A Real Republican Patriot

To us members of the reality-based community, the vicious, selfish, anti-American nature of republican conservatism is plain to see in every fuck-the-middle-class-to-enrich-the-wealthy move they make.

But it's not often their truly traitorous nature is laid bare quite this blatantly. From Down with Tyranny:

Many of us read this week how former Republican Congressman Mark Siljander is pleading guilty to what amounts to selling out the country to Al Qaeda. Actually, he did a plea bargain so that the real treason charges wouldn't be pursued, allowing him to spend a couple of easy years in a Club Fed for former congressmen-gone-bad. It looks like he'll get away with pleading guilty to a couple of obstruction of justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent charges.

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When the NYTimes first reported Siljander's indictment in 2008, his former conservative Republican constituents in southwestern Michigan were shocked. Siljander was no ordinary Republican. He was the Michele Bachmann of his day-- a loudmouthed asshole who never tired of out-extremisting everyone else in the caucus. An ill-educated lout who claims to be a PhD but went to a bunch of unaccredited Bible Colleges, Siljander openly professed that God was on his side and wanted him in office. A rapid homophobe, racist and fanatic misogynist, he proposed a constitutional amendment mandating that "the term 'person' shall include unborn children from the moment of conception." He was equally adamant about religion being taught in public schools. So how could someone like this sell out the country for money? NO, HOW COULD SOMEONE LIKE THIS NOT? This is the epitome of what it is to be a conservative.

If Democrats are all about the greater good of the social group, conservatives are all about, me, me, me. "Greed is good," remember. It's what makes the(ir) world go round. So if you can make a few pieces of silver by selling out the nation... well, that's Randian conservatism at its most developed.

After Siljander was defeated in a GOP primary (by Fred Upton, a mainstream conservative who currently holds the seat)-- something that was attributed at the time to a controversial tape he made and sent out to churches urging his fundamentalist base to "break the back of Satan" by praying and fasting for his re-election-- he did what conservative Reps always do when they're kicked out of office; he got an appointed wingnut welfare job (from Reagan) and after that he became a lobbyist. How far is it, really, from selling out the country to corporations to selling it out to terrorists?

Siljander's 42-count indictment included charges of money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice for his part in an Al Qaeda/Taliban fundraising ring. He denied everything-- until his confession this week-- and his clueless Michigan former constituents refused to believe any of it. Said one, to the Times reporter covering Kalamazoo, "I don't think he would do that. He's a man of integrity and Christian principles."

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They're missing the point. They don't understand the true nature of conservatism with it's worship of greed and selfishness. Siljander was always a clown-- like so many Republicans are today, from Bachmann and Virginia Foxx, Steve King and Jim DeMint to the freshest crop of future criminals like Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina and Ken Buck. The themes that Amato and Neiwert were writing about in 2009 in Over the Cliff as bizarre extremism are now part of the Republican Party's platform. Fox and Hate Talk Radio have helped to legitimize ideas that were outside the realm of serious consideration just one year ago, making it quasi-plausible, for example, for countless Republican congressional candidates to insist that President Obama is a foreign-born Muslim out to destroy America. This past weekend, one Republican candidate in Florida, Ross Bieling, was seen riding in a convertible in an Independence Day parade festooned with a sign that said "Glenn Beck is God." Really? God. Not in my world.