Just wake me when it’s over. Okay? Because these wing-nuts are seriously creeping me out.
I pride myself on being well-informed, but I can’t watch the news anymore. I can’t take all the shouting. The rage and hatred are everywhere and it’s over the top. I even have problems trying to read a paper or going on HuffPo. It all just makes me want to dull my senses with cheap wine before noon. And don’t even get me started on C-SPAN’s coverage of Congress. There are people out there who actually voted for Michelle Bachman. But then it’s been proven time and again that people will vote against their own best interests. The Republicans know this and are ruthless in their dissemination of misinformation, playing to the emotions of the ignorant and lazy, whereas the Democrats just want to make nice with everyone. And then we wonder why we get our asses handed to us so often at the polls.
It would be one thing if all this ugly discord was just the case at Fox. We know the whole “Fair and Balanced” thing is bullshit. But when did Lou Dobbs get his ticket punched on the crazy train? Yes, he began to show cracks during his whole illegal-immigrants-are-going-to-pop-out-of-your-toilet-and-bite-you-in-the-butt period. But I have to admit, I was totally and, in retrospect, I now realize naively caught off guard by his recent conversion to card-carrying birther. Demanding that President Obama present his birth certificate? Really, Lou? Do you not even watch your own network where it has been presented a multitude of times? But hey – don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. Or was this your audition tape for Fox?
Then there are the screaming mobs at the town halls and I can’t help being reminded of similar scenes in “Frankenstein,” the cool 1931 black-and-white version. Only instead of shouts of “Kill the monster!” we have toddlers in strollers carrying signs that read “Abort Obama,” while their parents cover their hearts and say the Pledge of Allegiance, but the meaning is frighteningly the same. I remember the 60s when we marched and shouted, “Hey, hey, LBJ – how many kids did you kill today?” It, too, was an offensive rant, but I’m pretty sure none of us were advocating the killing of a President. We’d all just lived through the horror of JFK’s assassination. We knew too well the consequences of a demented individual with a rifle, conspiracy theories aside.
And when did it become okay to call the President of the United States a Nazi? That’s a vile thing to call anyone, much less the President, regardless of how you feel about his policies that you clearly don’t understand anyway or care to even try to. That would actually require the use of functioning brain cells and what few you have are needed to figure out which shoe goes on which foot in the morning – the entire extent of your venture into cognitive thought. The shouts of “Keep the government’s hands off my Medicare,” are my personal favorite, made as they are by some of the same geniuses who are sucking at the tits of Social Security and Medicare while decrying Obama as a “socialist.”
It would be easy and is certainly tempting to write off these loons as a result of too many years of inbreeding, and while I don’t doubt that’s played a part, the true blame for the level of vitriol in today’s dialogue can be laid directly at the microphones of such right-wing hate mongers as Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Rush-the-OxyCotin-poster-boy-Limbaugh. And as a bonus, the people who are listening to them are now carrying loaded guns to town hall meetings. Good job, boys. Wait till some innocent gets blown away and then watch these cowards throw up their hands and say, “Not my fault.”
Then just when I think it can’t get worse, there’s Sarah Palin, again, certifiably bat-shit crazy, screaming about Obama death panels coming to do in little Trip or Twig or whatever the hell her poor kid’s name is. Please. I’d rather be locked in a room for a month with Speidi than endure one more minute of the Palin good-bye tour. And might I add, Sarah, the purpose of a good-bye tour is to actually go away.
You know things are bad when Twitter becomes your bastion of sanity.
Friday, August 14, 2009
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3 comments:
Can I just say... I love you! :)
My stepmom (who hasn't technically been my stepmom for 20 years, but remains one of my closest friends) has recently moved (temporarily, I pray) from Dallas to Mobile, AL to care for her aging parents. She emailed me on Friday to say that the entire area of S. Alabama and the panhandle of Florida has gone insane. Apparently, (this is hard for me to believe) things are even worse there than they are here in Texas.
Last weekend on my way to Austin, I saw a billboard on the side of Interstate 35 that read "Where's the Birth Certificate?" My husband would not stop so that I could take a picture. He was (I assume) afraid that indulging me would make me crazy for the remainder of the road trip.
Here is my sad, cynical prediction. There will be violence - soon. And those complicit in it, will run for the hills while blaming the left the whole way. After all, we started it with wanting all this "change", right? If we had just left well enough alone everything would be fine, would it not?
What confounds me the most about this whole thing is that it seems to be the very generation that wrought such positive change to our society in the 1960's, that has gone off the rails now. I guess I consistently underestimate the powerful reprogramming that took place during the Reagan years. I'm still not sure how it is exactly that the right absconded with Jesus. After all, one would think they wouldn't want anything to do at all with His liberal ass.
Oh yes, I did. I said Jesus was a liberal and had an ass. He was and he did. Look it up.
Jayne, I don't know exactly how it is that I found you, but I am so happy that I did.
Great post. You go girl.
K
The shouts of “Keep the government’s hands off my Medicare,” are my personal favorite, made as they are by some of the same geniuses who are sucking at the tits of Social Security and Medicare while decrying Obama as a “socialist.”
That about says it all!
Rant on, dear Jayne! You are so spot on!
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