Devastating. From someone who knows these tactics well. And, if the corporate media wasn’t under an almost complete stranglehold, such an op-ed from someone like Frank Schaeffer, author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back
He says the Republican/industry-run health care “protest” mobs have become “a full blown American version of the Nazi Brown Shirts”, the Republican party has now become “profoundly anti-American”, and that “They can’t compute that their white man-led conservative revolution is dead.”
Here’s just a few of the money quotes from his must-read at Alternet today which suggests, most disturbingly — as I have long worried since this corporatist/Republicanist-inflamed thuggery began — that it may not stop until someone actually ends up dead…
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Having failed at the ballot box, having watched their Fox News-organized “tea parties” fizzle the intimidation tactics which the Republicans have embraced are being used in a well-financed, top-down orchestrated fake grass roots campaign by corporate interests to try and protect the profits of the insurance business.
…
Democratic members of Congress are being harassed by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior at local town halls. It’s the tactic we used to follow abortion providers around their neighborhoods. “Protesters” surrounded Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and forced police officers to have to escort him to his car for safety. We used to do the same to Dr. Tiller… until someone killed him.
Please read his entire piece, or at least the rest of what I’ve quoted from it below…
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Dick Army and company have been driven mad by their reversal, not just of political fortunes but of seeing that they’ve wasted their lives. They now know they were wrong: about the country, the free market, war for fun and profit, and what the American people really want. They made their best case and were rejected by the American people — and by history. Bush was their man and he turned out to be a fool. So now all the the Republican gurus have left is what the defeated Germans of World War Two had: a scorched earth policy. If they can’t win then everyone must go down. Obama must fail! The country must fail!
…
There is no daylight between the Republican Party, the health-care insurance industry, far right leaders like Dick Armey, the legion of insurance lobbyists, and now, a small army of thugs. All we’re missing is actual uniforms, otherwise we now have a full blown American version of the Nazi Brown Shirts.
No, I don’t believe that these people are about to take over the country. No, the sky is not falling. But the Republican Party is. It is now profoundly anti-American.
…
Here’s the emerging American version of the fascist’s formula: combine millions of dollars of lobbyists’ money with embittered troublemakers who have a small army of not terribly bright white angry people (collected over decades through pro-life mass mailing networks) at their beck and call, ever ready to believe any myth or lie circulated by the semi literate and completely and routinely misinformed right wing — Evangelical religious underground. Then put his little mob together with the insurance companies’ big bucks. That’s how it works — American Brown Shirts at the ready.
What’s the results of the fascist formula for the rest of us? Well, think how this “method” worked against Dr. Tiller’s abortion clinic and how that story ended.
Like I said a little while ago: They will have us fighting each other instead of them.
Maybe we should get some brown shirts to pass out to our mobster trolls. I mean, they’ve been doing the online version of this for years, and time we start calling it for what it is.
So, now that you see what’s going on…is it a stretch that there are commenter trolls?
I heard that this same type of mob tactic was used outside of Al Gore’s home after the 2000 election — and that this mob was one of the main reasons that Gore backed out of politics. It’s hard to stand up to these people without becoming violent oursleves. But Gandhi did it. And so can we. Hopefully.
it is kinda scarey to see how ignorant some Americans are,,,lil ole ladies “protesting” socialized medicene and screaming “leave my medicare alone’ lol
i called my rep today and left the message that i vote, i am thrilled to have a dem rep and i want a public option
i suggested simply opening medicare to younger folks and letting us pay premiums on a sliding scale
before i get attacked,yes i think single payer would be best but i also think that would have 0 chance of passing
We don’t have to become violent. Just enforce the law. Don’t put up with it.
