Protagoras

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Tue Apr-25-06 10:58 AM
Original message

A Dem's greatest fear about Winning? Home Grown Zealots.

I was listening to the news blabbing on and on about Insurgents (ever notice only Insurgents are killed in Iraq? Never hear Women or Children..we must be really good with our aim).

And I was reading here and seeing the level of angst, angery, and frustration...people talking about revolution...people talking about uprising, etc. But throughout it all I continue to be struck by the facts that we American Liberals protest, we speechify, we lobby, we march...but we usually abhore violence. We talk about fighting back if we're literally pushed into a corner, or if the brown shirts actually kick in our doors...but we have a great tendancy to aspire to the path of Gandhi. We preach non-violence and peaceful solutions. We advocate against war, and the death penalty. Heck half of us can't even agree on OWNING weapons, let alone using them.

And we look like we're about to win. Thank the gods.

But then I think of the Unibomber, of Timothy McVey, of the Compounds where the real nutbags setup their little cultish armed groups of survivalists. These people don't come from our ranks. And they've been pretty quiet overall (unless one of them was responsible for the anthrax attacks that hardly get mentioned outside of DU).

32% of the population appear to blindly follow Bush no matter what crime he's committing, no matter what voilation of basic morality he's in engaged in. And they are amazing,fantastic even at seeing themselves as the repressed minority even as they control both houses of congress, the administration, and the courts. They have all but their most extreme political fantasies (based on huge historical misunderstandings and distortions) served up on silver platters...yet they scream bloody murder because they haven't got EVERYTHING they demand. They can't stand diversity. They HATE Liberals and FAGS and COMMIE HIPPIES and just about anyone who doesn't exactly agree with them. Basically they HATE people who simply disagree with them.

And they are close to 1/3 of our population. They suck at the nipple of Rush and Hannity and Coulter, having ready made hate leaders who appear to know no bounds when it comes to sewing the seeds of resentment. They listen to Preachers who talk about murder while claiming to hear Christ. And they see no contridiction.

They are our Home Grown Zealots. We sometimes use the term American Taliban...but we don't always realize what that might really mean when we win. Think for a moment how bad they are now with their disengenuous claims of victimhood. Now mulitiply that by actual fear and resentment when this newly forged group of Super Fundy Freeptards actually lose REAL power. What do people LIKE this do? I think we know. They quickly transform their feelings of frustration and helplessness into violence. And the structures they DO have in place (the hate radio and Fox News) won't go away with a Republican Defeat...no, instead they will become even more reactionary. Fueling a fire that pushes the more unstable and angry of these souls to new heights of desperation to defend their illusory world of never-was.

And that is how we end up with small, dedicated groups of people willing to blow things up, attack people in dark alleys, lie, cheat, whatever...fed on the milk of Ends justifying any means, and nourished on the hate and resentment of "My Way or Damnation", and fertilized with dreams of Rapture...they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by becoming every bit as extreme as the terrorists we fight overseas.

Except these people are already here legally. They walk among us because they ARE us. In a country with a grand history of serial killers, gang violence, private militias, McCarthy, Coulter, and the KKK, it shouldn't be hard for us to see...sadly we have a ready crop of our own Zealots who are primed and ready to become full blown terrorists, turning against their own country. Because they see the rest of us as Invading their dream.

My greatest fear is that their myth of a righteous victory in the last two stolen elections will be the trigger of this when they lose. And they will lose. But I am not of the opinion that a win will let me sleep easily at night. If anything I believe we will all sleep less securely once we win.

But how to diffuse their extremist hate and remain true to who we are? I don't know yet, but I know I don't want to live in the middle of a war zone...and I know I can't let them win.

Victory in 06 & 08 won't be the end of our struggles, I think it will actually be the beginning.

A Dem's greatest fear about Winning? Home Grown Zealots.

This is why we need to be armed:

Do not let them think that if they attack us with force, we will retaliate with angry emails and sit-ins.

Make sure they know that if they want to make it ugly, we won't offer them subpoenas and therapy. Let them know-- we can get angry. We can be violent. We will not be a cakewalk.

Now is the time to peacefully and lawfully show your anger, to express your willingness to use force, so they might be deterred against using violence against us in the future.