American conservatism: the perfect combination of fascism and apathy.

Conservativsm is not a political position, it is a lack of a political position.
I've come to this conclusion after living in rural Kansas for three years and being in a community that has 50%+ Republicans, but they rarely debate or do any activism or anything. My area is seen my the conservatives to be completely dominated by leftists, because they are the only ones that do any activism and they run the important institutions.
Conservativsm certainly is not a lifesyle. When I browse Facebook I see many people with "conservative" listed under their political affiliation (often even conservative and Christianity/God listed under interests) with tons of pictures of them drinking and partying. A lot of these conservatives are ashamed of Bush, but really violently hate liberals. The difference between liberals and conservatives are that liberals are too pissed off to keep being silent, mainly based on being more informed about current events and how the world works.
American Conservatism is a not a political position, it is a culture. It is tied deeply to the dominant Christian views in America, which is a big part of this and can be viewed under this framework of a strange apathetic, reactionary, ignorant/apathetic, anti-modern, anti-liberal, hateful culture that produces right-wingers.
So many people I have talked to have said they are fed up with Bush, but we should just obey our government and we can not change anything. American Conservatism is largely based on apathy and nationalism, often justified by Christianity with a strong emphasis on Romans 13:1, rather than Acts 5:29 or other better verses more accurate to the early Christians who were radical and not obedient to temporal authorities. For example, Paul wrote many of his letters from jail and was executed by the Roman Empire. It really is a strange phenomenon, and certainly a recent, post-Vietnam phenomenon (Vietnam War, especially the Pentagon Papers caused widespread distrust and apathy toward government by people on the left and right.) Nonetheless, it is from this culture, which is very widespread, that our politicians must build a c onsensus base. There seems to be little base for anyone to build a campaign on then of hatred, rallying around the flag, idolatrous repetitive screaming of "God Bless America"(yeah, I do mean Kerry's concession speech, fuck you Kerry), militarism, and "staying the course" on every issue.

American conservatism: the perfect combination of fascism and apathy.

Evidence for this blend of unqualified nationalism and apathy is provided in an e-mail being forwarded around:
> WHAT\\'S ALL THE FUSS?
>
> "ARE WE FIGHTING A WAR ON TERROR OR AREN\\'T WE?
>
> WAS IT NOT STARTED BY ISLAMIC PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT IT TO OUR SHORES ON
>
> SEPTEMBER 11, 2001?
>
> AMERICANS, NOT BRUTALLY MURDERED THAT DAY, IN DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN, ACROSS THE
> POTOMAC FROM OUR NATION\\'S CAPITOL AND IN A FIELD IN PENNSYLVANIA?
>
> DID NEARLY THREE THOUSAND MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN DIE A HORRIBLE,
>
> BURNING OR CRUSHING DEATH THAT DAY, OR DIDN\\'T THEY?
>
> I DON\\'T CARE AT ALL.
>
> I\\'LL START CARING WHEN OSAMA BIN LADEN TURNS HIMSELF IN AND REPENTS FOR
> INCINERATING ALL THOSE INNOCENT PEOPLE ON 9/11.
>
> OF WHICH IS A CRIME IN SAUDI ARABIA.
>
> I\\'LL CARE WHEN ABU MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI TELLS THE WORLD HE IS SORRY
> FOR HACKING
> OFF NICK BERG\\'S HEAD WHILE BERG SCREAMED
>
> THROUGH HIS GURGLING! , SLASHED THROAT.
>
> I\\'LL CARE WHEN THE COWARDLY SO-CALLED "INSURGENTS" IN IRAQ COME OUT AND
> FIGHT LIKE MEN INSTEAD OF DISRESPECTING THEIR OWN RELIGION BY HIDING IN
> MOSQUES.
>
> I\\'LL CARE WHEN THE MINDLESS ZEALOTS WHO BLOW THEMSELVES UP IN SEARCH OF
> NIRVANA CARE ABOUT THE INNOCENT CHILDREN WITHIN RANGE OF THEIR SUICIDE BOMBS.
>
> I\\'LL CARE WHEN THE AMERICAN MEDIA STOPS PRETENDING THAT THEIR FIRST
> AMENDMENT LIBERTIES ARE SOMEHOW DERIVED FROM INTERNATIONAL LAW INSTEAD OF THE
> UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION\\'S BILL OF RIGHTS.
>
> IN THE MEANTIME, WHEN I HEAR A STORY ABOUT A BRAVE MARINE ROUGHING
> UP AN IRAQI
> TERRORIST TO OBTAIN INFORMATION, KNOW THIS:
>
> I DON\\'T CARE.
>
> WHEN I SEE A FUZZY PHOTO OF APILE OF NAKED IRAQI PRISONERS WHO HAVE BEEN
> HUMILIATED IN WHAT AMOUNTS TO A COLLEGE HAZING INCIDENT, REST ASSURED THAT I
> DON\\'T CARE.
>
> WHEN I SEE A WOUNDED TERRORIST GET SHOT IN THE HEAD WHEN HE IS TOLD NOT TO
> MOVE BECAUSE HE MIGHT BE BOOBY-TRAPPED, YOU CAN TAKE IT TO THE BANK THAT I
> DON\\'T CARE.
>
> WHEN I HEAR THAT A PRISONER, WHO WAS ISSUED A KORAN AND A PRAYER
> MAT, AND FED
> "SPECIAL" FOOD THAT IS PAID FOR BY MY TAX DOLLARS, IS COMPLAINING
> THAT HIS HOLY
> BOOK IS BEING "MISHANDLED," YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART
> OF HEARTS
> THAT I DON\\'T CARE.
>
> AND OH, BY THE WAY, I\\'VE NOTICED THAT SOMETIMES IT\\'S SPELLED "KORAN" AND
> OTHER TIMES "QURAN." WELL, JIMMY CRACK CORN AND ---- YOU GUESSED IT, I COULD
> NOT HAVE SAID THIS ANY BETTER MYSELF!
>
> IF YOU AGREE WITH THIS VIEW POINT, PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR E-MAIL FRIENDS.
> SOONER OR LATER, IT\\'LL GET TO THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FR THIS RIDICULOUS
> BEHAVIOR! IF YOU DON\\'T AGREE, THEN BY ALL MEANS HIT THE DELETE BUTTON.
>
> SHOULD YOU CHOOSE THE LATTER, THEN PLEASE DON\\'T COMPLAIN WHEN MORE
> ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY RADICAL MUSLIMS HAPPEN HERE IN OUR GREAT COUNTRY.

