To be factual, they never actually left, but they were dealt a significant beating back in 2008.
The Four Horsemen were identified by Senator Margaret Chase Smith back in 1950 as part of her Declaration of Conscience speech to the Senate. Her speech is pretty hard on the Truman Administration and she makes her case that her Republican Party should be in power, but then she did something unusual for a Senator sixty years ago and unheard of from a Senator today. She took on the pricks in her Party who were trying to seize power though lies, character assassination, fear mongering and all around dickishness. Here is how she framed it in far more graceful prose than mine:
I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.
I doubt if the Republican Party could—simply because I don’t believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. Surely we Republicans aren’t that desperate for victory.
Of course today’s Republican Party is that desperate and have been ever since it was taken over by the Confederate Party. And the American people have proven themselves to have far less honor, integrity, intellegence and courage than Senator Smith thought they had sixty years ago. Today, the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear is all that the shell of her former party has. It is all they know. It is the only way that they frame and discuss any issue. It is their entire game plan and beyond that, well, they got nothing. And unlike Senate Smith, there in nobody in her captured Party that is willing to call out the neo-Confederate assholes running the show.
Elsewhere in her speech Senator Smith mentioned four basic American Rights under attack by the complete wankers of her era:
Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism:
The right to criticize; The right to hold unpopular beliefs; The right to protest; The right of independent thought. The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood nor should he be in danger of losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to know someone who holds unpopular beliefs. Who of us doesn’t? Otherwise none of us could call our souls our own. Otherwise thought control would have set in.
The race to see who can attack these rights the most and who most tightly embraces Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear in their place will decide the Republican Confederate Party leaders in the 112th Congress and who will be their candidate for the White House in 2012. If any member of their caucus gave Senator Smith’s Declaration of Conscience speech today that person would be an outcast of the Party.
–
One can not repeat often enough how anti-American and fucking insane all of these rat bastards actually are. It should be an interesting two years.
Cheers
dengre
Linda Featheringill
Desperate.
Dennis G.
@Linda Featheringill:
Thank you
General Stuck
I sense a near future reckoning for this country. For either a leap toward a higher political and social perch, or a spiral down into the history ash heap.
Linda Featheringill
I think that Senator Smith’s four horsemen never went very far away. But yes, it has seemed over the course of the last year that lies and fear mongering and character assassination and pride in one’s ignorance came to rule the day.
They are difficult to fight. Eventually, I believe that truth will overcome. But eventually we are all dead.
Jager
I drove to Phnx from LA on Monday, hitting the scan on the radio during the entire 6 hour drive. The hate radio guys are still talking about our “socialist Prez, Pelosi, ‘death panels”, etc, etc, etc…the callers are still lovin it!
El Cid
__
The right to criticize Obama, Pelosi, Democrats, Fannie-Freddie, Unions, etc.
Liberals force our children to learn things out of books and sneer at us for saying we need ‘both sides’ of readings on so-called “evolution”, and how the Civil War was about slavery, and that guy at this Starbucks once looked all funny at me when I was talking about how awesome the Tea Party is and how the Constitution was written by preachers to enact the laws of Moses.
What, Stalin Summer ’09 wasn’t good enough for you? Shouting at Maoist Democrat officials to save us from the Great Leap Into Death Panels?
Exactly. No more government-enforced ideology in the public schools or in National Soshullist Radio; mega-dittoes, Rush.
Catsy
Co-signed.
As I’ve noted elsewhere recently, I am at an end to my patience with and tolerance for people who still have the appalling judgment to support and defend the Republican Party. There may well be good-hearted individual voters left in that party, but its elected officials are by and large a collection of nihilists, sociopaths, medievalists, bigots, douchebags, criminals, ignoramuses, and various combinations thereof. Its agenda is toxic, fascist, sexist, racist, and the vast majority of it is utterly divorced from reality or science. And it is now controlled by the most toxic elements of its far right wing.
They are the closest thing this country has seen to a true, credibly dangerous fascist movement in half a century. And they must be defeated in the realm of ideas, despite a media that is generally either cowed and compliant to right-wing noise or a willing propaganda mouthpiece.
We may well be fucked. I have to hope we’re not.
LarsThorwald
Would that they could all be banished to the mangerial positions of the Tov Pizzas of history.
