Tuesday, June 14, 2011

At What Point Do the GOP’s Shenanigans Become Treason?

I have always believed that things like drug companies hiding the fact that their products can kill people is treasonous.

http://progresszine.com/2011/06/11/at-what-point-do-the-gops-shenanigans-become-treason/

The Mirriam-Webster dictionary defines treason as, “the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance”. The Random House dictionary (dictionary.com) defines treason as, “any attempt to overthrow the government or impair the well-being of a state to which one owes allegiance; the crime of giving aid or comfort to the enemies of one’s government.” And the clearest definition of all can be found in the Cambridge dictionary, which defines treason as, “(the crime of) showing no loyalty to your country, especially by helping its enemies or attempting to defeat its government.”
So here’s the question… At what point do the Republican Party’s attempts to undermine the United States of America, in every way become treasonous? I contend they crossed that line long ago.

Just look at what they’re doing, and try to tell me with a straight face that their actions aren’t going to “impair the well-being” of the state itself, not to mention it’s people. Just try to tell me that their actions, like pushing our country to default on it’s debt for the first time in history, undermining the rights of our workforce, assaulting the health of our people, and the ability of our elders to live out their final years with dignity, like taking dictatorial levels of power for Governors and even eliminating democracy itself at the local level wherever they please, like ignoring our crumbling infrastructure knowing full well that doing so leaves us vulnerable to attack and disaster, like dragging our fighting men and women into wars in the wrong theaters against the wrong enemies, as they did in Iraq, while letting our real enemies get away, as they did with Bin Laden, like revolting against fair taxes on the rich who can afford them painlessly anyhow, forcing our nation to slash it’s spending on it’s own people to the bone, like ignoring the consensus of 97% of scientists warning us of the consequences of climate change, even though that endangers our people and presents a national security threat, because that’s not in the interest of their true loyalties – to industry – just try to tell me that all of that, and all the other shameless things they’re doing don’t add up to treason. Clearly, it does!

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With the exception of one’s family, or possibly one’s God, when you are more loyal to any other entity than you are to your own country, be that entity a lobbyist, or a corporation, or an industry group, or a political party, or a foreign nation – if you’re an American citizen, and you consider yourself to be anything else first, and an American second, then you’re disloyal. But when you take action on that disloyalty, and actively work to undermine the standing, or security of the United States of America – which is a government of, by, and for the people – then you are by definition a traitor. And that means most of the Republicans in major federal or state office today meet that definition. It’s time we started calling them out on it!

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I don't know that I would entirely agree with the statement "With the exception of one’s family, or possibly one’s God, when you are more loyal to any other entity than you are to your own country, ..... – if you’re an American citizen, and you consider yourself to be anything else first, and an American second, then you’re disloyal." Depends on definitions. You might not believe in a god, but have a strong set of ethical principles. It might be possible, at least theoretically, that loyalty to good principles would mean being disloyal to your country. Eg., suppose global warming were expected to devastate the whole world except your own country, which would benefit. It would be immoral not to work against global warming even in such a case.


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