Be Nice to Our Friends On the Right - They are Frightened, and Near Snapping Point

It's been an awful week for a lot of rightwingers. Early in the week, they saw fascism rise ascendant on our own shores, as their favorite Democrat was rejected by a majority of Democrats, causing those rightwingers to expose their love of all things Democratic and profess concern for the health of the Democrats. It must have been kind of wrenching for them to shift from labelling Democrats as traitors and terrorist-supporters to expressing shock and concern that we somehow differ from them on matters of policy.

Then, of course, we had the exposure of a terrorist plot involving the British. Tony Blair has been one of Bush's favorite sycophants, and it came as a big surprise to the right wing that Bush's optional war has created enemies for us in a "civilized" country (I know, I know, as an Irishman, that the British have shown themselves to be no more civilized than al Qaeda, but I'm trying to explain how shocking this all is for the WASPs among us).

This is all very confusing for our right wing friends. Even the most virulent anti-Muslim, nuke-them-till-the-sand-turns-to-glass, militaristic chicken hawk is going to have a problem advocating military action against a country filled with anglo-saxon tea-drinkers. And if immediate military action is not the answer, OMG, that requires "Something Else". "Something Else", on the rightwing spy decoder ring, is the same thing as "Weak-Kneed Appeasement".

The smarter rightwingers are going to be satisfied by the fact that the British government actually foiled the plot, and so, perhaps, military action against them is not warranted. Two problems here, though. First, Iraq opposed the "terrorist camps" that we now use as reason #328 for invading that country, but we protected them in the no-fly zone. So, really, that excuse won't fly. Second, the Brits did it the wrong way! Those anti-American, pro-terrorist assholes actually went ahead and conducted their investigation within the law!! They went ahead and got warrants for their wiretaps, and failed to abandon the rule of law! Limey bastards!

So, clear-thinking rightwingers should want to bomb England for hosting the Shampoo Crew the way that Israel bombed Lebanon for hosting the Hezbollah, but somehow it is different when the collateral damage would be mostly white people who speak our language.

Last night, I received the following email from a rightwing lawyer in St. Louis, with the panicked subject line, in all-caps "WAKE UP AMERICA". I swear on a stack of Bibles this is the entire message, with only his identifying information deleted (the poor guy is suffering enough):

For those of you on the list who don't think we need the Patriot Act or other proactive measures to protect ourselves, read the attached article. Remember, our enemy is within our borders and they want YOU dead.

http://www.wnem.com/Global/story.asp?S=5269589

The link he provides is about 3 guys who got caught buying cell phones for profitable resale, but that is all this rightwinger needed to fall into 100% panic, alert-your-neighbors, surrender-your-civil-liberties, save-me-save-me-Oh-God-please-save-me mode.

Earlier in the day, a libertarian lawyer in Columbia, Missouri, told me that he is willing to trust the government to intercept all communications between private citizens and to limit themselves to searching for terrorists. A libertarian calling for Big Brother.

I've poked a little fun at the right wing in this post, but, quite seriously, I feel sorry for a lot of people on the right. Bush's optional war is developing enemies who would attack us from London. Democrats are not meekly supporting pro-Bush candidates. It's alll very scary for them. I don't envy them at all. They need to reexamine what they've been advocating, and that is going to be a very painful process.