To hear the pundits of the far right say it, one gets the distinct impression that anyone left-of-center is not only immoral, unpatriotic and un-American, but worse, guilty by association with terrorist groups and sympathizers of known terrorists. Whether its the oft painted picture of protesters being something just short of communist insurrectionists, or the perpetual drone of rightist views as if everyone on the left secretly knows they are wrong and are deliberately working for "evil," the ultra-conservative right has never more villainized and demonized free-thinkers outside the status quo than right now.
Media is working overtime to cram pack everyone under increasingly defamatory labels which will either sanctify them or pronounce them anathema against the almighty Bush/Rightist/NeoCon regime and its unfolding "plan", sold to the people as the last bastion of truth, justice and the American way; a glory somehow lost during the Clinton administration and now miraculously revived by mighty St. Bush. Anything that falls outside of it is, frankly, regarded as diabolically evil. Anyone who questions it MUST be working for anti-American, godless commie forces and Lord forbid you actually protest what they propose or enact.
The general view of many on the right is certain that those of the left, though not personally involving themselves in seditious or criminal activity, quietly, secretly look the other way and approve of it when other groups do. It's this kind of unprecedented paranoia that is fueling the polarization in this country. It's just as rank as when one hears someone suggest that those who are not personally involved in radical pro-life movements probably secretly enjoy the bombing of abortion clinics and if someone gets hurt, oh well, it's just "collateral damage" in the war for the unborn. We've all heard such things suggested, commented, noted. But do we realize this subtle brainwashing?
Suspect Thy Neighbor! It's the American Way.
The goal of the greater Conspiracy is to bring about nothing short of a psychic and intellectual civil war here. They want us so busy attacking one another and at each other's throats, suspicious of one another's "true" motives, that the great evils they commit throughout the world go almost unnoticed.
And every faction is working overtime to label and assail another group. The Jews are to blame for everything, according to one faction. The Christian-right, from another. The Republicans, or the Democrats, leftists, rightists, papists, escapists, drug culture, counter-culture, etc, etc. It's always someone and only that someone, some group or mindset or race or people who are the core problem and if only there was a way to rid ourselves of them everything would be peachy.
Bullsh#t. Plenty of cogs in the machine being blamed and no one looking at the machine itself.
The new breed of ultra-right conservatives act as if questioning the government is a great offense against America itself, an act so unpatriotic even Jesus (who is a devout Republican and Bush supporter, doncha know!) is wounded. I always thought it would take someone completely off the psychological map of human reason like a Pat Robertson as President before we'd see this kind of insanity take serious root, but the endless straw man tactics and polarization techniques so widely used by the soul-sold rightists evidence that it takes far less than a lunatic like Robertson to sway the masses. What began with the Reagan revolution ( the very author of contemporary 'symbolism over substance', ironically, to quote Limbaugh, the great Reagan booster) has resulted in just that under the direction of a somewhat dim, plodding oil-man from Texas who can't get enough of red, white and blue splattered glory, to the extent that a shockingly self-righteous nationalism has developed which truly looks like the birth pangs of a Nazi-like Reich. Many people automatically tune out when they hear such a comparison, but that is because media and educators have spent the last 50 years building Hitler and the Nazi regime into an inimitable demonic monster never to be repeated again, when in reality there are dozens of Hitler's all over the planet, from Mugabe to the recently deposed Saddam Hussein. The comparison of power and influence, not exact acts, is what is being overlooked and brushed aside, and these comparisons are quite legitimate.
Bush strikes me as the kind of automatized devotee who would let friends or loved ones suffer or die if the present peril meant sparing a flag or Bible from a fire (ie, see Gene Wilder as the misguided Rabbi in "The Cisco Kid"). Instead of understanding and actualizing what America means and is supposed to be/become, it suffices for the NeoCons and their rightist drones to be symbolically and externally patriotized, painted superficially with red, white and blue, and never mind the true need for justice much less Constitutional fidelity. While the Patriot Act threatens to carve away at our liberties in the name of 'homeland defense', people are being decoyed and distracted to pay attention to petty political squabbles of the right and left. And more horrifying are those who are fully aware of what is happening, and boldly declare that they don't mind giving up certain Constitutional and civil liberties in order to safeguard our nationalistic interests (defined usually with terms like "our freedom," which stands as a complete oxymoron). It's like saying one is willing to lose all ones teeth to cavities, a little here and a little there, in order to preserve the heritage of chewing.
Polarizing the people into slotted political demarcations of "left" or "right" and adding the spin that the left represents everything un-American and evil, while the right represents divine virtues and traditional American values, becomes meaningless (and irritating) when it is the present administration -- which happens to be of the extreme right -- stroke by stroke lays an axe to the root of our Constitution, and with a shocking, sickening approval rating by the people. Though the left is generally equally guilty of despising our founding principles and seeking to remold society according to what it would claim to be intrinsically 'humanistic' values (ie, the mania of gun control, for one example, or the ridiculous 'PC virtues' imposition, in grand Orwellian style, sweeping textbooks clean of any references to traditional definitions and terms for fear of offending any one of a hundred thousand newly acknowledged "victim" groups), it remains that it is the right wing extreme which presently holds power, in congress, in the executive branch and even on the Supreme Court. And it remains that it is this faction of power which is manipulating the minds of Americans, using terrorism and openly fascist activities, to generate a type of nationalism which could very easily tumble over into something atrociously evil, while laying claim to true virtue and uprightness. It is not the mere label of right or left which brings about the polarization, but the actual pulpit of power, on either side, which charges the political and social atmosphere with an "us vs them" dichotomy.
The present power in the political pulpit is seeking to make opposition to its views and decisions an illegal and traitorous act of sedition! When protesters are classified as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers, when fear of federal retribution or criminal proceedings unprotected by Constitutional rights and safeguards force books to cease printing, websites to shutdown, voices to be silenced... we have a fascist state. The intimidation alone of a government no longer bridled by Constitutional standards protecting the peoples rights is all it takes to lay the foundation stone of fascism. And this has already taken place. When a man can be imprisoned for making a biblical reference to the 'burning BUSH' in public as though he were a menace to society, when a person can find himself dragged from a library computer terminal by federal agents for having typed 'Bush is out of control' in a private chat channel, when a man can be shoved behind bars for the mere suspicion of a crime classified/labeled as "terrorist" and have no address of grievance, no access to due process and no Constitutional protection/rights whatsoever... fascism is firmly here. It's not coming. It's not around the corner. It's already a tree in full bloom with fruit to bear. And self-satisfied, self-righteous nationalists are feeding on that fruit, feeling comfortable and protected from an utterly invented evil.
(At the 2003 BookExpo in Los Angeles today aired by CSPAN, Fox's Bill O'Reilly (The Factor) appeared on a panel with writers Molly Ivins and Al Franken, moderated by former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder. O'Reilly continually refered to Ms. Ivins on his right as "a liberal" and "you liberals" until she finally put a freeze on his polarization tactic saying, "Mr. O'Reilly, I'm not a liberal, I'm a person, I have a name. My name is Molly Ivins!" The audience cheered. O'Reilly rolled his eyes in the typically sanctimonious manner he always does when pelted with truth and then made Al Franken the target of any further assaults for the rest of the short panel discussion. Ivins de-polarization tactic worked! Bill was utterly disarmed. The illusion he was attempting to create was shattered, powerless. O'Reilly was quite disturbed to see his photo depicted on a tv monitor in the background behind Franken on the new dust jacket of Al's latest book, "Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them.")
