"Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels"

Those who ignore history have doomed us to its repetition. Our Ignoramus In Chief is returning us to a political climate that Joe McCarthy would know and love. It was 53 years ago today that Adlai Stevenson delivered a speech that probably helped Ike win. Unfortunately, it was the beginning of the end of stark distinctions between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans learned that Red Baiting was useful in stirring the passions of the gullible masses. The formula is still at work. Fear-mongering worked in duping the masses into reelecting the Prevaricator-in-Chief.
"It reported a speech by Democratic nominee for president Governor Adlai E. Stevenson, in which he strongly criticized those who used "patriotism" as a weapon against their political opponents. In an obvious slap at the Senate Subcommittee and others, such as Senator Joseph McCarthy, Stevenson repeated the words of the writer Dr. Samuel Johnson: "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels." The governor claimed that it was "shocking" that good Americans, such as Acheson and former secretary of state General George C. Marshall, could be attacked on the grounds that they were unpatriotic."

Well said Dr. Johnson! Along the same vein, religiosity was the first refuge for scoundrels. I wish I had been there around the fire when the first fool came up with the idea of convincing people that voices inside his head were gods telling him what the group should do. That guy needed a dope slap and someone to tell him “Cut the shit, if an idea is worth following it should stand up to scrutiny. If you need a supernatural crutch to hold it up then it’s not worth the paper it’s written on.”
At which point the fool started blithering in tongues because he knew not of paper or writing.