Why are they afraid?

[skepticscott]

To all of the Republicans bemoaning the closing of Guantanamo, the ending of illegal renditions and the repudiation of torture by the Obama administration, to all of the devotees of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo and Jack Bauer, to all those who feel emasculated by this country finally committing to abide by the laws of the civilized world, I have just one question:

Why are you afraid?

Let’s even assume for a moment that ending the type of horrific abuses and tortures perpetrated by this country at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere will actually make our friends less willing to aid us in the fight against Islamic extremism and make our enemies more inclined to attack us. Let’s assume that torture is only used on people with vital information and that it actually works as a means of obtaining that information. Let’s assume that all of this will actually change your risk of dying in a terrorist attack this year from 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 10,000. The question still stands: Why are you afraid?

Brave soldiers have walked into grave danger and near-certain death countless times to preserve what this country stands for. Why do you tremble at the thought of doing far less? Why do you sit in your nice, safe living room and cower in fear as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh tell you to be afraid for your life? Why do you wish to whimper and snivel at the feet of another Republican president, promising him that you’ll do anything, support any action, ignore any wrongdoing, if he’ll only keep you safe for one more day?

Those of us who hated what this country became under George Bush, those of us whom you castigated as cowards and traitors at every turn, those of us who applaud this country’s renewed devotion to honor, decency and the rule of law…we are not afraid. We are not afraid to risk our lives to preserve what we love about this country, to preserve what makes it great and noble. We will risk much more than the queasy stomach you get every time you see a Middle-Eastern male board the same plane as you to never again be ashamed of what is done in the name of America. Unlike you, we will face our enemies and tell them that they can inspire no fear that will cause us to betray our principles, and that we will never wreak the destruction on ourselves and our way of life from within that they cannot hope to bring upon on us from without.

Unlike you, we are not afraid.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Because the conservative ideology is based fundamentally on fear.

Fear is what underlies their "philosophy" and drives their actions. Not to put too fine a point on it, they're a bunch of cowards.

[NOW tense]

6. I agree

Afraid of different thoughts
Afraid of nonconformity
Afraid of God
Afraid of all things changing

But they always want power though.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

7. Why is it based on fear? I don't understand them at all. nt

[glitch]

18. I believe they may be born afraid, their upbringing reinforces it, and they establish an ideology to

validate their entirely emotional existence. You don't understand them because you think they are rational. If you picture them as scared abused children in adult bodies it is easier to see where they are coming from, and easier to feel compassion for them.

The danger there is you end up feeling sorry for people like Bush, Cheney and Rove, and that causes your own internal conflict.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

27. I think that might be true. People who are afraid then join the GOP nt

[catzies]

25. It's easy because it's a very basic human emotion, so they don't have to work hard at it

Think of Maslow's pyramid. For them it makes people very simple and easy to manipulate.

[.... callchet ....]

2. Are they talking about returning the property back

to Cuba ?

[DCKit]

3. You're describing every bully I've ever known. What do I win?

[annabanana]

4. They are all now

PLUCKED chickenhawks.. quaking in fear. .

[rwheeler31]

5. They are above the law they learned it in church.

[NOW tense]

8. I don't know.....

I think they lash out at their Religion just like they lash out at everyone.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. They had to have a bogeyman

before it was the USSR

[treestar]

23. Bingo. The USSR fell in 1991, and that was just when the Arabs

were tapped to take over with the war against Iraq.

[madeline_con]

10. They're afraid because they know they deserve the same treatment.

[MadMaddie]

11. Why are they afraid?

Because ultimately when you get down to the truth, the Limpballs, Hannities, Coulters, O'Leilly and the rest of the kool-aid drinking, simple minded morons are.....

Wait for it....







COWARDS! COWARDS! COWARDS! COWARDS! COWARDS! COWARDS! COWARDS!
They could never do what our brave soldiars do. They could not stay and go toe to toe in a fire fight, they will never do anything for their country. They despise the Constitution and all it stands for. They sit in their comfy hidey holes and do nothing....Have any of the people I have mentioned above ever done anything for anyone except themselves? They have yet to catch on.....the US is changing and moving ahead and leaving them.....
They will always be afraid of their own shadows.....boo!

[Redneck Socialist]

12. They hate us for our freedoms?

I don't think it's fear. I think they get off on beating up helpless people, even if it's by proxy.

[rhett o rick]

14. Well put. "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose,

Nothing don't mean nothing honey if it ain't free."

[skepticscott]

17. Deep down, that may have a lot to do with it

They may fear the loss of their ability to (as you say, indirectly) bully and dominate others, without which their lives apparently don't have much meaning.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

13. They, particularly the religious nuts, were born and bred on fear.

Fear of God and his wrath, this horrifically fucked-up sense that the world has already had its history written and we are all dirty rotten murderers who only have goodness through the whim of an egotistical sky-daddy, is what drives the religious whackos, and it has spread, in more secular forms, into the GOP as a whole.

When you believe in the glory of a past that never actually existed, what other options do you have? Much better to cling to old canards that never actually were true or useful than to dare to strike forth something new.

[rhett o rick]

15. They want power. Freedom gets in the way. nm

[stillcool]

16. Prosecution.

there must be a lot of there, there. They have to keep the lid on because loose lips sink ships, and the aspens turn in clusters because their roots connect them.

[Bandit]

19. You are going to Hell......

I think a lot of Republicans were brainwashed from the very beginning to fear. Fear their parents, fear God, fear the criminals, you name they fear it..

[skepticscott]

20. Been there for the last eight years..

It would take a pretty hot climate to bother me anymore..

[jmondine]

21. I'd like to add one more thing to those who feel "emasculated"...

Cruelty and cowardice are not masculine. Integrity and dignity are.

[treestar]

22. Right! And when they would argue what if you or your loved ones

are killed by terrorists, I'd say the odds of that were too low to give up our freedom for - that I'd rather take my chances. And what kind of life do people allegedly completely safe from terror have? They'd live in a police state.

These idiots also don't get that not only would they still be subjected to terrorist attacks, they'd now have to be afraid of the government, too. A government with that much power that can lock you up whenever they say you are a threat, whether you are or not - these idiots should ask people who lived in totalitarian regimes what it is like for the government to have so much power.

[4 t 4]

24. I understand Guantanamo,

is very sybolic but at this point I don't care there are 245 people in this prision only 245 and for days and days and hours and hours this is dissucesed get on with it I have never seen so much attention payed to 245 people in my life. Pay attention to 245 homeless or out of work people about to be homeless.

[skepticscott]

26. I'd tell them

the same thing they would tell someone whose son or daughter or husband was killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. And I would reiterate that I and the people I care about are willing to take that risk for a far more important cause than was served there.