Two disturbing ascpects of the Republican worldview

ILLUSTRATED: The GOP world view includes arbitrary use of government power as well as a stratified society.

As I will write in the next post, this week's Republican Convention was unsuccessful in putting out a consistent message. There was no coherent theme. McCain talked about how great he is, even though he admitted his party screwed up the last eight years. Palin, the speech everyone remembers, talked about reform. Besides the usual rhetoric about cutting taxes and accountability on capitalists, there was no central narrative of the week.

There were however, two very disturbing insights into the Republican value system. Two quotes from the Palin speech caught my attention. Both were major applause lines in the convention hall.

First, the following line about community organizers is getting a lot of backlash in the media and really offended lot of people:

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.

Now, one would think that a party that praises limited government would praise private community organizing. They certainly like outsourcing public duties and extolled incidences like the logistical help that corporations gave during Hurricane Katrina. But the fact that community organizing was mocked suggests that the GOP really sees a society where social capital is not created among the poor, and those people are kept in their place.

Also, there is more evidence to suggest that the rule of constitutional law is not respected. In a poetic line (assuming you agree with abdicating our Constitution in terror) Palin gave her view that we cannot protect the country and the Constitution:

Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights?

The battle lines are clear, and Democrats must stick to our principles and say them on the campaign trail.