January 29, 2014 6:51 AM

When you have no ideas, fear-mongering and playing the victim are about all you've got to work with

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

(apologies to Keith Olbermann)

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA)

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) has made a career out of appealing to a certain sense of conservative grievance. He once labeled the Civil War the “War of Yankee Aggression.” He offered legislation to defund a key prong of the Voting Rights Act (a goal that the Roberts Court was happy to achieve for him). And he’s warned that a “socialistic elite” that includes President Obama and congressional Democratic leaders are looking for an excuse to declare martial law — “[t]hey’re trying to develop an environment where they can take over,” in Broun’s words. So it’s probably not that surprising that his campaign views this as a great way to develop a list of supporters….His email adds that “it’s no secret that the Democrats and liberal media would love to take away our guns and mandate every aspect of our lives, but I refuse to let them get away with that.” The AR-15 is the same gun Adam Lanza used to kill 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

I’m not certain what I find more offensive- that Paul Broun is heavily invested in portraying gun owners as victims or that he’s playing on the same fear, bigotry, and prejudice that’s been passed from generation to generation since the Civil War. In neither case is Broun offering anything positive. He’s certainly not appealing to his constituents’ better angels. And he’s certainly not addressing the serious issues facing America today…because it’s not about what’s best for this country.

All Paul Broun cares about is his political career. Now he wants to move up from the House of Representatives to the “old boys club” that is the Senate. Perhaps he understands that, being a Republican, there’s little chance he can run successfully on the superiority of the GOP platform. Broun’s not stupid- far from it; he made it through medical school and now sports an M.D. behind his name. That takes some brains (not to mention commitment and sleep deprivation), so none of us should be underestimating Broun’s intellectual capacity. His moral fitness is another story. For reasons known only to himself and his campaign staff, he’s decided to take the low road (like most every other Republicans) and traffic in fear-mongering, character assassination, and the politics of victimization.

Broun is smart enough to know that Republicans best shot at winning is wallowing in the mud, and that trafficking in ideas is for losers and Liberals. It’s all and only about winning, and ideas won’t win Republicans any elections…perhaps because they don’t have any. Paul Broun is in the forefront of the Republican race to the bottom.

“I’m constantly under attack for my values and beliefs….

I’d laugh at that if his impotent bleating wasn’t so pathetic. OF COURSE he’s getting attacked for his values and beliefs; he’s a member of Congress. All 535 members of Congress get attacked on a daily basis, sometimes even for their values and beliefs. Being attacked isn’t a cheap shot…it’s merely a cost of doing business in Washington.

If Broun had even a small degree of self-awareness and intellectual honesty, he’d understand and admit that most of the attacks against him are because he’s a teabagging ideologue who wields his Christianity like a club. He feigns offense at being attacked for his crackpot ideas, his fear-mongering, and his holier-than-thou hyper-religiosity…and he’s good at it.

Remember “Lies from the pits of Hell?” Yep, that was Paul Broun. Whether it’s abortion, guns, racism, religion, or any number of other hot-button issues, Broun is more than happy to trade in emotional reaction- primarily rage and fury. He knows that if you can convince people that jackbooted government thugs led by our Kenyan-born, illegitimate, Muslim, Socialist, America-hating President are:

  • coming for your guns, or

  • going to force American women to kill their unborn babies, or

  • about to institute Sharia law and persecute Christians, or

  • working to create a One World government, where the UN rules with an iron fist so they can give Agenda 21 the force of law, or….

I imagine you can smell what I’m cooking, right? Broun isn’t about ideas. He’s not even about making America a better place. His primary- and only- making sure the people are sufficiently scared stupid that they’ll vote for him because they think he’s one of them. All Paul Broun really cares about is Paul Broun’s continued employment, this time in the U.S. Senate. His constituents are merely means to an end.

The truth is that Broun has no ideas, offers nothing positive, nor can he put forward anything that will move this country in the right direction. That would require doing the hard work of trying to convince his constituents why the GOP platform will create jobs, reduce poverty, and keep America safe. That’s just too damned much work for someone as lazy as Broun…and pretty much every other Republican in Congress.

No, the last thing you want people doing if you’re a Republican is thinking…because when people begin to think, you risk that they’ll begin to understand that they’ve been lied to for years. They’ll recognize that Republicans have nothing to offer them but fear, prejudice, rage, and cheap propaganda. They’ll realize it’s never been about the poor or middle class, and that Republicans care about them only insofar as they need their votes in even-numbered years. Once they realize they’ve repeatedly and reflexively voted for a cabal of intellectual and moral midgets, they might just do the right thing and elect people who will get things done.

At the risk of being accused of pessimism, that’s not going to happen. At least not until Americans begin to pay attention and realize they deserve a much higher quality of representation than what they’ve repeatedly voted for.

If you’re going to vote for mediocrity, you’re going to end up with mediocre leaders like Paul Broun…though mediocrity would be an significant upgrade for Broun, who’s little more than a propaganda-breathing demagogue whose only concern is for himself.

WE DESERVE BETTER.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on January 29, 2014 6:51 AM.

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