I haven’t posted in a while as work and my activities with PLAN have filled practically every waking moment but this cannot pass without my small contribution to promote and amplify a superlative voice brilliantly distilling birtherism into the cold, hard, facts…
This video has some strong language, not that it isn’t warranted. Please take the time to watch… I am willing to bet that you will then be willing to share…
Thank you for your time
The teaparty movement is supposed to be taken as a serious phenomenon because their anger is genuine, but what is genuine about their anger if it isn’t based in fact?
I hear news report after news report about the populist anger of this movement, frequently the reporters will even bother to ask the participants why they are upset and the reporter gravely nods while they regurgitate some crap they heard Glenn Beck spew in one of his deluded rants about fascism or Marxism or socialism or communism acting like the words actually were interchangeable. The real insult is that after interviewing the protesters for their views, the media doesn’t even bother to weigh in on the veracity of their statements. What the hell? Is everyone supposed to go to factcheck.org to check it out on their own?
I am angry.
I am angry at the media.
I am angry that teabaggers get press and I get to rant alone with facts.
I am angry that a farce like Sarah Palin can still claim credulity and air time from the press after demonstrably false claims over and over again.
I am angry that the media is more interested in scoring the political game than informing the public.
But mostly I am angry that the lack of exposure by the media to the absolute vacuum of truth coming out of the teaparty movement has encouraged the entire Republican Party to swing into nonsense land where they see voter enthusiasm and virtually no fear of reprisal.
The danger of course is that to play in nonsense land you first must cede reality to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill Kristol, Michelle Malkin and Sarah Palin. In nonsense land things that Americans should be proud of and those which should be shamed are flipped around in a twisted nationalism of symbols over substance.
Pulling yourself up by your boot straps is laudable to these people but educating yourself is not? Being strong is an asset but being smart is elitist? Wielding a gun is a right but legislating as a democratically elected majority is tyranny? Torturing prisoners is not only necessary, but it preserves our freedom even though the United States was instrumental in crafting the international prohibitions on the use of torture? Using the filibuster at a rate that has never been seen in the history of the country is their patriotic duty but spending a painful year to pass legislation that was promised in the campaigns they won is somehow the legislative equivalent of rape?
At what point does fact and truth have any bearing at all in the process? Is the game of politics more important than the policies with which we as a nation govern ourselves?
Sarah Palin wants to browbeat the media for reporting on very real threats to law makers, threats from people who are angry, people who are angry about things that frequently aren’t even true? Let me be clear Sarah, if you have to explain that “taking up arms” doesn’t mean literally “taking up arms” but rather going to vote, then how much more could YOUR message be misunderstood by angry people?
Rush, Beck and Palin are like the idiots in Southern California with matches when the Santa Ana winds blow, fascinated with starting something up, completely enamored with their power to incite and with absolutely no responsibility to the heartbreak and devastation that might erupt from their callous handling of fire. If the media is going to give these idiots matches to play with the least they could do is correct the more incendiary statements so that the American people don’t get burned.
“When anger rises, think of the consequences” – Confucius
The Republican Party has been hijacked. It was not intentional, there was no plan, there was no malice, no forethought, specifically, tragically, no forethought.
John McCain facing a tough election threw caution to the wind and chose an exciting yet irresponsibly under qualified Sarah Palin to revive his flailing candidacy. I am positive that the intent was to raise Sarah Palin to the level of Republican national politician but truly the effect was to lower Republican national politics to the level of Sarah Palin. That one selfish act by a bitter old man may have killed thoughtful conservatism in the United States for the foreseeable future.
Justifying Sarah Palin as a Vice Presidential candidate was quite literally not possible so the campaign focused strictly on damaging Obama, biggest celebrity, paling around with terrorists, the secret Muslim and the birther movements were all born out of the necessity to portray Barack Hussein Obama as dangerous, elitist or other. Matters of serious policy and issues were largely buried because they were completely outside the realm of serious discussion with the farcical vice presidential candidate. The further the campaign strayed from their stated principal of “Country First” the less credible John McCain became as a presidential contender and the more popular Sarah Palin became in the ranks of the gullible bigots that would become the fodder for the tea party movement.