Actually, I heard that Gore and his aids overheard someone, maybe even W., threatening Gore’s life, when he retracted his concession over the phone. I briefly counter protested the VP mansion brown shirts myself and met the amazing local legend lone Nazi pedophile Vatican embassy protester across the street. The coincidence is a divine warning, because our fascist MSM has kept Americans completely ignorant of the Vatican’s massively treasonous and genocidal support of Nazis before, during and after WWII. Google Vatican bank claims for jaw-dropping revelations. I spoke with Vatican protester, John Wojnowski, for a few hours, and he told me Italy was overrun with fascist priests after WWII. We shared our puzzle pieces on Catholic fascism, and he agreed the ban on abortion and family planning was to keep pedophile priests supplied with fresh victims like himself. The Vatican endorsed Catholic Hitler because he stiffened abortion and contraception penalties. Americans have several options that most people are too nice and timid to try. But here it goes: use their same tactics against them. This means picketing Catholic churches and the homes of adulterous mother- and doctor-killers Randall Terry, Erik Prince and Bill O’Reilly about their pedophilia, adultery, mother-killing and Nazi ties. Pester their wives and children too to turn them against each other. Picket and boycott MSM and their advertisers for not exposing the Nazi and pedophile motivations behind anti-abortionists. Pester Hollywood to make feature films of “Unholy Trinity” by Mark Aarons and John Loftus, the nasty private lives of Erik Prince, Randall Terry, Newt Gingrich, the Bushes, etc. Educate women about childbirth’s bankrupting, divorce-causing and sometimes lethal complication like fistulas and cancer. We should steal tea bagging from them by counter protesting their hypocritical caffeinated tea ABORTIONS!
Well, there just is a certain point where the gloves have to come off. You can’t let a bully get away with it forever, you just have to kick the shit out of him which is regretable but the only thing a thug understands. Our revolutionary forefathers did it to the Brits, we need to do it to the “mobs”
Heated arguments at town hall meetings are not exactly “Anti-American” as anyone who has even read a 6th grade version of American history well knows.
Trying to make a distinction between one party or the other using the term “corporatist” is laughable. It highlights your partisan HACKery.
Did you not hear? Obama just announced that Big Parma will set the prices under his totalitarian health care scheme. And I guess you don’t even understand how throughly fascist the Dept. of Treasury CONTINUES to be through Bush and on to Obama.
Union thugs are beating up old men. Local police are being told to steal people’s signs. Just like under Bush.
Wake up partisan fools.
Americans don’t want your savior telling them when to die. Face it.
Go ahead and report me to flag@whitehouse.gov you f#$king Nazis.
Look in the mirror. I will show you a brownshirt.
Yes, Joe Nunya, I heard about Obama putting the kibosh on further price concessions from Big Pharma yesterday, and I agree that whatever we get out of this bogus healthcare “reform” package is going to be a lot closer to frank fascism than healthcare, but I’m getting pissed off about this nearly identical wording of comments coming in giving that email address to report you with, so I’m forced to do something about that.
Shhhhhhh, you’re referring to the republican base.
Dems seek the hispanic, black, poor, small business base.
Republicans seek the idiots and corporate giant base.
Its such a nice balance that way.
Brad, everyone, I think these Brown Shirts at the meetings and spamming their invective here are actually working with Obama and the Blue Dogs [and, of course, the people paying for their campaigns] to get a bill that is little more than mandatory health insurance and the government decides who can’t afford it.
Believe me, you don’t want the government deciding what you can afford. They give you a food allowance equal to a sack of rice and a sack of beans every month and make sure that if you can still have a roof over your head it is in a slum or it’s better described as a tent. And that was back when times were much better, when the economy was hale and the liberals were in charge of Congress.
Don’t go crazy calling them racists and bubbas and stupid hicks who vote against their own best interests. That’s only making you feel better about yourself and not getting any problems addressed. This is a very well-funded and serious attack on the American people by plutocrats… by the very above-the-law elite they had in Italy and Germany and now the United States.
Please. Get serious this time.
