No, I mean I really HATE to say, "I told you so!"
I thought about Adolph Hitler recently.
I wondered how one man gets so many people to do so many evil things to others. I couldn’t understand how rational, thinking human beings could bring themselves to do such things.
Of course, the answer is really quite simple.
First, something’s got to be wrong with your nation.
At the time of Hitler’s rise to power, Germany was still reeling from World War I. They were financially screwed.
Never mind that the rest of the world was also going through a terrible depression. Germany’s depression was, of course, being caused by those rascally Jews.
Now, let’s stop and pause for a moment. Was the government of Germany run by “the Jews”? Well I guess so if you consider Hitler’s upbringing. I mean other than Der Führer, I think that the power of Germany, it’s government, was not filled with Jews. This begs the question, “Did the Jews really have and hoard all of the money?”
However, he pulled it off. He got the Germans to hate the Jews.
If any of you have read and remember Orwell’s “1984”, The Party created its own “enemy”. His name was Goldstien and, everyday, every citizen of Oceana participated in a “two minute hate” during which pictures of Goldstien were shown. The citizens would work themselves up into a lather for two minutes and then calmly return to work.
This is how Hitler stayed in power for so long and this is how The Party in “1984” maintained power and control over its citizenry forever.
Add to this the jingoistic activity of constant war, requiring constant “patriotism”, and you’ve got the perfect reason to maintain one’s hold on power for a very long time.
In 1986, we still had an “evil empire” in Eastern Europe to hate. We needed to protect ourselves against this “evil empire”, we needed a National Missile Defense System, dubbed Star Wars.
Not only were we at risk from the USSR, but the global power of Grenada was an imminent threat.
Iran wasn’t looking too good either.
Lebanon had just killed over 200 of our marines.
Finally, seeing that President Reagan was in the middle of fighting dragons and “knocking down walls”, let’s not give Gorbachev any credit for that, in 1986, Republican Representative Guy Vander Jagt of Michigan introduced legislation to repeal the twenty-second amendment to allow Ronald Reagan to run for a third term.
The trouble was the USSR, thanks to Gorbachev, was turning a corner toward more capitalism, we didn’t invade Grenada until the mainstream media had set up its cameras on shore to film the landing of our heroes and gave us the OK, the deal was cut with Iran before the election in 1980 and Reagan bombed Libya in retaliation for what happened in Beirut.
There really wasn’t a “good enemy” to hate at the time. Keeping The Gipper in office really didn’t have a sense of urgency to it.
Ah, but this is a different day.
September 11, 2001 saw nineteen Saudis cause major catastrophes in New York, Washington and Pennsyvania and the “war on terrorism” began. Naturally, in response to these Saudis, the US went to war to depose Saddam Hussein. He was evil.
The Patriot Act was implemented and anyone who had Arab blood running through his (or her, but not often) veins was detained and imprisoned.
The urgency for Iraq to hold “democratic elections” became intensified.
Islam became our “Jews”, our “Goldstien”.
The war on terror isn’t only not over yet, but, basically, once we get Iraq “democtratized”, we’ll have to begin working on Iran and Syria.
Then there’s North Korea, but they’re actually throwing off the plan because, well, they’re not Islamic and we’re supposed to hate Muslims. We are, despite George Washington’s words, “a Christian nation” after all, working on becoming a Christian Theocracy.
How can we possibly change presidents in the middle, neigh, the beginning of our “war on terrorism”?
Republican representative Jose E. Serrano of New York can’t find an answer. So, he’s introduced House Judiciary Resolution 17 that, if passed, would repeal the twenty-second amendment to The Constitution and allow George W. Bush to run for a third term.
Now liberal representative Barney Franks introduced a similar bill in 1998 to allow Bill Clinton to run for a third term. However, how was that ever going to be taken seriously?
A homosexual member of congress introduces a bill to allow a president who was impeached for having an affair to to run for a third term, to allow this representative of hell, this adulterer, this sexual deviant, this supporter of “family values Armaggeddon” to continue his demise of our nation.
