Day: June 15, 2010

Will History Repeat?

Inkwell Institute

2010/2012 Election Series

I am sure that everyone has heard the old saying that history repeats itself….do you believe it?  Or do you think it is crap?

This time I am talking about the Tea Party movement…..that movement built on the insecurity of the American people, especially the conservatives…this spontaneous movement, as it has been billed, is nothing new.  I know, “what the Hell do you mean, Professor”?

I mean that this “spontaneous” movement of the people is NOTHING new.  Look at the death of Kennedy and his replacement Johnson…..his programs scared the living Hell out of conservatives and they set about change the climate in the South….then came the landslide of Nixon and Dems started wringing their hands and had to redefine themselves because McGovern was too far left and that sent shutters through the party.  And what took his place, Jimmy Carter and that adjustment gave us a one term president.  And now with the election of Obama the conservatives are struggling to find their next handhold on the people.

With a promise of change, Obama swept through the states on his way to the White House….his only draw back was the strangle hold that the Conservs have on the South.  But the people’s movement had to try and capitalize on the wish for change and the use of the South and their unnatural fears was the perfect place to start.

The biggest problem today is that the opposition to Obama is that it is being fueled by lies and misinformation….at least in the past, most of the political changes were from a legit oint of opposition…this time around it is just pure HATRED that is driving the movement, at least from those with the biggest mouths.

The only thing left to say is a warning to the American voter…..be careful what you wish for it may come true….

The Longer They Go, The Whackier They Get

From the VOMITORIUM

The Teabaggers are getting more and more air time during the present cycle of elections and primaries……and all their lunacy keeps coming out and out and the Low info voter keeps licking it up by the jug full…….

Take Nevada when the darling of the Tea Party won her nomination as the Repub candidate…..she wants to abolish Social Security, bow out of the UN, just to mention a few of her quirky little stands….but does it stop there?

Hell NO!

Since she won the nomination more and more of her extreme right and extreme crazy ideas keep coming forth…..

The peculiar ideology of Sharron Angle, the Republican nominee challenging Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada, is perhaps no better illustrated than by her embrace of the patriot group Oath Keepers, whose membership of uniformed soldiers and police take an oath to refuse orders they see as unconstitutional — including enforcement of gun laws, violations of states’ sovereignty, and “any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

According to the SPLC, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, a former staffer for Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) warns his followers against “a coming dictatorship” that will happen if “our brothers in arms go along and comply with unconstitutional, unlawful orders.” An extensive report on the group by Mother Jones in March suggests supporters of the movement believe they’re living through the first steps of the shift away from constitutional freedom. Members of the group — many of them in the armed forces — share the “belief that the government is already turning on its citizens, they are recruiting military buddies, stashing weapons, running drills, and outlining a plan of action [to stop it],” the magazine reported.

Early in her career, if we can call it that she had the John Birch ideas about Communist plots……

Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle earlier in her career spoke out strongly against fluoride, the substance known alternately for improving dental health and as a Communist plot to undermine Western democracy.

Poor thing, she just cannot catch a break….the mainstream media is after her butt or she could be just plain….CRAZY!

This next part has little or maybe nothing to do with  Angle….but is just as crazy and just as much the Tea Party as the woman above…..

From Newser’s website:

Think the Tea Party rhetoric is getting a little overwrought? Then get a load of this video from Alabama House candidate Rick Barber, in which he has a kind of war council with various founding fathers. Barber calls for President Obama’s impeachment, then launches a mostly nonsensical rant about the IRS, which is making us “spy on ourselves” by asking us to report our income. “I can’t stand by while these evils are perpetrated!” Barber cries. “You gentlemen revolted over a tea tax. A tea tax! Are you with me?” To which fantasy Washington replies gravely, “Gather your armies.” Which is kind of funny because, as David Weigel of the Washington Post points out, Washington instituted the nation’s first federal tax in 1791—on whiskey—and organized a militia to forcibly collect it from anyone who resisted.

All this would be all the more humorous, if it was not so damn scary…….scary in the sense that there those out there that believe all this equine fecal matter…..and anyone with half a brain would be scared at the popularity that all these NUTS are receiving……

Who’s The Authority Here?

Inkwell Institute

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:  Political Theory

Paper #18

Here is one of my least favorite subjects when discussing political theory…it is viewed many ways and for many reasons….but for this paper I will try to define authority in simple terms as it is practiced by the different major political ideologies…..Whether we speak of the ‘leader’ or the state or whatever….there will always be someone or thing in charge or the authority, if you will………

Authority is ever given or taken….and the different political ideologies view the institution of authority in different ways…..

Basically authority can be categorized two ways….1–is the broad definition where it means any system of power or social control of those involved in the system….2–the entity behind the running of the state…..Hannah Arendt says…”If authority is to be defined at all…..coercion by force and at the same time it is permission by argument”

Liberals see authority rising from below with the consent of those to be governed.  In order to have a orderly existence, authority is rational, purposeful and limited in its scope.  And should be held to public accountability.

Conservatives sees authority as arising from natural necessity being exercised from above by virtue of  the unequal distribution of experience, social position and wisdom.  Authority is beneficial as well as necessary for respect, loyalty and social cohesion.

Socialists, those damn socialists, are suspicious of authority because of its links the to interests of the powerful and privileged.    But, there is always a but, they have embraced the collective body as the authority as a means to check individualism and greed.

Anarchists see ALL forms of authority as oppressive and in as such find it  unnecessary and exploitative.  There is NO distinction between authority and naked power.  There are MANY forms of anarchist…….Syndicalists, Councilists, even an anarcho-cpaitalist…IMO it is chaos and not even organized chaos….

Fascists see it as a manifestation of a personal leadership of charisma, if you will…..This form of authority is absolute and unquestionable….simply put it is authoritarian in its very nature.  (Thanx to Andrew Heywood’s book “Political Ideologies)

Yes, I know that is down to its basic points….I could expand it but you guys would suffer from the same ‘brain worms’ as me…it is for your own protection….