Calling ordinary Americans, who really have no party preference or affiliation a right wing mob, and Nazi brown shirts is another Marxist tactic, and we are seeing the worst of what that can be right now. To call these people unamerican is simply wrong; these people are as American as American gets. When the Democratic Socialist have the same behavior, by them it is deemed reasonable. And when they do it, it is organized. These angry people are not organized. They are operating as individuals, and the government is going crazy trying to malign them as belonging to some antiamerican neonazi mob. They have had it with Obama and his Socialist/Communist lies. They are angry about the notion of socialized health care, and so am I. We the people are paying for it. Why can’t we keep the freedom to make our own choices. We are angry about the fact that illegal immigrants will be given free medical care, and I say free because most haven’t paid one nickel into the system. We will pay trillions for this system, the level of care for real, taxpaying citizens will go down, Medical organizations profits will go up, and the government will have another layered system of total control and will decide, literally, who lives and dies. Don’t buy into the governments hype and lies. Many democrats understand what they are up to and they are against it too. It seems they are trying to fan the flames of civil unrest and get the people trying to fight each other. Let the Communists that have taken over our government know that we know what they are up to, and just say NO!
Besides, what do think Acorn is? It is a taxpayer funded, government sanctioned, Marxist protesting and troublemaking squad, with the one true purpose of undermining all things American. We have Communists running our country folks, make no mistake about that.
{ED NOTE: Mike, you are welcome to post here, no matter how uninformed and/or disinformed you are. You are not, however, allowed to post knowing disinformation, as per the few rules we have for posting comments here. While your agit prop propaganda posted in your three comments is largely disinformation, it seems you actually believe it, so I won’t remove the comments as *knowing* disinformation. However, your ACORN nonsense is beyond the pale, and utterly without substance. Now you know. So, another crack like that, short of actual *evidence* to back it up (no, links to Fox “News”, John Fund, Limbaugh and the *opinions* of other disinformationists doesn’t count) will earn you moderation and/or full banning. Thank you. BTW, you are being played for a chump by the media you follow. Have a great night! – BF}
Where do you think Obama’s million man civillian army will come from? They will be recruited from the ghettos and barrios of America. They will be well fed and taken care of by our now Communist government, while the evil, racist white Americans who now have no job, no money and for many no home will be treated like the Jews of Nazi Germany. They will be little more that the new and improved, and greatly enlarged black panthers, and the brown berets on steroids.
Mike, you hit on all of Rush Limbaugh’s talking points! You even mention “the Jews”!
I did hear Rush Limbaugh talking about ACORN today. He is going to start blaming violence on unions and ACORN at the protests.
Obama Dispatches Union Thugs to Intimidate American Citizens
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/hom...106.guest.html
Today, Rush Limbaugh’s corporate orders were to start blaming Unions & ACORN:
This attack followed hours of taunts and verbal assaults by SEIU and ACORN members upon citizens gathered to express their views under the First Amendment. We believe this brutal beating is part of an organized plan to suppress dissent to the Administration’s planned seizure of the medical industry in the United States.”
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/hom...110.guest.html
It’s so easy to see this stuff!
And Mike above “repeats” the Republican Noise Machine as a “regular Joe” who thought of it himself. Right?
It’s all FAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What are the odds that Rush Limbaugh came out today with his blame Unions & ACORN, and Mike happened to mention ACORN? And no one talked about ACORN since pre-election?
Mike “stumbled upon” Brad Blog today!
What are Marxist tactics?
Mike A wrote:
Calling ordinary Americans, who really have no party preference or affiliation a right wing mob, and Nazi brown shirts is another Marxist tactic, and we are seeing the worst of what that can be right now. To call these people unamerican is simply wrong; these people are as American as American gets.
Umm Mike, maybe you should actually read this article which is from one of your former psychophants. You apparently missed his point altogether.
I have 2 questions
1. Does Freedomworks in any way support the townhall teabaggers tactics?
2. Does the healthcare/health insurance industry in any way support Freedomworks?
IMO anyone that is getting corporate monies should immediately recuse themselves from the healthcare debate!
Two things about Mike.
1.He’s a paid disinfo schill
2.He actually believes the corporate elitist propaganda.
How ’bout it, Mike?
Here’s Frank on Rachel
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#32337676
Notice over Rach’s shoulder, the Pharma dude from my link on the other post
At the 10:00 mark on the Rachel clip, burn that Big Pharma guys face into your brain and see if he shows up at other townhalls, I was wondering if that footage was from someplace other than Tampa?