(By the way, denegre, I am the government attorney who argued the CNMI case challenging the application of federal immigration law to the CNMI — i’ve been following your writing for some time. Hi!)
eastriver
Gee. The Four Horsemen rearing their ugly heads AT THE EXACT MOMENT True Grit has returned to our silver screens? Coinkydink? Yeah. Right.
Mike in NC
They are, and don’t call them Shirley.
agrippa
It will be an interesting two years. Perhaps the fire eaters – the descendants of Calhoun and Rhett and Pettigru – can be controlled. The reasonable people in the GOP may have their hands full. If the fire eaters cannot be controlled, it may be a rough ride.
Southern Beale
Well, we sure proved HER wrong!
newhavenguy
Are you a Communiss?
It’s going to be a long couple of years. I’d tell you all to put on your seatbelts, but at full metal Bachmann speed it wouldn’t help much anyway.
I hope for the best, but … Jesus. Put it this way: Paul Ryan is the intellectual of this bunch. On the other hand, I suppose he’s balanced out by about 40 barking lunatics.
(None of whom, btw, would the Great National Papers ever call a lunatic, except in the op-eds next to that DoucheHat creature. Balanced! Must stay Balanced!)
What could possibly go wrong?
Dennis G.
@LarsThorwald:
It would be great to chat, you can email me at dengre at toadmail dotcom
cheers
Yutsano
@Dennis G.:
It never ceases to amaze me who you’ll find on this community. I even found a fellow graduate from my moo university on here. We iz indeed a diverse buncha folks, and it just makes this place special.
SiubhanDuinne
As a nice counterbalance to the Four Horsemen who are currently galloping all over D.C., I give you (via Sully) the new Governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton: http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2011/01/05/24615/amid_a_mornings_chaos_gov_mark_dayton_calms_the_crowd_–_and_even_welcomes_protesters. (The link is to the local newspaper, not to The Dish, BTW.)
I hadn’t paid much attention to this particular gubernatorial race, but this Dayton fellow — well, I think I’m in love. I’m definitely in awe. And I’m pretty damned envious of asiangrrlMN and our other Minnesotans for being so blessed as to have him as governor. (I got Nathan Deal. Life isn’t fair.)
Seriously, y’all, this is just an amazing thing he did on his first day in office.
Dennis G.
@newhavenguy:
On NPR this morning they ran an interesting segment of the bullshit behind the ‘balance’ myth or as Jay Rosen calls it ‘the view from nowhere.’
Cheers
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@SiubhanDuinne: I have governor goodhair.
Dennis G.
@SiubhanDuinne:
That was a great read. Thanks
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: Wow. I never thought I’d be actually kinda happy for Gregoire. Who really only won because the alternative is a total idiot that hopefully Patty Murray finished off for good.
MikeJ
@Yutsano: Aren’t you from the other side of the mountains? Why can’t we have more sane people like you over there so whatshisname is never a threat again. Him and Mr. Horse’s Ass, Tim Eyman.
Moonbatman
# The right to criticize;
# The right to hold unpopular beliefs;
# The right to protest;
# The right of independent thought.
After 2 years of progressive control of Government, it is good to know that “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” again.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think Margaret Chase Smith is the person Olympia Snowe deludes herself she is, and that far too many people share that delusion. See also, too, David Broder, David Gergen…..
Yutsano
@MikeJ: Heh. I bailed and moved to the sociaIist paradise that is Seattle. But if it’s any consolation, my parents both voted for Murray this last time around. I think the only reason why Dino got so close is because the old folks came out.
The Dangerman
Pardon me as I ponder and ramble along here…
…but what would have happened if 2008 had played out differently? No, not if McCain had been elected, as a Republican was never going to win. Besides, if McCain WAS elected, he’s already croaked from a heart attack and we are fucked under President Palin.
But what if Hillary had been elected?
Would her policies and programs have been much different? I don’t think so.
Would the Right have responded in an equally reactionary way? Would Sexism be in place of the barely concealed Racism? I don’t see that happening.
Sure, Bill would have been a lightning
rod(ahem) thingy, but that would be only a sideshow.I’m an Obot and damned proud of it (I don’t think half of what Obama accomplished gets done under Hillary, which is part of why the Right is so pissed off), but these are odd times we live in. I see a happy ending after one hell of a roller coaster ride…
….still, just pondering how things might have played out differently.