"Facts were fixed"

Downing Street Memo = Remove Bush from power now!

A memo proving the Administration purposely fixed intelligence on the Iraq War, and also proving personal lies from Bush showing he was planning the war earlier than he told Congress. The "Downing Street Memo" made huge news in all the UK press, but the American press has been so sheepish because none of them want to be called "the liberal media" by all the right-wing pressure groups funding by oil companies and other corrupt lobby groups. View the memo here:

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/memo

Do what you can now to support justice and impeach Bush or hopefully even bring him to a war crimes tribunal.

http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_Street_memo
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0617/dailyUpdate.html

From http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0517/dailyUpdate.html

Among other things, the memo said:

Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The [National Security Council] had no patience with the UN route .... There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action. ...

It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbors, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.

The memo's authenticity was not disputed by Blair's office.

Quotations for your week

"But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
--Luke 19:8

It is time for some serious restitution from the rich in America to oppressed groups throughout the world and manipulated workers in America.

"He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
and he who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty." --Proverbs 22:16

God here speaks not in literal terms that eventually if we sit around long enough, this person will become poor in the tangible sense. It is a play upon words to undermine the conventional terms of what it means to be "wealthy" so that those that are wealthy and exploit the poor are actually morally bankrupt, and thus have come to poverty.

That't our home state :-( ...

I did not get to learn evolution in high school thanks to the Kansas BOE, and it did not help me in college. In grade school, at my Environmental Magnet school, we had very old fossils to prove how old life was and how Kansas used to be underwater. My point is that as a third graders, I had more intelligence than the Kansas school board. Unfortunately, most future students will not:

The way to get creationism into school science curricula used to be by trying to make creationism look like science by calling it "intelligent design". Now there is a second approach: redefine science:

The Kansas school board's hearings on evolution weren't limited to how the theory should be taught in public schools. The board is considering redefining science itself. Advocates of "intelligent design" are pushing the board to reject a definition limiting science to natural explanations for what's observed in the world.

Instead, they want to define it as "a systematic method of continuing investigation," without specifying what kind of answer is being sought. The definition would appear in the introduction to the state's science standards.

The proposed definition has outraged many scientists, who are frustrated that students could be discussing supernatural explanations for natural phenomena in their science classes.

Three quotations to help you this week

One of the moderators of this blog, Ross, described the diminishing power of the U.S. Congres as such:

"They [Congress] basically only have the power to ask for the President to not donkey-punch them while he is ass-raping them"


"Great spirits have always encountered violent
opposition from mediocre minds." --Albert Einstein


They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
now will they train for war anymore.
Every man will sit under his own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid.
--Micah 4.3-4

First they came for the liberal judges... and I didn't speak up...

First reactionary right-wing factions before they destroy democracies try to purge political opposition from government by changes the rules to help them. Hitler did everything legally, he just had to CHANGE THE RULES.

On Sunday morning, Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson told TV viewers nation-wide that the threat posed by liberal judges is "probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings." When an incredulous George Stephanopoulos asked if Robertson really believed that these judges posed "the most serious threat America has faced in nearly 400 years of history, more serious than al Qaeda, more serious than Nazi Germany and Japan, more serious than the Civil War?," he responded, "George, I really believe that."

http://www.moveonpac.org/donate/robertson.html?id=5494-2967744-z9w7jbgRn8HQ8k4kpLBeCw&t=10

I pray we do all we can to keep these political demagogues, who hide behind a shallow heretical faith, out of power.

Shalom

The New Pope...

Looks like his 'intervention' in the election last year was trumped up by the SCLM.

Anyways, Musing's Musings had a great post about it, go check it out.

Or, if you prefer, just go to the US Conference of Catholic Bishop's statement

I hate it when I buy what the media tells me without first doing my own fact checks.