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Memo to Snyder: Don’t stop the radical reforms now!‘Godly Fumigation’
November 3rd, 2009 | 
Author: 
Pamela Troy
“It is interesting, that termites don’t build things, and the great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians, because Christians have the desire to build something. He is motivated by love of man and God, so he builds. The people who have come into [our] institutions are primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions, that we have…. The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation.”
– Pat Robertson New York Magazine, August 18, 1986
Histrionics.
“Experts come in, actually envelope the whole dwelling in a giant tent – and send a very powerful fumigant, lethal to the varmints and unwelcome creatures, into every nook and cranny of the house. Done thoroughly, every last destructive insect or rodent is sent to varmint hell – and in a day or two, the grand house is habitable again.
I believe – figuratively, but in a very real way – we need to tent the White House!” Pat Boone, World Net Daily
It’s weirdly appropriate that, on Halloween, a day of monsters, spooks, and the living dead, Pat Boone would post an article on World Net describing members of the Obama administration as “parasites, vermin, roaches, rats, worms and termites” who are contaminating the white house with droppings and “little hanging sacs from ceilings.”
Over the course of roughly 1,200 words, Boone additionally refers to them as “invaders,” “unwelcome creatures,” varmints, insects, “alien rodents,” Marxists, Communists, etc. who, “by their very existence will eventually destroy the house and bring it to ruin.”
The fact that Boone tosses in a couple of verbal fig-leaves doesn’t help much. It merely makes the essay read as though someone went over a Jules Streicher rant and added the word “figuratively” along with a hilariously maladroit passage at the end assuring us that by “gas” the writer means “massive voter gas.”
I’m not going to waste much time pointing out Boone’s past comments during the Bush administration, as when he declared that “wild-eyed, irresponsible assaults on the character and intelligence and personal motives of our commander in chief – while we’re in a war and trying to hold our allies at our side – is, to me, decidedly unpatriotic!” Pat Boone is a pop singer – not a nationally respected pundit. Like Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel, it’s not his job to make sense.
My point here is that the mindset Boone represents is, in its own twisted way, perfectly consistent. It only seems inconsistent if you assume that Boone, and what’s come to be known as the Republican “base,” define the concept of “political freedom” as the rest of us have been taught to define it – a system in which a range of political viewpoints have access and the opportunity to vote, hold office and enact legislation.
The fact is, many of these folks simply don’t believe that those they perceive as liberals and leftists deserve the same access to our political process as conservatives do. In their minds, liberals and leftists (or perceived leftists) actually having a seat in government are, as Pat Boone claims, the equivalent of vermin infesting a house.
You don’t negotiate with vermin. You don’t debate the issues with them. You don’t give them a say in whether or not the house should be “tented.” You eradicate them because you are a human being and they are vermin, and in doing so, you save the “house” they have infested.
That’s why the same right wing base that winked at the massive disenfranchisement of legal voters in 2000 has reacted to President Obama’s election as if he’d illegally usurped the presidency. The will of Americans who vote Democratic, and who might actually like to see healthcare reform with a government option, is beside the point. Democrats are not just fellow citizens who Republicans perceive as “wrong.” Their very “wrongness” means they are not real Americans. A loud and influential minority has embraced a quasi-religious political outlook in which “error” has no rights.
While this simple-minded approach to political disagreement is not confined to the right wing, it has become much more mainstreamed and influential on the right than it is on the left. The left has its share of outrageous commentators both online and off. But Democratic politicians who’ve spoken of these commentators disrespectfully have not hastened to publicly apologize to them, as Republican politicians have with Rush Limbaugh.
During the Bush administration, I heard a few liberals talk about personally leaving the country. I did not hear anyone — and certainly not the governor of a state — invoke secession.
As a liberal, I took part in peace demonstrations. I saw nobody outside of law enforcement carrying loaded weapons at these gatherings. Liberals may have been genuinely alarmed by the Bush administration’s elimination of habeas corpus and legalization of torture, but we did not react by almost emptying gun stores of arms and ammunition and issuing veiled and not-so-veiled threats of armed uprising.
A nasty side effect of the kind of language Boone uses in his essay is the increasingly popular and dangerous idea that despising one’s fellow Americans qualifies as “patriotism.” This ranges from Bill O’Reilly’s “joke’ about allowing Al Qaida to bomb a densely populated residential neighborhood in San Francisco, to posters on Free Republic daydreaming about what they’ll get to do to their liberal neighbors in Texas once the state secedes. The comments on some FR threads last spring were especially revealing. One poster observed, ”If we did secede, we would have to expel all the liberals to succeed.”
To which another replied, “A more harsh treatment might be more in order.”
Other comments on secession threads included:
“We have a lot of Democrat free-loaders in the cities now. I would love to see a line of buses to transport out the people who don’t believe in states’ rights.”
