In Newt Gingrich’s latest verbal assault on America, he claims that Democrats and their grassroots campaigns (or any political opposition to Republicans), are an “insurgency.” You know, like those evil terrorists fighting the good American Empire in Iraq. All such threats must be exterminated.
Gingrich of course is the master of linguistic warfare who taught his Orwellian art via GOPAC and other groups for many a year during the 1990s. He is the one who masterminded the entire everything liberal, left, compassionate, and social is evil, anti-American, godless, and Communist. It is enough to make a Macchiavelli proud.
Wittgenstein long ago taught us that language is suspect and whomever controls the meanings of words can control thought itself. Kind of like the ultimate form of whoever writes the history makes the history. Except here they are trying to claim culture, civilization, and the individual’s consciousness as well. It is the final blitzkrieg of the soul.
In his article, Alexander states:
That Gingrich would openly refer to those who oppose Bush-Republican Neo-Conservative madness as being an “insurgency” is, in a very real sense, the first public admission that the Bush regime and Republicans are at war with the American people. It is a blatant confession of the ultimate Neo-Conservative agenda, i.e. a deliberate and swift movement toward a very real Executive dictatorship wherein those who dissent or disagree are “the enemy” or members of an “insurgency”. Gingrich’s use of the term “insurgency” when referring to fellow Americans reveals in no uncertain terms the reality that the Neo-Cons recognize a movement forming that consists of the American people and that is designed to directly challenge their drive toward a nationalist imperialistic dictatorship.
I agree that this is so, but he is mistaken in his first fact. This is not the “first public admission” that they are at war with America and all Americans. They have been proclaiming it for decades but no one was paying attention. Much like with Hitler when later the common citizens of Germany claimed they never knew what they were getting into with the Nazis (the ultimate “we didn’t read the book” defense), the radical rightwing have been agitating for decades and fomenting their self-proclaimed war against America.
Usually termed a War on Culture, it has often been overlooked as a quaint non-threat because its most vocal proponents were the nutbags of the religious right. That is, no one was taking them seriously. Much like no one took seriously the little failed psychotic artist imprisoned in Austria for a failed bar uprising when he said he would transform civilization. The ravings of madmen are often dismissed.
But we need to pay attention to the fringes, because from lunacy often comes the most direct threat. Obsessive compulsive people are, by definition, overly committed to their causes. That is why they often succeed because normal people get tired, bored, distracted, and have to eventually go back to work and their normal lives. Psychotic freaks have no normal lives to return to, hence they push and try and putsch and try, again and again until they succeed. Whether it is taking over a local school board so they can outlaw science or taking over state and national political offices so they begin their dictatorial reigns, it eventually happens.
The rightwing has tried for many decades to ascend to power, from Nixon to the Moral Majority to Our Great Father Reagan to the outright stealing of elections since the 2000 Coup, and sadly they have succeeded. The same small group of madmen tried a million times until they are now firmly in power.
Call it fatigue on our part, but the inmates are now running the asylum.
Alexander finishes:
Bush-Republican Neo-Conservatives have consolidated all the government’s powers and have used that power as a tool to undermine America’s democracy, to viciously assail any citizen who openly disagrees with their policies, and to cow their opposition. As such, the people have no effective systematic recourse or resources through which to oppose their government, other than through the formation of an internet “insurgency”.
The Bush-Republican Neo-Conservative form of governance displays all the symptoms of tyranny and as such is deserving of being opposed in the most strenuous manner, including the formation of an internet-based political “insurgency”. It is in fact the patriotic duty of every American citizen to directly confront and oppose the tyranny being imposed upon the United States of America by the Bush-Republican Neo-Conservative movement. Therefore, if Newt Gingrich wishes to expose once and for all, the fact that the Bush-Republican Neo-Conservative movement views the American people as their enemy and chooses to label the American people as being an “insurgency”, he is correct in so doing!
What choice do the American people have, but to form an “insurgency” when the current government has consolidated its power in such a way that the people have no legal or Constitutional means through which to protect themselves and their civil liberties? If Gingrich chooses to label fellow Americans as “enemies” or being part of an “insurgency”, I personally welcome his unintended honesty. If fighting for the American way of life, freedom, liberty, and the Constitution makes the blogosphere an “insurgency” the label should be worn with pride.
Sigh. So be it. The fight is on.
I merely wish that everyday people would pay more attention to the world around them. If we would have been minding the store it wouldn’t have been stolen out from under us. We do not need to wait until an absolute crisis occurs to act. In fact, that is not acting at all, but reacting. You don’t need to wait until your house is burning down to think about preventitive maintenance and procedures, like fire departments, sprinkler systems, alarms, smoke detectors, etc. A little fore thought goes a long way.
Furthermore, liberals are going to have to master the new weapon of choice amongst the extremists: language. Liberals need to begin a push back to retake their language and halt the potent use of propaganda that is so essential to all fascist regimes. Otherwise, Newt Gingrich is going to be the guy who writes himself into history as the new American Sun Tzu.