Bating From Left and Right

Political conflict is rife in this country. Too many people are resorting to name calling, finger pointing, even down right prejudice. I'm probably no better than the next blogger when I get angry about something. After all, what got me into blogging was my anger and frustration with the growing Republican plutocracy and risk of theocracy.
Politics has become less about ideas and education, more about bating emotions and distortions of the real issue. One is either a part of solution, or part of problem. Let this day be the first we all back off the rhetoric and put more effort into education rather than spreading hate and discontent.
Below are several lessons in this topic:
Seeing the Forest

The Republican charge that there is a "war on Christmas" is a prime example of this. Now we find out who they have been implying is behind this war - because they're dropping the code words and saying it out loud. Townhall.com: The Jewish Grinch who stole Christmas by Burt Prelutsky:

I never thought I’d live to see the day that Christmas would become a dirty word. You think it hasn’t? Then why is it that people are being prevented from saying it in polite society for fear that it will offend?


[...]How is it, one well might ask, that in a Christian nation this is happening? [...]Although it seems a long time ago, it really wasn’t, that people who came here from other places made every attempt to fit in.


[...]When it comes to pushing the multicultural, anti-Christian, agenda, you find Jewish judges, Jewish journalists, and the ACLU, at the forefront. [...]But the dirty little secret in America is that anti-Semitism is no longer a problem in society; it’s been replaced by a rampant anti-Christianity. For example, the hatred spewed towards George W. Bush has far less to do with his policies than it does with his religion. The Jews voice no concern when a Bill Clinton or a John Kerry makes a big production out of showing up at black Baptist churches or posing with Rev. Jesse Jackson because they understand that’s just politics. They only object to politicians attending church for religious reasons.


[...]It is the ACLU, which is overwhelmingly Jewish in terms of membership and funding, that is leading the attack against Christianity in America. It is they who have conned far too many people into believing that the phrase “separation of church and state” actually exists somewhere in the Constitution.


[...]I am getting the idea that too many Jews won’t be happy until they pull off their own version of the Spanish Inquisition, forcing Christians to either deny their faith and convert to agnosticism or suffer the consequences.

Heritage's TownHall is central to the whole Right Wing Noise Machine. Heritage Foundation is the hub of the "conservative movement" that now controls the Republican Party. The Christian Right has learned to use code words to disguise the anti-Semitism at the core of their movement, but here they just come out and say it.


You think I've been kidding when I say that "liberal media" comes straight out of the old far-right "Jew media" and "Jew York Times" stuff? "Liberal" and "Jew" used to be interchangable words for the Right. They have always been able to talk about the ACLU to get votes in the South, but here you see what they have meant.

The quote from the Townhall.com is disturbingly anti-semetic. He is calling the ACLU a Jewish organization, condemning all Jews as if they are all ACLU members. It's not only prejudice, it's stupid illogic won't impress anyone but another anti-semetic.
Dave Johnson in his conclusions makes a similar albiet much less flagrant error. He concludes that far right wing nuts are predominantly anti-semetic. Case in point, the author of Stop the ACLU is pretty far out to the right. But on today's page, he's supporting Liebermann as a potentially good Secretary of Defense. Here is an example of far right wing without anti-Semitism. After all, Neocons are pro-Israel and often Jewish. The far right and the Neocons last time I looked are still tightly aligned in foreign policy.
Doubly disturbing however, is another article on the ACLU saw today in the New York Times:

But another matter was more urgent: smoothing out a soured relationship with one of the organization's biggest donors, Peter B. Lewis, the insurance magnate, who was unhappy with Mr. Romero and the board and was threatening to suspend his contributions. After a red-eye detour to Los Angeles and a breakfast with Mr. Lewis at the Beverly Hills Hotel in August 2004 , Mr. Romero assuaged his concerns and persuaded him to continue his financial support, including an $8.5 million gift largely to buy a new office building in Washington.


Mr. Romero has had less success winning over his critics within the organization itself. Among issues big and small, they have fumed over his commitment to name the new building the Peter B. Lewis Center for Civil Liberties - without consulting the board or its executive committee. "I don't think it's appropriate for us to name anything after anyone other than a founder or leader of the organization," Marjorie Esman, a lawyer who represents the Louisiana affiliate on the board, wrote afterward in an e-mail message."We are not for sale, and I don't like to convey the impression that we might be."


Mr. Romero's operating style, as shown in the building dispute, has led to a rift in the organization, with some applauding his winning ways and others fretting that fund-raising has become too much of a priority. Since Mr. Romero stepped into the job just four days before the Sept. 11 attacks, the A.C.L.U. has been transformed. Under his watch, membership and revenues have risen sharply. The use of data to maximize contributions has become more sophisticated. Big donors have been wooed and won. At the group's first membership conference in Washington in 2003, 1,500 members descended on Congressional offices.

I support the ACLU because they are consistent. They don't chase emotion, they stand on principles. Even though I don't support everything they do, I'm a member.
But now we see the ACLU has some serious in-fighting at the very time we need them the most. Fascism has raised it's ugly head in America, under the far rightwing of the Republican party. Our rights are in danger. The poor have been already targeted as scapegoats funding tax cuts for the wealthy by cutting health care and housing for the poor and disabled. Now we see prejudice is being spoken in the same paragraph as religion.
We live in dangerous times. End your conflict, ACLU. Get back to business. You are going to need all the funding you can get to beat back what's coming. The far right wing nuts are gloating.