Proof of Republican 'doublethink' (a must read, IMO)

[demmiblue]

Source: The Guardian

<snip>

On the other hand, the message did arrive just moments after the morally repulsive Rick Santorum had finished explaining that abortions must be denied even to victims of rape and incest because the baby shouldn't be "victimised twice", concentrating so deeply on maintaining his sanctimonious facial expression that he hadn't the mental space to consider that maybe it would be the raped woman who would be victimised twice if she were to be denied an abortion if she wished to have one. But then, of course, it's hard to answer intelligently when one talks out of one's arse and the brain is therefore so far away from one's speaking orifice.

<snip>

Despite having been written by one of those dreaded European socialists, 1984 appears to be the guidebook for today's Republican contenders. Even aside from the crazed fascination with sex some of them have (the Iowa debate also provided a platform for Santorum to explicate, again, his theory that gay marriage is the same as polygamy, having presumably decided that his worn-down-to-the-nub rib-tickler that homosexuality is analogous to bestiality needed a bit of sprucing up) which would impress 1984's Junior Anti-Sex League, the frank use of doublethink has been if not quite impressive then certainly unembarrassed.

<snip>

Perhaps the most blatant use of doublethink was Mitt Romney's self-serving claim last week that "corporations are people, my friend", which managed to be both deeply Orwellian as well as sounding like an offcut from It's a Wonderful Life. It doesn't even require a tiptoe of imagination, let alone a leap, to envisage Lionel Barrymore as evil Mr Potter cackling to James Stewart as poor George Bailey: "Corporations are people, George!"

<snip>

Doublethink is the inevitable result of a Republican party that has become so McCarthyite; where homophobia, anti-abortion beliefs, Christianity verging on the evangelical, disbelief in science and a refusal to accept that rich people should be taxed more are essential so as not to be accused of being a Rino (Republican in name only). And there is no colder proof of doublethink than the look of moral superiority on a candidate's face when they are describing their wholly immoral beliefs that exist purely to cause misery, such as an "unblemished record" of homophobic policies (Bachmann). Is this evil? It's dystopian.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/aug/16/republican-party-doublethink-hadley-freeman


I had a hard time deciding which paragraphs to post... the whole article was brilliant (in the British sense), witty and funny!

Can you imagine something like this being printed in an American newspaper?!

[qb]

1. Thanks for posting. The Guardian is a reliable source for stories that are "missed"

by our lapdog media.

[treestar]

2. There are no good photos of Michelle Bachmann

Santorum is horrible.

[gratuitous]

3. Moral superiority on their faces as they describe immoral beliefs

Under the heading of "couldn't have said it better myself." In Republican world, the oppressed are oppressed because they must be oppressed. The privileged must be privileged because they must be privileged. It's a Dr. Pangloss world, where people are up or down because that is how things must be, and not because of any deliberate operation of society.

[Hydra]

4. Worse than that

It's "God's will"

Aka: Divine right of kings.

Royalty is in vogue again.