The DANGER of "nice" Republicans like Laura Bush, others...

[SushiFan]

Just some personal observations of their reich wing agenda and GOP apologists in the US today:

Laura Bush, Peggy Noonan, et al., are simply GWB's reich wing message gone mainstream.


Dogs like Coulter, Malkin, O'Reilly, Hannity, can't be taken seriously because their severity and personal attack say nothing to the rest of us except that they have narrow and small minds. Minds which perhaps never made it through hi school. Seriously. For these reasons alone, they pose little threat to America because they neutralize their own message the moment they open their foul distempered mouths.


Laura and her kind, on the other hand, speak measured and low-key tones. They know better than to alienate future GWB Believers with the rudeness of vulgar observations. And they make the arguments of the extremist right with civility (usually) and pseudo-rationality so as to not turn off listeners. Their aim is far more insidious than that of the heel biters and slur slingers. These two seek converts. And if converts are not possible, they then seek to make the Bushie extremists seem like next door neighbors, friends, just regular Americans. In fact, though, these regular next door neighbors are as willing to kill womens' rights as they are willing to kill gays' rights, the rights of the down and out, the rights of the elderly, the rights of veterans, the rights of children, etc.


There is nothing American about such aims. There is everything NEOCON and neoNazi and fundamentalist reich wing about them. But on the surface we don't see this because of the sublety of their making nice. It is only when confronting them with dialogue that their methods become more clear. Yet, we think they are "NICE" Republicans.


And therein lies the danger. Therein was the Snake and the Apple in the Garden. "Hey!" they say. "GWB-ism is a GOOD thing. It can't hurt you. It's only the way MOST Americans feel. It is what's good for America".


Sure it is. This "niceness" of the US right is why The Book of Daniel was dropped. It is why kids' books in schools which seek to educate our future about the goodness and differences in ALL human groups are banned in certain school districts. It's why it's OK to kill thousands of US troops in an illegitimate war yet not OK for a scared young girl to protect her future with a much needed abortion.


This is why ID has become a hot topic. The right says, "ID is what we believe. You can't ban it because we BELIEVE in it". And yet, the next moment they want to amend state constitutions with same-sex marriage bans because "We don't believe in that same sex abomination evil, we don't want it, we won't accept it". Even though millions upon millions of other Americans DO accept the rights of gay people.


If you can understand these points, about how pleasantness can conceal bigotry and hate, you can understand how NICE, REASONABLE Republicans like Laura Bush and Noonan pose the most severe danger of all to American freedoms. And you understand how, when dealing with these kinds of demagogues in snakes' clothing, can be harmful to your health and well-being in the future.


This opinion piece of mine is a warning that the left is playing with fire when it accepts right wing extremism as a normal part of the American experience and allows it to flourish and grow, when engaged in conversation or even in angry response to the "good" Republicans.


Don't give ANY Republican a soapbox. Simply ignore their rants. Don't reply to them. Don't address them first. DO act as if they're not even there. It is BETTER, believe me, for America if we can all do that instead of what we are doing now. To keep America from sliding further into an elitist and dictatorial plutocracy, we must not allow the Republicans to make themselves into nice, good, just guys next door. looking out for America type of people. The kind of looking out for America they REALLY want involves the repression of rights, people and numerous American tenets of freedom.


To engage these people in anything but complete opposition is to allow the current evil to grow bigger and bigger and thus choke the US and most of its citizens' freedoms to ultimate death.

[Nomen Tuum]

1. Don't be mean to Laura, she'll run you over.

Amazing how the same whore press that lied any lie about Hillary killing Vince Foster is totally silent about this debauched murderess.

[ixion]

2. it's 'nice' in the most shallow sense of the word

these are not truly nice people. You can see that just by looking at their eyes. I'm amazed that people think the stepford wife Pickles is 'nice'. Vapid, perhaps, but not nice in the most true sense of the word.

[CBHagman]

8. The policies and words show the meanness.

There's a very thin veneer of respectability over what is basically a truly cold-hearted social Darwinism, a return to the worst aspects of the Gilded Age, a strict father mind-set, that sort of thing.

But if Laura Bush were really so nice and really such a great influence over her husband, you'd think perhaps he'd eschew negative campaigning, cultivate an openness in this White House, truly seek counsel from a wide variety of people before acting.

But come on! The White House cancelled a POETRY event due to fear that anti-war sentiments would be expressed. They wouldn't sit down with the freakin' National Council of Churches before invading Iraq, though they did receive a Vatican representative (though the anti-war message was summarily rejected).

