[lit-ideas] The new fascism
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 11:01:30 -0800
> Things rise and fall for a reason. The majority of people rejected the
> liberal candidate, as they said, on "moral" grounds. The rise in Christian
> extremism, so bewildering to us, must also have a reason. What do you think
> that reason is? Look at the polls of November 2 and you may find some
> reasons there. A couple of hundred thousand undecided voters in Ohio could
> have made a big difference; yet something made those voters go the other
> way. What do you think it was?
>
> I mean, with all due respect for academia, white suburban husbands and wives
> have been ridiculed for generations in scholarly publications and literary
> criticism as if they were the very personification of self-delusion (the
> "breeders"). Just go to an MLA convention and peruse, just peruse. How do
> you think people feel about that over in Ohio, raising their kids and trying
> to put bread on the table? Being married and having a child, changes the
> equation a little bit; it kind of complicates the idea of liberalism a bit.
> The world, is, after all, crazy. Some, understandably, may find it all a bit
> too much.
The election was won on two issues.
1) Gay Marriage. Karl Rove was brilliant to put gay marriage referendums in key
states. That
brought the Christians out in droves. Once they were at the polls to vote on
that issue,
they also voted for Bush. This classic Lee Atwater politics: terrorize the
voters and get
them to vote.
2) Stupidity. Bush voters are ignorant. They don't know even basic facts about
Iraq, much
less anything else. The Bush White House and Fox News isn't going to educate
them.
I don't think people voted FOR Bush, they voted to ban gay marriage and they
voted their
(ignorant) fears. They were manipulated and stampeded by Karl Rove.
That won the election, yes, but it's not a political agenda or a platform.
There's no
motivation for change in that. They're homophobic, but on an issue that's
totally
irrelevant, in any meaningful way, to them; they are hardly going to fret over
whether to
accept a wedding proposal from a gay person. This is like the people who
worried that the
Viet Cong were going to come ashore on the beaches of Iowa. It's purely
emotional anxiety.
The error for the opposition was, once again, not to sink that low. The
Democrats and the
anti-Bush coalition thought they could win by informing people about Bush. That
brought out
a huge turnout. However, the Bush people got a larger turnout, not on attacking
Kerry, but
on attacking gays. I don't think anyone realized that the gay marriage bans
would be so
effective.
Tikkun and others have argued that the opposition doesn't respect religion and
the value of
religion in the lives of Bush supporters. Oh, no. It's quite the opposite: I
have lost total
respect for religion now because of the election of Bush.
Evangelical Christians are total idiots. That's a provable statement: they are
ignorant on
Iraq, they are homophobic, and despite their bleating about "Values", they
voted for a White
House that carried out an illegal war with no justification, based on lies, and
killed
100,000 Iraqi.
Religion in America is the new fascism: a cult based on fear, chauvinism, and
perpetual war
against its enemies. Those enemies arise from its own psychological and
emotional depths.
Forget studying the Nazi of 50 years ago and whether Heidegger was a Nazi and
the Six
Million. Let's study the USA today. Let's see how fascism grows. Let's watch
where this will
go. The Bushies must kept their voters in a terrorized frenzy: so who is going
to be lynched
next? Iran? North Korea? And what will happen to the Jews? They're the canaries
in this very
dark coal mine. Bush has already announced he will punish those who aren't with
him. 75% of
Jews voted against Bush. What will he do to Israel?
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
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