Redshift
One of our local state delegates, Scott Surovell, has been writing about how Virginia came to have such strict rules on a balanced budget and limited borrowing, as a result of dealing with the Civil War debt. It’s all very interesting, but this paragraph struck me. In 1878, the state had to choose between repudiating some of the interest or, basically, paying for anything else:
Plus ça change.
Part I
Part II
Yutsano
@The Dangerman: Mark Penn. That fuck-up is reason alone enough to be thankful Hillary didn’t win. Could you imagine that incompetent boob having a prominent place in government?
Redshift
@The Dangerman: I think it would have been different, but no less virulent. Remember, for the past decade and a half, the wingnut horde has been programmed to a Pavlovian level to respond with rage to the name “Clinton,” and the nasty sexism against Hillary was already well-developed.
General Stuck
@The Dangerman:
YuP, on all counts of your comment. We as a country should be damn grateful we have the dude we have in the WH for the upcoming shitstorm. The last thing we need right now is personal drama, but rather a cool as a cucumber person, that is smarter than any other potential president I can think of from either party, and apparently squeaky clean of potential scandal the wingnuts could rally around.
mr. whipple
BTW, can we fix the fucking margins? Pretty please?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Redshift: Yeah, too many moving parts in the counterfactual, but just think if they could transfer (and magnify) all their hatred from Nancy Pelosi to HRC, who was called a sosh’list, and “Evita” twenty years ago. Though I do think Clinton would have had less flack to contend with from discontented Democrats.
Dennis G.
@mr. whipple:
They look fine to me, but then again there is a reason that FYWP became the standard way to discuss the wonders of WordPress.
What are they doing?
Thanks
Yutsano
@Dennis G.: If he’s using IE there’s a known issue with the margins that JC is aware of and has informed the blogmistress. I use Firefox and no issues here.
The Dangerman
@Redshift:
Which is why I don’t get those that are pushing Jeb in 2012; 2016, maybe, but 2012? No way a Bush gets elected.
Oh, it WOULD have been nasty, no doubt, but AS nasty? I don’t think so. Again, partly because Hillary doesn’t accomplish as much.
I don’t pretend that we don’t have issues related to sex (edit: damn, that came out wrong, but I’m too tired to fix it), but most of those battles have been fought out to something at least approximating a draw. I can’t see the sexist equivalent of the birther movement or the “closet muslim” movement, for example.
Like I said, just pondering….
Drouse
@Yutsano: I think I could put up with an incompetent boob or so as opposed to having the White House staffed by the Vampire Squid alumni association.
Yutsano
@Drouse: I have no idea what that even means. But somehow I think we got linked to the PUMA websites again. Yay! New trolls!
newhavenguy
@Catsy: Agreed, and well put. You left out the libertarians, though. Hard to tell whether that idiocy or the race hate the Right is whipping up is more destructive, which is saying a lot. If Reagan’s was Voodoo Economics, what the hell do you call Paul Ryan’s brilliant, uncompromising, rational, angular theories? Reardon Metal Economics?
A=A > Keynes, in terms of influence and power. (How’s that working out, Mr. Greenspan?) You ever have those days when you feel like that guy in that episode of the Twilight Zone?
The good news: we’ve been in harsh, polarized times before as a country. The bad news? I think we’re at about 1965 if we’re lucky, and the 1850s if we’re not.
Good night, and good fucking luck.
Cheers,
The Dangerman
@Yutsano:
Oh, shit; my bad. I hang my head in virtual shame for opening that potential Pandora’s thingy.
I hold PUMA’s in more contempt than the Right.
mr. whipple
@Dennis G.:
The RH margin just runs the text off into the ads. Anything longer than a short sentence and it’s unreadable.
mr. whipple
@Yutsano:
Nope, on Opera. It blows out in IE, too, when this happens.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@The Dangerman: but… but.. he’s gonna slash/privatize social security! Because he’s a secret republican.
Yutsano
@mr. whipple: Hmm…maybe it’s a larger issue than just IE. In that case I’d drop JC a line so he can inform the webmistress.
@The Dangerman: LOL it’s all good. I’m sick and cranky and bored as it is. I could use a few new cat toys to bat around. change just isn’t fun any more.
The Dangerman
No problems in Firefox since I installed the Flash Blocker; ok, it sucks when I go over to YouTube, but the Flash on these pages runs some script from hell that is best avoided.
mr. whipple
@Yutsano:
Done. Sent him a screen grab.
