SHORT LIVED STEVE ROSE CANDIDACY SHOWS BANKRUPTCY OF REPUBLICAN COALITION

An interesting thing happened recently in the highly Republican state of Kansas which casts doubt upon the future of the Republican Party. A rather distinguished publisher, editor and editorialist, Steve Rose, announced and then abruptly withdrew his candidacy as a Republican primary candidate in the 3rd District. Why was the candidacy so short? Republican rightists did everything but hound Mr. Rose out of the Republican Party because he did not go along with their far right and extremist ideas.


When I first heard of the candidacy of Steve Rose I wondered if he might have a shot at being elected in the district where centrist former prosecutor Dennis Moore has ruled with finesse for many years. I would and do criticize both Moore and Rose from the left side of the political spectrum but found the Rose candidacy a breath of fresh air in an otherwise moribund ranks of Republican rightists.


So the Republican fundamentalists were as angry and intolerant about Rose as they are about any human being that dares to differ with them in any way. Rose soon announced his withdrawal from candidacy; so much the worse for Republican moderates. It seems that Republican fundamentalists and the evangelicals are terrorizing moderate Republicans as well as Democrats. Can such crude conduct keep the Republican coalition together? I would prefer that people like Steve Rose either take over the Republican Party or that they form new political allegiances apart from that increasingly extremist organization.


Of course Steve Rose isn't really qualified to run as a Republican candidate because he can write his own speeches and actually knows what he is talking about.  Republicans tend to look down on exceptional competence and the "witch hunt" faction of the party is always looking for someone in or out of the GOP to persecute.  Ever since the McCarthy era  in the 1950's Republicans have hated "eggheads".  That's how Republicans roll!


Steve Rose is a successful businessman and well informed.  Many Republicans prefer con men and ignorami.  Hence Reagan and GW,

were both blundering idiots, who absolutely squandered American wealth and influence.

WHAT IS THE REPUBLICAN COALITION ALL ABOUT? PART I

What is the social basis of the Republican Party, USA, the so called GOP? It is the big bourgeoisie and finance capital in particular. In that sense it is not unlike the Democrats who are also a party of big capital. Both parties need to drag the general public into supporting them and by proxy their masters, big capital.

Of course there is a wee bit of a problem. The extraordinarily wealthy constitute a percent or less of the population and their interests are often in direct opposition to those of the other 99% so they hardly can expect the Republicans or the Democrats to appeal to anyone without at least pretending to discuss issues of interest to the broader public.

If we think briefly about the gun control issue we can see a little better about how the Republicans co-opt their constituency into to supporting their class oppressors.

The Republican Coalition seems rather diverse although it can be thought of a white and Protestant to a large degree of accuracy. This provides a certain amount of cultural cohesion but in terms of issues the coalition is quite diverse.

So I imagine the ruling class would like to see all guns in the hands of their thugs, their armed forces and their police forces and they have done a pretty god job of arranging that
situation. Still, millions of Americans want to keep their guns so the Republicans appeal to that popular desire. So there is a great deal of discussion of supporting this right but clearly, the Republicans are just playing a game in this
regard, to deceive the public into thinking that they represent the interests of run of the mill citizens.

Those who support the citizens' right to bear arms are not necessarily crackpots, far from it. Of course they may have a lot of crazy ideas about other things but the concern about an armed people remains legitimate and perhaps is even foundational in at least revolutionary times such as the War of Independence, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Those citizens, who are stereotypically on the "right"
are certainly in touch with the reality that a more repressive government is more likely if the people are completely unarmed.

So I write this not to demonize a citizen who is concerned about the tyranny of the state or perhaps that the tyranny of the state can go to far.

This is not to completely flush the concerns of those who want to ban guns because these guns are not really helping the poor and oppressed when they are used in petty crime and personal disputes. Both sides have some merit and I hope that both sides can at least understand the concerns of the other side.

Of course it is the white supremacists and fascists, the far right, the open oppressors who have taken up the gun both officially and unofficially in the United States. The recent murder of Dr. Tiller reminds us of that low intensity war, a form of right-wing terrorism directed at progressives, in that case against abortion providers. And that is only one form of rightist violence in the United States today.

Somehow that particular war against abortion providers has not been labeled as such by the Republicans or Democrats. It is a low intensity war with the goal of stopping abortions by killing abortion providers. It is a strategy that ultimately paid off in Wichita for the terrorists, terrorists never labeled as such by the media that otherwise uses the term terrorist with virtually no discretion.

