For those of you who are convinced that Obama is trying to destroy this country, I'd especially like you to stay for this
political rant
because what is going on with Republicans is driving me nuts. So let's have a little chat in the patio garden while you explain some things to me. I'll pour the wine? White okay?
To preface, most of the right wingers I personally know are good people, some friends of mine. Most of the left wingers I know are likewise good people; but the way we see the world isn't through the same prism. I could go on for a day on how frustrated I am about the right wing, and I'd still not cover it all. I see them as using no logic, not looking at consequences, and then wanting to blame someone else. I suspect they see me the same way.
I watched Obama give his health care speech and saw the Republicans in Congress, except for a few like John McCain, sit there grimacing, looking like a party of trolls. They are earning their current title as the party of no. Do you, as a conservative, really support leaders who act like they are back in high school? Grumbling, texting, putting up signs, booing? This is mature political behavior?
I was startled to hear one of the legislators yell out that Obama was a liar. To me, that said the most about who Republicans are today. The Representative later kind of apologized until he realized he was now a hero to the Limbaugh right, who were upset he apologized. He's following in the footsteps of Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. Who knew all you had to do to gain fame with Republicans was be rude or carry a machine gun to a town hall event. Maybe we should have known given how well Ann Coulter has done with everything but the gun.
Is that what you want for the Republican party-- run by the Limbaughs? Never mind, it's obvious you do. Did you bother to check whether what Wilson said was actually in the bill? I figured you hadn't. You have your reliable sources who tell you what you need to know.
Something is badly wrong within Republicans and I just hope it's not catching for Democrats. Democrats have enough wrong without adding the need for revenge. Republicans say they love the country more than anybody-- right before they suggest they want their state to secede. Logic? Don't look to the right for it.
Their legislators whisper, to someone who says Obama wasn't born in Hawaii, that they agree. Their pundits twist the facts (like Hannity saying Obama said insurance executives were mean and how it shocked-- I tell you shocked-- Hannity. It should have because Obama never said it. In fact he said the opposite. Do you think Hannity will apologize for getting it wrong? Not likely because most of his fans won't ever know it wasn't true). What has gone wrong with a party that used to call itself the Grand Old Party? Conservative used to be a proud title but today it's a joke.
Do you really not see a racial element to all of this? The school stupidity, the birthers, the tea partiers? Marches against taxes (even though they supported the policies that led to this deficit). They don't like, you see it on their faces, that our president is different. They don't trust his background or skin color. Whether it's how you personally think (and it probably isn't), it's a factor in the craziness of today and what's behind people like Joe Wilson.
You say they did the same thing to Bush. Not to the same level but Bush earned what happened to him by what he did and it took awhile. He had good approval ratings even after a contested election. After 9/11 happened, Bush received no blame (not likely the result if it happens today under Obama's presidency) and even had high ratings from left and right.
Then began the wars, the lies, torture, terrorist watch lists that who knew why they got on them but try getting off, the tax cuts during that expensive war, and finally sinking our economy from 2000's $5 1/2 trillion surplus to the economy Obama inherited with major deficits, actual expenses hidden, just waiting for someone else to come along and fix it-- if anybody could. And then they, the ones who helped this happen, they organize these marches with a bunch of people with no clue what's going on.
It's ironic that the same people, who stomped on Dixie Chicks records for one of them saying it was a mistake to go to war in Iraq and adding she was ashamed of our president being from her state, now go around saying things a lot worse. Disrespect was bad then, even in an entertainment venue, but today it's praised in the Congress of the United States?
You say that the fact that Obama was elected proves we aren't a racist nation. It might at best show that half of us aren't. That still leaves plenty for these marches.
Set me straight if I am wrong, but the justification the Republicans are putting forth to not have government involvement in health care is the deficit (which they created with those tax cuts during a war which they said began with 9/11) and the fear it will convert us into socialism which will lead us to becoming Nazis. Is that about it?
On socialism, I am sure you have read that the same types said that about Social Security and Medicare. You have those in your party today who are doing all they can to destroy both. When Bush wanted to start drawing money out of the Social Security fund by letting people put it into the stock market accounts, what do you think that was about?
When they added a Medicare drug benefit but didn't permit bargaining for lower prices and didn't allow recipients to buy their prescriptions online from other countries, did you really not know what that was about? Are you that naive? Actually I think some of you are. The rest know what's happening and relish the idea.
If you are really worried about the deficit, how about tax increases to pay for that war you liked so much? Maybe undo the tax cuts for the richest? Oh I know what you still believe-- cut taxes and more money will flow in rather like manna from heaven.
You might have noticed that the Bush tax cuts haven't helped our economy (and Reagan didn't cut taxes as much as you thought because he took away a lot of deductions) but you don't care about those kind of facts. You just want to blame it all on that other guy-- the un-Bush.
