For those saying we shouldn't stoop to their level, behold their unbridled venom:

[Shakespeare]

And then come tell me we should be conciliatory and oh-so-above-it-all. I'll paste from Digby (and I've snipped the column Digby quotes, for DU copyright reasons, but I strongly encourage you to click on the link and read it in all its ugly entirety):

"They Haven't Even Lost Yet

by digby

.... and they are already behaving as the rabid opposition we all know and love. This is from a former Bush speechwriter and published in a Virginia newspaper.

Friends, neighbors, and countrymen of the Left: I hate your lying guts

WHEN I WAS speechwriting at the White House, one rule was enforced without exception. The president would not be given drafts that lowered him or The Office by responding to the articulations of hatred that drove so many of his critics.

This rule was especially relevant to remarks that concerned the central topic of our times, Iraq. Having left the White House more than a year ago, I conclude that the immunizing effect of that rule must have expired, because I now find that I am infected with a hatred for the very quarter that inspired the rule--the deranged, lying left.

I never used to feel hatred for people such as Cindy Sheehan, Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, or other pop-culture notables who, for example, sing the praises of Central American dictators while calling President Bush the greatest terrorist on earth. I do now.

<snip>

I now hate Howard Dean, the elected leader of the Democrats, who, by repeatedly stating his conviction that we won't win in Iraq, bets his party's future on our nation's defeat.

I hate the Democrats who, in support of this strategy, spout lie after lie: that the president knew in advance there were no WMD in Iraq; that he lied to Congress to gain its support for military action; that he pushed for the democratization of Iraq only after the failure to find WMD; that he was a unilateralist and that the coalition was a fraud; that he shunned diplomacy in favor of war.

These lies, contradicted by reports, commissions, speeches, and public records, are too preposterous to mock, but too pervasive to rebut, especially when ignored by abetting media.

<snip>

PAUL BURGESS of Spotsylvania County was director of foreign-policy speechwriting at the White House from October 2003 to July 2005.

I heard this "broken glass" phrase earlier on Chris Matthews week-end show. Kathleen Parker explained that they are calling them "broken glass Republicans who will crawl over broken glass to vote against the Democrats." (This was compared to "Yellow Dog Democrat," but I would point out the yellow dog, at least, was an affirmative vote --- "I'd vote for a yellow dog if he was a Democrat.")

We'll be seeing more of this. Losing liberates them from having to even pretend to be civilized.

Update: One thing to keep in mind about this: he's not getting his hate on about politicians. It's about his fellow citizens. They complain mightily about "Bush hatred," and there's been plenty of it. But there's a difference between hating the leader of a political party and hating your fellow Americans. Take a look at the Amazon listings of political books and you'll see the difference is stark."

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_digbysblog_archive.html#116214156174959914

***Don't EVER delude yourselves about what we're facing from the other side. Assuming we win the house--and it looks very, very likely--we will finally have the power to hold them accountable, and we will back them into a corner and go at them like a pack of rabid wolverines. Let's see if that venomous hatred can withstand the mighty winds of justice.

[rpannier]

1. I sent this letter to fredericksburg.com

After reading the silly, non-sensical rants of mr. burgess I would like to inform him that
1. I hate him back.
2. He's a republikkan. In the future, please use the presidents English. For republikkans it's strategery. The rest of us, the smart and enlightened crowd, use strategy.

respectfully yours,

[Tellurian]

2. I for one do not care how much they HATE. Hate is a sickness..

and I refuse to be entrapped by it. Cooler heads need to prevail no matter the outcome of the elections.
I live in the now. The future is too uncertain and will remain so, until we know where we stand.

When you run the race in the paddock; it's a given, the race is lost before you've begun.

[Shakespeare]

3. I DO care how much they hate, because to be ignorant of it...

...is to leave ourselves fatally vulnerable. Do not underestimate them. Do not cut them one bit of slack. Do not take your eyes off of them.

I'm not for a moment suggesting that we return their hatred: I'm saying we'd better be completely aware of their venom, and arm ourselves as needed to fight it.

[Tellurian]

6. Yes, I agree and understand your meaning completely..

I've never been one to underestimate the opposition.

Be well, dear Shakespeare. I believe Justice and Goodness will prevail in the end.

[emanymton]

4. It Is Not About Bush!! I Never Met Bush. I Never Met Anyone ...

who met Bush. I do not hate anyone.

The policies and procedures enforced under Bush, these I hate. They affect every aspect of life.

By his saying those who do not agree with Bush's policies and actions hate Bush, PAUL BURGESS of Spotsylvania County has now allowed himself to hate people with whom he does not agree. He has lost because he follows a loser.