The Democratic party likes to appeal to the other side of the issue, to oppose guns because they kill thousands of folks in street crime, crimes of passion and accidents every year. Yet, at the end of the day the big bourgeoisie wants all the weapons in its hands and no weapons in the hands of the people.

In this regard it can also be said that the Republicans seem to be intimately related to the many militias, generally white militias that have sprung up across the nation. It has to be said that at the core of the Republican's cracker constituency is a morass of right wing organizations that seem to be almost under the protection of the Republican Party.

Crucially we must remember that while the Democrats were once the party of Jim Crow that the white racists left en masse for the Republican party after historic civil rights legislation was passed by the likes of LBJ and other Democrats. White supremacists incubate and flourish under the wings of the Republican coalition and those Republicans that are not conscious racists ignore it or think it is a good thing.

The Republicans have appealed to so-called social conservatism including being against abortion, against birth control, and for a fundamentalist anti-scientific view of the world. The fundamentalist campaigns against the theory of evolution, biological reasearch and modern cosmology have distracted the nation from improving our educational institutions which have been in decline for several decades. Home schooling and religious schools further contribute to the skewing of the population towards
schismatic and bizarre views of the world. At one end of diversity is frank insanity and the Republicans have something close to a monopoly upon the voting insane.

So the white protestants and the white supremacists, we have touched on those constituencies. Then there are the folks who support the right to bear arms. We discussed that and some of the issues that have grown up around it.
We also touched on the armed terrorist groups that seem to fester and live under the protection of the Republican movement as a whole. Some discussion of the role of religious fanatacism has also been introduced. Later on we can say something more about all of this and the Ron Paulists, economic conservatives, and even one of the rarests animals in the United States today the progressive Republican!

DESPERATE REPUBLICANS: SOME ARE KILLING AND SOME ARE JUST GOING PLAIN CRAZY

It seems that the Republicans are in a state of denial, which is not really a new problem. In the twentieth century I used to wonder when the Republican "cowboys" would ride out of the 19th century and enter the twentieth. The Republicans never made the transition.

Now it's the twenty first century and the Republicans are in a sort of panic. They know something is wrong but what could it be? It couldn't be their reactionary ideology of self-righteous narcissism so it must be something else. It couldn't be the ruling class and the finance capitalists even though the Ron Paulists sort of partially know their is a problem their but their only solution is to run the capitalist experiment again!

Republicans are coming up with different answers to the question about how it could be that a party blessed by God could possibly be out of power!

And the current Republican Governor of Texas seeks to lead Texas out of the United States. This is what Republicans have come to, secessionism. He's certifiable as was his predecessor!

Simultaneously the different Republican blocks are headed in their own directions, directions that may or may not leave the Republican Party behind.

Where have the Bushies gone? They are remarkably silent and it seems as if the broad masses of cracker conservatives are yearning for a hate campaign that leads their fools back into the White House. The shrinking middle and professional classes remain largely loyal to the big business and big government GOP but that may change
since the GOP is apparently flying apart despite the desperate efforts of the mass media to put Humpty Dumpty,
or the Republican coalition back together again.

Pretty much the same block of voters remained loyal to Bush despite the economic collapse and his notorious lies. These loyal Bushies have little to say about the great man now. Instead they look with horror at the prospect that they have not only lost political power but are unlikely to see it restored without doing crazy antidemocratic things.

The murder of Dr. Tiller by a religion and conspiracy crazed citizen, not so atypical of about a fifth of the Republican Party, shows in what direction some Republicans are going. Now that the GOP can't rule on behalf of cracker America what is to be done? Do the white supremacists stay in the GOP or start up a new party?

A similar question is being asked by the Ron Paulists. Should they leave a party that will never be libertarian or continue their charade within the GOP?

I am so tired of hearing one story after another about how to possibly revive the GOP! Let the "G-O-P" "D-I-E" a natural death and leave the world in greater peace!

Yes, all the Republicans are eager to find their next little Hitler to unite the wealthy, educated and light against the people of color, workers, small town America, Ma and Pa businesses, and all thinking beings. To paraphrase a President who once let the truth slip out only to rapidly recant it, "The Republicans have, do and will act stupidly!"

LEWD OR A SELF-HATING GAY REPUBLICAN?

Republican Senator Larry Craig says he did nothing wrong in a men's airport toilet. This is probably true. After all if he was seeking sex with another consenting adult, albeit of the same sex, who can say there is anything wrong with that? Ah, there's the rub. That's exactly the sort of thing Republicans and other conservatives complain about! Senator Larry Craig has been one of those outstanding Christian right-wingers who has publicly condemned people just because they are not heterosexual. So, yes, Mr. Craig did not do anything morally wrong in seeking some sort of companionship, however sleazy, but he has committed serious offenses in seeking to deny people who are not heterosexual equality under the law.

