The State, a newspaper in South Carolina, reports that Senator Lindsay Graham–the very right-wing South Carolina Senator who is coming up for re-election–has attracted a primary opponent. Because, you know, Graham is insufficiently insane.
State Sen. Lee Bright announced his candidacy Tuesday for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate, calling incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham “a community organizer for the Muslim Brotherhood.”
“During the (congressional) recess, when I would hope that he would be around folks in South Carolina, getting their feelings on so many issues that affect their lives, he has instead chosen to take his time to be a community organizer for the Muslim Brotherhood and that concerns me,” Bright told supporters in a conference call. “He needs to spend more time listening to what the brothers in South Carolina have to say.”
Increasingly, I feel as though I have fallen down the Rabbit Hole with Alice, or I’m living in one of those science fiction books I used to read, where the protagonist goes to sleep only to wake up in an alternate universe.
Mr. (not very) Bright uses all the dog whistle words: community organizer. Muslim. Next thing you know, he’ll be accusing Graham of having been civil to the President (although he’d be hard pressed to find an example of Graham actually voting for something the President proposed. At this point, if President Obama suggested we endorse the sun continuing to rise in the east, most Republicans would call the very idea “socialism” and oppose it.)
I know we Americans have gone through periods of hysteria and bigotry and self-destructive behaviors before. We just didn’t have the internet and Facebook and blogs to rub our faces in every paranoid utterance, every display of aggressive ignorance and racial animus. I want to believe that this, too, shall pass…..
But I’d feel so much better if someone could assure me that we will come to the end of this cycle of crazy before the harm done becomes irreparable.
I am 76 years old and, as an old friend used to say, “I have been around the world nine times, met everybody twice and been to a buzzard f**king contest; but I have never seen anything like this.” No even the anti-Viet Nam war years with all of the physical violence was filled with this much hatred, lies, deliberate distortions of facts, racism, bigotry, legalized violation of civil and human rights; all being led by fools who are members of a once highly respected political party. Watergate pales next to the past few years of abuses and waste of billions of our tax dollars – much of it going to pay salaries and benefits to the perpetrators of the destruction of our American way of life. Sheila; I see no assurances of an end to this cycle of legal violence and destruction. Beyond here there be dragons.
“Increasingly, I feel as though I have fallen down the Rabbit Hole with Alice, or I’m living in one of those science fiction books I used to read, where the protagonist goes to sleep only to wake up in an alternate universe.”
How fitting…….especially recalling the Mad Hatter presiding over a tea party. Yet to be determined as to whether Rand Paul, Ted Cruz , or Michelle Bachmann in drag, will be cast to play that role in the NBC (really Fox News) and CNN documentary versions of Lewis Carrol’s classic.
Germany was an advanced nation 100 years ago. It slipped into an awful period of hateful destruction that consumed the world for a wile. (It could have gone much worse had he not been so crazy )
It CAN happen here. It CAN.
This is not a joke any longer. At first the stooges were funny clowns… Great material for Leno & Letterman & Jon Stewart. The more educated Germans though Adolf was a funny stooge too… for a bit. Not so funny as it turned out.
Hate and fear are a powerful combination. Many are being seduced. Now they have unlimited funding. God help us all.
Much of the German population swore they didn’t know what was going on around them during the Holocaust. The American population cannot say that; we see, we hear, we read daily, at times hourly…and yet the destruction continues. I agree, Patmcc, it is going on here, it did stop being funny long ago; we are seeing a different form of Holocaust. Destruction of groups of humanity that is again being carried out by one party who is again telling all who will listen that they are working in God’s name, doing God’s work, following His plan to make this a better world – a world that only contains those people approved of by them and who will blindly follow their orders and goose-step into their future. There is no other country to come to our rescue; we have always been the rescuers…how do we rescue ourselves? A few years ago, Oprah Winfrey interviewed an older Jewish woman, a Holocaust survivor who told her story. When Oprah asked her how she maintained her faith in and love of God while living in that hell; the womans stated simply, “When God gave man free will, the control was taken from His hands. I believe God cries, too.” Imagine His grief today as He looks down upon the world…can He help us? Can He save us from ourselves when our leader and all he stands for is the primary target for that one party’s destruction?
Yes, Sheila. This too shall pass. I just wish I knew when. More great damage will be done, but I too am hoping it won’t be irreparable. Maybe when people realize that those “conservative Republicans” are really smiling reactionaries they will start to bring back real balance.
JoAnn – We have to understand what Watergate really was. It was an attempt to steal an election using any means, including burglary, and in effect subvert the entire democratic process. It was an attempt to have a bloodless and hidden coup d’etat. The only thing Watergate pales next to is the unprecedented, totally legal, election by fiat committed by the Supreme Court in 2000.
Len; I lived in Port Richey, Florida in 2000. The media daily reported the so-called recount and daily reported illegal voter discrimination and that pesky “chad” problem. When numbers were reported, Gore was leading. If the election was close in more than one state; why was Florida the only state to do a recount – the state where W’s little brother Jeb was governor? Money talks; loud and clear in this case and we were handed the bill…and are still paying.
A number of years ago, when I was an undergraduate and when people were afraid of the communists taking over this country, I had a wise professor who opined that the U.S. was actually a pretty conservative place, and would never vote communist unless one condition was satisfied: They would vote communist as a reaction to fascism. That’s how long this nonsense can continue. Once people have gained their sensibilities and understand that this kind of stuff is not just nonsense–It’s a danger to our form of government–people will react.