Ricky J. West has an excellent post/rant up about the lunatic fringe that the left embraces- in fact, seems to be trumpeting in order to return to the halycon days of Democrat dominance on the national level. The left is very fond of tarring the right with their extremists- on some days, that seems to be the entire point of Dave Neiwert’s Orcinus (or, as I am fond of calling his site- “Republicans are Secretly Fascists and Most People Are Too Stupid To Recognize It”). If you think I am exxagerating about Neiwert, btw, check out the very first posting on his page- it is always the same- some variation of this meme:
I hate to keep sounding like a broken record, but the fascist motifs trickling their way into mainstream Republican politics (which is the focus of the “Rush” essay, of course) are starting to come fast and furious — at a much faster rate, I’m afraid, than I think most of us anticipated.
Tighten the tinfoil hat, Davey boy. If we really were fascists, we would have come for you long ago.
At any rate, in a nice how do you do, Ricky points out who the real meme spreaders are in the Democrat party:
Each and every link from this post was taken from moveon.org.
Yes, folks, the ‘darling’ of the left side of the blogosphere is the genesis of this entry (mostly pertaining to the WOT). The same moveon.org (in the form of peace.moveon.org) that used as one of its arguments against a war in Iraq that Hussein would use his WMDs against our soldiers (no note that he didn’t have them….back then). Or, if we acted, that Hussein would unleash his arsenal on Israel, who would (of course) use chemical or nuclear weapons. Which would then cause Pakistan to launch nukes against India (I kid you not). Or, if Israel didn’t do that, they might attack Iran. Or it could launch nukes against Jordan.
No, the examples given here are not ‘liberal’ or ‘progressive’ thought, IMO. They are reactionary at best and arguments put forth by folks who could be considered rather loony at worst. So, if you’re one of the people who signed up to vote in the ‘online’ primary or if you think moveon is such a great and forward-thinking entity, try to remember that most reactionaries consider themselves to be rather mainstream, as well.
And the best part is, Ricky has links to all of the nonsense. Go read it and enjoy, and then watch the memes trickle down from the lunatics like Chomsky, MoveOn.Org, Common Dreams, to the politicians and the respectable ‘moderate’ bloggers.
This is not to say the right does not have our share of headcases- the difference is we distance ourselves from ours- we don’t embrace them and say we need to get back to our ‘roots.’
Barney Gumble
Terribly simplistic
“Taxes/Spending:”
(snipage)
“And yet, we need a new federal program for prescription pills…”
It’s a big budget, some things can go up while others go down.
And so on.
He does make a point about abortion…Repubs control both houses and the presidency…time to put up or shut up on making it illegal.
M. Scott Eiland
“He does make a point about abortion…Repubs control both houses and the presidency…time to put up or shut up on making it illegal.”
Constitutional amendments still take a two thirds vote in both houses of Congress to send them to the states–and ratification of three-fourths of the state legislatures to ratify. Unless you know something we don’t, the votes ain’t there.
Barney Gumble
You might want to read Article V again old buddy.
Moe Lane
Barney has half a point: a convention for proposing amendments may be called at the request of 2/3 of the state legislatures; ratification of said amendments may be likewise done by conventions in 3/4 of the states.
I say half a point because the odds of this happening are slim, slim, slim,
M. Scott Eiland
Since the Senate gives equal representation to all of the states, the Article V alternative of allowing two-thirds of the state legislatures to call a constitutional convention is more or less as difficult a hurdle to jump as the two thirds requirement in the Senate; in practice, the fact that the idea of a wide-open constitutional convention where multiple amendments might be proposed makes a lot of people nervous would be an additional barrier. I would put the chance of such a convention happening as very near zero.