasonous by the President's followers.

The constitution and high standards be damned when it exposes the great decider. For exposing decider you are subject to guilt, guilt, guilt. It didn't make the poll numbers go up though. Of course we know the Presnit doesn't care about the polls. That's Karl Roves' job. Manipulate the people to make the cabal look good and ignore the bad by blaming it all on the evil liberals hate of dear leader. Keep talking about liberals and how they are responsible for the sad state of America. What power do the radical republicans have against the liberal juggernaut anyway?

If the guilt doesn't work we still have the fear card. North Korea has missiles! And rockets that , with warheads attached, could blow up...their own country! They could barely get them into the Sea of Japan. The real problem is proliferation but that would again expose the failed policy of the great decider so we will scare people with talk of missiles landing on U.S. soil.

Oh yes and terrorists attacking America! You know, the one where they were talking on an open jihad chatsite on what they would do. Those sneaky guys!

Two U.S. counterterrorism officials, speaking on the condition that their names and agencies not be identified because the FBI is the government's lead agency, discounted the ability of the conspirators to carry out an attack.
One said the alleged plot was "not as far along" as described and was "more aspirational in nature." The other described the threat as "jihadi bravado," adding "somebody talks about tunnels, it lights people up," but that there was little activity to back up the talk.
Speaking to reporters, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said, "It was never a concern that this would actually be executed. We were . . . all over this."

Anybody left that doubts this has a lot to do with the election? Protecting us is great. Reporting it is great. Hyping it beyond reality(see Fox news, Rush Limbaugh et al) is not. Get ready for more fear and guilt as we near the election.