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Divisiveness, The Republican Party's True Agenda

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June 28, 2006

Get ready America. The Republican Party has announced their strategy for turning around their horrific approval numbers heading into the mid-term elections. It is not honesty. It does not involve bringing the troops home, leaving Iraq, or easing the economic burden on the poor and middle class. No, they are pinning their hopes on their old mainstay approach of dividing the country against itself to avoid having to face the real issues, upon which they know very well they would lose.

The GOP proclaimed this week that they are launching their "American Values Agenda."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060627/ap_on_go_co/conservative_agenda

This devious play on words means that the House republicans will be bringing to vote between now and the elections various issues which they hope will divide the nation against each other so they do not have to deal with their rubber-stamp history of blindly supporting President Bush as he has led this nation back into the Dark Ages. The constitutional amendment fiasco to ban gay marriage was the first salvo in this offensive offensive. You must understand that the GOP knew the amendment had zero chance of passing; that was not the point. The point was to get people arguing about whether gays should be allowed to marry so that the conversation veers away from Iraq and the economy.

Along that vein, the GOP will be bringing to vote such crucial issues as human cloning, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the public display of the Ten Commandments. There of course will be the usual right-wing red meat issues such as gun control and abortion on the agenda as well. In an early indication of the rampant stupidity we can expect, they followed up the gay marriage sham with the ever-important problem of flag burning. Never mind that flag burning has not been an issue since Viet Nam. Once again, that was not the point of the vote. The GOP does not really care whether flag-burning is illegal, if the Ten Commandments are displayed, or if "under God" is said by school children when they pledge allegiance. Instead, their goal is to get you and your neighbor fiercely debating those issues instead of discussing torture as policy, illegal wiretapping, and Valerie Plame.

The scope of the insult contained in the American Values Agenda is staggering. Faced with approval ratings in the 30% range and Bush at less than that, the GOP is staring at losing control of Congress this fall. If that were to happen, they surely would face the investigations the American people deserve, which would lead to the truth finally coming out about what our rubber-stamp Congress has allowed to happen to this country under their watch. With all of the important issues the country needs to be debated, such as the war, civil liberties, and the economy, the republicans have decided the prudent thing to do is to create their own issues. It is insulting to the collective intelligence of the American people that the GOP does not think we cannot see through the ruse and smokescreen.

This is not to say that some of the issues the GOP wishes to discuss do not have some merit and place in our national discourse. That is not the point. The point is that they have waited until six months out of the mid-term elections to pretend these issues matter to them. They assume that you are too stupid to not see the political expediency of their "agenda". They assume that by forcing votes on the social fringe issues, you will magically forget the last six years. They are mistaken.

The Iraq War represents an American Value. The deaths of at least 2,500 American kids for weapons of mass destruction that were never there, is an American value. The destruction and looting of another country while annihilating 100,000 of their citizens is an American value. The fact that the President of the United States LIED to Congress, which means he lied to the American people, to push the country into this war is an American value. This war is a PRIMARY American value going into these elections and that fact scares the Republican Party to its core. They cannot win this argument and they know it. They have only catch phrases to throw at the people. They can only demonize anyone who has any dissenting opinion from their fantasy-land version of things. Instead of having a serious debate about bringing our troops home all they can manage is to mumble "cut and run" at every camera they can find. Suddenly anyone who dares to say that maybe things are not going well, are weak and want to "cut and run." The problem of course is it is quite transparent to see so many chickenhawk republicans accuse democrats who actually defended this country when it was their turn, of wanting to cut and run. It is laughable and the American people are onto the joke. The sad thing is it is truly not funny. Our kids are dying for lies concocted in the Office of Special Plans by Doulgas Feith. Those lies were then packaged and sold by President Bush to the American people and to Congress. Three years later untold numbers are dead from these lies and that is of value to the American people.

The economy is an American value. The American people are acutely aware that handing back billions of dollars to the super rich will not spur the economy at all. They are aware that millions more today are living in poverty than just ten years ago. They are aware that the jobs they are working today are paying them less than the jobs they had ten years ago. They realize that healthcare is nearly unaffordable for most. They understand that no matter how many times the republicans tell them how great the economy is, they still feel the truth every day. The middle class is being eliminated. Gas prices are uncontrollable. Every day expenses such as energy and milk are also through the roof. People see the billion dollar contracts being handed out to political cronies while they cannot put dinner on the table. The economy is a PRIMARY American value going into the elections and the republicans know they cannot win on this issue. They are reduced to screaming class warfare, while they wage class warfare. They have nothing to offer the American people but further deficits and cutting the taxes on the estates of billionaires. The saddest thing is that the administration may have a plan for the infrastructure of Iraq, but not for America.

America values their civil liberties. We value not being spied on. We value having a government that respects their own laws. We value not torturing people. We value the Bill of Rights. We value not having our covert CIA operatives exposed for political payback. We value protecting our own citizens in times of national disasters. We value being able to make a living and provide for our families. We value being able to afford healthcare. We value protecting our seniors by not trying to destroy social security. We value checks and balances, congressional oversight and the separation of powers. We value a press that seeks to protect us and know when we see political blustering designed to suppress that oversight. We value free and fair elections. We value this planet. We value the lives of our soldiers and do not want to continue to see them coming home in boxes. We value the education of our children and are tired of the soft bigotry of no follow through on our expectations. We value truth, justice and the American way; not spin, torture, and political catch phrases. We value the truth and can smell the desperation of a party that cannot run on the issues we value, so they are reduced to injecting divisiveness into our discourse over political fringe issues.

Americans value the truth, unfortunately the truth is not on the Republican Party's agenda. They are only applying value to not burning flags, displaying the Ten Commandments, and demonizing gay marriage. They do not actually value those things either; they just need to assign value to them as the elections approach. The fact is that the only thing the Republican Party truly values is dividing the country to distract us from their own record. The only agenda they truly value is divisiveness.
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Anthony Wade, a contributing writer to opednews.com, is dedicated to educating the populace to the lies and abuses of the government. He is a 53-year-old independent writer from New York with political commentary articles seen on multiple (more...)
 

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