THE LIMITED IQ OF CONSERVATIVES

When you read the letters to the editor section of The Fresno Bee you not only get "treated" to the right wing commentary in the letters, but in the comments sections that follow letters.

I should probably skip the comments section because it's usually the same old nonsense, especially if it's a response to a letter from someone who is not a right-wing wacko.

Lately, the right-wing meme is that people on the left voted for the Iraq war. Therefore, they claim, people on the left who criticize the war are "hypocrites." They conveniently forget that many people on the left opposed the war from the beginning. At the time we were told you were "either for us or against us." The Dixie Chicks made a fairly innocuous comment about George W. Bush and suddenly they were under vicious attack. Members of Congress who voted for the war also did so on the false information provided by the Bush administration. It's amazing how right-wingers, who always howl about responsibility, never assume any.

Another thing that irritates me is the tendency of right-wingers to use cute little labels like "libtard." It's amazingly insensitive in the first place. "Retard" is totally inappropriate to describe people with genuine mental handicaps. Studies also show that people on the left are more informed and more intelligent than right-wingers too, so the suggestion that right-wingers are more intelligent isn't grounded in reality. Name calling is the first resort of people who really can't defend their political philosophy and, Lord, conservatives would have a hard time defending a philosophy that lied us into two wars, devastated the economy, and created record levels of poverty and inequality.

THE CALLOUS DISREGARD OF CONSERVATIVES

There was a letter in today's Fresno Bee that irritated me sufficiently for a comment. The writer is your typical sanctimonious holier-than-thou right-winger who wants to "correct" another letter writer.

This guy revealed himself early when he called the recent despicable pepper spraying incident at UC Berkeley "innocuous." I would like to see some of these right-wingers line up and demonstrate for us how "innocuous" it is to get pepper sprayed or water boarded. If it's no big deal, they shouldn't mind at all demonstrating that for us.

He also goes on to claim that fascism is a form of "socialism." That would probably surprise political scientists. Fascism is the diametric opposite of socialism. At its core fascism is an alliance between big business and the government and the best historical examples are in Italy under Mussolini and Germany under Hitler. We've seen a steady progression in this country toward fascism as big business calls more and more of the shots even when it's to the detriment of our population as a whole.

Conservatives have a hard time defending their philosophy when they have to adhere strictly to the facts, so that's why we see such a constant stream of revisionism and distortion. True conservatism means vast inequality, attacks on civil liberties, contempt for the environment, hatred of minorities, and anything and everything for the very rich. That's a hard sell when it's down to the basics.

ALLEGED REPRESENTATIVES

It's customary for the media when referring to members of Congress to designate them as "Representative" so and so. I think that description is inaccurate.

I have the misfortune to have Jeff Denham as the Congressional representative from this district. I don't think Mr. Denham represents me or most of his constituents on much of anything. He's anti-choice, anti-worker, anti-environment, but very pro corporation and pro top 1%.

I think a better designation for Mr. Denham and others in Congress is alleged Representative. It's what the media use to describe people accused of crimes, but who haven't been convicted yet. The word "alleged" isn't totally accurate, of course, because the crimes of people in Congress are already evident, but we also don't get the benefit of a trial.

CREDIT RATING DOWNGRADED THANKS TO REPUBLICANS

Yeah, I can't tell you how impressed I am with those wonderful Tea Party Republicans in Congress. Standard and Poor just lowered the U. S. credit rating from AAA to AA, which means higher interest rates for everyone. Is there anything these cretins aren't destroying?

This is a direct result of the ridiculous obfuscation on raising the debt limit. None of this was necessary.

A SARCASTIC THANK YOU TO THE TEA PARTY

The stock market plummeted over 500 points today. I don't have any stock, but it's interesting that the sacrosanct markets are reacting to the lousy economy created by Republicans.

The Tea Party yahoos didn't learn anything from history. They froth at the mouth about deficits and falsely call any government spending "socialism" or some other such drivel. They even try to revise history to claim that FDR's New Deal didn't get us out of the Great Depression created by that other great Republican president, Herbert Hoover, and the Republican economic policies of the 1920's.

So people whose 401K's are taking hits can thank the Republicans and their Tea Party allies. People who will see all kinds of services slashed at the local and state levels can thank the Republicans and the Tea Party too. This is real "trickle down," the trickle down of misery that is created by the politics of greed and short-sighted ideological zealotry. So, thanks a lot, Republicans.

RIGHT WING MYTHOLOGY

The Fresno Bee may have the most right wing letters page of any major newspaper in the country. I can't say that absolutely without taking a survey, but every venture into the Bee's letters page is a trip through the right wing sewer.

It's not enough to have the usual ignorance, greed, stupidity, racism, jingoism, and hate that characterizes right-wingers in actual letters, but you get "treated" to more right wing commentary in the comments section they have in response to other letters.

Any letter that attacks the gross inequality in this country is "class warfare." There are frequent comments that suggest that anyone who is poor is there because of "bad life decisions" or some other such drivel. A frequent suggestion is that taxes of any kind are "theft." Never mind that taxes have been necessary to maintain any civilized society in all of human history. There are attacks on immigrants because right-wingers must always make themselves look morally superior and bashing the "other" is necessary to prop up their fragile egos.

THE VILE REPUBLICAN PARTY

In the interest of decorum I won't use a stronger word than "vile" to describe Republicans or the Tea Party or conservatives. The Rude Pundit is more comfortable with that kind of language and more adept than I am at using it.

You have to think of the Sinclair Lewis novel "It Can't Happen Here" in which he depicted a fascist government taking over the United States. We have seen more and more movement toward fascism since Ronald Reagan became president in 1981. It got accelerated after the attacks on September 11. The September 11 attacks gave the Bush administration political cover to enact repressive and dangerous legislation such as the Patriot Act. The administration illegally spied on American citizens. An illegal and unnecessary war was launched against Iraq and the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the financial elites was put on full throttle.

Now we have come to an alleged "crisis" over the debt ceiling. Republicans want to destroy Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid under the false pretext that these programs are deficit drivers. The biggest deficit drivers, of course, are the tax cuts for the very wealthy and the immoral wars in which we're involved. But wars are profitable for the corporate elites and the wealthy as a class don't really think they should ever pay taxes. Leona Helmsley said "taxes are for little people."

In the next election cycle the Republican party should face a political Armageddon. Republicans should be evicted from office wherever they they are. Conservatism should be attacked unmercifully and driven from the field of legitimate political commentary. Corporations and the very wealthy should be required to pay the taxes they should pay. If they get any tax breaks, they should be tied to legitimate job creation in this country.

The middle class and poor in this country experienced what really was a brief shining moment from the time of the New Deal until the advent of Reagan and fascist politics. The kind of grinding oppression we see now has been far more common in history than movements toward decency in the treatment of working men and women. The biggest thing we have on our side is numbers. There are far more of us than there are of the people comprising the political and financial elites. But numbers won't matter if people don't get energized enough to fight back.