Capitalizing on Tragedy, Part III
The posts have been sporadic this week for a couple of reasons. First, I've come down with whatever bug is making the rounds of Boston these days. Sort of a bronchial, flu-like thing. Second, if I weren't already sick, the fact that the Shiavo affair is still at the top of the blogs and the mainstream media would have made me sick.
It's sad to see the media adopting their usual tabloid tactics and love of gossip over actual news. It's loathsome listening to bastards like Tom DeLay refer to the poor woman as "a gift from God to the Republican party." (You can hear it for yourself at the link above.)
Naturally, and unsurprisingly, poll after poll shows the same results-- about 80% of Americans think that Congress shouldn't be involved. About 70% of Americans think that the entire episode is nothing more than Republican attempts to make political hay out of one family's problems. Also unsurprising is the fact that every right-wing pundit is decrying every single poll as a fraud.
What's becoming apparent, though, is that the GOP has decided to use this circus to sell their latest bit of fascism. Listen to any rightie chiming in on the issue, and you'll hear the following phrase: activist judges. Naturally, W has been using this phrase since 2000. And his idea of non-activist judges is to replace qualified jurists with like-minded hacks who have no problem with subverting the Constitution if it favors the wealthy.
So what this is going to play out as is an attempt by the Republicans to convince Americans that the nation's judges are foam-mouthed radicals. Never mind that the Supreme Court has declined to hear the case three times now-- and that seven of the justices are Republican appointees.
Court after court has decided that the decision is best left up to the husband. More than a half-dozen neurologists who have examined Shiavo agree that she will never recover. It's been adjudicated something like twenty times now, always with the same result. No controversy there. The controversy had to be manufactured by the GOP to sell their otherwise extremely unpopular agenda to the public. Fox has been doing their part by giving plenty of airtime to a physician "nominated for a Nobel Prize" who claims he could cure Shiavo. Typically, he was "nominated" by a Republican congressman who isn't qualified to nominate candidates.
It looks like it isn't going to work this time, but if there's one lesson I've learned over the last five years, it's that you can't underestimate the ruthlessness of the neo-fascists. But if they go so far as to deny the will of 80% of Americans-- and get away with it-- we will have entered a dangerous new era.
It's sad to see the media adopting their usual tabloid tactics and love of gossip over actual news. It's loathsome listening to bastards like Tom DeLay refer to the poor woman as "a gift from God to the Republican party." (You can hear it for yourself at the link above.)
Naturally, and unsurprisingly, poll after poll shows the same results-- about 80% of Americans think that Congress shouldn't be involved. About 70% of Americans think that the entire episode is nothing more than Republican attempts to make political hay out of one family's problems. Also unsurprising is the fact that every right-wing pundit is decrying every single poll as a fraud.
What's becoming apparent, though, is that the GOP has decided to use this circus to sell their latest bit of fascism. Listen to any rightie chiming in on the issue, and you'll hear the following phrase: activist judges. Naturally, W has been using this phrase since 2000. And his idea of non-activist judges is to replace qualified jurists with like-minded hacks who have no problem with subverting the Constitution if it favors the wealthy.
So what this is going to play out as is an attempt by the Republicans to convince Americans that the nation's judges are foam-mouthed radicals. Never mind that the Supreme Court has declined to hear the case three times now-- and that seven of the justices are Republican appointees.
Court after court has decided that the decision is best left up to the husband. More than a half-dozen neurologists who have examined Shiavo agree that she will never recover. It's been adjudicated something like twenty times now, always with the same result. No controversy there. The controversy had to be manufactured by the GOP to sell their otherwise extremely unpopular agenda to the public. Fox has been doing their part by giving plenty of airtime to a physician "nominated for a Nobel Prize" who claims he could cure Shiavo. Typically, he was "nominated" by a Republican congressman who isn't qualified to nominate candidates.
It looks like it isn't going to work this time, but if there's one lesson I've learned over the last five years, it's that you can't underestimate the ruthlessness of the neo-fascists. But if they go so far as to deny the will of 80% of Americans-- and get away with it-- we will have entered a dangerous new era.
posted by Matt Sandwich | 3:47 PM
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