Joining up with the GrassFire Brigade

Grassfire.org is trying set itself up as a grass roots “resistance” movement to All Things Obama and Liberal and Socialist and Gay and Democrat. To which end they are trying to sign up a million supporters by Inauguration Day. They have a bit short of a quarter of that right now.

When you sign the petition joining them, the following items are all conveniently checked:

• Socialistic wealth redistribution including any and all tax increases and big-government welfare programs.

   

  [Fascinating how “tax increases” is now equated with “socialistic wealth redistribution”]
Silencing conservatives through the Fairness Doctrine and other efforts that restrict free speech. [This has been a huge bugbear for the conservatives after their take-over of talk radio the past several years. Never mind that Obama has said he has no intent of reinstating the “Fairness Doctrine,” and never mind that even that doctrine did not actually “silence conservatives” — what’s important is threats of martyrdom.]
Open border anarchy including amnesty for illegal aliens and promotion of multi-nation “unions”.

 

[Next up, worries about making deals with the UN and mysterious black helicopters.]
Government-run health care that weakens our system and imposes more tax burdens on citizens. [Better yet, let’s have corporation-run health care that weakens our system and imposes more health burdens on citizens.]
Weakening of our military through rapid pullback from Iraq, defunding our troops and overall disarmament.

 

[So … what do we have a military for, then? I mean, do we actually need a military as large and expensive as what we have, and to what ends?]
Social liberalism including radical pro-abortion agenda, the end of marriage and the homosexual agenda. [(a) I’ve yet to meet anyone who is “pro-abortion. (b) The end of marriage! Eek! (c) Coming soon, the Protocols of the Elders of Gaydom!]
Liberal court activism that undermines faith, family and liberties while expanding government control.

 

[See, they only want government control when it’s supporting the faith, family, and liberties of the right kind of people.]
Post-American globalism that diminishes our global role and threatens our national sovereignty. [See! Black helicopters! Just like when Clinton was in office!]
Environmental extremism, the CO2 tax, undermining coal and nuclear, and bans on exploration.

 

[It would be interesting to hear if there is any “environmentalism” that they would not consider “extreme.”]
Weakening the 2nd Amendment through unconstitutional gun laws that take away or penalize us for owning firearms and our right to defend our family, our property, and ourselves. [If I noted that if it’s constitutional it’s because of the 2nd Amendment, so you can’t weaken the Amendment through unconstitutional laws, by definition? Or would that be splitting hairs.]

It’s every right-wing cause, bundled in one big bag of infra-Red goodness.

But wait, there’s more! You get to identify the issues that you want to receive periodic e-mail updates about. Some are the same, some are oddly different.

• Secure borders, stop illegal immigration [pick your own veggies! wash your own dishes!]
• Expose liberal media bias
• Stop NAFTA, North Am. Union [Fascinating that both of these have been Bush babies, too. The whole North American Union thing is one of these cool crackpot conspiracy theories you can hear all about on late-night radio.]
• Defend rights of the unborn
• Oppose government waste, earmarks [Except, of course, the ones that benefit me.]
• Reform taxes/eliminating the IRS [Why to people always think that if we “reform” taxes that anyone but the very richest will actually pay less?]
• 2nd Amendment right to bear arms [Wait, what happened to our verb?]
• War on terror and national security
• Keep the Pledge of Allegiance
• Defend traditional marriage [Teen brides, multiple wives and dowries for all!]
• Uphold broadcast decency standards [But not the Fairness Doctrine. Got it.]
• Pardon Agents Ramos/Compean [I had to look this one up. Apparently it’s a huge deal in the Right Wing press. Ironically, the bulk of the sentences are driven by mandatory sentence add-ons for use of firearms. FWIW, I give even odds that Bush will commute these guys on his way out.]
• Expose and defeat the ACLU [Expose them? They’re already all over the media.]
• Defund Planned Parenthood [Another WorldNetDaily / ACLJ holy cause.]
• Stop liberal judicial activism [Only conservative judicial activism should be allowed.]
• Oppose radical global warming activism [Can we engage in moderate global warming activism? Wait, is that being active in favor of global warming? Or are they talking about being activists against radical warming of the globe? Did anyone proofread this thing?]

The odd thing to me is that any of the above items lends itself to some serious, quiet discussion of pros and cons, risks and rewards, definitions and nuance and trying to find compromises amongst differing principles. “Men of good will can disagree.” But by bundling them together into a single “platform,” it comes across as … well, wingnuttery.

I’ll be curious to see what they say their numbers are come January 20th.

(via Pam)