Reagan Republican calls Bush gang "Brownshirts"

http://www.creators.com/opinion/paul-craig-roberts.html

Paul Craig Roberts is a republican and former Assistant Secretary Of The Treasury under Ronald Reagan. He is a former editor for The Wall Street Journal and columnist for Business Week and the Scripps Howard News Service. He currently is a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate in Los Angeles. In 1992, he received the Warren Brookes Award for Excellence in Journalism. In 1993, the Forbes Media Guide ranked him as one of the top seven journalists in the United States.

The Party of Brownshirts
Paul Craig Roberts

Neoconservatives have turned the Republican Party into a Brownshirt Party.

Look at the evidence. While real patriots flee the party, the remaining supporters cling to power by asserting dictatorial dominance for President Bush. The Republican attorney general denies that the U.S. Constitution provides habeas corpus protection to American citizens. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, Republican candidates for the 2008 presidential campaign, believe the president has the power to imprison U.S. citizens indefinitely without warrants or trials. The "conservative" Federalist Society favors concentrating more power in the executive. Neoconservative ideologues claim the right to impose American hegemony over all others— especially over Muslims.

All of these Republican tyrants and budding tyrants claim to be protecting liberty and democracy.

Polls show that the percentage of Americans who tilt Republican has declined to 35 percent. Republican recruits are refusing to run for Congress. Ken Mehlman, until recently the party's chairman, says many voters have lost confidence in Republicans. To win back people's confidence, Mehlman says the party will have to become less reliant on white males and expand its support among Hispanics and blacks.

Decency and intelligence have departed Republican ranks. The party's shrunken base consists of ignorant and fearful people who believe Muslim jihadists are going to murder them in their beds, rapture evangelicals who believe that war in the Middle East is the prelude to their being wafted up to heaven, the military-security complex reveling in power and fortune, and resentful and frustrated people who can freely vent their anger and hate on "terrorists."

<snip>

...and you didn't see this coming?

when he stays to the topic of bashing Bush, he is wonderful and quotable.

When he starts in on economics, he is the same lunatic who bet that Clinton's
raise of the minimum wage in 96 was going to tank the economy.

Please be pragmatic. The man may be a useful idiot, but at the moment,
he is our useful idiot.

arendt

So that makes him an anti-Semite?

I had a look at some of his other writings. He has said, among other things, that Israel is America's 'puppet-master' and that the media is disproportionately controlled by 'pro-Zionist Jews'.

Nor is his anti-semitic streak his only prejudice: he is pretty negative toward Mexican immigrants and has the following revolting views on cultural and religious diversity in America: "There is plenty of room for cultural diversity in the world, but not within a single country. A Tower of Babel has no culture. A person cannot be a Christian one day, a pagan the next and a Muslim the day after. A hodgepodge of cultural and religious values provides no basis for law – except the raw power of the pre-Christian past. All Americans have a huge stake in Christianity."

He has also written in defence of some decidedly dubious characters, including Milosevic and even Pinochet. He worships the memory of St Ronnie, and helped to promote the Ronnie's laissez-faire, supply-side economics (similar of course to the Thatcherism that nearly destroyed my own country).

Nonetheless, even nuts can be right about some things, and he is quite right about Bush being a danger to the world, about the evils of the war, and about Bush's anti-terror policies only increasing the risk of world terrorism.

...or Reaganites. I can forgive the latter for their stupidity. The former only if they don't emerge from their ignorance.

Me? I'm dumb on most things and appreciate enlightenment. Thank you for bringing light to my world.

edit: There was no stronger proof of what a bunch of lying murdering conniving bastards they are than the take-over of the White House before the Supreme Court had even made their highly unethical decision.

1996~1997?

Actually go back to Reagan to see where these filthy treasonous bastards came from.

It started with Reagan.

ellen fl

I agree with you. I fear what is coming. I do not believe this cabal will relinquish power. Bush is obviously a madman - his rantings off the leash yesterday proved that. The crowd around him, led by Cheney and Rove, know exactly what they are doing. More insane rantings from Our Glorious Leader and they may decide he has served his purpose.

when it is really their own policies that stink.

In all honesty, if you read this article carefully, the author sort of recognizes this in statements like this:

Republican "law and order" apathy to civil liberties easily transferred to the "war on terror." Republicans regard civil liberties as protective devices for criminals and terrorists. Republicans mistakenly believe that the law can be cut down selectively so that only certain despised groups are deprived of its protection.

And of course he blames globalization for the loss of jobs etc which erodes the GOP base. The REAL issue is that the loss of well paying jobs HURTS AMERICANS! We should be more concerned about that but he just seems concerned about it costing the GOP.

