YES, ACTUALLY …
|| By FITSNEWS || We’re on a ton of political email lists … so we get forwarded a ton of ridiculous political stuff. And as the 2016 presidential election starts heating up (especially here in early-voting South Carolina), we expect the barrage of ridiculousness to intensify.
Hell, our advertising executives are counting on it …
Case in point: Arriving in our email this week was a promotional pitch for a book entitled Common Sense (how original, right?) written by a supporter of uber-liberal U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
The book isn’t endorsed by Warren but it does contain several staples of her far left ideology – most notably the perpetuation and expansion of America’s totally unsustainable welfare state/ entitlement culture.
“The radical-right has already pulled food stamps from the mouths of millions of hungry children,” the treatise begins.
Um … really?
Anyway, moving on …
“If not soon stopped, these Republicans will revoke Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act,” the treatise’s author, Bob Zimmerman, continues. “The failure of our timid congressional Democrats to promote bold progressive legislation led to our second straight drubbing by the radical-right Republicans.”
Wow … that’s an interesting theory. Especially seeing as pre-election polling showed fiscal liberalism as the number one breakaway issue for disgruntled Democratic voters, to say nothing of independents and “Republicans.”
But lurking within the demonstrably false insanity of Zimmerman’s “mo’ gubmint” precepts are several agenda items the “radical right” really ought to embrace.
For example, Zimmerman’s treatise supports “Rescinding the Abominable Income Tax” – which has been at the forefront of this website’s agenda from day one. It also urges America’s foreign policymakers to “Lead with Peace Instead of War” and urges its domestic policymakers to end the failed “War on Drugs.”
We suspect the devil will be in the details on all three of those points, but let’s be honest: Income tax elimination, a radical reorienting of America’s foreign policy and the decriminalization of drugs strike use as three eminently sensible ideas. Not to mention ideas that are consistent with the free market, the U.S. Constitution and individual liberty (three things “Republicans” are supposed to support).
Oh, and three ideas credible independent candidates could use to draw support away from the mushy political middle and into the real center of American ideology …
Don’t get us wrong: The majority of Zimmerman’s manifesto is pure poppycock (sorry, we watched Downton Abbey last night) – but there are chunks of it rooted in, well, “Common Sense.”
Bottom line? Both the “radical right” and the “lunatic left” have some ideas the rest of America’s political spectrum ought to start paying heed to …
***
29 comments
I assume just by the title of this article alone that Grandasshat/flip/sandi/pogo/guest are on the ground having seizures and foaming at the mouth imagining the skies filled with Russian bombers dropping commie juice to infect us ‘mericans.
You do realize that all of those “people” are only Grandasshat and one other dude, right?
That was kinda my point Buz.
Sorry, but the Right has much common with Communism than the Left.
Please review and edit that.
I think he meant exactly what he (thinks he) said.
Done. Thx.
Well, you still may want to add a word or two for clarity.
If your point is that the social conservative, TEA Party, Libertarian factions of the Republican Party each have a much more rigid party line than the American Left, I agree.
The GOP is consumed – not soon enough for the good of the country – by a pathological certainty and rigidity of thought that far exceeds
And who are the job creators?
The consumer, or the manufacturer?
Think about it.
I guess we can assume that the Bob Zimmerman who wrote that is neither the Robert Zimmerman who changed his name to Bob Dylan, nor the father of that hot-head “stand your ground” dude, George Zimmerman.
Well, they’ll stone you and say that it’s the end. It don’t take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. You gonna have to serve somebody. The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind. TBG ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.
I have the exact opposite message regarding libertarians. What little things I agree with (ending the War on Drugs, stopping the military-industrial complex, ending crony capitalism) is not an excuse to ignore the things I don’t agree with them (burning down any and all welfare programs, destroying absolutely needed functions of government, giving the uber wealthy free reign to do as they desire, much to our detriment). What good libertarians would do would be overshadowed by the devastation that would swiftly follow destroying aspects of the government that actually serve and protect the general public.
What we have now isn’t great but it would certainly beat the fresh hell that would be Libertopia, and that’s if we get the whole package. (We’re assuming the Koch-branded libertarians wouldn’t take over and keep crony capitalism well and alive, for instance.)
Liberals and Liberal-Tarians share Selfishness and Greed…. The difference is: Liberal-Tarians believe in success, so they will support a Republican, because Conservationism is the ONLY way to produce wealth. Liberalism leads to poverty and failure…Liberal–tarians want to be rich, and then they want no obligation to anyone, except their own selfish desires and decadence…
Liberals are selfish w/ money other people produce – and their own. Greed is one thing…but TAKING what others earn, is a special level of Greed, and it’s what Liberals are expert at….
At any rate: both of you SUCK…. and you are bad for America, and your fellow man…
It’s not *about* money, is it, Damned Tango?
