The GOP: hypocritical, warmongering draft-dodgers
Hypocrisy is all about never having to say you are sorry. The current leadership of the GOP is all about hypocrisy.
I should disclaim here that I am still a registered Republican, I guess for two reasons. The first is historical - the ideals of the historical GOP are still ones I find virtue in: fiscal responsibility, social liberty, individual rights (the GOP still is the party of Lincoln), and personal responsibility. The second is that I'm afraid they wouldn't count my vote otherwise.
The current leadership of the GOP has strayed so far from these ideals as to make their philosophy indistinguishable from that very basest of human foibles, greed. And they are sickening hypocrites to boot.
Every thing that animates them is about greed. They've got theirs, so the hell to the rest of you. Instead of doing anything which might actually help a majority of americans, what they typically do is whatever they want and then insist, with the help of their bought-and-paid-for conservative media, that it is for the good of the country. Tax cuts for the very rich at the expense of everyone else? It's for the good of the country!
But this isn't what I want to talk about. Today I want to talk about serving in the military and hypocrisy. When Bill Clinton ran for president the first time, you may recall the great hew and cry rising up from the conservative media about Clinton being a "draft dodger". We heard all about the pot smokin', draft dodgin', woman chasin' Hillbilly from Arkansas. Clinton's stance on Vietnam and his own draft status was well thought out for a person his age, ethical, nuanced, and in the end even brave, as he exposed himself to the draft after one of his best friends was drafted, despite his opposition to the war. More on this at some other time.
There is a lot of evidence that George Walker Bush, the governor of Texas who is pretending to be a legally elected president of the US, was a deserter from the military in a time of war (a war he supported). If you haven't heard about it, it is because the conservative media has suppressed the story, and they certainly haven't pursued it. Deserting in a time of war is a serious offense, and can be punished (there is no statute of limitations) quite severely. Please see AWOLBush, Who Served?, and this article for more.
The Republican party still wraps itself in the flag. Oh, they are so durn patriotic! They like nothing more than sending our military off to die for corporate interests in some god-forsaken part of the globe. But, they don't go themselves, of course. You've probably already heard about Rush Limbaugh's pyloidinal cyst on his ass, his poor hygeine preventing him from fighting in Vietnam. "The ChickenHawk Database" really skewers and lays out who among our most bellicose and jingoistic public figures, wants everyone else to experience war but managed to get out of it when it was their turn. Not that you can't use military force wisely if you haven't served. It's just that we get a little suspicious of those who are so bloodthirsty about it, but who have no idea what it actually entails.
I should disclaim here that I am still a registered Republican, I guess for two reasons. The first is historical - the ideals of the historical GOP are still ones I find virtue in: fiscal responsibility, social liberty, individual rights (the GOP still is the party of Lincoln), and personal responsibility. The second is that I'm afraid they wouldn't count my vote otherwise.
The current leadership of the GOP has strayed so far from these ideals as to make their philosophy indistinguishable from that very basest of human foibles, greed. And they are sickening hypocrites to boot.
Every thing that animates them is about greed. They've got theirs, so the hell to the rest of you. Instead of doing anything which might actually help a majority of americans, what they typically do is whatever they want and then insist, with the help of their bought-and-paid-for conservative media, that it is for the good of the country. Tax cuts for the very rich at the expense of everyone else? It's for the good of the country!
But this isn't what I want to talk about. Today I want to talk about serving in the military and hypocrisy. When Bill Clinton ran for president the first time, you may recall the great hew and cry rising up from the conservative media about Clinton being a "draft dodger". We heard all about the pot smokin', draft dodgin', woman chasin' Hillbilly from Arkansas. Clinton's stance on Vietnam and his own draft status was well thought out for a person his age, ethical, nuanced, and in the end even brave, as he exposed himself to the draft after one of his best friends was drafted, despite his opposition to the war. More on this at some other time.
There is a lot of evidence that George Walker Bush, the governor of Texas who is pretending to be a legally elected president of the US, was a deserter from the military in a time of war (a war he supported). If you haven't heard about it, it is because the conservative media has suppressed the story, and they certainly haven't pursued it. Deserting in a time of war is a serious offense, and can be punished (there is no statute of limitations) quite severely. Please see AWOLBush, Who Served?, and this article for more.
The Republican party still wraps itself in the flag. Oh, they are so durn patriotic! They like nothing more than sending our military off to die for corporate interests in some god-forsaken part of the globe. But, they don't go themselves, of course. You've probably already heard about Rush Limbaugh's pyloidinal cyst on his ass, his poor hygeine preventing him from fighting in Vietnam. "The ChickenHawk Database" really skewers and lays out who among our most bellicose and jingoistic public figures, wants everyone else to experience war but managed to get out of it when it was their turn. Not that you can't use military force wisely if you haven't served. It's just that we get a little suspicious of those who are so bloodthirsty about it, but who have no idea what it actually entails.
posted by ProfessorPlum | 10:00 AM
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