'Scorched Earth' is a name commonly associated with a ruthless and vindictive strategy of warfare that boils down to the idea that if you have to abandon territory to the enemy, you intentionally burn or destroy virtually anything that might be of use to a conquering foe. It's been used since before the ancient Roman and Carthaginian armies employed tactics like poisoning wells of drinking water, salting the earth so crops wouldn't grow or reducing buildings, roads and bridges to rubble so invading troops or foes couldn't make use of them.
During WWII Josef Stalin ordered Russian soldiers (and people) to burn thousands of acres of fertile wheat fields rather than leave the invading Nazi forces a food source to harvest and use to feed their hungry troops. More recently the Iraqi Army detonated hundreds of oil wells as Allied forces advanced towards Baghdad in the first Gulf War.
Cut to present day: Even after a clear majority of American voters issued an unquestioned and wholesale rejection of the Republican party's narrow-minded vision for the future of the country on November 6th, some of the most influential and controversial figures in the GOP seem committed to a bizarre pathway towards total implosion.
Consider Maine Republican chairman Charlie Webster, who confided his paranoid suspicions of voter fraud (in a state that is 95.4% white) based on seeing African-Americans he didn't know at rural polls in Maine. Apparently unaware that only 1.3% of his state's population is African-American, Webster insisted some kind of mysterious influx of minorities swooped into the state just to vote fraudulently. Said Webster:
‘‘It doesn’t matter to me whether they’re black or Chinese or Indonesian. The issue isn’t that. The issue is that people have come into vote that no one had seen before,’’
His comments are actually pretty tame compared to erstwhile quasi-white supremacist Pat Buchanan, who shed the veil of his faux "staunch Constitutional patriotic historian" personae during an eye-opening interview on convicted Watergate bungler, er, uh burglar G. Gordon Liddy's radio show.
Consider this mournful on-air exchange between Pat and G. Gordon:
Buchanan: "White America died last night. Obama's reelection killed it. Our 200 plus year history as a Western nation is over. We're a Socialist Latin American country now. Venezuela without the oil."
Liddy: "With what you just said right there...You seem to imply that white people are better than other people. That's not really what you're saying is it?"
Buchanan: "Of course that's what I'm saying," Buchanan replied "Isn't it obvious? Anything worth doing on this Earth was done first by white people."
If I were Hillary Clinton I'd be signing my resignation as Secretary of State, cracking my knuckles and salivating in anticipation of the 2016 race for the White House. And then there's Mittens.
Seemingly unable to grasp the idea that his comments are always recorded, Romney (apparently hell bent on cementing the perception of the conservative electorate as hopelessly out of touch with mainstream Americans...and reality) outraged members of his own party by offering up ludicrous excuses for his lop-sided loss suggesting to yet another private audience that Obama won the election by "promising gifts to blacks, Hispanics and young voters."
Even if such a lame horseshit excuse for being a crappy presidential candidate who couldn't connect with anyone who wasn't a white evangelical voter was true; Latinos and African-Americans represent about 29.8% of the US population according to the most recent US Census. So even if Obama had secretly promised everyone of us a Starbucks card, or a $20 or a job; does anyone with a goat's ass worth of sense believe 30% of the US population could be wooed by unspecified "gifts" to cast their votes for a candidate?
How could such a doddering simpleton reach a net worth of over $250 million? Seriously Mitt, we might not be in the top 1%, but we're not that cheap dude; Take a cue from Republican Governor Bobby Jindal and do us all a favor, take your head out of your ass, shut up and just go away. No one likes a sore loser.
Despite the "malfunctioning" voting machines that cast a vote for you when someone selected Obama/Biden, despite your aversion to facts, despite the state of Florida's 3rd straight presidential election when the count still wasn't done hours after every other state had finished, despite the hundreds of millions funneled through Super Pacs financed by billionaires like Adleson and the Koch brothers...you lost. Fair and square. Get over it and move on; the nation has serious issues to address.
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