This is all getting out of control. It started with Ayers and now it has morphed into “anti-America”. The GOP is getting desperate and nasty. Thankfully, there are only two weeks left until the election. But those two weeks are going to be insane.
The vitriol coming out of the nicely coifed and lipsticked pit bulls is disheartening on a couple of levels. First and foremost, the complete lunacy of saying things such as “northern Virginia” is not the real America! It is completely out of bounds to call any region “the fake America”. It is out of bounds to start calling people out as “anti-American”. I will stipulate that Chris Matthews was trying his best to get Congresswoman Bachmann to say something inflammatory. Nevertheless, she obliged. She’s calling for congress to start checking people out to see if they were anti-American? Really? Did she really just say that? She did. Of course the very next moment she and the GOP are back peddling, but it’s out there. It’s just McCarthy-level crazy. We have become jaded by the use of fear to divide and conquer the electorate. We’ve moved past the fear that gay people are ruining the institution of marriage or “they’ll take your guns!” to terror alert levels being raised before an election. Yet, while the real boogie man still is hiding out in the caves, the GOP has ratcheted it up another level, working up fear of the enemy within: those liberals. So, would this be a blue scare instead of a red scare?
Secondly, the next thing that bothers me is on a more personal level. I hate that the most vitriolic comments are coming from female politicians. John McCain gives his fair share of the Obama-Ayers line of attack, but it is Sarah Palin that takes it to the “un-American” level. Add in McCain’s advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer and Congresswoman Bachmann talking about real America and people being anti-American and, forgive me but all I see are Stepford politicians. It is killing me because they simply look foolish and I fear will damage all women in politics, regardless of their political stripe.
Lastly, it simply is a lot of nonsense. Obama was on a couple of boards with William Ayers. The boards contained both democrats and republicans and were not some crazy, radical groups. Ayers held a coffee in his home for Obama, he didn’t launch his campaign. They know each other, but are not buds. Ayers did some bad things when Obama was 8, but is currently an upstanding citizen. Then this “fake America”. There are all kinds of Americas, but not a single one of them is fake. That small town ideal they are talking about? I’m sure it exists somewhere, but the small towns I know are not so pleasant. Jobs are scarce and low paying and opportunity zooms by on the freeway a couple miles outside of town, rarely stopping by to knock on anyone’s door. Those Main Streets they revere are more likely to be pushing crystal meth than family values. Families usually start off too young to worry too much about the wholesome values they are suppose to espouse. More than that, however, is the complete and utter garbage that those who point out this country’s errors are unpatriotic. Hello! We are the country. We are the government. All of us. It is our duty to run it, not follow it blindly. To question, to think, to reason – these are the very core of our patriotic duty. To stand up and say that a government policy goes against our very core values? Pure patriotism. The citizenry were never meant to be sheep, led blindly. No, the very essence of this country is about debating ideas and coming to compromises about which ones work best. Somehow we have forgotten this. We mistake arguing who is more patriotic, who wears a bigger flag pin and who appeals to the lowest common denominator for debate. It is not. It is subterfuge. We have been asked to play the part of the fool and we so often oblige.
And yet, I was going to attach a clip of the Daily Show here. Is that irony or simply sad? The show tends to have better coverage than most newscasts. Or, does it appeal to me because it speaks to my biases? Nevertheless, satire has always been a part of our debates and the best humor usually contains truth. So here it is.
Fear and nausea
Tags: McCain, Obama, Palin, racism
I didn’t want to believe the story that came out yesterday about the two neo-nazis. I read it online yesterday and wanted it to go away, but it was on the news and it was on NPR this morning. I watched video of people in Iowa talk about how Obama was a terrorist and “the blacks would take over”. The friend I debate with at the office is all but foaming at the mouth as it appears that Obama is going to win the election. He rubbed his white wrist as he said his policies would favor certain people to make up for the past.
I want to throw up.
I am afraid that all the people that are so fearful add fuel to those that are so full of hate. In my heart I really believe that the percentage of these people are small. You look at the crowds yelling and hooting and hollering after Sarah Palin says that Barack pals around with terrorist and you see old and white. That simply is no longer the face of America.
If we want to talk policy, fine. I can see that the Republicans offer another point of view. I don’t agree with it in all accounts, but we can discuss that. We can find common ground.
Fear and hate. You can’t discuss. You can’t talk people out of that and you can’t find common ground. There is no logic to such fear and hate, it is visceral.
The media has glossed over much of the hate speak. It has been mocked on SNL and the late night talk shows. Laughing at it has its value, no one wants to be the butt of the joke. Yet how can we really conquer this? Do you ignore it, shove it in the closet and hope that it withers away? Or, do you shine the light of day on it and hope it burns away in the harsh scrutiny?
I don’t want to believe my country is so backwards.
Yet, I still feel like I’m going to be sick.