I’m really tired from a long weekend of (wholesome, consensual) debauchery, so this will likely be a little sloppy. But the unfolding Foley/Hastert scandal is too rich to pass up even in my worn out state. I sure picked the wrong weekend to skip out on obsessive blogging.

Anyway, a comment from a reader got me thinking. While discussing the uselessness, in terms of producing reliable intelligence, of torture on this post by MJS, reader Scarshapedstar asks:

Why couldn’t they skip the torture part and simply make shit up? More than they already do, I mean.

Indeed. One could ask a variant of this question about many Republican “strategies,” political and otherwise. Bush is evil, probably stupid, but if I were an evil mastermind in charge of the greatest nation on Earth, I know I would’ve done things quite differently. As much damage as Republicans are doing, they could’ve done far worse. To their own gain. So the question becomes, why have they chosen such a clumsy course in so many of their actions?

The short answer? Because they are thinking with their dicks.

Let’s start with torture. As MJS’s post reveals, intelligent people agree (including those in intelligence communities) torture doesn’t “work.” It doesn’t provide information of value, and while it’s certainly the case that it leaves a paper trail upon which future military excesses can be based, there’s more to the story. Torture creates terror. Terror in the minds of not only the victims, but also the population from which the victims come, and in those who are aware of the torture, regardless of their relationship (or lack thereof) to the victims.

So what is the value of terrorized populations? In the short term, there are benefits; power over a group may be sustained by the regular application of torture. However, history teaches us that eventually, it becomes impossible to sustain a level of terror in those numbed to horror over time. Eventually, usually pretty quickly in the historical sense, terrorizing regimes fall. The smart dictators use more carrots than sticks, and strike fear into their subject populations sparingly, for maximum effect. There is little power and money to be found in ruling a community of people too frightened to go out and work and slave for their rulers. The Chinese understand this principle very well, I think.

It’s hard for us to bring ourselves to talk about it, but this is the moment that the Republicans have opened up a door, and I don’t have a reputation to worry about, so I’m going to say it. The true motivation to torture is found in sadism, in particular a sexual kind. Decent people don’t want to think about these concepts, that’s what makes them “decent.” But in addition to being lying, cheating, hypocritical, irreligious, racist, sexist anti-intellectuals, many of today’s leading Republicans are also sexual sadists, drunk on the power of inflicting harm on those who can do little to stop them. Foily as I am, I understand that there are still some decent people in the intelligence communities, and for that reason I believe the CIA agents at Gitmo quit, rather than continue with a program of torture for its own sake of sexual titillation.

It comes down to what people call “character.” The signs have been clear for years now. In this sense, the Foley case should be understood as the tip of the iceberg, rather than merely reflective of a sloppy, stupid slipup by an old man too unfamiliar with the nature of email to understand his error. Many of today’s leading Republicans are perverted sadists and predators. They “get off” on using power to stalk the weak, hurt the powerless, terrorize the innocent. I mean that in the basest, most baldly sexual way. Money, in the end, is only a means. You can’t eat it or fuck it. If I were given a trillion dollars tomorrow, I’d do a lot of things to change this country. But I wouldn’t spend a cent of it torturing, raping, bombing or killing. Not even Republicans. I’ll joke about it, but to me, the idea of inflicting severe pain and discomfort on others is abhorrent. I want justice, not vengeance. And even when I want vengeance, I never want to dirty myself with sadism to get it.

You may not agree, but I think there is a direct connection, points on a line if you will, between torture and Foley’s pedophilia. Everything I know about pedophilia (of which I have some direct personal knowledge) tells me that his “sugar daddy” soft opening offer belies the true core and motivation behind his actions. Lithe young boys are pretty to some, no doubt. But, and forgive the crassness, a hole is a hole. Tight young holes are a dime a dozen in DC, willing and even cheap for a member of Congress. The reaction of the recipient tells me all I need to know about Foley’s true motivations: “sick sick sick
sick sick sick sick sick
sick
sick
sick
sick
sick.”

That’s what the kid said describing how he felt when he got the emails. Foley knew this was how his victim would feel. That’s what gets him off, as well as the “forbidden” thang. That’s what chickenhawks are all about. Fear. Horror. Torture.

I don’t have the control or power in our media environment to make it so, but I believe this is what must be said about many of today’s leading Republicans.

They are sadistic, perverted predators.

Authoritarianism is more than just raw power. It’s about control, and lack thereof. It’s about freeing the self to descend into unregulated depths, where the power over life and death merges with the pleasures of the flesh. The Nazis provide us with the clearest historical parallel; think on what many of them were doing in their free time. Today’s Republicans are hardly different. If we had a free and independent press, more people would understand this. And be properly horrified enough to tar and feather the worst of them.

I’ll never find a link for it now, but some years ago, I recall reading about an ad put up on an internet site by a member of Bush’s politically determined team of weapons inspectors going to Iraq before the war. One of them was a self-described “master” who offered classes for submissive women looking to please sadistic male sexual partners better. You all know about Gannon. Bush blows up frogs, Frist tortures cats, I’m too tired to make the full list of what I’ve read but you get the drift. Fascism and perverted sexuality go hand in hand.

If I have a point here, it’s that Foley is just one of many, and there are things happening in the private (and public) chambers of today’s Republicans that I can’t talk about on even this profanity-filled and porn-loving blog. I have no doubt that there was at least one page who said yes to Foley’s chickenhawk advances, I speak as former jailbait on this, knowing how some of us grow up sexually a little faster than others. If I were a Kossack, that would be my number one research priority. Because it’s high time the Washington Satyricon became exposed to some sunlight. Not for titillation, but because this is a culture and mindset driving the forces which are destroying the Constitution to cover up their perversions.

As an addendum, I’ll add that despite what I think of many of them, one thing I’ll give the fundies is that much of that base is truly straight-laced about matters sexual. My purely political self wants the Foley matter to stay in the limelight for all the days until the election. I can’t think of a better way to trump monies being spent on GOTV efforts by the Republicans. First Assembly of God moms will not turn out to vote for the Party of Pedophilia. The Republicans are counting on the base to overcome bad polling numbers in this election, and reportedly have really turned on the GOTV machine. Where racism allows the base to overcome their “Christian” moral values when it comes to torture, nothing will ever be able to overcome their conditioning that gay sex is “abomination.” (And yes, I know that pedophilia and homosexuality aren’t connected, but they don’t.) Boylovers will keep the “security moms” at home like a thousand Democratic campaign ads never could. So do your part: keep talking about it. The White House and Hastert can dance all they want with the FBI in the mix, it won’t matter.

The ugly face of the Republican party has finally been revealed. Be glad that in the end, it has taught those who would support it to hate the very thing that it truly is.