Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The GOP is Not a Political Party; It's a Crime Syndicate and Kooky Cult

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

The International Cultic Studies Association lists the defining characteristics of a 'cult'. I fully agree with the 'list' and also the assertion that the GOP meets most of several atttributes, perhaps all characteristics that define the word 'cult'.

Here is the list as 'published':
  1. The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.
  2. The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).
  3. The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).
  4. The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.
  5. The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members’ participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, [torture,] lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).
  6. The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.
It has always been my belief --stated often on this blog, FB, 'The Opinion', NPR, and various other forums on the internet --that the GOP is not a political party. Rather, it has characteristics of kooky cults and an organized crime syndicates.

Someone posted recently that the two parties (Dems and Gops) are indistinguisable from one another. That's just not true and, if the media had done its job, that pernicious meme might not have taken root as it most certainly has! Clearly --it was the GOP which planted it and only the GOP has benefited from it.

The occupation movement has targeted the 'ruling elite' of just one percent! That they are a 'ruling elite' and that they amount to no more than one percent of the total population is the obvious result of GOP policies favoring their base and their base is, in fact, the increasingly tiny but powerful ruling elite.

I have many issues with the Democratic party but being GOP-lite is not one of them. For all their faults, 'being as bad as the GOP' is NOT among them. I can cite three essential and defining characteristics that distinguish Democrats from the cult of GOPism:
  • EVERY Dem has presided over greater GDP and JOB GROWTH than has ANY Republican Prez since 1900;
  • EVERY GOP 'tax cut' has been followed by a recession/depression.
  • EVERY GOP TAX CUT has resulted in the transfer of wealth UPWARD to a 'ruling elite' which is now just ONE PERCENT of the total population.
Those fact are at the core of the Occupation Movement! A corollary is this: EVERY recession/depression since 1900 has occurred during a GOP administration and as a result of GOP policy.

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4 comments:

Marc McDonald said...

Hi Len, good piece. I hope you are enjoying Thanksgiving.

re:
>>The leadership dictates,
>>sometimes in great detail, how
>>members should think, act, and
>>feel

This is definitely the case with the Republicans I know. And what's ironic is that the GOP are always babbling on about how they're the party of "freedom." They wouldn't know freedom if it ran over them on the highway.

Of course, in reality, much of America's astonishing rise in prison population since 1980 has been the result of GOP policies.

What especially ironic is that, considering we lock up millions of people in prison in this country, many of the real criminals who've done vast harm to America continue to walk the streets (everyone from the Bush Crime Family to the blood-sucking vampire squid crooks from Wall Street).

Unknown said...

Marc wrote:

...the GOP are always babbling on about how they're the party of "freedom." They wouldn't know freedom if it ran over them on the highway.

Exactly! The GOP is a fraud and the tool of equally fraudulent corporations. It was the GOP that literally CREATED the 'ruling elite' of just one percent of the total population. That's their base; their source of campaign monies; their source of media support support, etc. It was in the interest of the GOP --NOT the people --to consolidate media among the very, very, very rich. I recall a time when a small independent radio stations served the communities in which they were licensed. KACT in Andrews, TX was a case in point. In those days, KACT might have been considered a conglomerate. The owner --Clint Formby --also owne KPAN in Hereford, TX. On a much larger scale, KCRS in Midland was owned by the Mayes (Mays?) family, Wendall Mayes most prominently. It was not until Ronald Reagan gave a green light to mergers whilst abolishing requirements that outlets serve a local 'coverage area' that the Mayes family became a huge player --CLEAR CHANNEL!

Anonymous said...

Audit of the FED finds 16 trillion handed out to friends....

And we are to have faith in a government which enables this?

Len, you and I both know there is only ONE solution to this charade which DC has become and it won't be brought about by 'voting'.

Unknown said...

Anonymous said...

Audit of the FED finds 16 trillion handed out to friends....

Had I been a crook, I wonder what my share of that 1 tril would have been! The flip side is that the ruling elites (the 1 percent and much, much, much ricer .01 percent)have literally LOOTED this nation's wealth and they have done so with GOP complicity!

REVOLUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!