The campaign was a disaster and Barack Obama won the presidency with more popular votes than any other president ever…
Of course historic presidential elections command more attention from the populace than governance and governance in the face of financial collapse and severe recession is tough. Tougher if those who professed “Country First” in the election absolutely refuse to assist in the painful decisions necessary to shore up the economy and avoid more carnage. The GOP wasn’t satisfied to merely let the Democrats do all the heavy lifting alone, oh no they took every opportunity to play to the populist anger of those who already desperately wanted to believe that the government wasn’t even legitimate to begin with. The financial collapse, became the health care debate, became the closing Gitmo debate, became the underwear bomber, became Dick Cheney insisting Obama was endangering our safety, became Liz Cheney channeling McCarthy, became hateful angry bigots screaming at our democratically elected officials and feeling justified in doing so, after all the GOP told them that the majority party was doing unspeakable things to them, not for them, to them…
This weekend Sarah Palin was once again on the stump with John McCain, it was the final capitulation of the once proud Senator to the dark side that is tea party politics. I don’t feel sorry for McCain, he made his political bed and deserves his fate, it is the loss of a serious core of honest conservative politics at the heart of the Republican Party that should be mourned. The base of the right doesn’t hold serious conservative principles, the base of the right centers around beliefs like;
That the President holds Socialist views and wants to destroy America
That the President is secretly a Muslim
That the President might not be the legitimate leader of the country
That the Democratic Party violated the constitution to force health care reform
That legislation of the elected majority IS in fact tyranny.
If you want to energize a base like that, be prepared to check your principles at the door. So far it appears that there is no shortage of Republicans willing to jump down that rabbit hole (insert Mad Hater and “shoot off their heads from a helicopter” analogies here).
Ultimately the problem is that the Republican Party, the party of Lincoln as they are proud to point out, have finally, fatefully, fearfully embraced the hate, the vitriol, and the idiotic rhetoric of Sarah Palin and the mindless minions that still consider her relevant. A sad day for America, a sad day for the world and a sad day for thinking people across the political spectrum.
The fall from here will either be the Republican Party or the United States of America the choice is crystal clear and the stakes could not be higher, so here it is America, what will it be, a constitutional scholar of color or a small town bigot who happens to be white?
I await your answer with fascination and horror, in that order.
Sincerely,
credit for the “hatriot” term to it’s creator @Shoq
The United States has had one of it’s toughest years in a generation.
We are engaged in two wars. We live daily with the threat of global terrorism, a belligerent Iran, a fragile Iraq, a defiant North Korea, a precarious Afghanistan and oh yes the worst financial crisis since the great depression…
This year we have faced challenges that may be less dramatic but ultimately just as devastating as the tragedy in the fall of 2001. At that time I might remind everyone the nation came together to face our challenges despite ideological differences. Coming together then required the left to put aside differences from a contentious election for the unity of the country and that is exactly what happened, at least for a time. The Democrats were willing to work with the GOP for the good of the country, hell they were willing to go along with the asinine invasion of Iraq based on manufactured evidence that never exceeded incredulity at least in the eyes of this observer.
But I digress, we were talking about unity… Where has the right been this last year in the face of our enormous challenges? Checked out, whipping up the base, opposing everything that moves all in the name of political gamesmanship. I might also remind the GOP that George W. Bush presided over both the crashing of the planes and the crashing of the economy and even if they despise the idea of Barack Obama their responsibility is to the governance of the country and the problems they were so culpable in creating.
Not that I was present but on a smaller scale it feels like the secessionist movement, a man of color has achieved a status that cannot be processed by an admitted minority of the country and they are ready to stop all functions of the country… even rip the country apart before acknowledging the legitimate leader of the United States of America and work with him in the honest business of the country and it’s people.
