I like reading taglines. There are some great ones here on DKos. They are often inspiring, funny, revealing, creative. For example, Kossack Yameneko2 has this:
"Politics should be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage." -- Lucille Ball
It's a great thought, and from an unexpected source. There are many treasures to be found in DKos taglines, and I've stolen a number of them for other writing I've done. One of the things I often write about is the dominionist right in the US, and one of my "favorite" sources to monitor is the well known cesspool of political thought, The Free Republic. What might I learn, I wondered, by checking out the taglines there?.....if you enjoy a refreshing dip in the sewer from time to time, follow me below the - well, the orange thing....
The Obama administration is staging a coup. Wake up, America, before it's too late. (bgill)
Freeper bgill tells us a coup is being staged. This seems to be accepted wisdom on the far right, but they are a little weak on the details. I'm inclined to think that the election of a not-white guy = coup, because I'll be damned if I can figure out what else they are talking about. But they are buying lots of ammo, anyway.
WTF happened to my country? (Never on my Watch)
Along with "We need to take back America!", wingnuts are horrified that anyone who is not exactly like they are can be in a position of power. They are furious that Obama won, and have been desperate to "prove" that his win was not legitimate. (the Acorn accusations, for example, were an early effort to de-legitimize his presidency). He can't be a "real" president - or real American. Which brings us to the next tagline I found:
Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0? (Vigilanteman)
They are certain - a lot on the right are - that Obama was born in Kenya and is thus not "one of us". He can't be. No one who disagrees with the right is a real American, and that has always reminded me of a line from Leon Uris' QBVII. A former concentration camp survivor was recounting a conversation he had with one of his torturers. He asked the Nazi, "How can you do this?" and received the reply, "Because to us, you are not quite human...." De-humanizing the "enemy" is and always has been a critical part of rightwing tactics. With Obama, it's reached new lows, as they have been forced to abandon all facts and reason on the birther issue, but they will die on this hill. He's NOT one of us!
Sic Semper Tyrannis (John S Mosby)
Often, the racism is blatant. They are particularly vile on the subject of Michelle Obama, whom they denigrate in sexist and racist terms daily. The quote above, of course, is what Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth shouted as he shot the president. It's a battle call of Ku Klux Klan types everywhere.
The Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism. (allmendream)
Socialism: you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
It's time to start treating the 1st ammendment like the RATS treat the 2nd (hacklehead)
This is a particularly intriguing tag. (RATS = Democrats, by the way. Also creatively called "DemonRats, "Demo-craps", etc. The right is, shall we say, emotionally developed to the level of the average 8 year old boy). I really don't know what "Hacklehead" means by this - is it a threat? In any case, it shows the level of contempt the right has for the first amendment. It also shows they can't spell.
Now living in a newly minted Red State (Lazlo in PA)
Lazlo is convinced Pennsylvania is now a red state. They could not believe it went for Obama in 2008 - they suspect fraud, of course, which is what they suspect anytime a Democrat wins anywhere except New York or California.
Rev 2:9 Woe unto those who say they are Judahites and are not, but are of the syna GOG ue of Satan. (shield)
The weird rendering of synagogue is as it appears in "Shield's" tag line. Freepers and others on the right frequently make bizarre religious comments that reflect varying degrees of dominionist nuttiness. None of them ever appear to have studied any theology, and the tension there between Catholics and Protestants (there really aren't any other kind of Freepers, though the true racist right often includes agnostics and pagans - they tend to support Ron Paul) emerges from time to time. If anyone has any idea what this particular tag means, enlighten me!
The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath (RJS1950)
A return to a familiar theme. Democrats (small "d", amusingly!) are enemies.
Pro-illegal alien "conservatives" piss me off (Grunthor)
Brown people really, really scare Freepers and Tea Party types. They dropped Rick Perry like a copy of "Das Kapital" after his reluctance to express sufficient amounts of hatred for "illegal immigrants", and they are convinced that "most" crime is perpetrated by these same people. They are terrified by the "high birthrate" amongst minorities in the US and believe that, as Pat Buchanan tells them, American "culture" is dying as a result. Anyone who doubts a vote for a Republican is a vote for racist bigotry needs to check out the Free Republic.
Attacking Wall Street because you're jobless is like burning down Whole Foods because you're hungry (Bloody Sam Roberts)
The right really, truly believes that corporate America as exemplified by Wall Street, is the key to prosperity and a better life for all. Despite a corporate owned media perpetrating this absurdity and all the propaganda fed to us, the left has to work harder to politically educate people who should be supporting the 99% movement yet identify with Donald Trump.
Anybody but Romney or Obama (Darren McCarty)
They really, really hate Mitt.
Allah Ain't So Akbar (Dragonblustar)
Muslims (Mooslims or "slimes" in rightwingnut speak) are, to them, not quite human.
Everything happens as God wants it to...otherwise, things would be different. (Stuartcr)
I mentioned that their theology is a little - odd....
The 1st victim of islam is the person who practices the lie (bayouranger)
There is no such thing as a good person who is a Muslim. But they are not bigots. Even while they fear halal Butterball turkeys.
So what is the point of these exercises, of monitoring wingnut blogs and hate sites? "Why do you do this to yourself?" someone asked me. A couple of reasons. It's easy to take comfort in the echo chamber that having progressive friends, reading progressive books and blogs and participating in activist circles allows. But 40% of Americans will, for ideological or crass financial reasons, vote for politicians that express the ideas and beliefs held by the Tea Party, and they are, sadly, a real force in US political life. So I wade in - and emerge, usually, more determined to fight for sanity. They're out there, they are motivated, and they - terrifyingly - vote.