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Ian Williams Republican Party reptiles are now on the rabid right by Ian Williams Sunday, September 9th,

2012 Talk about culture ed States from the ess the opening of miracle. Once upon hael sing indeed shock. After a summer spent in London, I returned to the Unit content-free closing ceremony of the Olympics in time to witn the Republican National Convention. In its own way, it was a a time, I wouldnt have crossed a back alley to hear George Mic Id have run across a crowded motorway to avoid it.

But, after watching with eyes saucer-like in disbelief as Mitt Romney and Paul R yan spoke, I became retrospectively fond of the faded pop star. George had not i ssued one word of a lie, whereas the guys in Tampa were the Web 3.0 of dissimula tion. Not only was every single statement mendacious, even the definite articles had lies in hypertext. Id thought that the Olympic closing ceremony was an outstandingly well-choreograp hed fantasia of fluff, the International Olympic Committees apology to the world for making people think with the opening. But it was steeped in portentous meani ng compared with the events in Tampa, as the god of storms hovered undecidedly o ffshore wondering whether to sweep the lot into the sea with Hurricane Isaac. I presume the deity forbore more out of consideration for the marine environment t han from mercy for this cabal of fundamentally evil people and their dupes. First, British readers must disabuse themselves of false friends the spurious simi larities. An American political convention from whichever party makes even a New Labour conference seem like anarchist riot (but was an object of emulation for Tony Blair and company when they saw one in operation). An American convention is nothing but a carefully scripted media event in which the delegates are drafted in as extras. But this one, famously, had one moment o f unscripted spontaneity and Clint Eastwoods angry soliloquy with an empty chair was symbolic of a party where dementia is now endemic. I have never overcome my distaste for Michael Moore in Bowling for Columbine sco ring points over an ailing Charlton Heston, which made me almost as angry as the National Rifle Association abusing the hero of Ben Hur and Soylent Green. But w hat possessed the Grand Old Party to have Eastwood inarticulately abusing the ch air for not finishing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Where was George W Bush, the man who started those wars (with a little help from Blair)? He has disappeared down an Orwellian memory hole, along with his part i n the financial crisis. To be fair, in the disappearing act, even his belatedly positive acts to rescue the economy have also evanesced into Republican limbo. Since they involved government action to help the economy, which is anathema to the deranged cultists now dominating the GOP, responsibility for two terms of Bu sh has now been shifted onto Barack Obama! So, to combat the false friends thing. Most Democratic politicians in the US are far to the right of the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition. The Republicans are in another universe entirely, which last had contact with our world when the weird bunch of cultists set off in the Mayflower. They are not alone in being in extra-territorial orbit. So-called American lefti sts prefer Ron Paul, who makes Paul Ryan sound like a democratic socialist, and are discussing ways to defeat Obama.

The President is a centrist politician with compromise steeped in his marrowbone s. But a victory for a diehard neo-liberal Catholic social conservative, allied with a completely unprincipled billionaire who is a leading member of a weird cu lt that thinks American Indians are the lost tribe of Israel should give even th e most demented leftist pause for thought. One hates to use the terminology, but those who dont vote for Obama are objective allies of all the racists blowing dog-whistles for rednecks, the antediluvian c onservatives still fighting a rearguard action against the New Deal and the reli gious bigots trying to rekindle the fires of Salem. I cheered when Danny Boyles finger to Romney and hymn to the National Health Serv ice opened the Olympics. If Romney and Ryan win, Britain needs to offer politica l asylum to any American with an IQ above a 100. [Digg this!] [Tweet it!] [Add to del.icio.us!] [Stumble this!] [Add to Techorati !] [Share on Facebook!] [Seed Newsvine!] [Reddit!]

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