Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 07, 2009

Hitler and Mao? I’m afraid I don’t get it. Even the worst Republicans don’t like Hitler. And Mao…? Huh?

Yeah, but Hitler and Mao were tough leaders who brooked no opposition, didn’t hesitate to tell the Big Easy Lie to push their side through, made sure to invent scapegoats to blame for all the ills of society, threw liberals and dissenters into concentration camps, only paid lip service to their theoretical ideologies when they conflicted with the perks of power, and believed in strong militaries and teaching the countries next to their borders who was boss! That’s all right in the Republican playbook, and they’d probably have concentration camps and put dissenters up against the wall if they dared.

Trudeau obviously expect you guys to watch more than Fox News to follow along at home. Try reading

http://tinyurl.com/thefamilywikipedia

for some scary insight into your lovely, elected officials.

See, people in power are in power because God wants them to be there, so they can do whatever they want, they’re Chosen.

In the 1st panel - “… the elite conclave listens raptly” - Raptly - Rapt - Rapture. Makes today’s comic even more funny (in regards to those ”Left Behind” Apocalyptic Folks).

Ravenswing, There was only one american president who put US Citizens in concentration camps. That was FDR, a Democrat. Likewise, there’s only been one politician who effectively established a dictatorship. That was Huey Long in Louisiana, another Democrat. As for affairs, let’s look at Bill Clinton, Gary Hart and JFK. All Democrats, and all adulterers. I’m not saying Republicans are perfect either, but to pretend that one party is entirely good and the other is entirely evil is naive. And I wish Trudeau would remember that.

Yeah, everybody should be “fair and balanced” like Fox News. Right Venture1?

@venture1

I really don’t think Trudeau’s point is that Republicans or Democrats (or anyone for that matter) have affairs.

The point is that The Family is a “church” (and they are a church the way a civil union is a marriage) that is espousing some pretty vile beliefs. The sermons of the Family’s leader, Doug Coe, include positive references to Mao and Hitler.

They have referred to their theology as a Christian Mafia; that part of what makes them powerful (as an organization and as individuals) is that their work is done in secret.

So why Republican Senator X? Well, because the vast majority of the people who live in the C Street House (the official “church”) are Republicans, and have included people like Senator Ensign and Governor Sanford. Both of whom are now famous for affairs that very well may have led to some serious misconduct.

And I’m not referring to the affairs as misconduct, or even the incredibly hypocritical nature of both men. No, Senator Ensign employed his mistress’s 19-year old son, who was promptly fired once the affair was over, not to mention the sketchy hush money paid out by his mom and dad. And Governor Sanford left the country, without putting into place the appropriate contingency plans for governance, not to mention there are allegations that he spent tax-payer money on trips to meet his Argentinean mistress.

Yet, despite these appallingly bad shows of governance, these men refuse to resign. And I believe that is due in large part to their association to the Family and the Family’s teachings that they were chosen, and deserve only more power, and that they need not be accountable for their actions.

Trudeau is calling them out on that.

Bill Weinburg wrtoe: ” Hitler and Mao? I’m afraid I don’t get it. Even the worst Republicans don’t like Hitler. And Mao…? Huh?”

Of course, it is culturally unacceptable to like them. It is required for a right winger to pretend that Hitler was a left winger.

However, the neocon embraces passionately:

1)party militia invested in a mission of national regeneration 2) considers itself in a state of war against political adversaries 3) anti-liberal 4) goal of creating a “new man” 5) a culture founded on mystical thought 6) a police appartatus that represses opposition 7) top down system heirarchy crowned with a leader invested with a sacred charisma 8) suppression of trade union liberty, broadens state intervention, 9) foreign policy driven by the myth of national power w/ goal of imperialist expansion (paraphrased without permission from Emilio Gentile)

These are some of the core foundational principles of Hitler’s Nazis.

As to Mao, the neocon movement, and its godfather Irving Kristol, find roots in the philosophy of Trotsky.

euthuno wrote: ” More disgusting junk from the unfair and unbalanced Canadian libber.”

Then don’t read it. Go read “Mallard Fillmore” and enjoy the same stale joke with every comic stretching back to its inception.

Whack him? Isn’t that what David had done to Bathsheba’s husband Uriah the Hittite in 2 Samuel 11? It appears our boys are trying to be true to their fundamentalist roots.

Trudeau is on a roll this week. A great series calling out the Family. For those of you who don’t get it, definitely check out the link provided by pulped.

Scary stuff that inverts cause and effect. Anything is justified if you’re the Chosen, and you know that you’re the Chosen because you’re in a position of power. Utterly unprincipled will to power. No wonder these guys admire Hitler.

Yeah, what Craig said in his last three sentences. No matter who’s in power!!!

the christian mafia think they are above the rest of the Masses. Their hypocrisy has no limit. When these “christians” where trying to push Clinton out of Office they were doing the exact same thing. only with a side dose of hypocrisy.