It's hard for me to understand your way of thinking. It was okay to fight a war that made no logical sense unless you really believe it's going to spread democracy throughout the Arab world. That sounds more like a liberal hope than a conservative one-- and definitely mystical. Turning us into Nazis because of health care for all tends to sound pretty mystical to me also.
In funding that war, Republican Congressmen didn't seem to mind a deficit, took their share of any pork being doled out, but suddenly it's bad when it helps people get medical help? Spending was out of control (even before the elections) but now it's a concern. You didn't notice a tiny problem before?
You probably voted twice for a man who chipped away at the Bill of Rights while you now decry Obama destroying the Constitution, but I bet you can't explain where or how he's supposedly doing that.
How come it's okay to break the law as Cheney has proudly said he knows they did if he claims it keeps you safe (Nixon should have thought of this)? How come you would even consider a man like Cheney, who lied, deceived, manipulates even today, for being your presidential candidate in 2012 (which many Republicans apparently think he could be their salvation)?
Cheney brags he (with a little help from Bush) kept us safe for the eight years after 9/11 ignoring the warnings ahead of it. Is he really too stupid to know that bin Laden was out to destroy our economic system, to tie up or ruin our military. How much more successful could he have been thanks to Cheney and Bush's reaction to the attack?
“America is a great power possessed of tremendous military might and a wide-ranging economy, but all this is built on an unstable foundation which can be targeted, with special attention to its obvious weak spots. If America is hit in one hundredth of these weak spots, God willing, it will stumble, wither away and relinquish world leadership.” Osama bin LadenEver since 9/11, we have been destroying our own economic system. Maybe you don't know what Osama bin Laden succeeded in doing but he does. Now Cheney says he has kept us safe. Safe from what? Tell that to the ones out of jobs today. Tell that to the soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan where we still are nearly 7 years later. Tell that to those who can't afford health care and will die. Kept us safe! You joke.
You smile and nod your head when someone like Huckabee says that under universal health care, Ted Kennedy would have been denied cancer treatment and only given pain pills, while you ignore the millions who aren't even given the pain pills under today's system.
I really don't get it. Sarah Palin. Dick Cheney? Newt Gingrich? Michele Bachmann? Those trolls are your statesmen? The ones who you hope will lead this country into a new day? Aren't they instead more of what got us where we are? Doesn't the leadership of your party make you wonder if it's who you want connected to you? Do you bear any responsibility for who those people are? Have you driven out all moderates or those who can talk logically about issues because emotional fodder is all you want?
This is the kind of link that led to this rant:
If you are out there talking how Obama is out to destroy us, maybe you better think what that might encourage someone else to do. Will you take any responsibility if it happens? There are some, who if they are reading this blog would take pride in that kind of violent act. They would say it was what he deserved. Are you proud to be linked to them?
Originally I thought to tone this down but you know after what happened after Obama addressed Congress, I felt angrier than ever. And I'm not done. My rant takes more than one blog. Next one will be the media and then Democrats.
Please feel free to say what you think about these issues including disagreeing. That's what a good debate is about; but it's not about threatening others or being needlessly insulting. I would like to continue to keep comment moderation off but will put it back on if it is required.
12 comments:
Great post Rain !! I cannot find fault with anything that you say. One thing that bugs the heel out of me is that some Republicans feel so damned pompous in their pronouncements and denigration of Obama. I reall that German soldiers had "Gott mit uns" on their belt buckles in WWII. As for Wilson , that idiot is from my home state and after Mark Sanford and his hypocrisy what can come next ? There ARE Americans who want Obama to fail, because he is half Black. And it's not just Southerners either who want this to happen. My blood is boiling too !
Rain;
I always love your thought provoking posts. That's why I keep coming back when i see that you have posted something new! You get my blood boiling for sure.
My opinion is polar opposite of yours on most issues. I think that the dems need only to look back a year ot two, at the way they treated the Republican President when he gave a speech before congress on reforming medicare. They sat on their hands and hissed and booed.
Joe Wilson did not control himself and if apologising before Congress will end this diversion then I'm all for it. Rain, this is all just politics as usual. We Need healthcare for all, I have been an advocate for many years now and I think that it can happen. But I'm not willing to to give Congress an open checkbook either. They have proven time and again that they can't be trusted. The proof is in the details I've heard said.
I want Omama to succeed, he succeeds we all win. We need to change the heathcare system.
Takes time, not something that we should rush to pass in a week or a month for political advantage .
Be sure and read Maureen Dowd's article in the Washington Post today: you thoughts are "right on".
Click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/opinion/13dowd.html?em
September 13, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Boy, Oh, Boy
By MAUREEN DOWD
Always love to read your post Rain.
