Why does the CPAC Seem like a Nazi Convention?

[Gryphons Eyre]

When I view the home page dedicated to the 34th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference I get a sense of dread like I am watching something from a historical news reel. My stomach churns when I imagine the rhetoric being spewed across the uplifted faces by what can only be described as carnivorous demigods consumed with their eternally unsaturated lust for power, greed, and hate. I ask myself what could possible make people who profess to be Christians act so discordant with the teachings of their religion and fundamental principles of democracy.

Perhaps some of the answer is found in the origins of such organizations. There is nothing new about extreme Christian right wing entrenchment into government; the Reagan administration actually had the “Heritage Foundation” virtually creating domestic policy for this nation. Still in part I thought the following quote taken from Chris Hedges American Fascist gave a nice historical background to who attends the CPAC.

Tony Perkins who works for James Dobson and "the family research council" paid $82,500 to the head of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke, to acquire Duke's phone bank list and as late as 2001, Perkins spoke at a fund-raiser for the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white nationalist group that has called blacks "a retrograde species of humanity" on its Web site.

The ties by Christian Right leaders such as Perkins with racist groups highlight the long ties between right-wing fundamentalists and American racist organizations, including the Klan, which had a chaplain assigned to each chapter. During the Depression, when many on the right and in corporate America were openly flirting with fascism, fundamentalist preachers such as Gerald B. Winrod and Gerald L. K. Smith fused national and Christian symbols to advocate the country’s first crude form of Christo-fascism. Smith, who openly admired the Nazis, founded a group called the Christian Nationalist Crusade, whose magazine was The Cross and the Flag. The movement proclaimed that “Christian character is the basis of all real Americanism.”

By the late 1950’s these radical Christians had drifted to the fiercely anticommunist John Birch Society. Many of the ideas championed by today’s dominionists—the bizarre conspiracy theories, the calls for unrestrained capitalism, the war against “liberal” organizations such as the mainstream media and groups such as the ACLU, along with the calls to dismantle federal agencies that deal with housing or education—are drawn from the ideology of this rabid anticommunist enclave. Timothy LaHaye used to run John Birch Society training seminars in California. And Nelson Bunker Hunt, a member of the John Birch Society’s national council, worked with LaHaye to help found the CNP.

When you see the behavior of Ann coulter as it has been our misfortune to observe; or consider the fact that George W. Bush promised the CNP in their secretive gathering that he would appoint only anti-abortion judges as are the hopeful right wing nominees for the 2008 general election courting these very same people; I can only wonder at why each and every one of the Democrat candidates that I would want to vote for is not hammering it for what it is; a convention for bigotry and hatred convened to make war on the principles of democracy and Christianity in this nation.

[MADem]

1. Because that is what it looks like.

Gee, my family noticed it too. So you aren't alone.

Just the venue, with the portentious stage, the rows of flags, the stark lighting, the huge angry slogan, the whole rigid layout, it's very Rovian.

Sieg fuckin' hey-y'all!

[tblue]

2. Good call! It gives me the creeps.

I thought that about the GOP Convention, too.

[Richard D]

3. Cause it is one?

And holy shit, I just saw Jesus Camp for the first time. Now that is really scary. A new mega-evangelical church being completed every two days in the US. Storm troopers for god.

[kineneb]

4. now you've done it - see lyrics!

Back in my early childhood, Grandma bought a record of the Chad Mitchell Trio, and on it they sang this song, which I still remember. And even found the lyrics on the internet!

And yes, everybody knew the Birchers were a bunch of fascists.

From:
http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiJONBIRCH.html


The John Birch Society
(Michael Brown)

Oh we're meeting at the courthouse at eight o'clock tonight
You just come in the door and take the first turn to the right
Be careful when you get there, we'd hate to be bereft
But we're taking down the names of everybody turning left

'Cause we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Here to save this country from a communistic plot
We're the John Birch Society, help us swell the ranks
To get this movement started, we need lots of tools and cranks

Now there's no one that's certain that the Kremlin doesn't touch
We think that Westbrook Pegler doth protest a bit too much
We only hail the hero from whom we got our name
We're not sure what he did, but he's our hero all the same

Join the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Socialism is the ism dismalist of all
Join the John Birch Society, there's so much to do
Have you heard they're serving vodka at the W.C.T.U.

Well you've heard about the agents that we've already named
Well M.C.A. has agents that are flatly unashamed
We're after Rosie Clooney, we've gotten Pinky Lee
And the day we get Red Skelton won't that be a victory

For we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Norman Vincent Peale may think he's kidding us along
But the John Birch Society knows he spilled the beans
He keeps on preaching brotherhood, but we know what he means

We'll teach you how to spot 'em in the city or the sticks
'Cause even Jasper Junction is just full of Bolsheviks
The CIA's subversive and so's the FCC
There's no one left but thee and we, and we're not sure of thee

Oh we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Here to save our country from a Communistic plot
Join the John Birch Society, holding off the Reds
We'll use our hands and hearts, and if we must, we'll use our heads

BRIDGE: (O beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain)

spoken: Friends, do you want Justice Warren to be your Commissar?

Do you want Mrs. Khrushchev in there with the DAR?

You cannot trust your neighbors, or even next-of-kin

If mommy is a Commie then you gotta turn her in

To the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Fighting for the right to fight the right fight for the right
Join the John Birch Society, as we're marching on
We'll all be glad to see you when we're meeting in the John
In the John, In the John Birch Society


NOTES:
The songbook states that some Bircher's used the song themselves, and saw it
in a positive light. And don't forget the organization dedicated to the
preservation of wooden toilet seats - The Jack Ash Society.

- Copyright: 1961, Sunbeam Music Corp, New York
- Source: The Mitchell Trio Songbook, Quadrangle Book (1964)
- Chad Mitchell Trio, At The Bitter End, Kapp: KL-1281, KS-3281, PKS-6002
- Chad Mitchell Trio: The Best Of, Kapp: KL-1334, KS-3334

[xfundy]

5. "we need lots of tools and cranks"

They have them, in abundance.

[Kahuna]

6. I only caught a few minutes of Romney, and he was one scary

sounding sucker. He sounded Nazi-ish to me. :scared:

[Forkboy]

8. I've already lived under him.

And you should be afraid.Very,very afraid.

[gordon1]

7. I agree

Thanks for this post.