Fairly well said… conservatism is indeed the middle ground between collectivism and individualism. At its best, conservatism takes the top traits of both collectivism – for instance, recognizing a need for some government – and individualism – for instance, acknowledging that individiduals, not collectivisms, are the true drivers of human advancement. Anyway, the greatest problem in being conservative – as a middle ground – is in defining the true role of government, and whether government laws, etc should reconcile to a nation’s moral codes. In fact, few things separate a conservative from a libertarian more than the conservative’s historical belief in reconciling the nation’s moral codes to the laws. I mean, we hear all the time that politicians shouldn’t legislate morality. Since when?! Since the dawn of human civilization, governments have been formed primarily to protect the moral environment of a society… Think parts of the 10 commandment aren’t codified in our laws pursuant to theft, killing, etc?
“conservatism is indeed the middle ground between collectivism and individualism”
You seem to be proud of that statement.
Actually, very… afterll all, neither full fledged communism nor full fledged hedonistic narcissism hold much appeal for me.
Have the Koch brothers abandoned the loony TEA party and cast there millions to the just as loony Libeterians?
…giving the uber wealthy free reign to do as they desire,…
[sceams]
In the name of all that’s Holy…
Please.
Stop.
“What we have now isn’t great”
We’re only 5 days into the year and we already have “Understatement of the Year” winner.
It’s hilarious for a Libertarian blog to talk about the ‘middle’ when Libertarianism is off the left/right charts with its fraternal twin brother, Anarchy.
But, today’s Koch Libertarianism is all about working people being controlled by their business masters. Kansas is a great example of what they want. No taxes of any kind on business owners, just their employees. And, Sam Brownback, of Sanford’s The Fellowship/The Family/C Street cult, doesn’t get it yet.
How can people who believe they believe in the wonderfulness of Jesus turn around and put the tax burden exclusively on the workers while giving freebies to the bosses?
Didn’t Jesus say: “Render unto Caesar”? There was nothing in there about except if they own the business, Caesar should give those people a pass.
Does Jesus have common ground with the commie left?
Instead of worrying about the “so called ultra left,” Elizabeth Warren. Who is actually ultra-conservative and Constitutionally strict, as some sort of Commie. FITS should be calling out the GOP’s growing FASCISM!
Because the GOP is following the exact same game plans used by the Italian FASCIST PARTY from 1919 until WW2 ended. The Italian Fascist did it by: calling every enemy a Russian Communist, using Nationalism to rally public, military and police support, using a minority elected congress to block progress in a Democratically elected government thru procedural processes & threats, breaking unions & protective labor laws as Communist Plots, wrapping capitalism, an economic system, and democracy, a form of government into a single unified concept (which they are not). While all the time being funded & controlled by Bankers and 1 percenters. Yet in the end the Italian Fascist murdered their Jewish Bankers, sold their own people into NAZI Slavery, and caused the destruction of their own Army and police.
Can’t you see KOCH and FASCIST as the same???
So, stop beating up Elizabeth Warren and start focusing on the real danger to Democracy: Fascist control of the GOP by the KOCH Brother’s and their fellow traitors.
Instead of worrying about the “so called ultra left,” Elizabeth Warren. Who is actually ultra-conservative and Constitutionally strict, as some sort of Commie. FITS should be calling out the GOP’s growing FASCISM!
Communism vs Fascism = International Socialism vs National Socialism.
Meh.
“Communism vs Fascism = International Socialism vs National Socialism.”
Great comment.
Cid doesn’t realize that Warren is a commie, but that doesn’t make him wrong about the elements of fascism dominating the US’s current paradigm.
Italy’s fascism was different from the Nazi’s, both have elements of communism…but the Nazi’s were clearly for private property controlled by the State, which is why they to take out the Socialist and Commie’s during the Night of the Long Knives to retain economic supremacy.
Really the US is a very similar animal right now to that time period.
Sadaam was a socialist too. The Bathist Party was all about extreme nationalist socialism. Never stressed, though, in the lead-up to the war that the neo-Troskiite neocons led Bush into. Commies and nazis = rotten peas in pod. I hate those guys!
National Socialism is actually called the NAZI Party.
Interesting to note: that both the Fascist’s and NAZI’s used fear of the Russian Communist as their main method of recruiting followers. Taking a National stand against Communism led directly to WW2.
Extreme Nationalism is always a dangerous thing, when you don’t take into account your fellow man, or respect humanity’s other forms of survival.
I respect your insight.
I still don’t think that Elizabeth Warren is a Communist.
We use that label too often to demonize another person’s position. I think she is a Populist. Which is exactly the real name of Teddy Roosevelt’s political party. The Populist Party, not the more commonly used: Bull Moose Party.
My main support for Warren is that she appears to be the only person out there that has a clearly defined roll as enemy of unregulated bankers & corporations. She wants fair deals for the consumer, and rights for US Citizens over corporations.
Her railing against the banker thieves, the rigging of the Supreme Court, and the concept that Corporations have some sort of super human rights; is exactly right. Our Democracy is under direct assault by these disguised Fascists, and she’s calling them out for what they really are: Traitors.
Where can I get one of those really cool Commie hammer and sickle buttons?