Noted MSNBC political analyst Chris Matthews summed up the sheer criminality of Republican “bargaining” tactics during the summer of 2011.
He did so on July 28, 2011–five days before Congress reached its August 2 deadline to raise the debt-ceiling or plunge the Nation into bankruptcy.
“The first people to bow to the demands of those threatening to blow up the economy were the Republicans in the House, the leaders. The leaders did what the followers told them to do: meet the demands, hold up the country to get their way.
“Those followers didn’t win the Senate, or the Presidency, just the House.
“But by using the House they were able to hold up the entire United States government. They threatened to blow things up economically and it worked.
“They said they were willing to do that–just to get their way–not by persuasion, not by politics, not by democratic government, but by threatening the destruction of the country’s finances.
“Right. So what’s next? The power grid? Will they next time threaten to close down the country’s electricity and communications systems?”
President Obama could have faced down the extortionists of the Republican Party in two ways:
- Prosecuting them under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and/or the USA Patriot Act; and/or
- Addressing the Nation as President John F. Kennedy did during the Cuban Missile Crisis and warning his fellow citizens that the Nation faced a moment of supreme danger.
In Part Three of this series, I outlined how the President could apply the RICO Act and/or the USA Patriot Act to hold Republican extortionists criminally accountable.
In this part, I will outline his second option (which can be coupled with criminal prosecution).
Making a Cuban Missile Type Speech
During such a national address, President Obama could have revealed such blunt truths as:

- Republicans have adopted the same my-way-or-else “negotiating” stance as Adolf Hitler.
- Like the Nazis, they are determined to gain absolute power–or destroy the Nation they claim to love.
- They raised the debt ceiling seven times during the eight-year Presidency of George W. Bush.
- But now that a black Democrat holds the White House, raising the debt ceiling is unacceptable.
- Despite Republican lies, we cannot revitalize the economy by slashing taxes on the wealthy and cash-hoarding corporations while cutting benefits for millions of average Americans.
- We will need both tax increases and sensible entitlement cuts to regain our economic strength.
Finally, President Obama could have ended his speech by directly calling for the active support of his fellow Americans. Something like this:
“My fellow Americans, I have taken an oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’
“But I cannot do this on my own. As citizens of a Republic, each of us carries that burden. We must each do our part to protect the land and the liberties we love.
“Tonight, I’m asking for your help.
“We stand on the edge of economic disaster. Therefore, I am asking each of you to stand up for America tonight.
“I am asking you to demand the immediate recall of the entire membership of the Republican Party.
“As President John F. Kennedy said:
‘In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course.’
“Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty.
“This is the moment when each of us must decide–whether we will survive as a Republic, or allow ruthless political fanatics to destroy what has lasted and thrived for more than 200 years.”
President Obama has taken forceful action against America’s foreign enemies—most notably Osama bin Laden.
If the Nation is to survive, he must now act just as forcefully against America’s domestic enemies.
Fortunately, there is still time for him to do so.
A prosecutor who chooses to not indict on one occasion may still do so on another. And, in doing so, President Obama may find history repeating itself.
Joachim C. Fest, author of Hitler (l973), writes of the surprise that awaited Allied soldiers occupying Nazi Germany in 1945:
“Almost without transition, virtually from one moment to the next, Nazism vanished after the death of Hitler and the surrender. It was as if National Socialism had been nothing but the motion, the state of intoxication and the catastrophe it had caused….
“Hitler’s propaganda specialists had talked constantly of invincible Alpine redoubts, nests of resistance, and swelling werewolf units, and had predicted a war beyond the war. But there was no sign of this.
“Once again it became plain that National Socialism, like Fascism in general, was dependent to the core on superior force, arrogance, triumph, and by its nature had no resources in the moment of defeat.”
With luck, the same will prove true for the extortionists and blackmailers of the Republican Party.

2008 ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ANN COULTER, BENITO MUSSOLINI, CBS NEWS, CHRISTIANS, CNN, ERNEST HEMINGWAY, FACEBOOK, FASCISM, FRANCISCO FRANCO, GUN CONTROL, HILLARY CLINTON, JEWS, MARTIN BASHIR, MEGHAN MCCAIN, MEIN KAMPF, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, SEAN HANNITY, SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN, TWITTER
A LIE TOLD BY BULLIES
In History, Politics, Social commentary on April 16, 2013 at 12:05 amErnest Hemingway said it best: “Fascism is a lie told by bullies.”