[emanymton]

11. Hates Because He Was Wrong

PAUL BURGESS of Spotsylvania County hates Americans because _he_ was wrong; not because they were right (which they were) but because he was wrong! PAUL BURGESS, like so many who have been flimflammed, hate not so much the con man who bamboozled him. He hates those who were not taken in by the liar.

He may crawl across broken glass to vote for GOP. This will not make him right. It will at least make it so he does not have to admit he was wrong.

Let them hate. It is now up to USA to fix all that has been broken by shrub and Co.

[ima_sinnic]

5. they declared out&out war on us back in the 80s

--anyone who wants to namby-pamby around with "being nice" is a fool.
republiCONs are despicable, selfish, greedy, lying pieces of S**T who have absolutely no concept of the public good or of tolerance, diplomacy, or cooperation. they worship money above everything else in life and would shaft their own families and "friends" to get it, no matter how much they might have already. they lie, cheat and steal to get it, they have no compassion for the less fortunate and couldn't care less about the health of the planet and the preciousness of resources that are for everybody in the world. they have no respect for any other culture. they are sanctimonious, hypocritical, two-faced greedheads with NO CONSCIENCE who need to go extinct.

when you deal with sociopaths (i.e., republiCONs), "being nice" will just get you ripped off and made a fool of.

[chat_noir]

10. frighteningly true

Look at the hate on this thread

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1728264/posts and http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1728263/posts


To: KoRn

How more angry do they want to make us?

How do we up the broken glass republicans' anger?

Do they really think this disrespect of the dead heros will UN motivate us?

18 posted on 10/29/2006 7:17:38 PM PST by longtermmemmory





Had the photo essay been run in 2003 or 2004 while the Iraq War was seen as the right thing, they would have praised it. Now that the war is so unpopular, they are once again claiming that the NYT is treasonous.

[indepat]

47. Could it be you have as low opinion of republiCONs as I, i.e., have waked up

and smelled the coffee they brew?

[Skidmore]

7. "Broken glass Republicans"

I like that. Hadn't heard it before, but it's apropos.

[Make7]

8. You are right - we should stoop to their level. ( n/t )

[cali]

12. It's a dangerous game- stooping to their level

Pointing out their hypocricy is a far better tact, and that's not the same thing.

[Make7]

13. But certainly we can demonstrate that we are better than them.....

... by acting exactly the same. Can't we?

- Make7

[xchrom]

9. hate is a tactic for the republick party.

what they want is to get mr and mrs jow six pak to hate and to be afraid.

that's the job of certain ''notable'' republick party showmen. ie. limbaugh, falwell, robertson, dr laura, and on and on.

this has been the very open secret since reagan.

however -- what dems have failed to realize -- with exceptions like burgess's examples -- is that you can't counter the strategy of ''hate attack'' by appearing mealy mouthed or watered down, too intellectual{what ever that is}, etc.

you have to be brutal -- you can't run away from the word liberal -- you have to use the facts{like a sword} -- and you better get a grip on corporatists and their goals.

[BeFree]

15. Nothing but chaos

They want people to hate each other.... that way as we fight amongst ourselves they steal out the back door with our possessions. Midst the chaos they do their dark deeds.

The only way to defeat a bully is to stand up to one. So, as this election unfolds, the question is: will we stand up to the chaos that comes? Or we be bullied into submission?

[Ian David]

14. Republicans are just Nazis who are too lazy to march.

I say we appropriate the phrase, "Broken Glass Republicans," and say that it's a reference to Krystalnacht, "The Night of Broken Glass."

The Broken Glass Republicans are the active bigots-- the base-- of the Republicker Party.


"Krystalnacht":The Night of Broken Glass.
In 1938, using the pretense of revenge for the assassination of a minor German foreign minister in Paris, Nazi SA Stormtroopers were encouraged to begin street violence against Jewish shops, synagogues, and institutions. In all, 200 synagogues were burned, homes were destroyed with axes and sledgehammers, people were thrown from windows into the street, kicked to death, beaten with fists and truncheons, stabbed, and shot. Torah scrolls, and Jewish works of history and philosophy were burned. The violence left 100 dead, and it was also at this time that nearly 1 in every ten of the Jews left in the German Reich were rounded up for detention in concentration camps such as Dachau. Krystalnacht occurred on the night of November 9th.

More:
http://holocaustimages.blogspot.com/2006/03/krystalnacht-and-ghetto-images.html

[KansDem]

28. "Republicans are just Nazis who are too lazy to march."

:rofl:

I love it! (A possible bumper sticker idea?)

[glitch]

39. Krystalnacht Republicans, too pefect. nt

[spoony]

16. "we should be conciliatory and oh-so-above-it-all"

There, I said it. We should still be better. If you want to wallow in it, fine, but don't demand that everyone else join you.