Mr. Senator Craig's role in Republican Mitt Romney's Presidential campaign is interesting. After Senator Craig's brush with the law former Governor Romney is lambasting Senator Craig in a way almost all Republican's bash and discriminate against gays.

This isn't pedophilia. We're talking about adult consensual sex, and if a Republican Senator wants to get freaky while taking a leaky then let the poor man get it on. After all, he's a human being too! Surely Presidential candidate Romney doesn't want to be discriminated against because of stuff like the ancestral practice of "celestial marriage" associated with 19th Century Mormons; so why does he go out of his way to bash Senator Craig just because the Senator wants a "cosmic crap", or whatever he was looking for in the men's room.

On the other hand, we do wonder just how much Senator Craig campaigned against his own kind during his political career. It is incredible to see a gay man engage in such open anti-gay activity just because he is afraid of being exposed. Obviously his fears were justified. Once, just to impress his conservative friends and supporters, Senator Craig joined in the lynch mob to prove he is, a Republican. Now, Romney has flushed him. There is a lot of fear and terror in the heart of such men, a fear caused by a completely unjustified form of bigotry, Republican bigotry.

Let's reject the hypocrisy and expose the hypocrite. Let's repudiate the foremost political advocates of anti-gay law and policies in the United States, Republicans. Frightened gay men in organizations like the Republican party may be tempted, like Senator Craig, to take a highly visible role in persecuting others like themselves. Senator Craig did it and for all we know former Governor Mitt Romney may be playing a similar hypocritical role! What are the Republicans so afraid of? Is it themselves or that Senator in the next bathroom stall? Either way it doesn't make much sense to me.

These Repubicans need repudiation and, if possible, rehabilitation.

JANUARY 23, 2008

It has been great to see Senator Craig stick to his guns and his wide
stance story. Too bad the other Republicans remain just as homophobic
and anti-homosexual as ever. I guess it is political death for a Repubican to be tolerant of anything that isn't heterosexual. They certainly support a lot of divorced politicians so I guess endless fidelity is not required. Is
that especially true of them the more right wing and extremist they get?







___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BBC NEWS
US senator in lewd conduct furore
US Senator Larry Craig has denied being gay and has said he should not have pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested in a men's toilet.

The Republican senator was held in June by a policeman investigating complaints of lewd behaviour at airport toilets.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Craig said: "I am not gay. I never have been gay." He had done "nothing wrong", he added.

Republican leaders and a watchdog group have asked the Senate ethics committee to investigate Mr Craig's case further.

Mr Craig has already resigned from the 2008 presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, former Republican governor of Massachusetts.

Mr Romney said the senator had disappointed the American people, adding that his conduct reminded him of former President Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

"Frankly it's disgusting," he told CNBC.

"He is no longer associated with my campaign ... I am sorry to see that he has fallen short."

Mr Craig, a married father-of-three, said he would announce next month as planned whether he will run for re-election in 2008. He is in his third term as senator for the western state of Idaho.

Hindsight

In a statement issued on Monday, Mr Craig confirmed he had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct three weeks ago.

But, the 62-year-old said, he should not have done so without taking legal advice.

"At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions," he said.

"In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously."

A charge of "gross misdemeanour interference to privacy" was dropped.

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Senate ethics committee on Tuesday.

Toilet 'signal'

According to a police report seen by the Associated Press news agency, Mr Craig entered a stall next to that occupied by an undercover policeman in the men's toilets at Minneapolis-St Paul airport.

According to the policeman, he tapped one foot several times and then moved it into the neighbouring cubicle to brush against the officer's foot.

The police officer recognised that "as a signal often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct", the official complaint said.

Mr Craig then gestured with his hand under the cubicle divider, AP quotes the document as saying, at which point the police officer identified himself.

Court papers show Mr Craig paid $575 in fines and fees and was put on unsupervised probation for a year, while a 10-day jail sentence was stayed, AP says.

Mr Craig has a conservative record in the Senate and has voted against gay rights and same-sex marriage legislation.

The furore comes only weeks after fellow Republican David Vitter admitted he had committed a "very serious sin" after his phone number was linked to an alleged Washington prostitution ring.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6967559.stm

Published: 2007/08/28 22:46:38 GMT

© BBC MMVII