Naomi Wolf and the Republican Police State

I've been sighing with annoyance every time I've heard a far-right political pundit say that Obama will usher in Muslim rule and a Communist State. I remember thinking; do they know how stupid this makes them sound? This sort of thing just undermines Republicans.

Well the right certainly does not have the market covered on crazy. The left has their share of idiotic hyperbole. Case in point, Naomi Wolf's recent post on The Huffington Post www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/the-battle-plan-ii-sarah_b_128393.html It's titled "Battle Plan II: Sarah "Evita" Palin, Muse of the Coming Police State.

She asserts that that if the McCain/Palin ticket wins "Under the Palin-Rove police state, there will be no further true elections."

That's right, the Republicans are Fascists.

It's true that Republicans are using Palin as the figurehead for conservatives, but Wolf goes too far. So far, in fact that her rhetoric will be fodder for Republicans.

First, she totally dismisses the entire electoral process.

"Remember, Russia has Presidents; Russia holds elections. Dictators and gangs of thugs all over the world hold elections. It means nothing."

Yep. Doesn't mean a thing. Why vote? Apparently it's fixed anyway, according to Wolf:

"A gang or cabal seizes power, usually with an affable, weak figurehead at the fore. Then they will hold elections -- but they will make sure that the election will be corrupted and that the next affable, weak figurehead is entirely in their control."

Then there's this paragraph:

"I realized early on with horror what I was seeing in Governor Palin: the continuation of the Rove-Cheney cabal, but this time without restraints. I heard her echo Bush 2000 soundbites ("the heart of America is on display") and realized Bush's speechwriters were writing her -- not McCain's -- speeches. I heard her tell George Bush's lies -- not McCain's -- to the American people, linking 9/11 to Iraq. I heard her make fun of Barack Obama for wanting to prevent the torture of prisoners -- this is Rove-Cheney's enthusiastic S and M, not McCain's, who, though he shamefully colluded in the 2006 Military Tribunals Act, is also a former prisoner of war and wrote an eloquent Newsweek piece in 2005 opposing torture. I saw that she was even styled by the same skillful stylist (neutral lipstick, matte makeup, dark colors) who turned Katharine Harris from a mall rat into a stateswoman and who styles all the women in the Bush orbit --but who does not bother to style Cindy McCain."

Horrors! Palin got a makeover! Not only that but the relatively inexperienced VP pick has speechwriters who spout the Republican party-line/rhetoric! It's PROOF, proof I tell you that it's all a conspiracy.

The really annoying part is that some of the things she's talking about, such as this mass arrest: www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/99433/incredible_documentary_footage_of_mass_arrest_in_st._paul/ really are things we need to be talking about. But all that gets discounted when you start calling the opposition a "cabal" and start sounding frankly, really paranoid:

"Almost everyone I work with on projects related to this campaign for liberty has been experiencing computer harassment: emails are stripped, messages disappear. That's not all: people's bank accounts are being tampered with: wire transfers to banks vanish in midair. I personally keep opening bank accounts that are quickly corrupted by fraud. Money vanishes. Coworkers of mine have to keep opening new email accounts as old ones become infected. And most disturbingly to me personally is the mail tampering I have both heard of and experienced firsthand. My tax returns vanished from my mailbox. All my larger envelopes arrive ripped straight open apparently by hand. When I show the postman, he says "That's impossible." Horrifyingly to me is the impact on my family. My childrens' report cards are returned again and again though perfectly addressed; their invitations are turned back; and my daughters many letters from camp? Vanished. All of them. Not one arrived. Try explaining that to a smart thirteen year old. Try explaining it in a way that still makes her feel secure and comfortable."

THEY want your daughter's camp letters! Or your 13-year-old didn't write and knows you're paranoid. Smart kid. Sigh.