Bad-GONZO Craziness on the Darkside of the Spectrum
by El Prezidente Kaboom
BULLETIN: The proceeding forum post is designed to be read while listening to the following tracks: Savoy Brown, "Train To Nowhere,” @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6UfMyBsaV8; David Bowie (feat. Nine Inch Nails), “I'm Afraid Of Americans,” @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slKNd22GGaQ&feature=related; Nine Inch Nails, “The Beginning of the End,”@http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyCFi7lbw50&feature=related; and Aesop Rock, “None Shall Pass,” @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1u43KDiWD0. The listener/reader is instructed to read these directions in their entirety, give thanks to the mystic order of the universe, and begin reading “Bad Gonzo Craziness on the Dark-side of the Spectrum,” while listening to the tracts listed above, in order, and with the music turned all the way up.
With strong focus, the listener/reader is instructed to ingest this rather large dosage of Subjectivity from beginning to end with minimal interruption. Only Kentucky Bourbon is to be served as drink, only vaporized ganja-hits are condoned, and it is recommended that this all be done at home in front of a hellishly warm fire raging out of control, and with a large amount of unstable dynamite resting comfortably at your side. It's all very necessary, I can assure you. In order to fully understand the bad moods and foul vibrations of the new Bad-Gonzo right-wing of American politics, one must physically simulate the level of fear that they imagine, and the only way for a sane individual to do this properly is to put themselves in a high degree of real-live, sweaty, pulsating, personal danger.
It's important for the listener/reader to be in a high state of mental alertness, totally engaged in the moment, totally submersed in the deadly nature of reality, totally aware of the terrible truth of our existence....that with one tiny false move it could all go KABOOM! Only then can the blue membrane of Objectivity be peeled back to open the doorway into the realm of the Subjective. You can only get there from the Edge...and this exercise is designed to get you 'there' fast.p.s. HOLD DOWN CTRL AND THEN CLICK ON THE VIDEO LINKS TO OPEN IN NEW TAB
Aloha, ladies and gentleman of the Democratic Hub forum world, El Prezidente Kaboom here....back with you again....reporting from the Edge...as usual.
There's a Whirlwind out there and its growing. The Tea-Party/Radical-Conservative/Libertarian/ Right-wing Fusion Opposition-Movement is Bad-Gonzo Craziness on a "Train To Nowhere" - politics hasn't been this strange since the 60s. Despite losses, here and there, the new radical column is dramatically reshaping modern American right-wing politics. Framed as a citizens-rebellion against the entire political establishment, the Tea Party claims to only happen to predominately side with the GOP, because it's the lesser of two evils and other third parties don't stand a chance. The dynamics of the Tea Party are quite nebulous, but the long-and-short of the story is that it's a nationwide decentralized/disorganized, anti-Obama/ anti-Democrat political movement-phenomena, who's practitioners are united more along the lines of what they're against, rather than what they support, besides banal general ramblings about the need for smaller government.
Clearly, there are different elements in play when it comes to Tea Party politics, different ideologies romancing, running around together, holding hands; it's a theater-of-the-real drama perfectly illustrating the words of 19th century American essayist, Charles Dudley Warner, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” And more than anything, these Tea Party network 'bedfellows' are defined by their mutual sense of disgust, distrust, and dissent against Band Leader, Barack Obama and the Democratic Bailout-Stimulus Kids. In the end, Tea-Partiers have many different contrasting ideas about what should be done differently, and there is a wide variety of conservative and libertarian flavors blending together in the mix. Some of them even hate Bush, and I've seen many of them show the highest respect for the current, Commander-in- Chief, but what keeps these respectful right-wingers (who I can still have a beer with, or maybe get stoned with) caucusing and protesting together with all the nuts and clowns further down the spectrum to their right is their mutual dissent against the current administration's policies.