Lest we forget, homosexuals would be our Jews, our Goldstien if it wasn’t for those pesky Arabs attempting to regain control of their own land. Who do they think they are, Native Americans? And if they continue to try to remove The American Corporacracy from their land, they’ll suffer the same fate as those very same Native Americans.
Also, lest we forget, on November 3, 2004, I wrote the following in this column:
“The people who voted for Bush in 2004 will begin to see things differently.
First, they’ll see Bush trying to amend the twenty-second amendment of the constitution. That’s the amendment that says that presidents can only be elected to two four year terms.
With everything being Republican from the Senate to The House of Representatives to The Supreme Court (The Supreme Court is supposed to be non-partisan, but it’s really Republican and will shortly become more so), Bush may be able to pull that one off.”
Bush doesn’t have just one mortal enemy that he’s convinced far too many Americans to hate, he’ got pro-choice people right here in Sin City, same sex marriage proponents – let’s face it, folks, we need George W. Bush.
He’ll keep us at war, he’ll keep us safe (there hasn’t been another plane which has flown into The World Trade Center since 9/11/01 – do we need more proof? [of course, no plane flew into it before 9/11/01 either, but, well]) and, most importantly of all, he’ll keep us Christian, in spite of The Constitution. In fact, he’ll keep doing lots of things in spite of not only our constitution, but in spite of global laws with which we once agreed.
Next up: daily two minute hates – we can rotate pictures of mortal enemies on a daily basis.
I Hate To Say, "I Told You So, But....."
Commentary by Michael Bonanno.
Moderator: Michael
Return to “Open Mike Soundoff”
Jump to
- Community
- ↳ Introductions
- ↳ Announcements, Help, Banners, Books
- ↳ Studio8 Announcements
- ↳ Cenacle's Announcements
- ↳ Help & Feedback
- ↳ Banners
- ↳ S8 Community Books
- ↳ Radio8
- Creative Writing
- ↳ Poetry
- ↳ ~GO!
- ↳ Haiku
- ↳ Stories & Essays
- Visual Arts & Multi-Media
- ↳ Arts Center
- ↳ Paintings & Drawings
- ↳ Digital Art
- ↳ Photography
- ↳ Sculpture, Collage, etc.
- ↳ Artstalk
- ↳ Other Arts Sites
- ↳ Music, Spoken Word & Video
- Discussion
- ↳ General Discussion
- ↳ Culture, Politics, Philosophy
- ↳ Rant, Rage & Laugh
- Member Forums
- ↳ Artlogs & Studios
- ↳ Chat Spot
- ↳ Mingo's Lingo
- ↳ Asylum for the Terminally Vain
- ↳ The Luck of a Dame
- ↳ judih's Inner Jams
- ↳ Arcadia's Place
- ↳ Flying Horse Cafe
- ↳ Infinity Sideways
- ↳ Columnists
- ↳ Sunday Stream
- ↳ Life in the Horse Lane
- Archives
- ↳ Archived Community Word Jams: 2004 - 2019
- ↳ # 55 - Solstice through New Years 2019 Light-the-World Word Jam
- ↳ #54 - Healing Jam!
- ↳ #53 - Showers to Flowers Jam - April & May 2016
- ↳ #52 - 2016 Welcome Word Jam!
- ↳ #51– 2015 Annual Spring Equinox Poetry Jam
- ↳ #50 - Solstice to New Years Word Jam - 2014-2015!
- ↳ #49 - 1-Day Xtreme Jam!
- ↳ #48- The Blues & Good News New Years Jam
- ↳ #47 - The Survival Holiday Jam
- ↳ #46 - March Free Poetry Jam
- ↳ March Free Poetry Jam
- ↳ #45 - Solstice through New Years Light-the-World Word & Image Jam
- ↳ #44 - Block Party - A Spring Poetry & Image Jam
- ↳ #43 - Mid-Winter Word Jam 2011
- ↳ #42 - Spirit of Love Art & Poetry Jam
- ↳ #41 - Summer's End to Autumn Transition Jam
- ↳ #40 - The Annual Spring Equinox Jam
- ↳ #39- The 2009 Solstice thru New Years 2010 Word Jam
- ↳ #37 - Solstice 2008 thru New Years 2009 Light-the-World Jam
- ↳ #38 - The M(Earth) Word Jam
- ↳ #36- The Leaves & Arrivals Autumn Word Jam
- ↳ #35 - Close-ups of Summer Jam
- ↳ #34 - The I Can't Wait Word Jam - Part 1
- ↳ #33 - The I Can't Wait Word Jam - part 2
- ↳ #32 - Solstice to New Years Jam 2008!
