The rightwing hurricane

[underpants]

This horrible storm may just be the defining moment of the United States for at least this decade if not the first half of the 21st century. This is no overstatement. The way we respond to this tragedy, which no one has provided a complete picture of yet, will define governance and society in the immediate future and I fear the direction we are headed.

From comments from rightwingers that I know and from what I have heard on local talk radio this is a very disturbed nation. "Values" and "morals" have been turned on their head and this monster is being fed by a media feeding on wedges to separate us. It appears that the main concern of many are in this order

1.punishment-for breaking the law whether it has any relevance to their life or not
2.restitution-in the form of money...their money.... from the poor.

This one in particular is something I have heard more than once "Are those people ;-) who stayed going to be charged for their rescue? That is MY TAX MONEY!!!" Seriously I have heard this several times.

3.murder-kill all looters ;-) NOW. Kill anyone on the street.
4.racism/social Darwinism-only slightly veiled with code words "looters" and "too stupid to leave".

The Great Depression used the model of charity and alms for the poor to care for the most defenseless in our society. This nation reacted in the ways taught by most major religions of the world tell their followers to help those who can not help themselves. Now it appears that the distraction of energy and attention down the social/economic latter towards those stealing crumbs, while the rich steal truckloads, has been entrenched in some and is now to be unleashed. They serve their masters by beating upon the already broken down.

I fear for the future of my new born child with vile people like this around and about.

[Fenris]

1. I get what you're saying...

A desperate situation arises and the right wants to know how the suffering of those people;) is going to affect their pocket book. This and the punishment of looters;) are their primary concerns.:eyes:

[underpants]

3. From what I have heard, yes it is

Seriously. After talking with some friends, my wife, and reading DU over the last few days all this hit me just as I was leaving work yesterday. My boss and then on the radio. It was as if the hurricane allowed to the institution of their way of viewing things right now right here.

[tom_paine]

2. Oh, the Brownshirts are coming. Make no mistake

The outline ofthe future is becoming evermore clear.

[underpants]

10. Market based compassion

Maybe that is the code that "Compassionate Conservativism" held (like W's "Dred Scott" in the debate) that we weren't aware of.

There is a serious sense that if you didn't DO AS YOU WERE TOLD and if you don't have the means to do WHAT YOU WERE TOLD then you are expendable.

[info being]

16. And what are we gonna do?

Seriously. How will we deal with these Nazi's?

[tenshi816]

4. Betcha those people wouldn't be yelling about

"their" tax money being spent if it had been their home that had been hit by a hurricane/tornado/flood/fire/earthquake and they found themselves hungry, thirsty and without a place to live.

That attitude pretty well sums up the RWers: "I've got mine, now fuck you, and don't expect me to help you if something happens to you". Until something happens to them.

There's no such thing as "compassionate conservatism", because those people know no compassion.

I also think it's the reason so many of them are against a universal health care program - they're soooo afraid that someone, somewhere, might benefit from it without having paid taxes into the system to help fund it (because of unemployment or for whatever reason). They'd rather hurt themselves than help someone else.

[underpants]

8. Central Va.

When Gaston and Isabelle hit EVERYONE in this area wanted to know when their power would be back on and when their street would be cleared. PRetty much anyone who owned a house could go to FEMA and get a voucher for a generator-a Home Depot employeed told me about this saying that they had two truckloads coming just to satisfy the vouchered requests.

[Zuni]

5. pay for their own rescue?

:wtf:

[underpants]

6. Oh yeah

I have heard this from three sources. One was a caller on a radio show "If I go canoeing in the James and get caught and have to be rescued I have to pay why shouldn't they???" The host completely agreed.

This is a new law in Va..

The funny part is-what constitutes a "rescue"? A helicopter and rope? What about those who will be rescued by flying in supplies (read: white folks outside the city)? NBC reported that 18 wheelers of water, food (MRE's), diapers, formula were already lined up outside Gulfport yesterday...is that a rescue???

[Zuni]

13. he agreed with him?

are these people FUCKING INSANE

how are people who have lost everything, including their jobs, going to pay?

