The politics of fear

I was going to write something about the wonderfully crisp early autumn air, but... I was chatting with a couple of folks last night and they were taken a bit aback by my characterization of John McCain as a lying piece of shit who would sell his soul if ever had one. They are not and were not going to vote for him in any case, but they thought I was a bit harsh in my assessment of McCain's charachter. They were, also, largely ingnorant of his various acts of self-aggrandizement and malfeasance over his nearly 30 years in public life--never mind his personal lapses of ethics and morals. But, they were shocked, shocked I tell you, at the level of my vituperativeness. One of them actually said that I was not going to be able to convince people on the merits of my candidates qualifications if I was so obvious about my dislike for McCain and his campaign consort, Sarah Palin. Ummm, okay, I don't care. The GOP has made fear the centerpiece of their campaigns for at least the last 50 years. Fear of the commies, fear of racial mixing, fear of tax and spend liberals, fear of Islam, fear of a liberal education, fear of government regulation and, now, the fear of eternal damnation. The GOP has cynically and deliberately made this presidential election a referendum on the will of GOD. Sarah Palin was chosen, as is becoming increasingly apparent, solely for her attractiveness to a group of voters, the "social conservatives" (who, in actuality, are sociopathic reactionaries) of the GOP's "Base". Her lack of expertise in most areas of governance and her all too obvious certitude that GOD has her back would be hilarious, if it were just a spoof by Tina Fey. But, it's not. Once again the GOP has cranked up the machineries of hate and has ginned up the cross and robe constituency that will vote for whichever candidate they are told to by their ministers and the rightwing smearosphere. So, the GOP has their politics of fear. Well, I got my politics too, the politics of outrage. I am outraged that the same cabal of bastards who have done their utmost to further enrich the wealthiest, remove the safeguards put in place to protect the rest of us from those same people's depradations and plunge us into a war that is as apparently unwinnable as it is interminable dare to ask for another chance to right the ship of state--a ship that they themselves ran aground. I don't know what informs the Obama campaigns rhetoric in the face of a blizzard of lies and bullshit from the right. I do know what informs mine. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to make nice, anymore. Steve Earle's 2005 Album, "The Revolution Starts Now" has the following chorus in his song, "Fuck the FCC" "So fuck the FCC Fuck the FBI Fuck the CIA" I'm livin’ in the motherfuckin’ USA" Profane? yup; nasty, ditto. Add the GOP, the AFA and every other lying group of fear mongering bastards that are the "special needs" children of Lee Atwater, may he rot in his troubled sleep. Let's not allow the "Liars for GOD" to interpret our silence as fear.