Thursday, January 20, 2011

An Unshakable Persecution Complex

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), a freshman, railed against the individual mandate provision -- which was a Republican idea, by the way -- which he considers unconstitutional. "As Virginians, we did not accept the chains of George the Third," Griffith said. "Nor will we accept the chains of Obamacare."

This is obviously very silly rhetoric from a right-wing politician who's trying too hard, but it fits nicely into a larger pattern of Republicans with a deep-seeded persecution complex. Greg explained that GOP officials have a "comical" tendency to "compare their current situation to that of history's leading victims of oppression, persecution, and genocide."

After noting several recent examples from prominent far-right voices -- including the "blood libel" and "pogrom" incidents from last week -- Greg added, "It's hard to know what motivates this kind of thing. It's almost as if these folks are suffering from what you might call a world-historical inferiority complex. They're desperate to imagine themselves as actors in an ongoing drama that rivals the most momentous struggles and conflicts in human history. So they just play-act the part.... It's all so pathetic and adolescent."

It's the Glenn Beck style of cherry picking tidbits from ancient Rome, WWII Germany, a little Herbert Hoover from 1931 or Woodrow Wilson from 1918, all of which have little in common with the complexities of a global 2011, and weave a dubious narrative of how old white people are fucked.

King George III, living in the 1700's, has what to do with modern health insurance options? Exactly.

Posted via email from liberalsarecool.com

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