Now, Tea-Party network supporters don't all agree on a lot of things....and there is wide-ranging factional debate within the movement....including the micro-lots of social conservatives vs. social liberals; neo-conservative war hawks vs. isolationist doves; and free market Wall Street radicals vs. populist Main Street reformers. Philosophically, the Tea-Party is under the persuasion of two general political ideologies, libertarianism and conservatism. Where these ideologies overlap – namely on State's Rights and the need for smaller federal government – there is fusion between the two, with conservatives calling themselves libertarians and libertarians calling themselves conservatives. It's all very confusing....but the point is that these two political-thought families find some common ground on the issue of State's Rights and the need for a smaller federal government, which ultimately provides cover to social-conservative/libertarian hybrids...such as Ron Paul, who calls himself a libertarian, and a 'true conservative,' but does not believe in the separation of church and state, only the freedom of religion. But with his State's Rights/federal deconstructionist platform, Ron Paul has been able to negate some of the effusive differences that exist between social- conservatives and libertarians by pointing out that they both have a chance of getting what they want, should states be allowed to decide for themselves on controversial matters, such as, gay rights, abortion, and the drug war. And it should be noted, that many moderate liberals would prefer that such issues be handled at the state level, as opposed to the political psycho-drama that plays out with them being decided at the national level.
While there is grand overlap on domestic and social issues inside the Tea Party movement between the political thought-families of libertarianism and conservatism, there is a strikingly different accord when it comes to national-defense. Clearly, libertarianism is less reflexive to the designs of the national-security state, but that does not cast libertarianism in a total non-interventionist/ anti-war light ..it limits the parameters of our involvement abroad to resisting real threats to our liberty in a strategic manner that doesn't blow caution to the wind. Even Ron Paul initially supported the invasion of Afghanistan, but he wanted old school letters of marque issued for terrorists and an in-and-out specific mission for the troops. Today, Ron Paul is for dissolving virtually all U.S. commitments abroad, and instituting a Switzerland-like neutrality to avoid entanglements and blow-back. His foreign policy is a combo of leftist critique of American foreign policy and the military industrial complex...but with old-school traditional Republican answers that were abandoned by the GOP at the onset of WW2. To Ron Paul, Hitler's rise to power and WW2 would not have ever happened, should the United States have stayed out of WW1. Well, even if that's the case, a statesman’s job is still to improve the position of the nation, and isolationism failed to stop, what our original intervention in WW1 started. Look, I really don't want to get into this, and that's the problem with Ron Paul and his supporters, their views really are way out there, and moderates of any stripe don't last long in a room full these people before running away in fear. I needed weed, and they were selling it, that's my excuse.
While the Tea-Party movement has taken kindly to Ron Paul's domestic policy prescriptions, they are somewhat estranged when it comes to Paul's anti-war beliefs, which is odd considering that Dr. Paul is actually credited with staging the first 'Tea-Party' rally, in Dec. 2007, as a campaign-style anti-war protest-event against President George W. Bush. In fact, his theme, “THE RON PAUL REVOLUTION,” makes use of left-wing imagery with the letters 'evol' spelled backwards to read 'love' in reverse. Gee....how clever and reassuring...wink...wink. It's a mockery, less dignified than any 'Change' or 'Hope' Obama campaign slogan that teared-up a lot of sentimental voters. Ron Paul is for a 'Love Revolution' ? Are you freaking kidding me? Ron Paul is a hippie? Well...of course not. It's bullshit, a fascist limerick, and altogether politically indigestible, pointless, and distracting. “Dr. No” is fighting for what the children of the 60s failed to achieve? Give us a break. The Ron Paul people need to turn those letters back around and stop playing games and screwing around with people's heads.