The worst is that the media, for the most part, has tamely lapped it all up, claiming that Bush is "likeable" and pursues a "culture of life" and that Laura Bush is "the comforter in chief." :eyes:

Really, Laura Bush is for the most part a cypher to me, even after five years, but I seriously doubt she's this kindly apolitical creature we've heard tell of.

[Surya Gayatri]

3. Insipid, and for that reason, even more

insidiously evil. Who wants to lay into a "nice" lady like Laura or criticize the cooked-up crying jag of a Ms. Alito? They've hijacked the "nice" label and twisted it into something so sinister most people even refuse to recognize it.

My sister-in-law, who tries to stand up for her progressive-leaning beliefs (in the face of my brother's Neo-Con ridicule), still can't see through Laura--thinks she just great, admires her a lot!

:shrug: SG

[SushiFan]

4. That's it, Surya.............

People think these "good" Republicans are not like the others such as GWB, Cheney, Reed, Robertson, and their venomous kind. But they're WORSE --- because we can see what we're dealing with in a Hannity or a Limbaugh, but the nicety of Laura and Mrs. Alito win us over more easily with nice words and seemingly kind gestures, when in fact their goal is the same as any other reich winger:


To destroy America's current freedoms and make us into a Western Taliban, worshipping a Chieftan Talibani and not tolerating anything which is non-Taliban. The GOP of today simply wants us to become a better Taliban than the Talibanis, to dominate the world, not just America, and to make the world into one monolithic culture, dominated by global Big Business with no room for individual differences.


I am not an antiglobalist in any sense nor by any means, but this just seems like to me as the ultimate rational deductivity of American GOP logic.

[Surya Gayatri]

5. Yes, behind those vapid smiles

lurks an agenda more chilling than anything seen in the US's relatively short history.

They seek nothing less than the complete dis-empowerment, if not outright annililation, of all political opposition and social activism.

:nuke: They would literally nuke us, if they could do it without endangering themselves. SG

edit: forgot spell check!

[wishlist]

6. Bush's handlers muzzled Laura until Hillary won NY in a landslide

When Bush was running in 2000, we almost never heard her speak a word. There were a few print interviews, but she was purposely kept way in the background and immune to any criticism. Bush's handlers wanted her to be totally unlike Hillary, thinking that voters disliked opinionated outspoken political wives. But voila, as soon as they were proven wrong by Hillary winning the Senate seat in NY so handily (and Bush being exposed as more of an extremist than a moderate), they raised Laura's profile since they realized that if Hillary could be outspoken and still popular enough to win, Laura could be even more of an asset to Bush by speaking out in his defense than by keeping quiet.

She definitely serves to deflect criticism of him by her carefully cultivated image of being so perfectly nice and likeable that he can't really be as bad and dangerous as he seems.

But I wonder if her demeanor isn't that of an enabler or victim of verbal abuse who is compliant and pleasant in order to prevent a tirade of criticism from Bush, an acknowledged alcoholic bully for much of his adult life.

[Javaman]

7. She's nice???

She reminds me of the kind of person that is the frigid type of nice. Meaning, she does the nice act to a point but if you ever really wanted to be friendly towards her, she would dismiss you with a wave of her hand.
"oh, you want to get to know me? Well, ain't that nice. You can go eat shit now, have a nice day" all said with a shit eating grin on her face.
pickles is as shallow as they come. She's as ruthless as they come. She only has the brains to ride coattails and cocktails.

[SushiFan]

9. Maybe I'm wanting the left to become more radicalized?

Nice just isn't cutting it.


Give the GOP an inch, they'll lie their way into a mile, as they now claim the Comgressional approval gave GWB carte blanche to spy on whomsoever he wanted any ol time he wanted.


They say NO to abortion, NO to gay people, NO to the poor, the elderly, the marginalized, the middle and lower classes. They say no either nicely or hatefully.


But it's STILL no. And if we keep letting this happen, I really feel there's a good chance America may not be here anymore maybe in 5-10 years.


Maybe it's time we said NO in return. When they need our votes in Congress, say NO. When they need our concurrence to teach ID in certain school districts, say NO. When they want networks to cancel shows which they may dislike, say NO.


And don't be afraid to say NO. They're not afraid to shove GWB down OUR throats. Let's just get mad enough and tired enough of all this GOP crap and say NO, it will not be this way anymore because WE say NO. We have got to radicalize. Because the GOP is changing RADICALLY the America most of us grew up in and learned to love. We must do this for our own sakes and for the sake of the greater nation as a whole. Radicalize and email this to those who may be interested. Let's get the ball rolling. Today.

[Javaman]

10. Um, was this posted in reply to my post? n/t