It is mind boggling to me how some people swallow the lies, distortions and nuttiness coming out of the mouth of Palin, Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, et al.
I really read the editorials from the reputable conservatives and make an effort to see their point, but to listen to those buffoons is insanity.
The one common thread I find in the conservative viewpoint is a lack of common sense. It frustrates me that they can't see what they are saying and where it would lead.
excellent post, Rain. If only more people had clarity of mind and rational thought. I attended one of those infamous Town Hall meetings in our area, and the looneys were out in droves. Is it all just sour grapes? Underground racism? I don't know, but we need to keep tagging brainless idiots and calling them out. Good job.
I still consider myself to be fiscally conservative, at least in the sense that we should not spend money we don't have. I couldn't believe those past tax cuts at the same time the bills for the war, then rebuilding what we destroyed, kept rolling in. It didn't make sense.
I occasionally used to listen to talk radio and most of it was fairly conservative but I've never been able to stomach Rush. I have left the Republican Party as they seem to be following only those that I'd consider to be the lunatic fringe. Even those in that party who should know better seem to think that they have to toe that line that is way too far out.
Forty years or so ago I felt the Democratic Party had gone overboard to the liberal side and I suppose it is still possible that they'll swing too far that way for my taste. What worries me is that there will then be no one left for me to identify with. Both parties have the potential to be too extreme, especially if those yelling voices on each side are allowed to control things.
I don't know if what President Obama is doing is the right thing or not, but he at least is trying to do something for the common good and not just ignoring the financial side as the bills rolled up, for someone else to worry about. Maybe later we can look at the picture and say he should have done some things different. But these are times when we are facing things that have never been there before so there are no obvious answers. He at least is doing SOMETHING.
It is really sad what is happening in our country--and so many of us were so darned hopeful when Obama took office.
I think politically like you do, Rain, so I just don't get the right. Something very bad is in the air.
I hope that Obama's belief in our Constitution and the good in all of us will ultimately bring the Republicans up to their best behaviors. They have important issues and fine values to be considered.
Although she is not a congresswoman I believe even Sarah Palin had an important issue. But unfortunately she presented it in flamatory terms and at the wrong place. There is a proper place to consider end of life and and challenged life health care decision making process. And she forgets that our government is of the people. Perhaps a pannel of citizen advisors should form to make suggestions on how to manage end of life decisions. Or maybe Sarah can make a positive suggestion on how to improve what happens today.
In my experience with my mother's end of life I found the free market place solution imperfect to say the least. The nursing home administrator was the only doctor who would take my mother as a patient when I moved her to our smaller town after my father's death. When my 92 year old mother needed two blood transfusions, and her out of state Advanced Directive specified no blood transfusions the doctor administrator insisted on keeping her alive with the excuse that her condition would not need continual transfussions. The next two years her quality of life was bad and painful to watch. I felt that I had let down my father and mother's wishes by not being able to be clear with the doctor about my mother who had dementia. My mother was the only patient at the nursing home who still could pay from their own savings while the rest of the patients were on Medicaid. There are ethical challenges that need due process consideration with all sides working together.
Right on Rain. You really should be doing opinion pieces for US national newspapers.
reading your post I was reminded of a book I read some time ago. It's called Peoplemaking by Virginia Satir.
In communication exercises she divides people into four groups, Placater, Blamer, Computer, Distracter. The Republican Party seem to me to be the Blamer group. Satir describes Blamers as "fault-finders, dictators, boss". they act superior. She describes the internal feeling of the Blamer as, "one of tightness in the muscles and in the organs. Meanwhile blood pressure is increasing. The voice is hard, tight and often shrill and loud. Good blaming requires you to be as loud and tyrannical as possible. cut everything and everyone down".
Sounds right to me, and that's what I see. In fact it's a wonderful description of the pseudo journalism on Fox.
As to the possibility of any socialist democratic goverment action leading to Nazism. Unlikely. It is the Republicans and their bullying antics that look like nazism, certainly to me looking in from the outside.
Another paradox for me is this, a large number of Republicans, as did Mr Bush, both senior and Junior, align themselves with the religious right. Now I maybe wrong on this but my christian education was about compassion, and love. Surely that means that they really should be FOR any reform of US Medical systems, that would broaden out the ability of all US citizens being able to access basic and more medical care as a right of citizenship?
Like your post.
As always, I appreciate your thinking on all of this, and admire you immensely for writing it all down. Things don't look good for our country at the moment. There is a civil war brewing, the one that the south never really stopped fighting in the 19th century.
I wish that Rain's writing had a much larger venu which it deserves.
I guess I have more confidence than most that Congress can rally under the leadership of a president with an open door for any law maker who thinks he or she has a constructive idea.
Post a Comment