As much as the Tea Party is upset about government debt, the radical-redneck element
believes there is still a war to be won, and more conquering to be done in strange lands that still dare defy us. The old creed still goes with a lot of these people, 'Get out of our way, or we will kill you.' And since we saved the Jews, we've got divine sanction, so we're literally God's people now! Let the fallen savages abroad prey at our sword or die by it. However, these radical-conservative influences only go so far, and the majority of the movement seems situated between the aggressive pro-war element and the dovish Ron Paul flock, but there is a wide variety of views on national defense offered in this middle concourse, and ironically, one of the leading voices in this sector is Paul's son, Dr. Rand Paul.
Ron Paul may complain about the arrival of the neo-conservative pro-war influence in the Tea Party movement, but he doesn't have to look no further than his only family to see Tea Party politicians who espouse pro-war views. His own son, Dr. Rand Paul, the GOP's Senate candidate for Kentucky, is for the “War-On-Terror” and believes in Congressional deference to the Commander-in-Chief, but he recognizes the need for a Congressional Declaration of War in Afghanistan, and the need to downsize our efforts abroad in the future, a midway point position between the neo-cons and his father.
Despite differences over national security, many in the dovish Ron Paul crowd have found the son endearing, and the willingness of many to support the new maverick Tea Party-Republican candidate is evidence of a pragmatic, realism amongst the father's anti-war supporters. Just as Obama brought the anti-war left together with the rather nuanced, relative pro-war views of the mainstream Democratic Party, Rand Paul is now helping to reconcile the anti-war right with pro-war supporters.
However, as far as the mainstream media is concerned, Rand Paul has made a complete ass of himself, stumbling right out of the gate in his now notorious appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show on the night of his primary victory. But all was not lost: his naive libertarian quibbles over Civil Rights actually brought him closer to his father's deconstructionist followers, who cheered his voyeuristic re-approach of the White Man's burden in a society governed by federal guidelines mandating the desegregation of the public marketplace.
Now amongst the various proposals floating around amongst the kooks on the dark side of the spectrum, nothing is so insidious, disgusting, and wrong, as the idea that private businesses should not be forced to desegregate; that we should be tolerant of intolerance, and portions of the Civil Rights Acts affecting private business should be repealed to that end.
Besides the fact that private business operates on a plane paved by government, sewn with American tax dollars collected indiscriminately of race, color, creed, or religion, if private business were allowed to unlawfully discriminate, the force of the state would have to be used to protect that right, the same as it is used today to deny private business that right. This is a prescription for perpetual race-war, not a more perfect Union.
But along with pressing the delete button on the Departments of Energy, HUD, Education, and others, as well the FED, repealing parts of the Civil Rights Acts is part of a grand radical conservative-libertarian vision for a 'return' to our 'founding principles'. And any claim to not being racist is contradicted by this stated desire, without extending and reconsidering our 'founding principles' to include what Lincoln forcibly modified, after-the-fact. Lincoln changed the course of history, he didn't change what had already happened. The Republic was founded on racist principles, in case you don't remember, and it took successive rounds of Big Government intervention to make this Union whole to fully bring about Lincoln's “New Birth of Freedom.”
Ron Paul suggests the slaves freedom could have been purchased by the North, absconding the need for a war to a free them, a veiled misguided critique of Lincoln's initiative concerning the secession of southern states that he was faced with on inauguration day. Alternative history future is fun, but it's not fact, and this attempt to distance himself from racist, neo-confederates is nothing more than a fictional narrative to support a wedge position between all camps. However, it does flatly smack many political neophytes with a proposition that they have never heard before, leaving them impressed with Ron Paul's tact and revelatory style of thinking; no doubt contributing to their susceptibility of delving into his other Rabbit Hole opinions, concerning the gold standard, the FED, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Big Government, Civil Rights legislation, and contemporary issues related to the deficit, war, and peace.
