Sarah Palin, the Christian Right and Fascism in America
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- Start date
mamadrama
The Living Force
Gee, how's this for irony?
This undated photo released by Duke Wheeler shows a corn maze rendering of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin at Wheeler Farms in Whitehouse near Toledo, Ohio. The 16-acre cornfield has been carved up in the likeness of the candidate. (AP Photo/Duke Wheeler, HO) Wheeler says it took an artist from Idaho at least eight hours to mow down stalks for the maze.
This undated photo released by Duke Wheeler shows a corn maze rendering of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin at Wheeler Farms in Whitehouse near Toledo, Ohio. The 16-acre cornfield has been carved up in the likeness of the candidate. (AP Photo/Duke Wheeler, HO) Wheeler says it took an artist from Idaho at least eight hours to mow down stalks for the maze.
Here's a very interesting site, called Hitler's Christianity, about Palin's "mold" and his strong bonds with the Christian religion:
-http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm
with a bunch of related links.
From the artifacts link:
And this
:
The "fuhrer" would have been so proud of Palin!
All of these bring me to mind this image from the Auch Cathedral:
-http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm
with a bunch of related links.
From the artifacts link:
And this
:
The "fuhrer" would have been so proud of Palin!
All of these bring me to mind this image from the Auch Cathedral:
Ruth
The Living Force
Her VP candidicy appears to be a cynical 'vote grabbing' exercise by the Republican party. They wanted someone 'cute' and young so men would find her appealing, a woman, so that women would think she 'represented' their needs and with some sort of 'red neck' 'trailer trash' appeal too. Well, you gotta get the lowest common denominator to vote for you, don't ya? Anybody who can 'see through' this would undoubtedly be surprised at this nomination and expect it to backfire on the Republicans, badly...
I suppose it all depends on how gullible and stupid the American people are. I suppose it could go either way. Putting Sarah Palin on the VP nomination could either be an extreemly stupid thing to do and cost the Republicans dearly, it they may just get away with it.
No doubt, the PTB have a 'contingency plan' (and I have a suspicion that they were none too 'happy' about Sarah Palin). She is too new and potentially a loose cannon. It might be difficult to control someone like her, especially is she is just a vacuous pirana with a pretty face. I'm sorry, 'hockey mom' with lipstick.
I suppose it all depends on how gullible and stupid the American people are. I suppose it could go either way. Putting Sarah Palin on the VP nomination could either be an extreemly stupid thing to do and cost the Republicans dearly, it they may just get away with it.
No doubt, the PTB have a 'contingency plan' (and I have a suspicion that they were none too 'happy' about Sarah Palin). She is too new and potentially a loose cannon. It might be difficult to control someone like her, especially is she is just a vacuous pirana with a pretty face. I'm sorry, 'hockey mom' with lipstick.
Ruth said:
All of the above assumes that their is a fair and legal election process in the US. Their isn't. No "costly decision" by the PTB in selecting Palin. Plainly put, she is a psychopathic clone of Dubya, Cheney, Rove... and that is why she was chosen. The MSM wants us to believe it was for the reasons you listed above, but those are just buzzwords for the masses to eat up. Nothing 'stupid' about the decision to choose her IMO.
Ruth said:
Unfortunately, a lot of the American people are this way by, conscious or unconscious, choice, osit. They would rather spend their time watching tv, believing int the 'love and light' spiel, anything other than learning about Palin's history. And if it is brought to their attention, they deny it vehemently. Why? Because they want to "believe" that she is one of them, someone who will look out for them because they don't want to look out for themselves. At least this is how it seems to me from what I have seen and heard.
You have all these years of dumbing-down the American people, and now it has come to fruition. And we can see why that is. So that they can be hoodwinked and taken advantage of by their own free will. They are letting it happen and giving it their blessings. And this includes not only Palin, but the economic disaster that is happening as well. A lot of people I am seeing just figure that the their financial advisers have their best interests at heart and will take care of them. That Bush is doing what he sees as what is best for the nation. Well, he is, just not for the 94% of normal people, but for the 6% that are the rich and ruling portion.
