A brief response to recent actions of Michelle Bachmann.
It seems that the Republican party, at least its most atavistic and deluded faction, is increasingly becoming a party of intolerance, deceit, and demagogy. This degradation of GOP is quite understandable. After all, what can you do as a political party if all your aspirations for the future are connected to an idealized past and all your hopes of a future are driven by fear of difference.
And now Ms. Bachmann, the so-called champion of the Tea-Bagger movement, has claimed her role as an expert on the Muslim Brotherhood. And even though the entire lot of US intelligence agencies have not been able to uncover this sinister plot, Ms. Bachmann has divined that the highest levels of US government have been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and the face of this infiltration is a woman named Huma Abedin. I guess in her apocalyptic visions and in a state of spiritual trance Ms. Bachmann’s honed consciousness was able to divine that a woman with a name such as this could be a threat to the national security and could very easily be the face of this dangerous infiltration of US government.
Of course, when a prophet like Ms. Bachmann prophecizes, the other Republican prophets also join her. So, yes Newt Gingrich, another beacon of republican hope, defended Ms. Bachmann on her right to ask questions. In his views, “There weren’t allegations, there was a question” (http://www.politico.com/...) and since the questions was accompanied by a sixteen page “evidence,” then Ms. Bachmann had all the rights to say what she said.
It is absurd to implore people like Ms. Bachmann and Newt to be culturally sensitive, or to ask them to be less racist and xenophobic. Being subtly racist and xenophobia is now a part of the grand vision of this branch of GOP. How else could one define a party whose stalwarts are anti-woman, anti-immigration, pro-gun and anti-education.
For us to be outraged at these assertions is to admit that the likes of Ms. Bachmann have at least an iota of originality to surprise us.
I guess in her mind of minds, this prophet of the American future knows how irrelevant her vision is to the future. That is why she must constantly keep stirring the pot so that the ordure that constitutes her politics keeps exuding the fumes of ignorance, hate, and prejudice for her and her allies to breathe in. And Ms. Bachmann has done a great job of stirring her pot of prejudices: the stench is high and all the other political organisms from GOP–Like Newt–have now started swimming to this murky pool. This is the only way they can survive: in dirty waters.
Thankfully, though, the sane elements of the GOP have raised their voices against her delusional claims. But then, one wonders, are their responses simply cosmetic? That GOP, by and large, has become a party of NO is quite obvious. But in this case, though, it is heartening to see that some GOP stalwarts have had the courage to pronounce a loud NO to the destructive prophesies of this prophet from Minnesota.