Let us be clear, Ron Paul network supporters aren't just a little weird, they're whacky, and some of them are fucking daffy. They are well read in science fiction; and they're attuned to trends in conspiratorial political literature press and pop culture; and they subscribe to a near Hobbesian libertine moral consciousness that runs right alongside the Christian influences on the technocratic paranoid-conspiracy edge of the movement. Suspicious of 9/11, the Kennedy and MLK Assassinations, LBJ, the Vietnam War, and our modern cypto-fascist military-industrialist complex, even many social liberals are drawn into the movement; no doubt attracted to the dovish views of Ron Paul and the open-minded respect for conspiracy opinions amongst followers. After-all, Ron Paul is the alternative-media candidate for president and by a wide margin. His own campaign website carries videos from Alex Jones' different websites, PrisonPlanet.com and InfoWars.com, where all kinds of propaganda concerning the Bilderberger Group, the New World Order, 9/11, FEMA, Bush, Obama, and the FED is served up on a daily basis to the 'Fear the Black-Helicopter' crowd, and there is relationship between Paul and these people going back 20 to 30 years, deep in the heart of Texas, where radicals go to learn to demagogue and pamphleteer. The State's colorful political history is awash in radicalism, especially when you get away from the big cities, and out into God's country. If the GOP ever embraces Ron Paul, they should expect a tidal wave of coverage concerning his rather radical associations and connections to the likes of White Supremacists and far-right conspiratorial kooks.
Ron Paul’s insurgent 2008 campaign was not welcomed amongst the McCain led GOP crowd, who saw him as a Nader of-the-right, threatening to give away a cheap victory to a mutual enemy. His dovish, anti-American left-wing views don't always go down well with the red meat military crowd, who don't appreciate the blame that Paul distributes to them for their role in the mess that we've created for ourselves abroad. Yet, despite these differences over foreign policy strategy, in absence of victory, a new element has emerged based on a basic bond of opposition to the Obama Administration. CNBC's Rick Santelli's on-air anti-Obama rant heard-round-the-world in Feb. 2009, kicked off the co-option of Ron Paul's decidedly anti-war 'Tea-Party' rallies into a libertarian-conservative opposition-fusion movement against the current president. Now over a year and half later, these mass movement energies have been transformed into a genuine electoral power, and there is a battle raging for the heart and soul of the Republican Party that threatens to take all of us down with it. Should the darkness of new radicalism prevail over retracted, dispassionate debate, comb-sided with a dedication to the virtue of reasoning, the next Republican Administration is likely to make George W. Bush look like George Plimpton.
The internal left-right divisions in the Tea Party, itself, often go unnoticed, or are truncated in the media by the pandering of its apologists and supporters as immaterial. The movement is about tax and spending reform, they say, so members views on other subjects are irrelevant. But as much as moderate Tea Party members try to frame the focus of the grass-roots movement on fiscal issues, that is not all that its supporters are talking about, or seem to be angry about. In the end, the organized monied interest in the movement, clearly indicates that it serves a broader political agenda, which is the take-over of the GOP establishment by a new 'hardcore' conservative/libertarian voter base, radicalized over the last 20 years by the Joseph Gobbelization of our Politics, and prepared to rather aggressively knock government out of the way when it comes to big business and the economy. The constant blather of lies, misinformation, and angry, hateful, mean spirited rhetoric has reduced the conservative movement to a spasm of painful, paranoid hallucinations and psychotic mental contractions ...a primitive form of Fear and Loathing performance art.....and the fruit of these efforts is paying off with the infected behaving like they're out of their minds.
The psycho-mobs witnessed on-camera during the healthcare debates leave no doubt that the Tea Party speaks to all that is stubborn, viscous, stupid, sneaky, and cruel in the American character. No amount of propaganda can excuse their behavior. Respect and decency are conservative values; protesting like barbarians is antithetical of what conservatism is supposed to be about:: restraint, discipline, and dedication to reason.
The Tea Party movement is a new breed of right-wing dissent, that goes beyond disagreement within the liberal tradition of government, and into the hyper-realm of nihilism vs. decency. A whole segment of our population has gone mad......Bad news and propaganda has led them over to the dark-side.....