[Shakespeare]

19. You honestly think we should be conciliatory?

Well, good luck with that. I still say we have to face them down and hold them accountable. My point is that it won't be pretty to do so--but we'd damn well better do so. It's going to be a knock-down, drag-out, bloody, sweaty, muddy fight. But we'd better be ready for it.

[spoony]

21. Civil does not mean weak, people would

do well to learn the difference. Ethical does not mean loser, and principled does not mean naive.

[Shakespeare]

22. Oh, I know the difference, and I wasn't suggesting we be just like them.

My point, which I thought was pretty clear in my OP and subsequent response, is that we not take our being conciliatory so far that we overlook their nature. We seem continually to assume the role of the frog from the old fable about the frog and the scorpion.

[smoogatz]

26. What utter nonsense.

We should confront our wingnut adversaries head-on at every opportunity. We should never hesitate to expose them for the liars and fools that they are. We should offer no quarter and no compromise once we've thrashed the bejeezus out of them--when they're down, we should kick them at every opportunity. Why? Because their twisted neo-fascist-with-a-smile ideology is despicable, and they will stop at absolutely nothing given the chance to seize power, including lies, character assassination, subverting the Constitution and outright election fraud on a massive scale. They believe that government and the American people should obediently serve their corporate masters. We believe that government should serve the American people--it's a fundamental difference, and it's not something that's going to change because we stand up and call a Republican asshole a Republican asshole.

[spoony]

29. Yeah, nothing more Democratic than kicking 'em when they're down!

[smoogatz]

31. If they're fascists, you're damn right there isn't.

And today's crop of Republicans are nothing but fascists with flag lapel pins.

[Carni]

34. I must have missed where the OP demaded we should wallow in *it*

I love these threads where people simply try to illustrate the venom and stupidity of what we are up against so that we don't get trashed again...and then right on cue some *above the fray* goody two shoes type always shows up to tsk tsk the post and lecture the OP.

Well here's a news flash tsk tsker...the Dems have been cordial and ineffective throughout the last three elections and it hasn't done very much.

IN FACT the only time the tide has even BEGUN to turn (and the election isn't over) is the result of the last few months when people had the nerve to truthfully point out the lies of this admin in an AGGRESSIVE and not so cordial manner.

But I suppose in your polite world people like Keith Olberman should just shut up praise bush and talk about Jessica Simpson or Britney Spears.

[spoony]

35. Is there a "hyperbole alert" button around here?

Holy tap-dancing Moses in a circus. Some of you are downright frightening in your eagerness to engage in any conflict you can find. All of a sudden civility becomes "praising Bush." It'd be funny if it weren't so damn pathetic. Keith is nothing like you bloodthirsty lot, and thank God neither are the majority of my countrymen, who will be riding a wave of hope for the future in this election when they hand Democrats congress. Bitter frothing maniacs do not win elections.

edit: by and by, there are other people on this thread who get it, go badger them because I'll not be entertaining any more of your dark delusions.

[Carni]

38. Wow you got all that out of my post eh?

What are you doing wasting your time here when clearly you should be cashing in on your psychic and mind reading abilities...

"Bloodthirsty" "pathetic" "frightening" -- how you're getting all that out of the responses to your original lecturesome remark, is a real mystery.

That you Anne?

[Shakespeare]

41. Here's just one more example for you.

This is not run-of-the-mill rightwing discontent. They have declared war on us, and being all nicey-nice about it is not an option anymore.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2517509&mesg_id=2517509

[spoony]

43. Who's "they"? Some dorks on the internets? Who cares?

You're honestly going to let the BS of a bunch of keyboard commandos drag you down into the gutter with them? Yes, some Repubs are honest-to-goodness evil, but most are just cowards and none are superhuman. They aren't any worse than the other foes overcome by peaceful, stern--but dignified--resistance. Honestly this is no better than the biweekly "civil war on the horizon!" threads.

[Shakespeare]

46. You just really don't get it.

Fine, you go on and don't care about them. Leave it to others to do the heavy lifting; you sit back and continue feeling superior.

[Joe Chi Minh]

42. Welcome.

I don't recall Christ making nice with the Scribes and Pharisees. You won't find more vitriolic excorations of greedy, unjust, extortioners than you will find in his diatribes against them.

Well, John the Baptist was not a whole lot more conciliatory.


"Bitter frothing maniacs do not win elections."

Well, they haven't won them, fair and square, up to now, but they did wrest power from the legitimately-designated government of, respectively, Gore and Kerry, by malfeasance. But you don't seem to have any sense of perspective. This just seems to you like any other old election, doesn't it? Go back to sleep, laddie.

