Last week there was much gnashing of teeth from the psuedo-liberals in the Big Boy Blogosphere over revelations that the Green Party Senate campaign in PA (google search results … sample the outrage!) was being funded by righties. This is terrible, of course, because a Green candidate may Naderize that hack Casey, Vichy Dem candidate to strip women of their freedoms. THE HORROR.
Of course, the outrage over such “dirty tricks” on the part of the Republicans is selective, depending on WHO their money is targeting.
Ms. McKinney, for her part, was able to reclaim her seat in 2004 after running a largely grassroots campaign. It was a victory she called “one of the greatest political comebacks of all time.”
Two years later, though, after a rash of public criticism over her run-in the Capitol Police officer, the portrayal of Ms. McKinney’s phoenix-like career in “American Blackout” looks eerily familiar.
Republicans have endorsed and funded her relatively unknown challenger, Mr. Johnson, and the Web site that championed her ouster in 2002, goodbyecynthia.com, is once again up and running.
“Voters are very energized and tuned in and believe this is a very important race,” said Deb McGhee Speights, press secretary for Mr. Johnson. “We believe the voters will make their decisions in this election based on something closer to home than a movie.”
Uppity loudmouthed actual liberals are fair game, of course. Whores that they are, the Kossack mercs will do everything they can to help one faction of the shitty center maintain their stranglehold on the Handmaiden Party.
Former Republicans, especially “fighting” Dems are actively recruited. Of course, “fighting” means you wore a uniform and are just fine with the status quo, as long as it’s managed by corporatist righties with a “D” after their name. It most assuredly DOESN’T mean fighting for workers, or universal healthcare, or women, or minorities, or a balloting system that actually preserves suffrage for ALL Americans. Better yet if you actually played a part in killing people while wearing that uniform, so that people will take you “seriously” on national defense and “security” issues. Well, seriously until the right Swift-Boat your ass.
This crap is par for the course from the racist, misogynist and/or greedy right of the party, which supports or starts one needless war after another, which panders to the frightened middle class and blames the genuine left for their losses. Their repeatedly feckless and contentless campaigns shoulder none of the blame. 2000 was Nader’s fault, after all, NOT the choice of a bitchy scold as candidate for Vice President, NOT the muddled messages, NOT the failure to respond to a relentlessly negative press, NOT the refusal to actually STAND for anything … nope, just Nader and the crazy hippies, peaceniks and rabid man-haters who voted for him … that’s why the lousy Democrat lost. Every crappy campaign there is a new Nader/McGovern to blame, and new calls to mimic the Republicans more.
Republican money and support is beyond the pale ONLY if it messes with the “centrists” plan to install another clueless middle manager into the little club of the institutional Vichy Dems party. There is a “big tent” (they just LOVE using Reaganist slogans, these fake progressives) as long as it welcomes people who represent ideas and people who’re already winners in the current political climate. If you dare to question the status quo, if you dare to try to fight for an unrepresented minority group, if you try, however imperfectly, to rock the ever-shrinking boat, then Republican and rightwing money, activists and messaging are welcomed with open arms.
I say that anybody who is trying to inject genuine liberal ideas into ANY campaign should be willing to take the right’s money to accomplish raising the stakes in a race. The far-rightist Republican Party and the rightist Democratic Party have rigged the game so that money is speech, and more money drowns out other voices. Our system is broken because there is no debate … and if the Greens can make the courtiers of the Democratic establishment nervous, then all the better.
Spare us the faux outrage, Kossacks and Ko … this is how the game is played. You’ve laid down for years with rabid dogs, yet you bitch when some of the fleas bite.