Finally, and again the author hints around the edges, noone talks about the other real problem here: electing an idiot based on sound bites and name calling "Ozone Man" etc when we really should be talking about whether a "unitary executive" (read: dictator) is what we want. Especially when the dictator is a spoiled brat.

He needs to ask: why did we run this man for president when he was clearly unfit?

On balance, a GREAT read...only wish I saw it early enough to recommend it.

up of neocons now--they control it all, via the Bush Family Evil Empire, and woe to the few "traditional" or "moderate" Republicans who haven't drunk the Koolaid. The party has been hijacked, to the extent that they will consider Rudy, who is the antithesis of traditional conservative values, to be Prez because he is a popular celebrity who has agreed to keep the PNAC war plan going. I'll bet, too, that Giuliani is attractive to the neocons because he is already linked to corruption (Kerik) and thus won't suddenly be given to fits of integrity that would flush out and expose the whole organized crime ring that is the GOP now. Rank and file Republicans are too unquestioning of authority to realize any of this.

Neocons are not interested in socially conservative values or making money. They came from the left, some of them used to be socialists and many of them worked for Dems during the cold war. Their agenda was to spread democracy because they believed democracy was a better way of life and the US would be safer if everyone was like us.

They used each other. The neocons used the greedy money men (military industrial complex) used the theocons. The neocons had the ideals. The military industrial complex had the muscle and went along to make money and the theocons supplied the votes to get them elected. I have never understood where Bush fit in. I tend to think he was a useful tool. I think Cheney and Rummy were a mix of neocon and military industrial complex but since neither of them were ever on the left, I think they joined the neocons to make money.

Rudy is power hungry and can be a useful tool. I don't think he has any ideas or ideals on his own but will be adopting some soon when he can figure out what he needs to "believe" to get elected.

blank slates waiting for a "platform", i.e. marching orders. I have no doubt they will be Rove creations once one of them wins the nom--a carefully crafted message and image designed to appeal to most and offend none, just like the Original Compassionate Conservative, the Reformer with Results.

delusionals

a little too late for their mea culpas

the reality based train left the station a LONG time ago

He hasn't written a favorable column about the current administration in years.

That needs underlining and exclamation points !

Behold the damage of Bushco as viewed by this guy:

This collection of fear, delusion, greed and resentment comprises the 30 percent of Americans who constitute Bush's base. The Republican Party has made itself so unattractive that Democrats believe that it is now possible for a woman or a black to win the presidency.

:kick:

Evil feeds upon itself

Yes, that's how the Repug party will save itself -- expanding support among Hispanics, Blacks and flying pigs.

As neatly packaged a summary of the misdeeds of the Bush Crime Family as I have read anywhere

K&R

...he also writes on the epidemic injustice of the criminal "justice" system, so while some of his economic ideas may not be in accord with progressive thinking, he's very much in our camp on multiple social issues.

Having clicked on the link to the full piece in the OP, I then went on to Roberts' piece "Ban People -- They Kill." I haven't historically been an NRA guy, but under this government -- as presently constituted and administered -- don't you think that we should arm ourselves against their unconstitutional encroachments on American liberty?

Jes' askin'...

I cancelled my subscription to the Wall Street Journal over 7 years ago.
John Fund is one of the stupidest editors I have ever read in my life.
How he ever got that job is beyond me.

has become. I'm curious as to which "patriots" have left the party, as he asserts. Which? Jeffords, Chafee, Barr? Because I don't see a whole lot of prominent Republicans defecting, even as they are about to get flushed.

They're as slow as Reagan himself was... :shrug:

Bush ages ago, what took so long?

Sp.

hearing this from a former Reagan appointee would be particularly convincing. "Geez, if a guy who worked for Reagan thinks things are this bad, maybe I should be paying attention." I like Roberts for the same reason I think Ed Schultz is OK. People need way stations as they are considering revising their opinions or just getting interested in something in the first place.

I love Mike Malloy's show, but no one is going to listen to drug-addled gasbag comedian Rush Limpballs or SavageWeiner one day and Mike Malloy the next. Ain't gonna happen. If they want a different voice they are going to listen to someone like Schultz to dip their toe in the water. If that person likes what s/he hears maybe s/he will give Thom Hartmann or Randi a listen. And maybe eventually they will tune in to Mike. Views evolve and it takes time. Sometimes the messenger makes a big difference.

I am willing to welcome converts from the uninvolved, the apathetic and even repentant Repigs. But I will watch those Repigs carefully.

The neocons are just like Reagan, but less subtle about it.