The soulmate is the chick he’s banging, whose husband these ‘christians” was to whack.

These scumbags make christianity look more evil than it is. Bronze age morality wrapped up as the word of god.

@Joe Allen Doty, do you have a source for the connection between YWAM and the Fellowship Foundation? I’ve seen a few people mention it, but can’t find anything concrete to connect the two organizations.

Hi, beaniebones. YWAM’s website (http://www.ywamva.org/vision/) mentions a “permanent ministry center at 133 C St. in Washington”. This building, as I understand it, is owned by the Fellowship Foundation.

I should probably clarify- I don’t agree with the insane christian fanatics running the Family- or indeed, any of their doctrines. I’m just tired of watching Republicans be painted as slime or evil.

Thanks, K8giggles and Pulped, for the info and link.

Normally a news junkie, on June 12, the day the Earth switched to digital, although I’d acquired the converter, I hadn’t yet gotten around to hooking it up. To my surprise, the sky did not fall when I missed a day’s worth of television. Didn’t hook it up the next day, either. Or the next….

It has now been nine weeks of cold turkey. So I’m a little out of touch….

But way more relaxed.

P.S. Well, not any more, after reading the “Family” article! Shiver….

If it weren’t for comments, most readers (including me) would think 133 C Street is purely fictional.

Hitler? Ouch! Pretty harsh Garry.

euthuno said, about 6 hours ago

“More disgusting junk from the unfair and unbalanced Canadian libber.”

Garry Trudeau was born in New York City and raised in Saranac Lake, New York. The Canadian you may be thinking of is former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

My father taught me that no one is above the law; the law applies equally to the highest and the lowest. I think he was talking about one of the ideas that the Jewish religion contributed to the world.

And I can see how important this concept is, because people reject it all the time, because it sure is inconvenient.

LameRandonName, you certainly have a lot of passion behind your statements. It’s clearly gotten emotional for you, so I think we can forgive you for your outbursts (for now).

As for your claim that the Nazis were liberals, this has been bandied about again and again. No reputable historians agree with your assertion. Though the word “socialist” appeared in the party’s name, Nazis (both during WWII and now) rejected virtually all of the tenets of modern liberalism.

LameRandomName, truth is stranger than fiction. Read the link I posted above. It should be the duty of every voter to read that, and kick out the implicated incumbents the next coming elections…

Apparently the only real bipartisanship in Washington is the religious hypocritic nut job fringe.

In a socialist system, individuals own nothing, the State owns everything. Doesn’t sound very liberal to me. All of the labels have become meaningless expletives.

Ventrue1, I charge you with naming me twenty prominent Republican politicians who have not been embroiled in sex scandals or Christianist maunderings in the last five years. I could name you twenty Democrats in the same time frame without needing to look up their names in Wikipedia. The reason the Republicans get presented as slime is because they ACT LIKE IT.

I’d like to thank you guys for your knowledge and ability to articulate it w/o foaming at the mouth (much). I’ve been afraid of Republicans since Reagan was elected and nothing they’ve done since has eased it one small bit. Your posts on this issue have been illuminating.

Not all Republicans are evil scum, but most them them aren’t in positions of any real power that I can tell.

..It is harder for a rich man to go to heavan than a camel to go through the eye of a needle…

Thanks, Sternvogel - I was going to clear that up, but you beat me to it. So much misinformation out there……And k8giggles and mrwhite, very well said, and said better than I would have.

If only Jesus could return, I imagine his libel awards against groups such as the Family would be staggering.

Not that their “we have wealth and power so obviously God loves us more than you” ideas are new. Our own famously pious pilgrims preached the same, though they left Europe due to corruption such as the idea that rich people could pay the Church to forgive their sins through prayer and on and on and on.

It must be enough to make a middle class Jewish Rabbi who just wanted people to treat each other with love and respect regardless of their material wealth spin like a dreidel in his grave.

I’m currently reading Jeff Sharlett’s book on the family. Doug Coe, the current leader, admiringly talks about Hitler, Mao and other fascists as leaders with important lessons for The Family. Honest Christians should (and some have) condemn The Family and all of their followers (Democratic as well as Republican) in the strongest possible terms.

And somewhere soon, we need to do something about the Crusaders in our military. It’s going to get us in serious trouble. Actually it already has in the Middle East and South Asia; those guys know what’s being done in The Naz’s name, and don’t like it one bit!

I’m going to have to call foul on the Huey P Long comment. I used to believe that he was dictator in waiting, but he got into power because he helped the people of Louisiana. When he came into power, La had the highest illiteracy rate in the country, less than 300 miles of paved roads. When elected, he stopped the policy of forcing people to pay for the textbooks of their kids meant to keep the people dumb and compliant, dramatically increasing education. He also started paving roads so that people were not isolated from the world. Overall, he did much more good that bad.