“Hopefully Texas would become aggressively anti-Leftist and not beat around the ‘Bush’ so to speak and just flat out – outlaw any sort of LeftWingNut-ism whatsoever. Its time to just put a stop to the advance of Marxism. Anyone who didn’t like it – gets dumped on the border or put on a raft and just be glad they weren’t shot for being an enemy agent.”
“We in Texas must take care to properly indoctrinate our new arrivals and to use what ever tactics necessary to convert them to being Texans or convert them to being gone.”
”What are you going to do with Austin? ” asked one poster.
“Fumigate it, and what does survive, gets put on a work farm…” said another.
Sound familiar?
I’ve seen many stupid and intemperate posts on Democratic Underground and Daily Kos. I have not, however, seen threads at either site where multiple posters talk about rounding up local conservatives, sticking them on trains, shooting them, setting them adrift on rafts, and/or gassing them and sticking them in concentration camps. And certainly I’ve not seen such language from liberals in an environment where liberals are buying up guns and brandishing them at political gatherings.
The sleep of reason truly does produce monsters. Over twenty years ago, the religious right began to popularize the notion that the debate between conservatives and liberals was not a debate among Americans who disagreed, but a war between good and evil. Cynical Republicans who knew better were happy to exploit this notion, which effectively short-circuited any real debate of the issues.
It’s not possible to debate someone who treats a person who disagrees with them politically, not as another rational human being who deserves to be part of the political process, but a varmint to be “sent to varmint Hell.”
When, instead of listening, someone regards the very fact that liberal arguments are being voiced as a problem, they will likely “solve” the problem not by addressing the arguments, but by attempting to silence or shout down the arguers.
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I laughed, I cried, I saw almost every terrible liberal meme in one story.
2000 election stolen
guns and trigger happy conservatives
secession
O’Reilly
This is the funniest though : “When, instead of listening, someone regards the very fact that liberal arguments are being voiced as a problem, they will likely “solve” the problem not by addressing the arguments, but by attempting to silence or shout down the arguers.”
Which White House was attempting to shut up a news network because they didnt like their coverage?
Which organization bussed in people to disrupt town halls?
Which grass roots movement has been called nazis, astroturf, racist, mocked with derogatory sexual innuendo—all in order to marginalize them in coverage and message?
Good misdirect, defense caught the audible though.
wws: I laughed, I cried, I saw almost every terrible liberal meme in one story. 2000 election stolen
Thousands of legal voters were NOT turned away from the polls in Florida during the 2000 election?
wws: guns and trigger happy conservatives
There has NOT been a run on guns and ammo, and right wing demonstrators have NOT shown up with loaded guns at public gatherings?
wws: secession
Governor Perry did NOT invoke secession?
wws: O’Reilly
O’Reilly did NOT say the country should allow Al Qaida to bomb San Francisco?
wws: Which White House was attempting to shut up a news network because they didnt like their coverage?
Please cite where the Obama White House attempted to “shut up” a network.
wws: Which organization bussed in people to disrupt town halls?
Again,a cite please. And which political party bussed in demonstrators to stop the vote count in 2000?
wws: Which grass roots movement has been called nazis, astroturf, racist, mocked with derogatory sexual innuendo—all in order to marginalize them in coverage and message?
Several, including ACORN.
It’s interesting to note you’ve been unable to refute a single fact I cited.
Fox news? The White House made several attempts to characterize them in a way to change the way Fox was covering the White House, even attempting to block WH pool access on an interview.
SEIU bussed union members out of district into several town halls and were disruptive and in some cases, violent.
The Tea Party movement has been derided with every name in the book, including tea baggers.
I don’t believe you live under a rock and don’t know these things. I do believe you think some readers are stupid enough not to and not know the huge context gap that exists in your cherry picked circumstances while completely ignoring the ones that don’t support your viewpoint or invalidate it.
wws: Fox news? The White House made several attempts to characterize them in a way to change the way Fox was covering the White House, even attempting to block WH pool access on an interview.
In other words, the White House criticized Fox news. That hardly qualifies as attempting to shut them up.
wws: SEIU bussed union members out of district into several town halls and were disruptive and in some cases, violent.
You mean that single case where a guy claimed to have been beaten severely by SEIU people, but is on the video walking away and looking just fine after that supposedly savage beating?
wws: The Tea Party movement has been derided with every name in the book, including tea baggers.
“Tea-baggers” and “tea-bagging” were terms first used by Tea Partiers themselves. And waving signs that say “I Came Unarmed THIS Time,” and making a martyr out of a tea partier who lost the tip of his pinky finger while repeatedly punching someone in the face, does invite a certain amount of derision.
wws: I do believe you think some readers are stupid enough not to and not know the huge context gap that exists in your cherry picked circumstances while completely ignoring the ones that don’t support your viewpoint or invalidate it.
