Jon Kyl and the Republican Purveyors of Fear

Over the past several months I've the conservatives attempt to set the stage for the coming fall elections. It doesn't take a genius to figure out they will steer people away from the scandals and lack of competency running rampant throughout government, but I hit my limit with an email from Senator Jon Kyl. It is one of the most non-senatorial messages I have ever read and it tries to instill in the reader one core emotion: fear.

Quoting Newt congress's new book, Kyl lays out why we should do nothing but be afraid:

1. That Islamist terrorists and rogue dictatorships will acquire and launch nuclear or biological weapons.

2. That God will be driven from American public life and reduce us to the civilizational ennui that now characterizes a declining Europe.

3. That America will lose the patriotic sense of itself as a unique civilization.

4. That America's economic supremacy will yield to China and India because of failing schools and weakening scientific and technological leadership.

5. That an aging America's demands on Social Security, Medicare, and related government programs will collapse the systems.

What a total and complete pile of bullshit. There are just too many things wrong with thesbeliefsfs, the least of which Republicans want every single one of us to be completely afraid and cower to any and all possible things that could go wrong. But in true Republican fashion, Kyl takes zero responsibility for the scope of the problems. Talk aboucowardicese.

So what are Kyl's (via Gingrich) proposals:

1. We must commit to a long war to defeat the terrorists and tyrants who would destroy America.

2. We must reestablish that our rights come from our Creator and that an America that has driven God out of the public arena is an America on the way to decay and defeat.

3. We must insist on patriotic immigration and patriotic education based on classic American history and the wisdom of the Founding Fathers and Abraham Lincoln.

4. We must transform our domestic institutions in order to harness modern science and technology to create jobs, wealth, and lead the world economy into the 21st century.

5. We must establish the opportunities for a personal Social Security account, a portable personal pension account, and a personal health savings account, so the wealth we create during our working lives is wealth we control.

I live near dairy farms and I have to say this smells more than the cows ever have. Why? Because it's pandering at its lowest.

"Commit to a long war on terrorism?" I have an idea. How about a short war that ends well, with fewer dead people? I can come up with likely dozens of simple ways to solve this problem and not one of them includes the word "fear" or "war."

"Reestablish that our rights come from our Creator?" No one has driven God out of the public arena. It's that old "N of 1" claim that if one person does it, them everyone does it. Kinda like Congress needed to change bankruptcy laws because people were gaming the system, only for a study of the first 65,000 cases filed shown no one was "gaming" the system.

"Patriotic education?" Sounds like political indoctrination for the "long war" to me. Patriotism isn't something you're taught by teachers. It's something that's demonstrated by family and earned bpoliticiansns.

"Transform our domestic institutions to harness modern science?" How can they propose that when they ignore the science that tells us the planet is overheating, natural resources are declining, and telling us when and why we can see a doctor?

It just seems to me that the Republicans have truly gone off the deep end. They believe their own bullshit. They believe every conspiracy theory there is. They see enemies under every rock and in every home. They see terrorists attacking us in every which way. But they can't envision a world where none of these problems exist. They see only more of the same. They have no business being in power. They need to be retired, starting with Jon Kyl.