"Were I to discover that my only possibility of happiness lay in excessive perpetration of the most atrocious crimes, without a qualm I'd enact every last one of them this very instant, certain -- that the foremost of the laws Nature decrees to me is to enjoy myself, no matter at whose expense."
Marquis de Sade, Juliette
Here are three salient facts about the Republican Party's ever-deepening pederasty scandal.
The first is that Rep. Mark Foley (who, had he not been elected to Congress, would be living in a van down by the river, like his more reputable brother Matt, the noted motivational speaker) conducted a cyber-sex chat with a teenage boy while Congress was voting on a war appropriation measure.
The second is that the highest echelons of the Republican Party knew that Foley was an active, predatory pederast – and encouraged him to run for re-election anyway.
The third is that the most notable – perhaps the only -- legislative achievement of the Republicans in the run-up to the mid-term election was to enact a measure legalizing torture by executive decree.
For all of the GOP's pretense of morality, for all of its flatulent rhetorical effusions in praise of virtue, the truth is this:
The organizing principle of the GOP is Sadism.
The Marquis de Sade was not merely a pioneer of modern perversion. He was also a philosopher (if that word can be tortured – forgive me, “coercively interrogated”) into applying here – of the Total State. For Sade, personal corruption and concentrated political power were co-efficients in the revolution to bring about the total state. In order to build such a state, its agents would have to free themselves from the restraints of God's law and conventional morality.
"If from immolating three million human victims you stand to gain no livelier pleasure than that to be had from eating a good dinner," Sade instructed his contemporary disciples, "you ought to treat yourself to it without an instant's hesitation."
His only criticism of the French Revolutionary reign of terror, comments historian Geoffrey Ashe in his book The Hell-Fire Clubs: A History of Anti-Morality, was that “the killing was being done from a bad motive, politics instead of pleasure."
Sadism is largely about gratifying illicit appetites, but it's primarily about eradicating moral restraints on individual behavior. Its chief objective is the liberation of the libido – not only sexual lust, but the lust for power. Where no restraints inhibit the latter, the former can easily be serviced as well.
Bill Clinton was singing from Sade's hymnal when, in an interview two years ago, he said that he exploited Monica Lewinsky for the “worst possible reason – just because I could.”
The same could be said by, and about, Mark Foley, as well.
When Clinton came under siege for his debased conduct in the Oval Office, and the corrupt means he used in trying to preserve his position, his supporters treated impeachment as a “coup” and rallied to his defense. Whatever depraved things Clinton did, his supporters maintained, the important thing was to keep him, and his party, in power.
The same refrain is now being sung by the GOP's leaders and defenders, led by the thrice- and currently-divorced "epitome of morality and virtue" (notorious for, inter alia, taking Viagra along during a weekend junket to the Dominican Republic, a notorious hot spot for sex tourism). The Foley scandal is a strategically timed dirty trick intended to depress the Republican vote, and give power back to the Democrats – which would be a disastrous setback in the “war on terror.”
This follows a conspiracy by the House GOP leadership to protect the pederast out of simple political expediency. And now the Republican leadership is defending the House Speaker who conspired to suppress the truth about Foley's alleged crimes.
The GOP's perspective on Foley could be tidily summarized thus:
Protecting a pederast is the price we must pay in order to continue slaughtering foreigners, torturing innocent detainees, and consolidating power in an all-powerful Executive.
Somewhere in hell, Sade is taking a brief break from his assigned duties – today, he was emptying Stalin's bedpans – to enjoy a furtive smile of satisfaction over the hypocritical depravity displayed by his Republican disciples.
6 comments:
will,
i wonder that if the dems get both houses of congress, would they repeal the torture act just passed by both houses and then impeach bush. i think either way it goes, if they win both houses, the truth will be thrown out and bush maybe gone...but that still leaves cheney.
oh man, i think some fun times are ahead!
Will,
Do you remember the old trick of where Neal and a Bob find an easy victim, Neal sneaks up behind the victim and gets on all fours while Bob distracts said victim and then once all is in position Bob pushes the victim and he falls backwards over Neal?
I've come to the conclusion from my experience and from reading you missives that there is fundamentally very little difference between the two parties; and that no matter which party holds the majority of the power during a given election cycle, in the end they are only trading places as Neal and Bob. The unfortunate victim is of course, We the People. Our country is in sore need of a political enema.
CK,
i think american politics can be summed up in one line taken from a looney tunes cartoon....
"good mornin ralph."
"good mornin sam."
Rick,
Looney Tunes cartoon...Yeah, I remember that one...that would make us We the Sheeple then, right?
You'd think that connecting Mark Foley and "war on terror" torture would be a stretch, but apparently not. Apparently, the GOP is making it easy. Just like the other totalitarian party started in a gay bar (the Nazi Party), the GOP is into sodomy, brutality and the cult of personality.
Between the plethora of vociferous apologists who obviously bend over backwards (and forwards) to support fairyness and the actual sex-crazed maniacs themselves of all stripes that infest every political arena of government and the pubic sewer teaching profession (also of government), I'm utterly amazed that any caring and loving humanoid parent would even consider sending their kiddies up to the chamber pot dome as pages. Then again, they still send 'em down into the sewer system so why not "up the hill" to the chamber pot dome? Y-a-w-n.
Obviously, there's zero sympathy or pity from my corner for all involved. That said, perhaps the domed chamber pot will be dumped this November, finally. Of course, as one would expect in inhaling a whiff from within a chamber pot, the stinch is dang near impossible to completely expunge and more scat is on its way. As usual, some dung nuggets always remain therein. We'll probably smell even more potent and obnoxious scat than what's currently being wafted from the chamber pot dome by the commoners right now. It could be filled with bile so I reckon it could indeed be worse, and will be.
Your remarks about de Sade are on the money and once again illustrate how self-control is all important. We're either controlled from within (by the Holy Spirit) or without (by the state). It's just clear that you see sadism and other -isms as originating from the leaders collectively instead of the commoners, as if rot disseminates down from the top rather than from the bottom up. The leaders reflect the collective commoners' character not the other way around, in a republicratic (sic) system anyway.
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