Reagan's "Government is the Problem, Not the Solution" campaign schtick..a strange and terrible take on the journey-saga that is our Republican experiment with Representative Democracy...prevails as an absolutism amongst the Tea Party faithful. Constitutionally, many con/libertarians believe the government is off its Rails and Rockers; and many believe that they are well within their rights as free individuals in resisting or overthrowing this government for its crimes against the people its supposed to represent, and its only out of respect for American life that they are willing to take a chance on reclaiming their government peacefully, via grassroots movement. Compared to today's edgy con/libertarian radicals in the Tea-Party movement, every major Republican president in history, including the party's founder, deserve to be called RHINOs. And I believe that many see their current involvement in politics as their last chance to avoid having another Civil War, and should the voting public fail to see it there way, another go-around or two, they have made it clear that they will support "Second Amendment Remedies" to achieve their political aims. And it's getting closer to the day again, when a sizable chunk of the con/libertarian axis completely breaks off from the rest of us and starts threatening war if they lose the next election...the ultimate betrayal of democracy.
Now, if the traditional GOP establishment is not toppled by the Tea-Party movement.... the moderate, fiscal-conservative, socially liberal element of this insurgency is likely to stop collaborating with the radicals, who are responsible for most of the insanity that the American people have seen on TV at Tea-Party rallies.
Even in heated left-right contests, Libertarian Party-GOP ballot fusion is not a widespread phenomena...but self-described libertarians voting for Republicans is increasingly common. As ideologists without a viable political party home, many libertarians voters behave as independent-swing voters, basing their vote, at least in part, on the threat posed by who they dislike the most ….but if the Tea Party still leads to the loser's lounge, there is more incentive for libertarians to detach from the conservatives who've led them there, often kickin' and screamin'..and to try another way.... Should the insurgency fail, the fragmentation of its columns is inevitable, and participants are likely to be pulled along the relative left-right lines of their collaboration. The genuine libertarian element of the Tea-Party movement could turn back towards the center from which it came, towards building a Centrist Big-Tent Alternative Third-Way, which includes independents,moderates, Democrats, and fiscal conservatives....but solely under the Libertarian Party banner.....which is possible with a softening of their Austrian school of economics “laissez-faire” influenced views, and a genuine acceptance of the role of the federal government in protecting civil liberties.
Currently, many in the libertarian movement have naive anarchist aspirations, others have more benign intentions of merely devolving more of the federal government’s powers to the States and the People for the sake of liberty and efficiency. Some may be completely against the death penalty; others may want it done at the local level, by local citizens who catch the crime in progress, or by the decree of the swift judgment of county courts not subject to the appellate jurisdiction of higher authorities. The problem I have is that many of them, who endorse radical devolvement of federal power into the state's and local governments hands, they don't seem to care or worry about tyrannical State or Local government..The hard-core anti-federalist element within the con/libertarian movements believe that the proper role of a central government amongst the States is limited to managing a collective defense against foreign threats to our security and our access to markets abroad; the States govern domestic matters amongst themselves....call it internal/external compact government..But in the end, this is not the configuration that the Constitution prescribes. Indeed, the Constitution grants the federal government many domestic powers...my point here is to demonstrate that there are many in con/libertarian movements who possess views that run contrary to the essence of the Constitution. In this they may support the American Revolution, but its plain as day, that many would seem to prefer the Articles of Confederation over the U.S. Constitution as the Law of the Land.
Now, what is wrong with a viable libertarian alternative to both major political parties? Well nothing except for the fact, that if it is successful, it won't be a third party for long: either it topples one or both of the major parties standing, or its absorbed by the one it works together with more, or it stubbornly holds out and refuses to cooperate with either party, resulting in political gridlock if it prevents the possibility of a majority government. Protracted three-way political fighting will make for even more painful deliberations, and promote even further political fragmentation, leading to even more extremism on the edges of the spectrum. Currently, our system is just not set up to support a wide variety of credible options to choose from at the ballot box; it would take monumental electoral voting reforms just to get it off the ground, and an incredible amount of negotiations in order to form functional coalition majority governments. I'm not sure Americans are politically educated and mature enough to handle European parliamentary government..nor are they ready to vote at intermittent periods when ruling coalitions fall apart.