And why is Virginia charging for emergency rescue? Aren't taxes, first and foremost, paid to protect citizens in danger?

[underpants]

14. Accountability you know

You got yourself in that spot don't expect to get out of it for free.

I should have mentioned this earlier-We are also seeing two very different cultures colliding here. White America is about punishment, fear of punishment, self sufficiency (no net-high suicide rate) while black america ( I am white BTW) has a large social element to it. I don't mean this as the "welfare state" but as the fact that in black, and brown, society you do have somewhere to go for help you are not alone. Whites don't have that and they expect you to do the same and if you don't you pay for it in one way or another (include white Puritanism and Calvinism).

[Jackpine Radical]

20. In 1910 my family moved to Wisconsin where they homesteaded

a piece of logged-over land. The first winter they spent in the cook shanty of an abandoned lumber camp. When this shanty burned down, the neighbors gathered & helped them build a new house.

Communual barn-raisings happened all the time. The entire rural community would get together & build a barn for someone.

Well into the 1950's and 60's, the farmers in a given area would combine their work and their equipment, moving from farm to farm in spring and fall, planting and harvesting.

Communualism is an American tradition, and it still happens among small farmers wherever they still exist.

Me-first predatory Republicanism is a recent and deplorable aberration in our culture.

[underpants]

21. And a recent occurrence too.

Yes this nation was settled by people from mostly communal type societies and they brought that with them especially since they didn't have much on their own. The recent phenomenon of predatory Republicanism (IMHO) is a dive and conquer strategy pitting those below the upper most class against themselves thus deferring attention from the real threat.

It, as we know, it all began with Lewis Powell's memo to the US Chamber of Commerce in 1971. Read it and see where they have expanded his original ideas.

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/powell_memo_lewis.html

[CTyankee]

23. Oh but that was private citizens actions

When the government does anything it is considered socialism!

This is a joke!

[Skittles]

7. Dear God Underpants - I hear you

I heard so many times from my conservative coworkers, "I don't understand why they just didn't leave." There's an extreme disconnect with people who simply cannot fathom what it means to live below the poverty line - but now it's more than that - there's no empathy, no compassion left - and I can guarantee you most of them would call themselves "Christians"......I am seeing my country die before my eyes.

[underpants]

9. It is pretty shocking

almost no concern for their fellow man. Okay I (we) might be "liberals" but I really don't understand the punitive aspect of this. Even with the tsunami the foreigner haters at least made it sound like they cared, now it is like it is payback time or something...and for what?

[Virginian]

11. There seemed to be more sympathy for the tsunami victims.

Is that purely because no authority figure told them to leave?

It was heartbreaking in Biloxi to hear that people died because they couldn't afford the gas to leave town. They had reached the end of the month and the end of the paycheck and couldn't afford the tank of gas to get out of town. Had this disaster occurred at the beginning of a month, they would still be alive.

edited for typo.

[underpants]

12. I think the economic aspect is over stated

to some degree.

There were plenty of people in the areas outside the city who didn't leave simply because they didn't think it would be that bad. I heard this on NPR (WaPo reporter) the other day. It isn't just the desperately poor who now need help but they (the poor) are the focus of the rage, I guess because they aren't deserving.

[Eloriel]

15. Nominated n/t

[Miss Chybil]

17. This isn't about Right Wingers, or Bush, or the rich.

This is about a lot of people in dire need. Don't be distracted by the hate. There is other work to do. Leave the hateful and the bigoted to feed on their own bone marrow and think of one thing you can do each day to help somebody who needs it.

[underpants]

18. I'm just trying to point it out

Sent it to the local paper. We'll see.

[Miss Chybil]

22. I know. I'm just so tired of giving those hateful, bigoted, ignorant

selfish bastards free rent in my head. I think it's time they were marginalized and we get on with our lives.

[lucca]

19. Yes, I agree: "This horrible storm will be

the defining moment of the United States for at least this decade if not the first half of the 21st century."

For, if we do not rise up together, in unity, with compassion for our fellow-man,for the sick, hungry, the poor and needy, then we are a lost nation without a moral compass.

Thank you for your post.
I appreciate, and share your feelings.