And right-wing pundit Ann Coulter best illustrates the truth of this.
Let’s start at the beginning: On April 7, Martin Bashir, host of MSNBC’s Martin Bashir program, wondered if a personal experience were the only way to get Republicans to drop their threat to block a vote on the gun control legislation that Newtown families were begging them to vote on.
Martin Bashir
After all, United States Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) recently announced his two-year conversion to accepting same-sex marriage after his own son “came out’ as homosexual.
“Nobody is suggesting that the law should only be defined and developed by the victims of crime,” said Bashir. But also pointed out the overwhelming public support for universal background checks.
“Are these senators simply too frightened of the NRA to do the people’s bidding?” Bashir asked.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) responded: “Martin, I never thought it would happen to me, but on a Friday at 12:00, it was 2 years ago, I got a call my nephew had been killed. Shot to death at 5:00 in the morning, and he’s dead at 21 years old.”
Cummings’ nephew, Christopher Cummings, was shot and killed in 2011 at his off-campus apartment in Norfolk, Virginia. His murder has not been solved.
“But Congressman,” Bashir said, “is that what needs to happen to move these senators to stop threatening a filibuster? Is that really what needs to happen? That you need to have a member of your family killed in order for you to do what the American people want you to do?”
“I hope not,” Cummings replied. “I don’t wish this pain on anybody.”
Of course, that was not how the exchange went down in Ann Coulter’s version.
Ann Coulter
In an April 10 column entitled “Liberals Go Crazy for the Mentally Ill,” Coulter offered this tem of a proposal:
“MSNBC’s Martin Bashir suggested that Republican senators need to have a member of their families killed for them to support the Democrats’ gun proposals. (Let’s start with Meghan McCain!)”
Needless to say, Meghan McCain–the daughter of Arizona United States Senator John McCain–was not amused.
“Apparently Ann Coulter made a joke about me being killed in a recent column,” McCain tweeted on April 11. “I should expect nothing less but disgusted regardless.”
And, in another Twitter posting, she wrote: “My father is a very famous politician. My family gets a lot of threats. Joking about me being killed really isn’t funny or appropriate.”
Meghan McCain
She and Coulter have been at odds ever since McCain dared to pen a column entitled, “My Beef With Ann Coulter” in 2009.
In that column–published in The Daily Beast–McCain wrote:
“It is no secret that being a Republican isn’t the most hip political stance a person can take right now….
“To make matters worse, certain individuals continue to perpetuate negative stereotypes about Republicans. Especially Republican women. Who do I feel is the biggest culprit? Ann Coulter.
“I straight up don’t understand this woman or her popularity. I find her offensive, radical, insulting, and confusing all at the same time….
“Coulter could be the poster woman for the most extreme side of the Republican Party…. Is she for real or not? Are some of her statements just gimmicks to gain publicity for her books or does she actually believe the things she says?
“Does she really believe all Jewish people should be ‘perfected’ and become Christians? And what was she thinking when she said Hillary Clinton was more conservative than my father during the [2008] election?”
The most effective way to hurt an enemy is to tell the truth about him. Or, as in this case, her.
It’s a “crime” that aggressive venom-spewers like Coulter can never forgive. And, like most bullies, she refused to accept any responsibility for her action.
“I was making a joke,” Coulter told Sean Hannity on his right-wing The Sean Hannity Show.
“For one thing … that heinous thing Martin Bashir said, nobody knew about that until I added a joke, which is known as hyperbole.”
Of course, Bashir had not called on anyone to kill the members of Republicans’ families–as Coulter had “jokingly” called upon others to kill McCain.
(It was Adolf Hitler who, in Mein Kampf, laid down guidelines for the successful use of propaganda–rules such as “The Big Lie”:
Adolf Hitler
“And thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds [people] more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.”)
“You were being sarcastic,” said Hannity.
“I think the exclamation point made it clear,” Coulter said with a smile. “And the fact that everyone laughed when they read it.”
Thus, Fascists like Ann Coulter use the same tactics in the 21st century as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler used in in the 20th century: Believe what we say or prepare to die.
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