The Ten Commandments Of Republican Politics

[hatrack]

1. Appeal always to peoples' resentments and fears, not to their rationality, compassion or farsightedness.

2. Confuse, obfuscate, and muddy the waters, never clarify or instruct, particularly on issues of long-term importance. Do not ask the public to understand complex issues. And never ask the public to sacrifice, even for the sake of their childrens' future. Remember, as George H. W. Bush put it in 1992, the "American way of life is not negotiable" even when it is wasteful, inefficient, unfair and counterproductive.

3. Demonize your opponents and promise to restore honor and "character," implying that the other side has neither.

4. Investigate your adversaries without ceasing. People will assume that anyone under investigation must be guilty of something.

5. Applaud scientific evidence when it supports corporate profits, oppose it when it has to do with human health, biotic impoverishment, and climate change.

6. Politicize everything, particularly the courts.

7. Have no enemies to the right, no matter how outrageous or mistaken they may be.

8. Appease the religious right at all costs. And, if you can manage it, claim to be born again. Never give details.

9. Protect and expand corporate power and the interests of short-term welath while attacking government as the sole source of all problems.

10. And of course, insiste that the other side stop "partisan bickering."

That's pretty much it - from David Orr's "The Last Refuge" - I bought it today, I'm 15 pages in and it's brilliant.

[maggrwaggr]

1. wow! Nice! Time to start e-mailing that one

nt