Friday, August 19, 2011

A Real Soaker.

I have had a handy man working this week.  While he was here fixing all of the broken things that have been accumulating for years the heavens opened up and we got a deluge.  It arrived with all of the  drama of an Arizona monsoon storm .  Lightning flashed, thunder clapped and so did I.  The  water level in my back yard rose so fast I was afraid that it was going to come in under my sliding glass doors.  Mercifully, the rain stopped in time to spare me a big chore.  After the violent storm passed another one moved in.  This rain was gentle and steady and gave the parched desert a good soaking.  Not only was the moisture welcome, but it cooled things off and I have my doors and windows open now.   Of course I will have to close them soon when the sun competes with the clouds and claims it's right to be the dominant desert atmosphere.  

Today I have been musing about the fact that the more things change the more they stay the same.  Researchers have been studying the mentality of the people that make up the tea party  It seems that we progressives have mistakenly been thinking that this is a new phenomenon. Not so, claim the experts.  The people on the radical right have always believed the way they do.  Clever manipulators behind the scenes (think Koch brothers again) just harnessed their prejudices and anger and made it work for them.  The Wizard of Oz was behind the curtain after all, but he was not a benign wizard.   

The media are so supine that they constantly fail to cover the ugly dark side of the radical right and give them credit for their bombastic style without looking behind the curtain to see what they really believe.   Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann have some really scary terrifying beliefs that they mask on the campaign trail.  You do know that Bachmann got her law degree from the O. W. Coburn school of law; part of the Oral Roberts  Univeristy.   Michelle does believe that the wife is submissive to the husband.  Given the nutcase Michelle is married to, that really is a frightening prospect.  Ron Paul is a John Bircher at heart.  Now if that isn't an alarming thought, I don't know what is.  

All of the demons of the Old Testament and some of the New Testament are believed by the right wing Christians.   Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry would fight tooth and nail to overturn every progressive movement that has been enacted.   Forget  equality of same sex marriage, forget the right to an abortion (even if the mother's life is at risk), forget facts and creationism must be included in the school text books, forget rational thinking, forget governrment programs to help the vulnerable (even sick children). Rick has even boasted that he would do away with Social Security.   Point of fact; you can forget every good thing you thought America stands for if one of the Republican candidates are elected.  Are you scared yet?  If, God fobid, one of them should actually make it to the White House I will welcome the Rapture.  

Why do we have to find these things out by reading the Internet or listening to MSNBC?  Could it be because the rest of the media are owned by the big corporations and the so called 'liberal press' is, in reality, the mouthpiece of the 'radical right'?   Just wondering. 

Some storms are welcome, but political storms are not.  It's going to be a very long and stormy year.  I fear it's going to be a real soaker and hope we don't get soaked.

14 comments:

Hatte said...

The craziness of these people is throwing the whole body politic into convulsions. I hope we survive this one.
Glad you got some rain at last!

RONW said...

saw your weather on the tv news.

Joy Des Jardins said...

I was rather hoping we wouldn't get any more storms...political or otherwise. No such luck, huh? But I am glad you got some much needed rain Darlene.

Betty said...

I'm definitely not looking forward to the next year, politically speaking. It is going to be long, mean and miserable.

Darlene said...

*Hattie - I hope we make it, too.

*RonW - I didn't see it on TV, but experienced it first hand. ;-)

*Joy Des Jardins - Our humidity is 63% again this morning (normally it's around 9%) so I am hoping for more rain to cool things off again.

Climate change; Bah! Humbug!

*Betty - Well, lets try to look at this way - we will have lots of topics to write about.

Leslie Parsley said...

From an article written by Richard Hofstadter in 1964:

"In recent years we have seen angry minds at work mainly among extreme right-wingers, who have now demonstrated in the Goldwater movement how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. But behind this I believe there is a style of mind that is far from new and that is not necessarily right-wing. I call it the paranoid style simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind."

http://www.harpers.org/archive/1964/11/0014706

This is a very long, scholarly work that traces the history of the "paranoid style" going back almost to the beginning of time. I dare say I see a lot of the same characteristics on the far-left.

Anonymous said...

Leslie--Thanks for the URL.
Cop Car

Rain Trueax said...

My absolute favorite month in Tucson is August for the monsoon storms. I am glad to hear the description of one even if this year there was no way I could get down there to actually experience it. A lot more pleasant to imagine than the storm overtaking our country and the real question is are over 50% of our people of that mindset? I don't know

Darlene said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Darlene said...

*Leslie Parsley - I read the article that you linked and am not surprised by the claims made. Yes, I guess the far left also engage in conspiracy theories. Perhaps my reference to the Koch brothers might fall into that category except for the factual documentation of their funding of bus loads of tea party people to rallies, etc.

*Cop Car - I'm always happy to see your comments.

*Rain - I wish I could send an electrical storm your way so you could take pictures of the lightning flashes.

The most discouraging statistic of all is the one that shows the ignorance of over 50% of the population.

Kay Dennison said...

I'm so tired of Election 2012 alread!!!

One Woman's Journey - a journal being written from Woodhaven - her cottage in the woods. said...

Just checking in.
Take care ")

naomi dagen bloom said...

As long ago as the 1940s, I remember this righteous, bigoted folks in a different guise. Did you every hear of Gerald L.K. Smith? Many followers, particularly in the midwest as I recall. Organized large public meetings to disseminate anti-black/jewish/catholic ideas.

Bachmann is a more "sophisticated" version and the scariest part is that she has achieved national prominence (see current New Yorker magazine). We are not asking the right questions of the media--if they would even pay attention.

Would love to send you some of our better weather in Oregon!

Darlene said...

*Kay Dennison - Join the very big club.

*Naomi Dagen Bloom - I would love some of your balmy days. We have the humidity plus the heat. That's a bad combination.