Once upon a time I posted a couple of diaries about using the word un-american to describe the actions, policies and beliefs of the Republican party and conservatives in general. You can revisit them here and here if you like.
Many of you agreed with me that the word was an appropriate label for the reprehensible behavior of our current overlords. Yet, many of you disagreed, either claiming the word was too tarnished by past association with the McCarthy era, or that Democrats and progressives shouldn’t stoop to the type of mudslinging employed by the radical right. This diary is addressed to those individuals.
Because if we can’t label these latest outrages by the GOP’s numerous minions Un-American I want to know what you think we should call them.
More after the fold . . .
Isn’t it Un-American to call for the arrest of Air America broadcasters and other liberals as traitors because they disagree with the President’s Iraq war policies as Bill O’Reilly did?
Isn’t it Un-American to call Senator Durbin “excrement that needs to be scraped off the sidewalk” as Seattle talk show host John Carlson did in response to Durbin quoting an FBI report on the torture techniques used at Gitmo and appropriately comparing it to the types of torture practiced by the Soviet and Nazi regimes?
Isn’t it Un-American to claim Democrats are waging a campaign to denigrate and demonize Christians in America as GOP Rep. John Hostetler did in a debate on the floor of the House regarding an amendment to prohibit religious harrassment of Non-Christian cadets at the Air Force Academy?
Isn’t it Un-American for Presidential advisor Karl Rove to lie about the response of liberals to the 9/11 tragedy by claiming only Republicans wanted to go to war against terrorists, while liberals wanted to “understand them”?
And by the way, isn’t it Un-American for any politician to attempt to exploit the 9/11 tragedy for partisan political gain as Rove has done?
Isn’t it Un-American to claim that Democrats are conducting a “Guerilla war” against our troops when they oppose the President’s policies on the “war on terror” as GOP Rep. Joe Wilson has done?
Isn’t it Un-American to continue a political vendetta against Michael Schiavo after the coroner’s report confirmed that Terry Schiavo really was brain dead as GOP Gov. Jeb Bush has done merely to curry favor with the radical Christian right wing of his party?
Isn’t it Un-American to gavel a House committee hearing to a close and cut off the microphones, in violation of House rules, in order to prevent further testimony from witnesses merely because the Chairman of the committee didn’t like what those witnesses had to say, as GOP Rep. Sensenbrunner did.
Isn’t it Un-American to try to prevent Democratic Congressman Conyers’ hearing on the Downing Street Memo from being held and then scheduling 11 House floor votes in order to interfere with Democratic Congresspersons attending that hearing, as House GOP leaders did?
Isn’t it Un-American for GOP spokespeople to blast Democrats for not supporting the troop while the GOP controlled Congress fails to adequately fund Veteran’s benefits and the GOP controlled executive branch fails to provide adaquate armor to the troops in Iraq, so that soldiers and their families are required to buy their own?
Isn’t it Un-American for the GOP controlled Congress to attempt to silence Public Broadcasting by defunding it merely because PBS and NPR don’t tow the GOP line on every issue, but sometimes go off the reservation and actually investigate facts that Republicans find unpleasant?
To be blunt, hasn’t the behavior of this administration, this Congress, and GOP party officials at every level justified our use of the word Un-American to describe their words and deeds? How much will it take to convince you that we should be using this word every day to label them?
Because it is the truth, folks. They are profoundly Un-American.
They want to take this country to a place it has never been before: a One Party State, where dissent is not only not tolerated but criminalized.
A place where their version of the Bible trumps the Constitution as the ultimate source of law.
A place where it is permissible to legally discriminate against blacks and other minorities, against the disabled, the poor, the mentally ill and the homeless.
A place where the nail that stands up is always hammered down.
A place where you have no control over what happens to your body (especially if you are a woman or on life support), and where who you have sex with may be punishable as a crime.
A place where the richest 1% of the population control more assets than the next 99% combined.
A place where truth is generated out of whole cloth by a subservient corporate media that never opposes the official Party line.
A place where your children will be used up in fruitless overseas wars of conquest while their jobs at home are outsourced overseas.
A place where the teaching of real science is banned from our schools and universities, and and from the halls of our government agencies.
A place where our air and water and bodies will become increasingly polluted with industrial waste, and where it will be increasingly more difficult to obtain adequate health care for most of us.
So, if that’s the world you can live in, keep playing nice with the Republicans. Don’t call a spade a spade (i.e., don’t call the GOP Un-American) because doing so might prove too offensive for their delicate sensibilities, or because you may be harangued by the right wing noise machine for your impolitic remarks, or because Un-American is just a “Bad Word.”
Me? I intend to use it often. Because it fits.