In watching this effort to simultaneously shut-down one of the oldest forms of American democracy — the town hall meeting, while both spreading disinformation over the public airwaves while excluding meaningful discussion from single-payer advocates, I am reminded of the definition of “American fascists” provided by former VP Henry Wallace in an April 1944 New York Times op-ed:
The hard-right of the Republican party and their corporate sponsors are “American fascists” as defined by Wallace.
Thank you, cann4ing, for the quote. It hits the nail on the head (Fox News comes to mind). The United States has for years been in this internal war of dis-information. I’m 56 years old and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the American version version of the brown-shirts become such a dominant force in disrupting the national debate on any issue as we’re seeing them now in their so far sucessful attempts at disrupting town hall meetings. I’ve never felt so compelled to get involved to save my country from these Fascists.
The DNC ae th brown shirts. Obama and his dead fish mobster Emaualle
God-Goddess and unbiased universal Love and gratitude to Bradblog…
I’m getting news and info here that I NEVER would have otherwise gotten. I stumbled onto this blog about 6 weeks ago and now I check in here every day. I don’t always have time to post a comment or sometimes the comments are so good that I don’t need to add my 2 cents.
Brad, Agent 99, Big Dan, Floridiot and many others here are stout ballsy watchers of our liberty. If power is indeed returned to the people..no make that WHEN power is returned to the people. it will be because of places like this…
Asante’ Sana (swahili for thank you)
Comment #11…Agent 99
99 may be on to something…I’ve been around long enough to know that when there is raucous noise and acrimony in the atmosphere around government. It’s usually to distract the public’s attention from other matters… The Whitehouse could have shut down these teabaggin’, town hall rioters from the start…if they wanted to.
They could have pulled the GOP lever pullers aside and squashed this ignorant uprising in it’s sleep. Political deals and considerations and made like that all the time.
Why hasn’t this been chilled out yet ? Because it’s something for the bought out main stream media to focus on, it’s keeping the sheeple’s attention…while we’re being robbed blind and led down the garden path by fascists.
These numbnuts town hall lackies don’t realize they’re actually serving Obama and the corporate fascists who run him….Let the corporate backed riot mentality give Obama an excuse for doing NOTHING for the people…
Actually it’s a stunningly clever tactic…cynical to the extreme…but hey; they’ve had centuries to perfect their game.
Tx, BH, I got hip to the depth, breadth, extent of their cynicism back in aught six, when they took impeachment off the table and decided to keep funding Iraq so as to make * keep looking as bad as possible, looking forward to the blowout last November. That’s [’06] when I finally ran down to the registrar’s office and demanded to be un-Democratted instanter, after being a Democrat from before I was even old enough to vote.
For decades I’d been saying that I was only a Democrat because we are at least not so cruel to the downtrodden, and then I had to even nix that terminology because life experience was teaching me that conservatives are almost always there for the downtrodden and imperiled on the up close and personal level, where liberals just flat out aren’t, preferring to yell that the state should be handling it and calling the police instead of helping some poor crazy-person or homeless guy who shows up in their sphere. I just had to settle for Democrats talking nicer… but 2006 just scraped off all the scales left on my eyeballs and, no two ways about it, they are fucking us just as avidly as the Republicans.
Republicans prefer to make up stupid lies to dupe the public, and Democrats prefer to use noble theatrical lies to dupe the public, and both strategies arc toward the identical ends.
A third party [aka a second party] is no cure. They have a lock on it. This is a fascist country, and no one will allow that to be peacefully changed. We are not getting our country back.
No thread to talk about this above, only shit that ain’t gonna happen up there.
Anywho, watch Claire McCaskills town hall, I’ve seen the guy in the green shirt a couple of different times telling the teabaggers when to be quiet (like at 2:58) and when to ramp up the noise. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yugiPLkOqFQ
I wish someone was there with a camera to nail these fuckers and find out who they work for.
Hunkerdown. Lock and Load. Things are going to get worse.