- ↳ #31 - The Instant Gratification Gratitude Jam
- ↳ #30 - An April Shower of Words
- ↳ #29 - Portrait of Love Art Jam
- ↳ #28 - The January Ringing in 2007 New Years Party Jam
- ↳ #27 - 2nd Annual Winter Holi-Dazed & EnLightened Word Jam
- ↳ #26 - 8 Images in Search of a Poet
- ↳ #25 - B&W & Read All Over Jam
- ↳ #24 - The Unannounced Summer Solstice Poetry Jam
- ↳ #23 - Spring Poetry & Image Jam
- ↳ #22 - Let Me GO! Image & Word Jam
- ↳ #21 - The 2nd Annual Spring Equinox Word Jam
- ↳ #20 - Connecting Branches – A Treeku Word Jam
- ↳ #19 - 2006 New Year Jam
- ↳ #18 - The Winter Holi-Dazed & EnLightened Word Jam
- ↳ #17 - Image Jams
- ↳ #16 - The I Can't Wait Word Jam!
- ↳ #15 - The Summer Home, Summer Not Travelogue Jam
- ↳ #14 - Online Improv Play Green Room
- ↳ #13 - "Ward Nine - Frontal Lobotomy" - An Improv Play
- ↳ #12 - Major Minor Madcap Mayhem Word Jam
- ↳ #11 - The Low-Key Weekend Jam
- ↳ #10 - The 1st Annual Spring Equinox Word Jam
- ↳ #9 - Big Time Poetry Melt Word Jam
- ↳ #8 - The January Knock Yer Socks Off Jam
- ↳ #7 - 2005 New Years Party
- ↳ #6 - Saved - It's a Miracle!
- ↳ #6 - Now! More than ever - 8 Day Miracle Jam
- ↳ #5 - When the 9 Strikes!
- ↳ #4 - 2004 Election Party
- ↳ #3 - Kick out da Jams, Man!
- ↳ #2 - Jam it out!... Let's GO!
- ↳ #1 - Kick out da word jam
- ↳ Archives
- ↳ Retired Forums
- ↳ Eyewitness Reports
- ↳ Postips & e-sources
- ↳ Interviews & Articles
- ↳ Rejection Slip?
- ↳ Trailerpark
- ↳ Performance Arts
- ↳ Duets
- ↳ Workshop & Prompts
- ↳ Image Jams & Photo Travelogue
- ↳ Literature & Film
- ↳ Variations
- ↳ Retired Columns & Artlogs
- ↳ Cathouse
- ↳ Remnants of Madness
- ↳ For Pete's Sake!
- ↳ Pit of Crazy
- ↳ Pic This
- ↳ Poetry Cut-Ups
- ↳ Ronnie GETS it!
- ↳ Things Nobody Wants to Hear
- ↳ Ask da Biotch! - Advice Column
- ↳ Inspiration Station
- ↳ A New Kind Of Random
- ↳ The Anti-Academy
- ↳ Mouse Droppings
- ↳ Mystic Arts
- ↳ Open Mike Soundoff
- ↳ The Pregnant Pope
- In Memoriam
- ↳ To Honor our Departed Site Members
- ↳ Lightning Rod
- ↳ Photos of Lightning Rod
- ↳ The Poet's Eye by Lightning Rod
- ↳ Norman Mallory
- ↳ ZlatKomix (artwork by Norman Mallory)
- ↳ Constantine
- ↳ Constantinople – (A collection of Constantine's poetry)
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests