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Pinget
QUOTE
The Democratic Party (which, I hate to tell you folks, may be "liberal" by US standards but is a centre-right party by international standards) had control of the House of Representatives for forty years before the Republican takeover of 1994. It's had control of the White House for twenty of the last forty-six years. It last had control of the Senate in 2002, a mere four years ago. There is plenty of history of the Democrats being in control of part or all of the federal government. At any time, has that party established a Department of Peace?Made alliances with Castro? Launched a communist revolution? Done anything like any of this crazy crap?



No, no, no, and no.



Of course, anyone who was even remotely aware of American politics during the Clinton Administration remembers the paranoia: black helicopters were coming to take all conservatives away to prison camps; civil war was going to break out any moment; Clinton was going to declare himself President for Life; jack-booted government thugs from FEMA were running a secret government that would take away all your freedoms; everyone would be forced to have chips implanted in their brains; the United Nations was going to take over the United States and turn everyone into serfs; the Bible was going to be banned; all white women would be forced to marry black men; abortion was going to become mandatory.



I'm not making any of those up. I remember hearing, seeing, and reading every single one of those dire predictions, all advanced with total seriousness, on right-wing radio, in the Republican House, in right-wing publications and listservs all throughout the decade.



Of course, none of those things ever happened or came close to happening. None of them ever could have happened. None of them was ever even planned. These dystopian nightmares were never part of anyone's agenda. None of them ever existed, even as notions, except in the fevered minds of those who were "warning" everyone about them. The demonic Left that the American Right keeps talking about, the entity that wants to do all of these horrible things, simply does not exist. At no point in its entire history, in power or out of it, has the Democratic Party ever even suggested or hinted any of this stuff.



Undoubtedly, if and when the Democrats take over Congress, the paranoics will go into full meltdown, and spend the next several years panicking about the same old things, which will still not happen because nobody is going to make them happen. That's entirely predictable. What I still don't understand -- what I've never understood -- is why.

http://thevanitypress.blogspot.com/2006/10...i-dont-get.html
Gadzooks!
Many of us have known for some time that the Dems are, in fact, a center-right party, and I think we all know by now that fear is the basic tool of socio-political manipulation in this country. Fear is the closest thing the US has ever had to a national religion.
Jubal
QUOTE(Gadzooks! @ Monday, 23 October 2006, 10:25 am) [snapback]76788[/snapback]

Many of us have known for some time that the Dems are, in fact, a center-right party, and I think we all know by now that fear is the basic tool of socio-political manipulation in this country. Fear is the closest thing the US has ever had to a national religion.

Don't forget bigotry. Though I suppose you could argue that's just fear in disguise.
Gadzooks!
Yup. Religion plays on fear of death, and offers the comfort of immortality to the faithful. Bigotry plays on the same fear, death. If they take too much, there won't be enough for us. We'll die. Scapegoating. It's primal, preverbal, and that is what makes it so effective. Politicians and party intellectuals talk for miles about reason and logic, but when it comes down to brass tacks, they all go for the gut reaction. A momentary image that plays on our deepest, darkest fears overrides all the reason and logic in the world.
sky of mind
Since the supposed Party of God ha sbeen showne over and over again to be as dirty as they come,
I would imagine this melt down will be muted, for a bit. I mean, they got nobody to turn too, and right now they see the Democrats as not godly enough, but way better than the Repugnants.


What I fear is a backlash, or blowback effect. That in 18 months a few if the Christian Republicans will capatolize on the fear factor mentioned in this article and AGAIN use it for personal gain!

The fear in ignorant people is never far away, and resides under very thin skin.
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