It's a sad situation.
mamadrama
The Living Force
Welcome to Gilead, Governor Palin
Tuesday 30 September 2008
by: Cynthia Boaz, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
In Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, "The Handmaid's Tale," women are confined to a few, limited, gender-based tasks. They are kept in submission by the "Aunts," who reassure them that their subjugation is right. The "Aunts," according to Cynthia Boaz, have a whole lot in common with Sarah Palin. (Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
If you've ever read Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, "The Handmaid's Tale," you will recall the key role that was played by the women assigned to be the "Aunts." The story revolves around a futuristic American society in which fundamentalist Christians install a gender-based caste system where each woman is assigned a specific societal function. It is a commentary on the dangerous erasing of the line between church and state in the contemporary United States. The merging of religion and government is carried out by a group of older, white male "commanders" whose propaganda demands that citizens be constantly terrorized into submission and obedience. The resulting regime is Atwood's vision of the worst-case scenario: an American police-state theocracy where every woman's identity is reduced to her sexual attributes, and each is assigned to a category based on her physical qualifications. Subtle references to racist philosophy are mixed into the literalist religious rhetoric.
The attractive young women of reproductive age are the "handmaids"; the attractive but infertile middle-age women are the "wives"; the dark-skinned women of any age are domestic servants, and so on. All women are forbidden from reading or writing. The country is renamed the Republic of Gilead, a reference to the biblical homeland of the patriarchs. And the Aunts - who are middle-aged white women of some previous prestige and education - are especially sinister characters. The primary job of the Aunts is to keep the handmaids (the childbearers) subservient. They go about this by convincing the handmaids that they are powerless and can only contribute to society when they fulfill their God-given responsibility to serve the commanders. The Aunts' job, put simply, is to exploit other women by keeping them submissive and telling them that it's for the good of all (and even more insidiously, that in obeying, the handmaids "empower" themselves.) What makes the Aunts so remarkable is their collective failure to realize that they are simply being used by the commanders to keep other women in line, and their willingness - glee, even - at doing so is simultaneously sad and terrifying. So what compels the Aunts to become traitors to both their sex and their country? First, they believe that their contribution to the repressive social order is righteous, and second, they've found that under this rigid system of social control, they have the illusion of a tiny bit of power.
Does any of this sound familiar? It should. Governor and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin is the Gileadian "Aunt" manifested. Her sudden emergence onto the American political scene, accompanied by a burst of enthusiasm on the part of many American women, is a surreal example of life imitating art. Much of Palin's rhetoric, tactics and personal philosophy seem to be taken directly from the Auntie training manual. By accepting the position on the GOP ticket despite her astonishing lack of qualifications, Palin signaled that she was prepared to be used - on the basis of her sex alone - in exchange for the promise of status and power. Refer to Palin's RNC convention speech, which was mostly a fawning homage to McCain's patriotism and leadership, sprinkled with condescending references to Obama as "our opponent." Although the lines were delivered with Palin's own folksy vernacular and over-enunciation, it was not Palin, but McCain - or more accurately, the GOP elders at whose feet he finds himself on election eve - who wrote the speech and whose voice echoed through the hall that night in St. Paul. Women who find themselves drawn to Palin because they think she epitomizes the classic "woman who has it all" might want to take a closer look. Sarah Palin was picked for the ticket solely because of - not despite - the fact that she is female. By keeping her sequestered from the media, McCain has confirmed he does not have faith in an unscripted Palin's ability to represent the campaign to the world. By going along with it, Palin is telling us that she's perfectly fine with being controlled by her male superiors. And by portraying herself as the candidate of the empowered woman (while simultaneously promoting policy that is openly hostile to the interests of working and middle-class American women), she reveals the sad truth about how little progress we've actually made.
Lest we think that Senator McCain is hesitant to keep pushing this stereotype in the face of abysmal performances by Palin in news interviews, the most recent reports reveal that his campaign intends to hype the expected wedding between Palin's pregnant daughter and her boyfriend, the date of which is apparently being set just prior to the November election - with McCain and Palin sitting in the front row. Is it possible that Sarah Palin is just blissfully un-self-aware, or is it that she so eager for any illusion of power that she'll allow herself to be marketed no matter what the cost to the dignity of all women? If Palin were truly an empowered woman, she would have refused to allow herself and her daughter to be used in this manner - to assist a party whose rhetoric and imagery promote the ideal woman as deferential to established norms rather than acting as an independent - or critical - thinker. If her selection was intended to signal to American women that empowerment is possible, why is Palin being kept under lock and key? Clearly, this is not an individual whose intelligence or perspective McCain respects, or else he would permit her to speak for herself. To continue pretending that Palin's selection was anything other than an attempt to manipulate the voting public on the basis of a straitjacketed view of sexual roles is a dangerous lie that no American of any gender can afford to abide.
--------
Cynthia Boaz is assistant professor of political science at Sonoma State University.
_http://www.truthout.org/093008R
Tuesday 30 September 2008
by: Cynthia Boaz, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
In Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, "The Handmaid's Tale," women are confined to a few, limited, gender-based tasks. They are kept in submission by the "Aunts," who reassure them that their subjugation is right. The "Aunts," according to Cynthia Boaz, have a whole lot in common with Sarah Palin. (Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
If you've ever read Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, "The Handmaid's Tale," you will recall the key role that was played by the women assigned to be the "Aunts." The story revolves around a futuristic American society in which fundamentalist Christians install a gender-based caste system where each woman is assigned a specific societal function. It is a commentary on the dangerous erasing of the line between church and state in the contemporary United States. The merging of religion and government is carried out by a group of older, white male "commanders" whose propaganda demands that citizens be constantly terrorized into submission and obedience. The resulting regime is Atwood's vision of the worst-case scenario: an American police-state theocracy where every woman's identity is reduced to her sexual attributes, and each is assigned to a category based on her physical qualifications. Subtle references to racist philosophy are mixed into the literalist religious rhetoric.
The attractive young women of reproductive age are the "handmaids"; the attractive but infertile middle-age women are the "wives"; the dark-skinned women of any age are domestic servants, and so on. All women are forbidden from reading or writing. The country is renamed the Republic of Gilead, a reference to the biblical homeland of the patriarchs. And the Aunts - who are middle-aged white women of some previous prestige and education - are especially sinister characters. The primary job of the Aunts is to keep the handmaids (the childbearers) subservient. They go about this by convincing the handmaids that they are powerless and can only contribute to society when they fulfill their God-given responsibility to serve the commanders. The Aunts' job, put simply, is to exploit other women by keeping them submissive and telling them that it's for the good of all (and even more insidiously, that in obeying, the handmaids "empower" themselves.) What makes the Aunts so remarkable is their collective failure to realize that they are simply being used by the commanders to keep other women in line, and their willingness - glee, even - at doing so is simultaneously sad and terrifying. So what compels the Aunts to become traitors to both their sex and their country? First, they believe that their contribution to the repressive social order is righteous, and second, they've found that under this rigid system of social control, they have the illusion of a tiny bit of power.
Does any of this sound familiar? It should. Governor and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin is the Gileadian "Aunt" manifested. Her sudden emergence onto the American political scene, accompanied by a burst of enthusiasm on the part of many American women, is a surreal example of life imitating art. Much of Palin's rhetoric, tactics and personal philosophy seem to be taken directly from the Auntie training manual. By accepting the position on the GOP ticket despite her astonishing lack of qualifications, Palin signaled that she was prepared to be used - on the basis of her sex alone - in exchange for the promise of status and power. Refer to Palin's RNC convention speech, which was mostly a fawning homage to McCain's patriotism and leadership, sprinkled with condescending references to Obama as "our opponent." Although the lines were delivered with Palin's own folksy vernacular and over-enunciation, it was not Palin, but McCain - or more accurately, the GOP elders at whose feet he finds himself on election eve - who wrote the speech and whose voice echoed through the hall that night in St. Paul. Women who find themselves drawn to Palin because they think she epitomizes the classic "woman who has it all" might want to take a closer look. Sarah Palin was picked for the ticket solely because of - not despite - the fact that she is female. By keeping her sequestered from the media, McCain has confirmed he does not have faith in an unscripted Palin's ability to represent the campaign to the world. By going along with it, Palin is telling us that she's perfectly fine with being controlled by her male superiors. And by portraying herself as the candidate of the empowered woman (while simultaneously promoting policy that is openly hostile to the interests of working and middle-class American women), she reveals the sad truth about how little progress we've actually made.
Lest we think that Senator McCain is hesitant to keep pushing this stereotype in the face of abysmal performances by Palin in news interviews, the most recent reports reveal that his campaign intends to hype the expected wedding between Palin's pregnant daughter and her boyfriend, the date of which is apparently being set just prior to the November election - with McCain and Palin sitting in the front row. Is it possible that Sarah Palin is just blissfully un-self-aware, or is it that she so eager for any illusion of power that she'll allow herself to be marketed no matter what the cost to the dignity of all women? If Palin were truly an empowered woman, she would have refused to allow herself and her daughter to be used in this manner - to assist a party whose rhetoric and imagery promote the ideal woman as deferential to established norms rather than acting as an independent - or critical - thinker. If her selection was intended to signal to American women that empowerment is possible, why is Palin being kept under lock and key? Clearly, this is not an individual whose intelligence or perspective McCain respects, or else he would permit her to speak for herself. To continue pretending that Palin's selection was anything other than an attempt to manipulate the voting public on the basis of a straitjacketed view of sexual roles is a dangerous lie that no American of any gender can afford to abide.
--------
Cynthia Boaz is assistant professor of political science at Sonoma State University.
_http://www.truthout.org/093008R
H
Hildegarda
Guest
Alice Walker: our country needs a leader who loves us
Don't know what to think of this article.
She sounds like she is coming from the right place in her heart, and makes astute observations, but, somehow I wonder whether she really has a clue about what is going on :(
Perhaps this is what thinking clouded by emotion looks like. Or am I mistaken, and seeing something I am myself prone to, in another?
Alice Walker, btw, is the author of the PUlitzer Prize winning "The Color Purple". She is a "self-declared feminist and womanist - the latter a term she herself coined to make special distinction for the experiences of women of color. She has written at length on issues of race and gender" (see Wikipedia).
\\\http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/20/uselections2008.barackobama?commentpage=2 (the words at the end of the link make me prick my ears too)
Don't know what to think of this article.
She sounds like she is coming from the right place in her heart, and makes astute observations, but, somehow I wonder whether she really has a clue about what is going on :(
Perhaps this is what thinking clouded by emotion looks like. Or am I mistaken, and seeing something I am myself prone to, in another?
Alice Walker, btw, is the author of the PUlitzer Prize winning "The Color Purple". She is a "self-declared feminist and womanist - the latter a term she herself coined to make special distinction for the experiences of women of color. She has written at length on issues of race and gender" (see Wikipedia).
\\\http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/20/uselections2008.barackobama?commentpage=2 (the words at the end of the link make me prick my ears too)
PepperFritz
The Cosmic Force
Re: Alice Walker: our country needs a leader who loves us
Oh my. She desperately wants to believe that Obama is the "candidate with heart" who will genuinely "love" the American people and champion their interests. Alas, she does not understand that there is only one American political "party" and that the "choice" between Republican and Democrat is not a "choice" at all, since they are all in thrall to the same people. The truth is, Obama and his party are only the slightly lesser of two evils, and only in the most superficial, cosmetic sense....
I think that most anti-Bush Americans, even intelligent astute ones like Alice Walker, still cling to the delusion that it's only a matter of supporting and electing the "right candidate", the candidate with "heart". Because the reality -- that for quite some time the country has been under the control of ruthless psychopaths whose only interest is personal gain -- is simply too devastating to face. And that's the role that Obama has been assigned to play: the face of "hope" that keeps Americans believing on the election process -- instead of rioting in the streets with outraged anger and despair....
Alice Walker said:
Oh my. She desperately wants to believe that Obama is the "candidate with heart" who will genuinely "love" the American people and champion their interests. Alas, she does not understand that there is only one American political "party" and that the "choice" between Republican and Democrat is not a "choice" at all, since they are all in thrall to the same people. The truth is, Obama and his party are only the slightly lesser of two evils, and only in the most superficial, cosmetic sense....
I think that most anti-Bush Americans, even intelligent astute ones like Alice Walker, still cling to the delusion that it's only a matter of supporting and electing the "right candidate", the candidate with "heart". Because the reality -- that for quite some time the country has been under the control of ruthless psychopaths whose only interest is personal gain -- is simply too devastating to face. And that's the role that Obama has been assigned to play: the face of "hope" that keeps Americans believing on the election process -- instead of rioting in the streets with outraged anger and despair....
