Tag Archives: Republicans

But He Seemed Like Such a Nice Man

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Michael Lind offers an explanation for the intense right-wing, anti-government, apocalyptic rhetoric that we hear so much of these days: “(Ronald Reagan’s) moderation in office had less effect on American society than the decades of vilification of the public sector that he pumped like toxic waste into public discourse.”

Lind points out that “every crackpot element of today’s radical Right can find inspiration in quotes from Reagan”, such as:

“In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

“The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.”

And on other topics:

“Within the covers of the Bible are all the answers for all the problems men face.”

“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness” (from Reagan’s nomination speech for Barry Goldwater in 1964).

“They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.”

“It’s silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.”

Lind concludes: “Reagan won his popularity by encouraging Americans to think and feel like aggrieved victims, while absolving them from any responsibility for the modern government that they themselves voted for.”

http://www.salon.com/2012/08/28/reagans_radical_rhetoric/

More Depravity

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From Mitt Romney’s campaign website: “Mitt will enforce the laws already on the books and punish, to the fullest extent of the law, criminals who misuse firearms to commit crimes. But he does not support adding more laws and regulations that do nothing more than burden law-abiding citizens while being ignored by criminals.” 

Of course, professional criminals don’t massacre innocent civilians. There isn’t any money in it. The men who commit these crimes are angry and/or insane but otherwise ordinary people. They don’t have underworld connections. They would find it difficult or impossible to acquire military-style weapons if such weapons were illegal.  

According to Romney, we should simply work harder at catching these people after they shoot up a movie theater, school, campaign event or commuter train. 

Unfortunately, catching them after the fact has never been the problem. The problem is to prevent them from shooting lots of us in the first place.

Depravity

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In the law, “depraved indifference” is a state of mind that can affect a defendant’s criminal liability: “To constitute depraved indifference, the defendant’s conduct must be ‘so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime” (www.definitions.uslegal.com).

Compare what Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin recently said about  our supposed constitutional right to own assault weapons that can fire up to 100 rounds without reloading: “These are rifles that are used in hunting. Just the fact of the matter is this is really not an issue of guns. This is about sick people doing things you simply can’t prevent. It’s really an issue of freedom” (Fox News Sunday, 7/22/12). 

These are rifles that are used in hunting people.

Insanity

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1999 – Columbine – 12 dead, 21 wounded.

2007 – Virginia Tech – 32 dead, 17 wounded.

2008 – Northern Illinois – 5 dead, 21 wounded.

2009 – Fort Hood – 13 dead, 29 wounded.

2009 – Binghamton – 13 dead, 4 wounded.

2011 – Tucson – 6 dead, 14 wounded.

2012 – Tuscaloosa – 18 wounded.

2012 – Aurora – 12 dead, 58 wounded.

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

We don’t have a well-regulated militia. Instead, we have the unregulated sale of dangerous weapons.

Either weapons of war like the AR-15 assault rifle should be illegal or we should all be able to purchase surface-to-air missiles. It’s one way or the other.