It’s not “cherry picking” to point out that the right wing has responded to the Obama adminstration by buying up guns, invoking secession, and bringing loaded guns to public events, while liberals did NOT respond to the Bush administration by buying up guns, invoking secession, or bringing loaded guns to public gatherings. (I DO recall cases of liberals, just after 9/11, getting visits from the Secret Service for voicing criticisms of Bush or having anti-Bush posters on their walls)
I certainly don’t recall any prominent liberal inviting Al Qaida to bomb an American city.
The White House declared Fox wasn’t a news organization, that characterization isn’t theirs to make, the press is answerable to the people not the government. They also attempted to block them from interview from a White House official.
No, I’m talking about the SIEU memo that specifically mentioned “getting in their faces” and “be disruptive”. As for the pinky incident? The supposed aggressor was a 65 year old. C’mon.
Use of the term tea bagging or tea baggers was not coined by the people at the events themselves, I’m not sure where you are drawing that from but its blatantly false.
Lets really examine why secession was talked about. The fed was attempting to dictate state budgets linked to federal aid packages after the budgets were drawn. The fed is not to link funds to purely intra state business, that’s a 10th over reach. States have little they can do besides make secession, refusal of funds, or a flat statement of refusal to toe the line the fed is placing.
Explain to me, whats wrong with the purchase of guns? Its a guaranteed right.
I like the continued approach of loaded guns to health care events, there was ONE guy that was widely reported but that constitutes a huge conflation on your part. Would you like some feathers to go with that tar?
wws: The White House declared Fox wasn’t a news organization, that characterization isn’t theirs to make, the press is answerable to the people not the government.
Sure they can make that characterization. The just can’t act on it. And they did not. I have seen no evidence that the White House has attempted to knock Fox News off the air.
wws: They also attempted to block them from interview from a White House official.
Were you equally indignant about the Bush administration “freezing out” MSNBC?
wws: No, I’m talking about the SIEU memo that specifically mentioned “getting in their faces” and “be disruptive”.
Cite please. This sounds an awful lot like the Freedomworks Tea Party memo that got leaked to the press some months ago entitled “Rocking the Town Hall — Best Practices.”
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2009/08/memo-details-co-ordinated-anti-reform-harrassment-strategy.php?page=1
wws: As for the pinky incident? The supposed aggressor was a 65 year old. C’mon.
There’s nothing “supposed” about the fact that the man was the aggressor. He admitted as much, and accounts of what happened indicate that the man he punched was confronting the 65-year-old about his aggressive behavior towards another pro-healthcare demonstrator, a woman who’d been trying to pass him to get to other demonstrators. Sorry, but being 65 does not give you carte blanche to start punching people in the face because you don’t like what they’ve said.
wws: Use of the term tea bagging or tea baggers was not coined by the people at the events themselves, I’m not sure where you are drawing that from but its blatantly false.
I didn’t say they coined the actual term, which has been around for years. The Tea-Partiers themselves, however, were the ones who first referred to themselves as “teabaggers” who were “teabagging” Washington.
wws: Lets really examine why secession was talked about. The fed was attempting to dictate state budgets linked to federal aid packages after the budgets were drawn. The fed is not to link funds to purely intra state business, that’s a 10th over reach. States have little they can do besides make secession, refusal of funds, or a flat statement of refusal to toe the line the fed is placing.
Attempting to justify Rick Perry’s irresponsible invocation of secession does not change the fact that he and the right wing have invoked secession — something that liberals and the left did NOT do while Bush was merrily slicing and dicing the constitution.
wws: Explain to me, whats wrong with the purchase of guns? Its a guaranteed right.
Something is wrong when the election of a president results in people on the right running out and emptying gun store shelves, while at the same time talking about secession and violent uprising. This indicates something profoundly nasty about the violent nature of today’s right wing.
wws: I like the continued approach of loaded guns to health care events, there was ONE guy that was widely reported but that constitutes a huge conflation on your part.
No, it was not just “one” person who showed up armed at a public event. Aside from the guy in New Hampshire carrying the pistol on his leg (along with a sign about “watering the tree of liberty”) there were at least two guys carrying assault rifles who hung around outside the convention center in Arizona where President Obama was making a speech last August, and the guy – fresh out of jail from an assault conviction – who hung around with two loaded pistols outside the center where Obama was giving a speech in Minneapolis.
Secession is the last resort of states rights. Texas is even guaranteed it by their agreement to enter the union as is Vermont. There is nothing wrong with invoking it if the fed doesn’t respect the rights of states to handle their own affairs and attempts to dictate state budgets and policy.