What's clear is that with the raw kookiness going on at the darkside of the spectrum, American politics is destined to get a whole lot weirder. A Whirlwind is coming...a new Gonzo right has taken to the streets, and this kind of radical politics hasn't been seen since the last stages of the Weimar Republic. Chaos is on the agenda. The social mood demands destruction. We are all headed to the Edge, at full throttle, on a desolate strip of road curving around the bend of a large mountain, and “None Shall Pass.” Those motivated primarily by the passions of their political animalism are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt" - Bertrand Russell.
Please now brother don't you ride this trainRide the wrong rails, live your life in vainPlease now brother don't you ride this trainRide the wrong rails, live your life in vain
“Train To Nowhere,” Savoy Brown (1969)
El Prezidente Kaboom, Great stuff...there's lots here to think about, and to help understand the diversity of views of the Tea Party. I'll add a vew thoughts of my own. While there are certainly some Tea Partiers with legitimate well thought out gripes against government policies that merit public debate, those people have largely been drowned out by as you put it, the "constant blather of lies, misinformation, and angry, hateful, mean spirited rhetoric" of the "stubborn, viscous, stupid, sneaky, and cruel" element within their party...as evidenced by those those vicious and ignorant signs calling Obama a socialist and a fascist at the same time...and the birthers, and the "Obama is a Muslim" crowd, and such.
And then there are the Tea Party headliners...Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Sharron Angle, Glenn Beck, etc. whose shrills about Obama make little sense. That bunch certainly doesn't strike me as having any kind of critical thinking skills.
Then there's the Tea Party of Eire County Ohio that sent out a controversial Conservative Voter Guide listing 15 issues important to them. These include some with religious overtones, such as defining the Right to Life as a Constitutional right, and therefore innocent human beings should have legal protection from conception until natural death; and that regulation of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere should be left to God and not government, and all measures of Cap and Trade as well as the teaching of global warming theory in our schools should be opposed. Crazy?
Much has been said about the "grass roots origin" of the Tea Party activists, a careful analysis of their support shows that it is largely funded by right wing organizations and corporations like Koch Industries. Jane Meyer has an excellent article entitled, COVERT OPERATIONS, August 30, 2010, in the New Yorker magazine about the activities of billionaires Charles and David Koch in quietly giving over $100 million to right wing organizations including the Tea Party movement while hiding behind such organizations as Americans for Prosperity. It's a long article but well worth anyone's time that wants to understand more about the sinister activities of the super rich to control the so called grass roots movements like the Tea Party.
For all the diversity of views and populace type of rhetoric, where indeed would the Tea Party take this country if they came into power? Certainly they would not be able to make even a small dent in the needed $1.3 trillion "contract" budget cut without drastic cuts in military spending , Social Security and Medicare. The math doesn't add up. But it feels good to the "low information voters."
I would like to think that liberals will be energized to go to the polls in large numbers in November to counter their craziness, and that Independents will also vote with their heads. You can be sure that Republicans and the Tea Partiers will be energized to vote for their candidates no matter how outrageous. And if they win over Congress in 2010 you can expect a polarized government for the next two years and maybe beyond. Is that what Americans want? It's what Republicans want for sure.
As the CBS poll shows, Tea Partiers are largely educated ordinary good American citizens. And they are not stupid. It's just that when they are glued to Fox News, it hard to escape the hate, anger and fear that is promoted daily on that network and by right wing talk radio personalities like Rush Limbaugh. A daily heavy dosage of that and a person learns to hate and develop an inner rage...emotions which block out critical thinking. And hence at least when it comes to politics, they act stupid...cocksure stupid!
Frank