Wavy Gravy and the "World Can't Wait" petition

Yesterday, the anti-Bush "World Can't Wait" group ran an ad in the New York Times with the usual list of lefty petition signers. But one stood out: Wavy Gravy. Amused by the idea that I would care what Wavy Gravy thinks, I went to the group's website and found this drivel:

Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule...

People look at all this and think of Hitler -- and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.

"People look at all this and think of Hitler -- and they are right to do so." Um, I think Wavy Gravy et al have lost their minds. There is no debate about whether the Bush administration is comparable to Hitler. None. It's both factually inaccurate and insanely inflammatory.

For those of you are wondering, the group's goal is to hold a huge protest on November 2 that will somehow force Bush to resign by creating "society-wide resistance." Sure.

In case you still aren't sure these people are crackpots, the top post on the "World Can't Wait" blog suggests Samuel Alito might be a "Nazi":

Alito:The Masking of a Conservative or The Showboating of a Nazi?

Who is Alito and why does the outcome of his nomination have repercussions for decades to come? Hear fascists and religious fanatics declare support for Alito in their own words. Check out leaders of the Democratic Party telling us to seek common ground with Christian Fascists in their own words. Click below for why and how we must resist this nomination as part of a major step towards a fascist theocracy.

And the organization's FAQ includes a detailed argument that we're on a "fascist trajectory":

Q: I just don't know. There's too much tradition in this country, too many good people, too many safeguards, for fascism to get established. I just think that it can't happen here.

A: I wonder what the good German people in 1932 thought about fascism, and then I look at what it meant to be a good German by 1935. A good German in 1935 kept his mouth shut and didn't dare say a word against the Nazi Regime. They closed their eyes as Jews, Communists, and homosexuals where dragged of to concentration camps. Are we there yet? No, but we're moving in that direction quickly and quietly. What has changed over the past five years that indicates a fascist trajectory?

• We have a president that was selected rather than elected.
• We are aggressively waging war on a country based on lies.
• We are ignoring international laws and torturing people who may be guilty of nothing more than defending themselves.
• The president select has given himself the right to detain anyone, on the merest suspicion, with no right to due process.
• The president select uses medieval religious fundamentalism to determine policies on birth control, abortion, and basic rights of gays and lesbians.
• A mouthpiece of Bush, David Horowitz, has spies in Universities across the country shutting down progressive teaching in the classrooms.
• A mouthpiece of Bush, William Bennett, makes racist public statements that "crime would decrease if we aborted all black babies" and Bush only stated that the comment was "inappropriate."
• Replacing a day of rescue after Katrina with a day of prayer, as the military hijacked all the rescue buses to "secure the territory."
• Replacing AIDS education and condoms with prayer and abstanence only programs which is nothing less than genocide.

This is clearly a new direction and it's moving quickly. Hitler's fascism was based on nationalism and "racial purity" Bush's fascism is based on biblical law and obedience. Even Catherine Crier, a former republican Judge in Texas, states in her book exposing the religious elements in government, "Be afraid, be very afraid." Theocrats are infiltrating some of the highest positions in government, generally through appointments made by Bush. Those in positions of power that aren't theocrats are doing nothing to stop this trajectory.

(Note: Bennett actually said that "If you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose; you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down" before denouncing the idea as offensive. The WCW just made up another quote.)

And, of course, the Communists are a part of WCW - it's all too predictable:

Q: But aren't there communists in World Can't Wait?

A: Yeah, there are. Supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Party helped initiate it. They're in it because they think it's absolutely urgent to get rid of this regime, that it would both lift a huge burden from the world and would also give people a sense of their own potential power, and they think all that would open up avenues to get to the society they want. Same as a whole lot of other people in World Can't Wait -- which, by the way, includes Greens, Christians, Republicans, anarchists, Muslims, Jews, feminists, Democrats, pacifists, and people who claim no affiliation -- who also think it's urgent to drive out the Bush Regime and who also think it can help lead to bigger changes that they want in society, coming from their own viewpoints.

What a joke.

Comments

[oliver]

Thanks for highighting the rhetoric of another leftist group who unfairly makes the rest of us on the antiwar left look "unhinged" (to quote an extremist conservative). Actually, Nov. 2 has come and gone and it turns out the world can wait, and will have to (as it should, because in a democracy with the rule of law, one cannot magically end "the Bush regime" simply by staging protests; to end it prematurely, these PR geniuses would have to convince the GOP Congress to return articles of impeachment against President Bush, and then to convict ... a likely thing). They're probably young, most of these activists, but it's always sad to see idealism being channeled into reckless and distorted, rather than thoughtful, protest movements. It's as if they're being taught that modulating one's criticism with concern for accuracy, proportion, and an understanding that some of their opponents have good motives would dilute their loyalty to the cause, or the ability to get angry at injustice.

[A Senior Administration Official]

We wrote about this group here.

Our favorite part of the WCW / Revolutionary Communist Party plan: impeachment is for wimps -- they seek the overthrow of the U.S. government. They say they haven't thought about what happens after the revolution, but since the RCP is a Leninist "vanguard," you can guess who they think should be in charge.

We also liked their quote "Katrina is part of his bigger agenda to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come."

There is good news. For all the bombast, their November 2 protests were ineffectual. We had a small roundup here.