http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Madrasah (Arabic: مدرسة, madrasa pl. madāris مدارس) is the Arabic word for any type of school, secular or religious (of any religion).
The Republicans have their own madrassa- their "school" is the airwaves, television, presidential bully pulpit and news outlets. What is the curriculum and the religion of the Republican madrassa ?
Hatred for all things liberal.
From a party that considers itself as being patriotic, religious and moral, in essence nothing could be further from the truth. Why do some Islamic extremists wage jihad? Because they believe that they, and they alone posses the absolute truth. Everyone else is evil and must die. They believe in the absolute of their reward in heaven for their murderous actions.
So do the Republican neo-cons. Wrapping themselves in God, guns, and gays, they hold themselves to be somehow morally superior to Democratic liberals. They alone hold the truth. This is what is taught to their children and spewed into our national psyche.
What do they teach in this madrassa? Something called personal responsibility and less government intervention, but then they turn around and preach against the right to make their own personal decisions (pro-choice, gay marriage).
What else is preached in this madrassa? Intolerance for other religions, hatred for even playing fields, hatred for "big guvmint", hatred for the right of a woman to control her own body, hatred for diversity and condoning racism.
They purport to teach something called pro-life, however, this stops at the point of birth. Can’t afford health insurance? Tough. Declare a misbegotten war and kill innocents? That’s just collateral damage. Death penalty? Why, sure, kill the bastards. Provide for the veterans’ needs? Hey, that costs too much.
Regulate the use of guns? Over my cold, dead body. Never mind the conditions in some cities where people are simply afraid to venture out on the street, where the citizens cry for some type of regulations, something to be done.
This madrassa also teaches hatred for anything relating to alternate lifestyles. Marriage must be upheld! Never mind that the bigger threat to marriage is irreconcilable differences between parties and the availability of divorce. Same-sex couples do not pose threats to marriage, but this is what is taught in the republican madrassa.
Constitutional freedoms and rights? In the republican madrassa, if you adhere to their tenets, you have nothing to worry about. We know what is best! Dissent is not encouraged. Fear IS encouraged. Social programs and education are to be manipulated for the profit of the few, and so should the government. In fact, they are taught the nothing good comes from the government, you should not look for help or benefits from your government. So the government becomes the tool through which it is discredited. Witness the corruption of the various wings the government, the inept leadership, the looting of the budget, all part of the religion taught in this madrassa.
http://www.alternet.org/...
Thomas Frank, in The Plot Against Liberal America, wrote:
Conservatism, on the other hand, speaks not of compromise, but of removing its adversaries from the field altogether. While no one dreams of sawing off those branches of the state that protect conservatism's constituents -- the military, the police, legal privileges granted to corporations -- conservatives openly fantasize about doing away with the bits of "big government" that serve liberal ends. While de-funding the left is the north star of the conservative project, there is no comparable campaign to "de-fund the right"; indeed, it would be difficult to imagine one.
"Over the past 30 years, American politics has become more money-centered at exactly the same time that American society has grown more unequal," the political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson have written. The resources and organizational heft of the well-off and hyper-conservative have exploded. But the organizational resources of middle-income Americans ... have atrophied. The resulting inequality has greatly benefited the Republican Party while drawing it closer to its most affluent and extreme supporters."
Limbaugh, O’Reilly and Coulter (space doesn't allow a full roll call) are some of the preachers of hate in this madrassa. There are many others. They don’t engage in reasonable political debate they just make up lies and smears about people who Republicans disagree with or don’t like, and uniformly preach hatred against "the liberals."
(However, when liberals say negative things about the right, it’s usually much more true than what the right says about the left.)
Comments? Thanks for letting me get this rant off.