The False Patriotism of the Right Wing

It has recently been revealed that the Bush-Cheney (mis)Administration considered sending troops of the U.S. military into American cities to arrest suspected terrorists. According to the New York Times of July 25, 2009, administration officials, notably Dick Cheney, argued that the Constitution and the Posse Comitatus Act were irrelevant. Where is the outcry from the right wing?

It has been revealed over time that the last administration engaged in a systematic campaign of surveillance, wiretapping, email snooping and other forms of activity prohibited by the Constitution and other laws of this nation. Where is the outcry from the right wing and its so-called patriots when the nation's very values were being undermined?

When a Harvard professor was arrested in his own home by a policeman, there was not an uporoar of concern about the sanctity of one's home from the right wing. I thought they believed in the home as castle theory. Mormon polygamists suspected of child abuse raise the right wings' concern about the intrusion of government, but not a liberal black man in his home.

The right wing of Amerika has long viewed anyone who does not agree with their viewpoint as "un-American" and any other derogatory term that might stick. They are all for the symbols of the country. Claiming ownership of the flag and Constitution, all they really represent is a false patriotism that owes allegiance to their political leaders rather than to the well being of the nation.

The right wing tends towards an authoritarian viewpoint that is ultimately undemocratic. Although heir speech seems to champion the values of liberty and freedom their actions belie a different agenda. When it comes to actions, the right wing shows what it really wants. Control over the reproductive choices of women, state sponsored religion, censorship of art and literature, domestic spying on U.S. citizens, and a general suppression of individual liberty.

Demonstrating the self serving nature of the right wing and its willingness to distort language for their own advancement is the Tea Bagger Movement. The same people who sat by while their own party engineered the largest transfer of wealth from the public purse to the private sector, who watched out government give away the public wealth to cronies of Bush, Cheney and the other war criminals (can you say Halliburton), who complained not one bit while the deficit and debt exploded, now sing a different tune. Now that someone they didn't vote for is in office there is an urgent necessity for fiscal responsibility.

Then there are the Bonkers "Birthers". Accusing the State of Hawaii of engaging in a massive conspiracy, and believing in a plot so complex that birth announcements were inserted in Honolulu newspapers in 1961, all in an effort to falsify a birth record, these conspiracy theorists have already seceded from the world of rational thought.

Speaking of secession, why is it that all those advocating secession seem to be right wing conservatives who wrap themselves in the flag. Does advocating secession really mark one as a patriot.

For too long the right wing has held itself out as the purveyors of all that is right and good. But when it comes down to where the rubber meets the road they are just partisan authoritarians who believe only in their own political views and not the nation.

Ike Was Right

Forty eight years ago today, on January 17th, as his presidency concluded, Dwight Eisenhower sounded an alarm to the world. Ike stated: "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwanted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." As a former general, once the highest ranking soldier in history, Eisenhower knew precisely what he was talking about.

His warning has been largely disregarded and those who speak of the influence of the "military industrial complex" are viewed as cranks. Yet, over the past five decades a pantheon of transnational corporations has created a weapons industry that has consumed the wealth of the world. The Soviets went bankrupt trying to keep up, and now we are bogged down in two costly declared wars and several undeclared excursions. Throughout the world, countries point weapons at each other and compete for military superiority.

Corporations such as Halliburton, it's subsidiary Kellogg, Browning & Root, Raytheon, Blackwater (not so much industrial, but certainly military or mercenary), etc. have enriched themselves in the war game. Playing both sides of the fence, many transnationals win either way. The outcome of the wars are immaterial. It is the fact that there is a war that is important.

The abuses of this system and its drain on the resources of this and other nations is incalculable. However, the next time you hear any discussions of the deficit, the national debt or the economy, check out how much we spend on "defense." A military budget greater than the rest of the world - COMBINED - suggests that Ike's fear has become a nightmarish reality.

The Bush years have laid bare any pretense that the military industrial complex is a fictional monster that existed only in Eisenhower's mind. The beast that it has become has mauled us and continues to threaten to devour us.

Isn't it time to defend ourselves against this threat? Does anyone believe these forces are weaker now than they were in Eisenhower's time? Could not his words, "the disastrous rise of misplaced power, ..." serve as the motto of our age?




The full text of Eisenhower's speech may be seen at coursesa.matrix.msu.edu or you may watch the speech itself on YouTube.

It seems noteworthy that today is also the 115th anniversary that Queen Liliuokalani was forced to abdicate the throne of the sovereign nation of Hawaii.