Meanwhile Democrats in the face of this hateful rhetoric and fearful hyperbole have passed health care reform without any Republican votes only to have the GOP claim that the Democrats have poisoned the well and they are unlikely to cooperate in the future… are you freaking kidding me? The GOP is threatening not to cooperate? I wonder if “country first” ever meant anything to the GOP and so I can’t resist asking “does it anymore”? The very least the GOP owes this country is a good faith effort at honest debate so let’s start with this. The people didn’t send your sorry asses to Washington so that you could act like petulant children. This is a government of the people by the people and for the people. You work for the people so get off your asses and get to it, step up or step off, secession from the responsible engagement in our government won’t work any better than the south trying to leave to retain attitudes that the country was ready to abandon. If you insist on making yourself useless, the American people would be happy to relegate you to the position permanently, and I for one will help them.
Damn it. I never wanted to write this post. I have resisted writing this post for a the last six months and a least once or twice I hoped that somehow I would dodge writing it all together, but the rat fuckers would not let up, and now I am forced, despite my strong desire to refrain, to write the fucking post…
Republicans in the congress are, by and large, white, male, racist, fucks.
The Republicans decided at the beginning of this administration that THIS president must not succeed. They chose to block and obstruct everything even if they supported it in the past if it would assist THIS president. They decided that the country could go to hell before they would lift a finger to help THIS president with the business of the people. They decided that nothing could possibly be more dangerous than an uppity black man that was smart, well spoken, reasonable and very popular, they decided he didn’t deserve to be president.
Old white male fucks blocking the young smart motivated black man… Like we have never seen this shit before. Want to give the right to vote to the black man? The white man will do everything in his power to stop him from exercising that right and wrap himself in the flag while he’s doing it. So now we have a black president and though he is far too good to stoop to the level of calling his opponents racist, I’m not.
Now that we have a black president these guys are going to do everything in their power to stop him from exercising the power of the office. So nothing moves, not nominations, not stimulus, not health care, not immigration reform, not financial reform without the lockstep opposition of the Republicans… The Democrats have to do all the governing alone handicapped by the anvil that is the Republican Party who obstruct at every juncture and then the hypocritical fucks whine about bipartisanship. The cold hard facts are that these guys can’t even respect the office enough to treat the president of the United States with a modicum of dignity, they think him beneath it and they act it.
Fuck you McConnell.
Fuck you Boehner.
Fuck you McCain.
Fuck you DeMint.
We are the majority, the world is changing and though you will relinquish your unjustified death grip on the power that you have wielded so long it will not be pretty and it could not possibly be soon enough.
The GOP will stomp the hope out of anyone that doesn’t have the stomach to outlast their antics. Well we aren’t going anywhere you bigoted old fucks, we elected this president, we support this president and we will see the end of your entitled, arrogant tantrum.
And for those of you counting I said fuck or a variation of it 11 times in this post… cloud away.
Though the long term arc of politics of the United States has trended to the progressive, short term politics is cyclical. The pendulum started to swing back to the Democrats shortly after Bush won the 2004 election (yes the avoidance of the term re-election is deliberate). The high mark for the swing of the pendulum was of course the election of the county’s first African American President. The financial crisis, the extreme partisan battle for health care reform and extreme anger and worry with the state of the economy conspired to start the pendulum back toward the right. Populist anger manifest in the astroturf tea party movement set the tone for the meme to gain traction in the media. The long August of angry town halls got the pendulum swinging harder, there was no reason to believe that the trend would not continue. The voices got louder, the charges more vitriolic and increasingly hyperbolic. Then something interesting happened, they went too far.
Maybe it was the defense of torture.
Maybe it was the histrionics of Glenn Beck.
Maybe it was the race baiting of Rush Limbaugh.
Maybe it was the public disagreements of John McCain, with himself.
Maybe it was Orrin Hatch’s demonstrably false statements about processes in the senate.
Maybe it was Liz Cheney going full McCarthy with her jack booted “Keep America Safe” crowd trying to play guilt by association with the DOJ.
Maybe it was all of it…
But the tide has turned, the Democrats are coming back. As evidenced in the latest Gallup numbers the Democrats hold a slight advantage in 2010 election preferences, and this is still while the messy healthcare debate rages. What happens to the right when health care passes? What happens to the right as the economy improves? What happens to the right as the debate moves forward on financial reform and the GOP once again end up defending those that abuse the system on the backs of taxpayers? The right has blown their comeback peaking between election cycles and now they run the very real risk of exacerbating their minority status into what could be a progressive nirvana.