The Dangerman
@Yutsano:
change is a dribble drive into the paint only to get the weak shot rejected into the front rows and hitting the floor hard (i.e. don’t bring that weak shit in here).
asiangrrlMN
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s amazing. I have to admit I have my reservations and doubts about Dayton, but this article goes a long way to easing them. I can ignore Bachmann for now because she’s not mine. I have Betty McCollum who is great. Thanks for linking that.
dengre, I think it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better (if it does). I am not sanguine about the direction of politics in our country.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I read that as “Margaret Cho” at first and was really, really confused.
@Yutsano: I told you not to break it! I ain’t made of money, you know.
Drouse
@Yutsano: Vampire Squid is a reference to Goldman Sachs.
J. Michael Neal
@SiubhanDuinne:
Don’t waste all of your envy on this one. He gave a great speech, but Mark Dayton is still a mediocrity. There was a whole wave of them in the mid-to-late 1990s: Dayton; Mike Ciresi; Skip Humphrey; several others I can’t remember.
For some reason, the DFL continues to insist on giving major nominations to these guys. They’re terrible campaigners, and not that much better in office. Dayton will likely be valuable simply because it doesn’t take a lot of initiative to veto things.
These guys are basically all Walter Mondale without the brains.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yutsano: Maybe some nice catnip tea?
J. Michael Neal
@Drouse: Uh, huh. Exactly who do you think Clinton would have put in place had she won? Pretty much the same guys.You might have had Krugman or Stiglitz involved, but they likely would have replaced Romer or Volcker, not the GS crew.
asiangrrlMN
@J. Michael Neal: I don’t think you’re being fair to Dayton. I think he’s smarter than you give him credit for, and by his handling of the crowd in the article, there’s more to him than meets the eye. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. And, at this point, I’m pretty fucking grateful we didn’t end up with Emmer.
Redshift
@The Dangerman: I agree that sexism wouldn’t directly substitute for racism in those areas, but thinking of the Vince Foster and “Arkansas Mafia,” just off the top of my head, I think it’s just a matter of which tools they use to pump up the insanity.
I would say I shudder to think what the Clinton Wars would look like with a more developed and dominant conservative media, except that I think we’re basically seeing it.
Old Dan and Little Ann
John Stewart’s crazy-angry John McCain puppet tonight was a riot.
Triassic Sands
The Four Horsemen of
RepublicanismCalumny:Fear Ignorance Bigotry Smear
F I B S
Fibs.
Perfect. Too polite a term for what the GOP deals in, but Ms. Smith was a lady so we wouldn’t expect her to be anything but polite. Well said, Maggie…um…I, mean, Mrs. Smith.
asiangrrlMN
@Triassic Sands: Oh good god. I can’t believe I didn’t see that. Very nice!
JGabriel
What about tax cuts for the rich? If it’s not one of the Four Horsemen, it’s gotta be at least a mascot of some sort. The Pony-man of Gluttony & Beggary?
.
suzanne
@SiubhanDuinne:
I got Jan Brewer, Part II, The Revenge. I feels ya.
Morbo
What about the old fashioned four, like war?
frosty
@The Dangerman: Try using the word “gender” instead of “sex”. It can bail you out of a lot of tricky sentences.
frosty
@newhavenguy: I lived in 1965. I knew 1965. 1965 was a friend of mine. And newhavenguy, this is not 1965.
El Cid
@Redshift: At the time she was accused of being part of the forces organizing a Russia-UN invasion of the USA in order to impose a One World Government anti-Christian order, including pushing the UN Convention on the Rights of Children in order to get the international bureaucracy to control our children and take them if they wanted, and this was after she stole something or other in Whitewater which they lost money on and after she killed Vince Foster.
BDeevDad
Any Republican that talks about death panels needs to immediately be slapped in the face with this:
Dennis SGMM
One can not simultaneously fail to ignore how these insane rat bastards have out-talked and outmaneuvered the fucking Democrats for several decades. Having voted Democratic for close to fifty years I’m now at a loss to decide whether the foregoing is due to incompetence or collusion. At this point, I’m willing to believe that the system is set up to provide good cop – bad cop choices with the end that the same cops ($$$$$) win every time.
