The ghosts of hate

Think of this as Volume 14, Number 34 of A-Clue.com, the online newsletter I've written since 1997. Enjoy.

One important point liberals conveniently forget is that, despite controlling the Presidency and Congress, they don't yet control the agenda.

The agenda is controlled, still, by the old Thesis. It's only after a new Thesis is validated, as the Nixon Thesis was validated by Reaganism, the FDR thesis by Truman, or the Lincoln Thesis by Grant, that the ability to set an agenda shifts. 

This is what makes life so hard for the leader of a new Thesis. His followers are rushing ahead of him, the media is making every analysis based on the old Thesis, and believers in that old Thesis are going crazy.

Seriously crazy. 

The death of James J. Kilpatrick last week is a good place to start the discussion. Kilpatrick was a conservative in a liberal age. He was an outright segregationist in the 1950s, but had to retreat from that position, as he retreated from others during his career. Ideological offense was not his metier which is why, by the time Reaganism flowered, he seemed antique. 

How does today differ from, say, 1994? It's important to note that Republicans today don't really have a coherent agenda, save opposition. They don't really have an agenda because everything that should be their agenda has been discredited — tax cuts, foreign wars, "small" government, government as a business.

How can I prove my point to you? It's right here on this page. Just look at the left side.

Meet Franky. He's our current troll. Read his comments. Note the dismissive tone. Note how Bush has fallen through his memory hole. Liberals are bad people, he believes, with ill motives. Not real Americans. It's what his life has taught him. And he's not alone. Too many conservatives today lack the main prerequisite for living in a democratic system — respect for the motives of those who disagree with them.

(By the way, he just dismissed the above through projection. I'm the hater. Not him.)

He's a bully. Americans don't cheer the bully. That's what distinguishes us as a people.

It's been like that since the beginning. Notice this piece of racist nonsense. It's of a piece with birtherism, an assumption that the President is illegitimate, even though his victory in 2008 was decisive.

This has since morphed into outright racism, spitting on my Congressman, the "New Black Panther Party" nonsense, which followed the destruction of ACORN on false charges. It's not the issue that's the issue, but the need for continuing grievance.

Two points. It's racist. And the media has bought it, including (often) the Right's common projection of racism on those who call them what they are.

If this were the only evidence I would not have much of a case. Didn't liberals insult Bush, questioning his intelligence and his legitimacy? Yes we did. But few called him a fascist, those who did were immediately declared anathema, and those who considered him illegitimate were (despite the evidence) sidelined by the Democratic mainstream.

Now let's move on to other forms of hate.

Anchor Babies — This and the whole SB 170 nonsense are racism aimed at Mexicans. Immigration is down, people — it rises and falls with the economy. Changing the Constitution when you know you can never get the votes is pure dog whistling. Note how the second issue followed the first. We got racial profiling through the legislature but our aim isn't change but the stoking of hatred against the "other." Thus "anchor babies."

Ground Zero Mosque — It's not a mosque, it's not at Ground Zero. And it's not just the location that is at issue. Anti-Islam racists are protesting every mosque being proposed around the country, deliberately equating American citizens with the foreigners who attacked us on 9-11. Note how rather than defend the indefensible, terrorism aimed at peaceful Americans, the Right attacks the messenger. 

There is an important message in Olbermann's comment, the background of the quote "first they came for the Communists." Hatred, when not challenged, consumes everyone. For this, American power can have no place.

Sure, Franky and others can call me or any other liberal who dares disagree with them names, unAmerican, people with bad motives or no legitimacy. But in that, and in its extension toward other races or religions, they betray themselves and what they're about.

They have nothing to say. Just as the hippies of 40 years ago had nothing to offer but their anger and rejection of society. Just as the Republicans of the Roosevelt era, some of whom became fellow travelers of the Nazis, had nothing to say. Just as the Populists had nothing more to say when they turned to racism. Just as the Confederacy, in the end, had nothing to say.

By all rights Republicans should do very well in November. Polls show them leading many races. Analysts give them a 50-50 chance of taking both the House and the Senate. The President is unpopular. The economy remains depressed — growing without new employment.

But just as past Theses overplayed their hand, betraying their true unAmericanism through contempt for others, so it is with Franky and his gang. What would they give us, if given power? Their economic "policy" if you can call it that contradicts itself — save the tax cuts and cut the deficit? Ask Greece how well austerity is doing for them. And that's the kindest thing you can say about the GOP today — that they're for austerity in a Depression.

No wonder they want to change the subject.

Hate is not unAmerican. It is very American. It has been with us since before we became a nation. But the genius of America is that, while we have flirted with it, we have seldom given in to it as a people, because we are not by nature fearful.

If fear is all you've got, America will always reject you. The evidence of the need for a change in our assumptions is the rise of fear as a political tactic, its acceptance by the media, and the need for Americans to stand up to it, as individuals, and not be bullied. 

Franky, you and your friends don't scare me anymore. Go fuck yourself.