September 7, 2010

The "How"

 

This is a continuation from the post, The Republican Cult's Propaganda and "Argument."

As I pointed out, despite Obama's conservative record, Republicans obstruct and play nasty partisan politics to keep the conservative base in a perpetual state of rage against him. That was the "why." I want to add something - the "how" - because it's important.

If you put aside everything the GOP does, for all the reasons I stated, keep in mind that they've trained and forced their base - without them even realizing it - to hate and be enraged at...fill in the blank...for no other reason then they have to. Spin, hate, hypocrisy, manipulation and blatant, deliberate lies are used to give conservatives a reason to angrily oppose whoever's on the other end of that contentious propaganda .

If you have to dislike and disagree from the start, if you've been trained to hate, automatically, and trained to go on the attack to protect your master - and that's considered "normal" behavior for you (and for the pugnacious right, it certainly is) - surely you'll disagree, hate, and go on the attack when you're given what you think is a darn good reason to. It doesn't have to be true, and it usually isn't. But it doesn't matter because the conservative base is so cantankerous, so loathsome, so paranoid, so ignorant, and so well trained, they'll believe anything; see "Obama's a Socialist," see "Obama's a Muslim," see "Obama's going to take your guns away," see "Obama's not a U.S. citizen because he was born in Africa," and see the right's opposition to well, everything, even if it's something they're always screaming for like tax cuts*, a market-based health insurance system and cuts to social security.

It's like training dogs to fight by filling them with rage (don't take my word for it, take Sarah Palin's). Come to think of it, dog fighting is a cult for dogs.

So even if Obama sticks it to liberals, even if he reaches out to Republicans for bipartisan support, even if he governs as a conservative and does many things conservatives want and agree with, they'll still oppose him, they'll still despise him and they'll still attack him because they've been given "reasons" to. And that shows just how demented the right is. But that's what cults do to you.

This is even scarier then I thought.

* Naturally, the right will accuse Obama of raising taxes when in fact he cut taxes for 95% of America. But the right's hero, Ronald Reagan, not only raised taxes but also imposed the largest corporate tax increase in history (I guess it's okay when Republicans raise taxes). And while we're at it, the anti-government Reagan also added 61,000 "big government" federal workers during his administration, while the man the right was told to hate, Bill Clinton, cut 373,000 federal employees. Reagan also added $2.3 trillion to the national debt. Once again, IOKIYAR.

So the GOP turned Ronald Reagan - this "big government," "tax and spend" former President - into a Republican hero (to counter the Democrat's idolization of FDR) by giving their brainwashed base "reasons" to. And like the good followers they are, they believed every word of it (and if I have to explain why FDR is worthy of such idolization, then we're in more trouble then I thought).


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