Gee, I see you're a Lutheran. A bit kind of blasphemous in your language, aren't you? Would that be how you impress liberals? Talk softly, but carry a big stick for God and his special friends, now they're safely out of the way?

[Generic Other]

17. I hate liars who tricked us into war against the wishes of the majority

especially if they worked for the most corrupt, lying, evil administration in the history of this country.

[Buzz Clik]

18. That kind of attitude is not limited to the right.

There must be 100 threads per day at DU dedicated to hating Republicans.

[Shakespeare]

20. Oh? Show me links, then. All 100 of them.

Because I sure haven't seen it. And I haven't seen anything approximating the venom and denial in Burgess' column.

Do not mistake hatred with righteous anger.

[spoony]

36. You know they can't do that. It's expressly forbidden in the rules.

[spoony]

44. ...but in general, how about

all the threads dedicated to slamming them based on their looks, weight, clothes, facial expressions, living arrangements, orientation, etc. There's no point in any of those except to hate them for anything they can grab onto. They certainly aren't about policy. See that's the kind of shit I know they do, and wish we did less of. Is that what you mean by "their level"?

[JHB]

33. How many of those are written by former WH speechwriters?

Just because both sides have wet feet doesn't mean they're in equally deep water.

[gully]

23. Them "angry" republicans are a

scary bunch.

[porphyrian]

24. They're flinging shit because that's all they have left. - n/t

[formercia]

25. A writer equating hyperbole with the hypothetical

this twit gave voice to his Eminence.It seem we have traced a symptom to the pestulence that brought on the fever.

[Bake]

27. You can call me a Land Mine Democrat then.

Because I'd walk barefoot through a minefield to vote against a Publican.

Oh, and Mr. Burgess? I hate you and your ilk double for what you've done to this nation.

So suck it.

Bake

[The Count]

30. Broken glass Republicans it is. Nazis to lazy to march as well

I'll be using both.

[hfojvt]

32. he calls us the deranged, lying left

I am not sure about the former, because sometimes, like Billy Jack, I do go berserk, when I think about the damage done by Republican policies and the lies told by Republican shills.

As far as the lying left goes. Read chapter 35 of AL Frankens book "Lies: and the lying liars who tell them". It is titled "By far the vast majority of my tax cuts goto those at the Bottom". Can you tell me with a straight face, honestly, that that is not a fu$%ing lie when the clearly measurable truth is what Al writes "the bottom 60% got 14.7% of that tax cut". Please explain to me how Al and the CBPP are lying here. I would love to hear it and double-check the numbers. The only thing I have heard from the Bush administration on this is repetition of the phrase "class warfare". The liars in this case, to any honest person who can do the math, are the Bush administration and its shills such as Tony Snow, George Will, Joseph Perkins, etc. And the media has been abetting them, not us.

[bridgit]

37. for they are indeed jolly good-fella's after all...

i heard the 'broken glass' thing too; yeah, crawl through broken glass just to slap someone else's grandma out of her wheelchair :thumbsdown: and that's only part of why they're so dangerous

[Yavin4]

40. There's A Time And Place for Cordial Discourse But This Aint It

Some of you young DUers may not be old enough to remember this, but there was a time in America wherein the Republicans and Democrats had honest, courteous, and polite discourse on issues. For instance, instance in the 60s and 70s, Republicans favored ALL forms of birth control and Planned Parenthood. Nixon's admin gave us Affirmative Action and Environmental protection laws. A lot of Republicans favored the Equal Rights Amendment for women. Back then, you could have a resonable, honest interaction with Republicans.

Today, that has changed. Republicans are morally bankrupt. They lie, cheat, and steal their way into power, and once in power, they don't give a rat's ass about the public good. They look at government as nothing more than a piggy bank for the rich and powerful. They fight like hell to eliminate an estate tax on the top 1% of all Americans and completely ignore the health crisis that grips all Americans.

Most of all, they hate anyone and everyone who don't believe in their fantasy world of reality. In short, they have become cultists, and they worship their cultist leaders, Bush, Rush, Hannity, and O'Reilly. You cannot reason with these people. You have to stand up to them and prevent them from taking power. No, they are not Nazis, but they do exhibit the same kind of blind unquestioning faith in their leader that the German people exhibited towards Hitler.

They have to be stopped.

[yurbud]

48. the correct discourse is kind cops have with homeless guy wearing no pants

You don't shout, you don't argue, you just put the visquine on the backseat and take them down to the station.

[many a good man]

45. I LOVE Republicans

And wish the unhinged ones like this schmuck get therapy.

This rant makes him look absolutely crazy. The polls show the majority of Americans now realize WHO has been lying all along.

I don't advocate "playing nice." I say we stand behind the truth and let them make jackasses out of themselves. "You can fool some of the people all of the time...."