BonnyAnne
@ Yutsano (and MikeJ, I suppose): you made the right choice. Every time I get too filled with despair over national politics, I take a deep breath and remind myself that, worst come to worst, I live in Seattle. I can always have a homebrew while toasting Jim McDermott.
Elizabelle
Oh Gawd. Mrs. Boehner is orange too.
What is with these people?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/us/politics/06boehner.html?ref=us
(The New York Times refers to her as “lightly bronzed.” Have you seen that in other profiles? Really?)
Yutsano
@BonnyAnne: I thank the FSM every day that I no longer live under the jurisdiction of Doc Hastings. I hope his opponent runs again in two years, he did a really good job of going after Baby Doc.
asiangrrlMN
@Elizabelle: Damn. That look is just not right.
@Yutsano: Why you ignoring me? Harrumph.
ETA: I’m watching The Daily Show re-run, and the McCain puppet is hilarious.
Triassic Sands
@JGabriel:
I agree, JGabriel, but to fully include everything vile that the GOP currently stands for we’d need at least the Four Hundred
HorsemenEquestrians of the Apocalypse.@The Dangerman:
I agree with Redshift. One of the reasons I thought HRC was a poor choice for president was my certainty that we would return immediately to the insane crap of WJC’s presidency. That wouldn’t have been her fault, but it promised to be a constant distraction, and I thought that was a terrible idea, since there were so many things that desperately needed presidential attention.
But I definitely underestimated the effect that a communist/socialist/Muslim born in Kenya would have on the lunatics in the GOP. On the other hand, Obama never murdered anyone, and I have a feeling that you may be doing the same thing I did when I figured Obama wouldn’t get it as bad as HRC — you’re underestimating the sheer lunacy and dishonesty of the Republicans.
In the end, my guess is whichever Democrat was elected in 2008 was going to get endless shit from this bunch of dishonest cretins. Obama gave the GOP the possibility of more original and varied attacks, but I doubt there would have been much difference in the amount, the volume, or the virulence of the attacks if Clinton had been elected.
Nick
@The Dangerman:
We’d all be asking “But what if Obama had been elected?”
agrippa
Hard to say what is worse for the GOP: a damned ______ for a President; or, a damned ugly _____ for a President. Either way, the fire eaters were going to have a conniption fit.
“is he really a President, or is he is just another damned ______?”
As far as conniption fits go, this latest one by the GOPer TPs was not bad. I give it three stars. Now, we shall see if they can do anything else.
We only had a half meltdown in late 2008. If there were no bailout, those people with the ‘jump, fuckers’ signs on Wall Street would have given good advice. We had a half melt down, so we had a half cure.
Benjamin Cisco
@Elizabelle:
Well, when compared to, for example, statuary…
Dennis G.
@Nick:
A perfect response.
Villago Delenda Est
@Nick:
Because the response for the insane Right to Hillary would have been nearly identical to the response to Obama. Or to anyone with a D associate with their name.
Since the 80’s, the Rethugs are under the distinct impression that the White House belongs to them. Democrats need not apply. It’s interesting that I don’t recall reading of Democrats being under the impression, after the FDR and Truman administrations, that the White House was their exclusive property. But the Rs definitely think that it’s theirs. They’ll do anything to undermine a D in the White House. Literally anything. They proved that when Bill Clinton, our best Republican president since Eisenhower, was in the White House, His policies were not the issue with them, obviously…but his political party definitely was.
PurpleGirl
@Elizabelle: His and her’s tanning beds?
CHARLES
UNTIL there’s a price to paid this will be norm.
David Brooks (not that one)
@Yutsano: It’s a larger issue than just BJ: Digby has the same problem.
Ab_Normal
@BonnyAnne: I’m sooo jealous: 1) I’ve got celiac, so no nice beer for me; 2) I live in Spokane (sigh).
Another Bob
Another big difference between now and then is the relationship of the Republicans and the mainstream media. Their professional campaign consults — from Lee Atwood to Karl Rove and Frank Luntz — have gotten a lot better, and a lot less scrupulous, in crafting their propaganda and getting their message broadcast. They now set the tone and the agenda in mainstream press coverage of the issues. With Fox News and Talk Radio, they have a direct, un-filtered pipeline to the hearts and souls of too many stupid, credulous American voters. Sadly, the Democrats just can’t compete any more, either because they’re out-gunned and out-funded, or because they’re just not as good at it.