For as completely this speech is to mainstream American Values, it is important to understand why Republicans want the nation to believe 'Progressives' are evil.
Listening to the Republicans during primaries since most mainstream Republicans have abandoned 'The Grand OLD Party,' only reveals what is left to the 'base' of the RNC. They are extremists. In order for Republcans to APPEAR to be 'real ' they victimize the image of anyone other than themselves. Therefore because the name "Progressive" sounds exploitive in 'thought' and 'aspiration' the Republicans play on the 'intuition' of the naive electorate to paint that picture to benefit themselves.
The only thing extremism about Progressives is they 'sound' normal compared to this mess.
This is the Republican Party. They are right wing extremists that have no respect for decency, diversity or 'common' goals of a society. They pander to the people that 'pay' to have them elected.
...This week, (click title to entry - thank you) the nullification camp, led by right-wing historian Thomas Woods, got a boost from a sitting congressman: Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)....
Compared to this Progressives are extremists, but, most of the time they are simply called NORMAL.
...Despite Paul’s insistence that nullification is proper and constitutional, Article 6 of the Constitution clearly states that Acts of Congress “shall be the supreme law of the land…anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.” That’s why one of our founding fathers, James Madison, argued that nullification would “speedily put an end to the Union itself” by allowing federal laws to be freely ignored by states....
To some extent I simply laugh at these 'episodes' of 'retreat' from reality that occurs during Republican primaries, but, "Think Progress" is absolutely correct. The 'character' of the RNC has taken a back seat to dignity. The internet has invaded their office in DC and otherwise and if they don't toe the repressive line they will be invalidated by the GOP. Their electorate has found a way to override 'normalcy' by inflicting pain into their daily lives with threats of being replaced if they don't do exactly as they are told.
There are good hard working folks all over the country. In the Red States they have mostly been 'normally' conservative, but, in the last decade 'normalcy' has left the party and is replaced with REGRESSIVE values. Before the internet actually allowed control over Republican legislators, they were failing moderate for the most part. They were 'bi-partisan' even.
This EXTREMISM Paul speaks of will become a form of legislation if it is allowed to be 'a value' of the GOP. The dysfunctional legislation coming out of the House is an example of how incredibly inept things have become. To say this is scary is an understatement. I don't know when 'reasonable' people, mostly men' of the GOP will finally take back their dignity and actually represent American values again, but, it may be never.
"Think Progress" is absolutely right on target to note these 'episodes' and expose the underbelly of the nation's current sad reality with the GOP surviving as a political party due to the need for CEOs who still seek their highest bonuses, if only they could.
