Patriots Against the Constitution

The Republican Right Wing / Tea Party alliance, while spouting patriotic slogans and carrying automatic weapons and wrapping themselves in the flag of the Second Amendment, aren't so crazy about the other peskier constitutional clauses that provide for freedom of religion and speech -- except as they apply to themselves, of course. Those pesky Bill of Rights and other Amendments to the US Constitution when applied to Muslims, Mexicans, and other minorities are on the right wing radar screens as "enemy combatants." Oh, yeah, that brings up a whole other group of traditional "American" due process rights that were willingly forfeited during the George W. Bush years -- right to trial by jury, wiretapping only with court orders, habeus corpus, and others.

But the political season is here again and my oh-so sensitive hypocrisy meter -- the 100% Orwellian Big Lie Right Wing Propaganda Machine is Hard At Work -- is loudly ringing. I don't claim any special wisdom regarding these issues, and have plenty of hypocrisy myself, I'm sure, but those alarm bells are ringing loudly during this campaign season once again......... And the Republican wedge issues are being developed - terror babies, race baiting, mosques, Mexicans - the level of political discourse from the right has become so degraded and dishonest and persistent and successful that it has become the norm........Lee Atwater and Karl Rove politics as usual........ They shamelessly and successfully frame the issues year after year, and the feckless Democrats are on the defensive time after time. In the past it has been the Democrats are soft on crime, not anti-gay enough, soft on defense, big government spenders, pro-union, etc., etc. Actual facts have never really mattered.

And by the way, notice how Gay Rights/Gay Marriage and the Repeal of Health Insurance have faded into the background noise as a potential "wedge" issue; Americans have finally discovered that we all have gay children, nephews, nieces, grandmothers, grandfathers, cousins, friends, neighbors, pharmacists, pastors, auto-repairmen, teachers, accountants, police officers, construction workers, firefighters, (the gay union firefighters who risked and gave their lives at Ground Zero, and everyday for that matter,don't get much press) etc., and are now gradually wondering what all the fuss was about; and, in fact, even on the Health Insurance Reform from a year ago, a majority are liking what they are finding out about what really is in there. No Death Panels; no socialism.

The Right Wingers moved on to more fertile territory for fear mongering, scare tactics, and division.........terror babies, Ground Zero Mosque, and race baiting.

"Patriots Against the Constitution" is an oxymoron that seems to fit many of these extremists. From vowing not to follow chain of command orders in the military, to targetting Law Enforcement for assassination as a way to start the "revolution" and replace representative democracy with a theocratic dictatorship is not as "fringe" as you might think...... You've heard of the Six Degrees of Separation ---- well, there aren't nearly that many.

The Rent-a-Bike program in Denver is being attacked by a Republican Tea Party candidate for Governor as an Anti-American plot for world government by the United Nations.......This is from the Republican candidate for Governor of Colorado. From Rand Paul to Sharron Angle, the radical nutty fringe has been promoted to the Republican mainstream.... Remember Sharron Angle proposing her "Second Amendment" remedies?

So I think it's more than just the rhetoric with all its mind-twisting perversion of language that's gotten out of hand, it's the Republican Party's adoption of its fringe right wing black helicopter conspiracy theory crazies who are on the verge of being elected. And it's the apparent success of their "Patriotic Anti-Americanism" with all its inchoate anger, inherent incoherence, and logical dead ends that mystify me.