H
Hildegarda
Guest
Re: Alice Walker: our country needs a leader who loves us
and this is why I am very suspect of the word "Love" being used in this context. Too easy by pathocrats to corrupt for public consumption. The Nazis were also fond of talking about "love" that Hitler felt for his people, and that his people feel for him (\\\http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ahvolk.htm).
Lobachewski is right again IMO: a psychologically healthy, competent and intelligent leader is quite enough ...
PepperFritz said:
and this is why I am very suspect of the word "Love" being used in this context. Too easy by pathocrats to corrupt for public consumption. The Nazis were also fond of talking about "love" that Hitler felt for his people, and that his people feel for him (\\\http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ahvolk.htm).
Lobachewski is right again IMO: a psychologically healthy, competent and intelligent leader is quite enough ...
Bholanath
Jedi
from Rolling Stone
From “Dominion” To Domination:
The Duplicity And Complicity Of Matthew Scully
By Dr. Steve Best
09 September, 2008
Countercurrents.org
http://www.countercurrents.org/best090908.htm
______________________________
It's a good day to die.
Read this article for the background on "the speech" and the sicko who wrote it for her. This is really incredible reading, on many levels. :O
From “Dominion” To Domination:
The Duplicity And Complicity Of Matthew Scully
By Dr. Steve Best
09 September, 2008
Countercurrents.org
http://www.countercurrents.org/best090908.htm
______________________________
It's a good day to die.
H
Hildegarda
Guest
Bholanath said:
OMG!!! So it was Matthew Scully, one of the Bush\Cheney's former speechwriters ...
Do you remember when Bush's another speechwriter, Michael Gerson, wrote a book called Heroic Conservatism? It was singing paeans to Bush's administration. Ironically, by extension made Bush look like a moronic cardboard cut-out, since Gerson basically stated that he wrote all his speeches.
In response, Scully came out in this Atlantic Monthly article (\\\http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200709/michael-gerson) blasting Gerson as a narcissist who carefully crafted his glowing public image and took credit for other people's work. Which, I am sure, is true.
But in the end it has Scully's own sickening paean to Bush, which is supposed to convince us that Bush isn't a creation\invention of his speechwriters -- or handlers -- but rather a real, authentic, and even heroic person:
jeez, this could have been written about Hitler by one of his sidekicks.
So yes, Scully is their pit-bull, just like Palin, only without the by now proverbial lipstick. So fitting that those two should end up connecting on a political path.
H
Hildegarda
Guest
I just connected two and two together, apologies if this has already been mentioned: the owner of Blackwater, Eric Prince, is a Dominionist. Not only that, he is related by blood and marriage to the DeVos family, who founded Amway and have links with other prominent semi-shadowy businesses.
here is one mention of its:
\\\ http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/23/82357/4096
so basically dominionists have a whole well-trained army with gigantic budgets and zero overseeing, that's available at the moment's notice.
here is one mention of its:
\\\ http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/23/82357/4096
so basically dominionists have a whole well-trained army with gigantic budgets and zero overseeing, that's available at the moment's notice.
H
Hildegarda
Guest
some musings ...
What's the difference between any other baby and Palin's youngest, who, in a surreal and unnatural way, never cries, squirms or makes any sounds when he is hauled around from stage to stage?
Answer: probably Benadryl. Or any other sedative, liberally administered before the next PR round.
and yes, judging from this vice-presidential debate that has just ended, she makes Bush look like a genius. She simply ignored the questions and went on giving a commercial about herself. And didn't do well at that either. But, this just doesn't seem to matter any longer. Twilight zone, for crying out loud.
What's the difference between any other baby and Palin's youngest, who, in a surreal and unnatural way, never cries, squirms or makes any sounds when he is hauled around from stage to stage?
Answer: probably Benadryl. Or any other sedative, liberally administered before the next PR round.
and yes, judging from this vice-presidential debate that has just ended, she makes Bush look like a genius. She simply ignored the questions and went on giving a commercial about herself. And didn't do well at that either. But, this just doesn't seem to matter any longer. Twilight zone, for crying out loud.
