I've mentioned before that one of my favorite people on twitter is Kurt Eichenwald, a writer at Vanity Fair. He's acerbic, aggressive and kind of fun. (if you want to follow him, and I'd highly recommend you do, click here.)
Today, Eichenwald tweeted a link to a blog posting he wrote. The posting is the most brutal, informed, fact-filled and delightful takedown of the Rethuglicans that I have ever read anywhere. I'm hoping that it runs in Vanity Fair or someplace other than a blog, but, even if it doesn't, it needs to be read far and wide.
It is also delightfully hilarious, with such comments as a reference to Michelle Bachman as "one of the dangerous Republicans whose 'certainty to knowledge ratio' might well be the first to exceed 100 percent."
Best of all, this piece will load you up with the full case against Romney and the Rethuglicans. It is devastating.
More below the squiggle....
The extremely long piece lists five reasons that Romney should not be elected president, but it is not simply a rant. Eichenwald cites facts, figures and history to make the case that the Rethuglicans are dangerous liars whose policies and politics threaten America's future. His opening words set up the argument.
The GOP must be stopped in 2012. The future of America’s ideals of democracy – and of the Republican Party itself – could well be at stake.
It just gets more aggressive from there.
Lying has become so ingrained into the conservatives’ national dialogue that they are now dangerously demagogic or, worse, severely unhinged. Blind rage at the election of Barack Obama has wrecked a once great political party. Its leaders have made so many deals with the devil in their almost pathological obsession with unseating Obama that they have pushed the GOP into its own version of political hell – unable to speak truths to their now-rabid and conspiracy-addled base and unable to right the party back onto a path of responsibility.
From there, he tosses in an attack on the mainstream media for downplaying GOP dishonesty.
Most of the major newspapers and networks have adopted Marquess of Queensbury rules when addressing the utterance of utter falsehoods by Romney, Ryan and their surrogates. A velvet glove doesn’t deter deliberate deceit, and it certainly hasn’t here. Calling the words of Romney and Ryan “at odds with the truth” and “not factually accurate” is the coward’s way of communicating that the entire GOP campaign is based on lies, innuendo and more lies. There is a dramatic difference between the usual nip-and-tucking of the presidential campaign season and the flood of prevarication pouring out of the mouths of Romney and Ryan.
This, in turn, is creating an environment that is inviting demogogues to power.
What is it about the state of Wisconsin? First it brought us Joe McCarthy, now it brings us Paul Ryan – two men willing to say anything, tell any lie, appeal to any fear, if it means advancing their political careers....GOP leaders have stoked this furnace of hate, and in the process have both trapped themselves with a new base of voters divorced from reality and allowed for the empowerment of the reckless and dangerous people who used to be at the fringes of the Republican party. Demagogues depend on hate and fear; once they are unleashed, though, those emotional forces are hard to put back in the bottle.
It is impossible to lay out everything Eichenwald takes down without violating fair use, so let me sum it up: He attacks the Rethugs obsession with tax cuts with a fact-and-statistic filled analysis that is extremely persuasive. He debunks the deification of the economic policies of Reagan. He attacks the father of supply side, Arthur Laffer (and calls him a carnival barker.) He dives into the arguments about debt and deficits and shows how the Rethugs are primarily responsible. He goes after the attempt at voter suppression. Some of those words I want to quote:
Conservatives fear the same democracy that they praise. They want everyone to vote – so long as it is people like them. If they retain control in state houses, next time around, the person who won’t be able to vote might be you.
This is a lot of reading, but it is also the most comprehensive and compelling analysis of the Rethugs that I have ever seen. It should be required reading for all Kossaks.