Thursday, January 31, 2008

Notable & Puerile: "It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To"

"This obsession with illegal alien workers is something I truly don't understand. Perhaps it's that I don't want to believe that America is as xenophobic as ever."

"I will not vote in an election that features Hillary Clinton vs. John McCain. If we're destined to have liberal policies then we might as well have the real McCoy in there so we can blame them when the shit hits the fan. [...] John McCain can not win in November. You can't beat liberals by parroting them. Sorry. Carter ruined the country and Reagan rebuilt it. Clinton was on his way to destroying it and Gingrich prevented it. We need to take our medicine every now and then."
Henry Gómez, Cuban-American Pundits, January 29, 2008

Xenophobia, America's oldest political tradition, was pretty much dormant for 50 years (1945-1995) before it was reintroduced into American political culture by Newt Gingrich, the very man that Henry Gómez credits with saving the Republic from the Clintons and vindicating the principles of Ronald Reagan. Except that Reagan was cosmopolitan not xenophobic, and looked on America as a land of ever renewable opportunity rather than as a besieged and dying idea that must be walled and sequestered to preserve the genomes that made it great.

Gingrich and his ilk (and you can count all the Republican candidates, current and past) have transformed the GOP into the new "Know-Nothing Party" and made Hispanics the new Irish if not the new blacks. Mitt Romney, the last candidate to win Henry's (begrudging) support — after Newt Gingrich and Fred Thompson dropped out — was endorsed by Tom Tancredo as the candidate most representative of his own millenarian-xenophobic views. Yet Henry was willing to support Romney because he was the last "true conservative" in the race. His performance at last night's debate in California, when he reaffirmed his commitment to throw out 18 million undocumented workers in 90 days, which would wreak greater havoc on this country than 10 Iraq Wars, must have alarmed Henry the anti-xenophobe while it simultaneously elated Henry the conservative zealot who wants (or wanted) to win in 2008.

Of course, these two self-negating personalities cannot co-exist in one individual without ultimately paralyzing him, and this, in effect, has happened to Henry, the self-proclaimed "political animal" since the age of 5. He declares that he will sit out this election and hopes that Hillary or Obama wins so that the counter-reaction to them will bring back real Republicans in 2012. How pragmatic of him! But what of Cuba? Can it endure Henry's four years of real politik? In that time the Democrats will ensure the survival of Castroism by becoming Cuba's new economic sponsors just in time to replace the depleted Hugo Chávez and save Cuba from becoming a Venezuelan province by re-colonizing it themselves as Castro's partners in the exploitation of the Cuban people. And even Newt Gingrich – should be manage to resurrect his political career in 2012 — won't be able to do a thing about it. In fact, he won't want to do anything so long as Castro or his heirs can keep his people walled-up and sequestered.

Henry's eclectic politics, inconsistencies and tactics from Machiavelli 101 have done at least as much damage to Babalú's reputation — such as it is — as Val Prieto's repeated tolling of the bells for Fidel Castro. If we really believed that Babalú has as much influence and outreach as its editors contend, we would be seriously concerned that others might presume that all Cuban exiles are as maniacal, contradictory and irrational as Henry Gómez.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This post had me laughing out loud.

nonee moose said...

...these two self-negating personalities cannot co-exist in one individual without ultimately paralyzing him...

Lockjaw?

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Nonee:

I should have written "without ultimately paralyzing every bodily function except his ability to jaw-jaw."

bookster said...

MAT, your analysis of the state of GOP is right on! I think Henry is starting to come out of the dark side is painfull for him.

The Conservative ideas of Reagan were defined by Barry Goldwater in the 60s ( read conscience of a conservative ).

Both Reagan and Goldwater would probably be considered liberal or libertarians by today's standard.

Both of this men were christian but didn't wear their religion up their sleeves. Goldwater was an advocate of gay rights, and wanted nothing to do with the christian right, one of his sons was gay. And Reagan gave amnesty to illegals, reagan was not a war monger. Reagan believe in negotiating, peace through strength. I belived the IRAQ would not have happened under reagan's watch.


The GOP lost it's way when it embraced the right-wing christian agenda, that's when they became xenophobes and fascists in my view.

Anonymous said...

The difference between yesterday's republicans and today's republicans can best be summed in this short video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P377-hXDL0

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

Carlos:

Republicans disdain the poor and minorities. Democrats disdain Republicans for disdaining the poor and minorities, which is better, but not quite the same, as not disdaining the poor and minorities.

bookster said...

carlos, man that video is funny! you see that's how fear is instilled use the media and keep repeating the same talking points using different authority figures, if you repeat it enough times we all will start believing it.

Check out this article on fascism
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Anonymous said...

Yeah, it's that irrational constant over at Babalu that is most annoying. It's a pity, for rational voices againgst the dictatorship on the island is needed more than ever.

Anonymous said...

of course I meant, rational voices "are needed."

Unknown said...

Maybe someone could compile a similar video clip with the Kumbaya crowd repeating talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, to Castro, talk to Castro, talk to the Taliban, talk to the Taliban, talk to the Taliban, meet, meet, meet, meet, meet, with etc.

There is no doubt that the Republicans have resorted to fear mongering to bully Americans into an ill conceived war and into unnecessarily giving up civil rights and some of the country's core values. But that doesn't mean that the threat from a lot of these terrorist organizations and those who sponsor them is not real. I do believe, that it is impossible to negotiate with certain people, you either destroy them, they destroy you or you capitulate and submit to their dominance and world view.

And I wouldn't be so nostalgic for Regan or Kennedy like conservatives and liberals are respectively. We all tend to mythologize our past standard bearers, remembering only their virtues and accomplishments and conveniently forgetting their foibles, shortcomings and down-right sins.

Manuel A.Tellechea said...

René:

You are right: The "talking cure" does not work with tyrants or other megalomaniacs.

bookster said...

MAT, i'm surprised that you don't question mccain character, a man that dumps his first wife for a trophy millionaire wife, a man that was complicit in the keating five savings and loan scandal back in the 80's, and allegedly had mafia ties, and involved in covering up his current wife's drug addiction so she could avoid federal prosecution for stealing drugs from a charity she found, a man that changes his religion from episcopilian to baptist so he can win evangelicals in the 2008 election. This guy has alot of skeleton's in his closet. McCain looks like an opportunist to me.