People bringing guns to Presidential speeches deserve to be arrested, if a person is carrying a gun legally at a rally of that sort, its bad judgment. The fact that you have 2 examples, one of which was staged and the other of which led to an arrest when millions participated leads me to believe you are a big believer in conflation and branding—one person does it so they must ALL do it.
Its a despicable tactic used to marginalize opposition by taking the most extreme examples and holding them out to be the norm. How about if I held that all environmentalists are vandals, Molotov tossing agitators bent on violence? Id be wrong. But at least I know that’s wrong. You don’t seem to.
Your convolutions on the origin of the phrase tea bagging are interesting. Tea party activists were going to dump tea bags to symbolize the Boston tea party, the left and a lot of media jumped on the phrase as a way to mock the events.
Read closer about the guy that lost a finger. Was he an activist at the event?
Finally on Fox News. They don’t have to attempt to knock them off the air to be wrong. They just have to attempt to impede them or make noises about intimidation to influence their reporting to rise to the level of chilling free speech. Message : toe the line other networks or we will treat you like we do Fox—only it didn’t work. Government officials don’t get to decide what is and isnt a news network. Because the primary reason for freedom of the press is to investigate the government and provide insight for the public into how they use power.
wws: Secession is the last resort of states rights….
Which does not change the fact that Rick Perry invoked it merely because he doesn’t like the policies of the current president.
I repeat – Democrats and liberals didn’t like the policies of Bush. In fact. we hated many of Bush’s policies, and were seriously alarmed by them. And yet we didn’t invoke secession.
Why do you think that is?
wws: Texas is even guaranteed it by their agreement to enter the union as is Vermont.
Cite please. Texas is not guaranteed the right to secede. It WAS given the right, as part of its annexation deal, to divide itself up into four smaller states. Not at all the same thing.
wws: People bringing guns to Presidential speeches deserve to be arrested, if a person is carrying a gun legally at a rally of that sort, its bad judgment. The fact that you have 2 examples,
I offered three examples. Not two.
wws: Its a despicable tactic used to marginalize opposition by taking the most extreme examples and holding them out to be the norm. How about if I held that all environmentalists are vandals, Molotov tossing agitators bent on violence?
How many cases can you cite of environmentalists showing up openly carrying loaded weapons at public gatherings? And please name the environmentalist governor who invoked secession at an environmentalist protest.
Heck, I’ll make it easier for you by broadening the pool. Cite how many liberal or leftist demonstrators showed up openly carrying loaded guns at Bush speeches. Cite how many liberal or leftist governors invoked secession during the Bush years.
wws: Your convolutions on the origin of the phrase tea bagging are interesting. Tea party activists were going to dump tea bags to symbolize the Boston tea party, the left and a lot of media jumped on the phrase as a way to mock the events.
There’s nothing “convoluted” about pointing out that it was the tea partiers themselves who first referred to themselves as “tea baggers” out to “teabag” Washington DC.
Please explain what you find confusing about this.
wws: Read closer about the guy that lost a finger. Was he an activist at the event?
What difference does that make? He was still feted on Neil Cavuto and elsewhere as a Tea Party hero.
wws: Finally on Fox News. They don’t have to attempt to knock them off the air to be wrong. They just have to attempt to impede them or make noises about intimidation to influence their reporting to rise to the level of chilling free speech.
So you equate criticism with an attempt at censorship?
You’ve been criticizing my piece. Are you attempting to censor me?
Still waiting, by the way, for more info on the SEIU memo you mentioned.
How many examples do you think I can provide of ELF bombing businesses? Thanks for the strawman of what I “said”.
The guy that lost a finger was not an activist and was a citizen who decided to stop. Not an activist, not a tea party organizer or participant of any of the organizations.
I’m not confused at all about your misinformation about how the phrase teabagger was originated. Its a liberal meme you have bought into. Ive been following the tea partys since Santerelli’s rant early this year. Teabagger wasn’t a widely used term until notably MSNBC and CNN began using it. I wonder why we cant agree that its childish to use that moniker a part of news coverage of citizen movement in the first place.
Fox News–I’m not the Potus am I? Government isn’t supposed to intercede into news coverage and attempt to shade coverage through government pressure. It damn sure isn’t supposed to restrict coverage because it doesn’t like the way its being covered, that’s the news media’s job–to cover the actions of government whether they want it covered or not. Government holds power over people’s lives, unless its a national security issue, no issue should be barred from coverage and the character of the coverage should be dictated by the actions of the administration–not the administration attempting to pressure news organizations to cover it a certain way.
Bush never dictated state budgets based upon a federal bill or demand they be changed to accommodate the fed. Obama did. Its a fundamental state right they be allowed to conduct business within their state and set their own budgets. The fed is not allowed to change that via federal funding. I know why that is : Bush didn’t trample states’ rights.
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