By remaining reasonable, many would say to a fault, Obama has managed to push the right into positions that a year ago they would have considered unfathomable. And each time they stir up controversy with hyperbole whether it is health care, stimulus, race or diplomacy … Obama continues to speak to the American people, the pendulum swings back and the GOP is left looking like a bunch of petulant children. Each time the right escalates the crazy Obama comes back with the same reasonable, measured, discourse. With simple language and methodical logic he ties them up in their obstructionism and intellectual dishonesty with mind numbing grace and fairness that drives the left crazy and the right completely mad.
If Obama keeps on being so fair, so reasonable with such deference to the minority party they might just jump completely off a political cliff, like lemmings into the sea.
I don’t know if this is just the way it is shaking out or if President Obama is a pure political genius. If the Republicans continue to press themselves closer to that cliff we could be witnessing the beginning of the most aggressive move towards progressive politics in the history of the nation.
Think about it, the republicans are parroting talking points that are becoming less and less reasonable while Obama remains maddeningly consistent. We may be witnessing the suicide of a political party who cannot under any circumstances bear to see the President accomplish anything. Each cycle makes them look smaller and less capable while Obama grows in stature and appears more pragmatic.
Six weeks ago right after the Massachusetts Senate race it looked like health care was a heavy lift. It looked like the Democrats were facing a very tough election cycle in which control of the senate was at risk and not just the margin of majority. It looked like a desperate ineffectual dysfunctional party, not so much anymore.
The future is much less certain now for the Republicans, if they keep reaching further to the right in an idiotic attempt to placate FreedomWorks and their ilk the damage of the 2010 elections could be devastating. The tide is shifting, I think the Republicans are starting to feel it. Will they be able to change course in time to salvage credible minority status?
I don’t think so, and you can quote me.
Voice a theory like FEMA is building re-education camps, a seed is planted.
Theorize the Census is a plot to leverage political advantage, a seed is planted.
Reinforce the notion that end of life discussions are “death panels”, a seed is planted.
Perpetuate the assertion that the President of the United States is a foreign agent, a seed is planted.
Call for the investigation of public officials with “anti-American” views, a seed is planted.
Suggest lawyers who represent terrorists in our adversarial system of justice, sympathize with the views of their clients, a seed is planted.
Claim that the government, our government elected by the people, wish to enslave those people, a seed is planted.
Publicly declare that our elected President is trying to “destroy the country” a seed is planted.
This is commonplace rhetoric coming from the right for the last year and a half. It is so common that frequently it is not even called out, and even when it is, rarely do those who spout it pay any price, not politically, not socially, not financially. The result of course is people who crash their planes into buildings and shoot people without provocation.
I had a conversation recently with someone that was adamantly insisting that John Patrick Bedell “belonged” to the left because he was a registered democrat… So?
Political affiliation means nothing. People who pull out a gun and start shooting are not well. People who fly their planes into IRS offices are not well. People who send bombs and anthrax through the mail are not well. Being Democrat or Republican is not the problem nor is it a symptom.
The question is how are the parties comporting themselves in the public arena? How do we speak to our countrymen in the struggle for political sway? We all recognize that there are people who are not well, if we recognize the crazy is out there why in the hell should we be alright with politicians, commentators and entertainers speaking to their fears for the sake of politics? Feeding paranoia and driving wedges of hate between the peoples of this nation, estranging people from each other and their government.
Rhetoric that speaks to fear and paranoia for political advantage is reckless. Those that engage in such practices are culpable in the atrocities that they encourage. Freedom of speech protects the communication but doesn’t excuse the speaker from wielding that freedom responsibly.
You reap what you sow… Planting fear, nurturing hatred and growing paranoia may win you elections, but the crop you harvest is pure poison.
If my words don’t persuade, try these…
“for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
“As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.”
This is a banner day for the birthers in this country!