Have you ever had a fight or argument with a friend or loved one where that friend or loved one’s view of the circumstances and events involved in the argument was so diametrically skewed from your interpretation or understanding of those same circumstances and events that it was just impossible to resolve that argument? Where it almost appeared that you two were living in two separate realities? And because of that schism, and because of the impossibility of the resolution of that argument, you just let your relationship with that friend or loved one cease?
We are at that point with the New Republican Party. President Obama said today that we are all Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike, with the same goals and aims, dreams and hopes for the country. We are all Americans, but I have come to the conclusion that we all do not live in the same reality.
When you look at the beliefs and opinions of New Republicans today, like those of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Joe Wilson, Michelle Bachmann et al, you marvel at how they can believe what they believe. And I am not talking about them being conservatives where we are liberals or moderates. I am talking about their “honest” belief that President Obama is somehow a fascist, a Nazi, a Communist, a Muslim, and a Socialist, all at the same time. I am talking about their belief that the President has some ulterior secret plan to subvert American democracy. I am talking about the belief that the President was not born in this country. I am talking about the belief that healthcare reform will lead to the creation of death panels that will kill the elderly and disabled, while at the same time cover illegal aliens. I am talking about the belief that the President is a cult leader seeking to indoctrinate their children.
And I am not just talking about their beliefs about President Obama. I am also talking about their beliefs about world events. Sarah Palin today criticized the President for somehow dishonoring the sacrifice of the victims of September 11, 2001 when he criticized last night the spending of over a trillion dollars on the Iraq War. Now, that criticism offers a precise example of what I am talking about. To believe that the President was dishonoring the victims of 9/11 in criticizing spending on the Iraq War you have to believe we went to war in Iraq to avenge 9/11, and you have to believe that Iraq was responsible for 9/11. Just like all the beliefs about the President and his policies described are demonstrably false (and easily so), it is a proven fact that Iraq was not involved, at all, in the 9/11 attacks. Just like it is a proven fact that we did not go to war in Iraq to avenge 9/11. Sure, President Bush used our want of vengeance and fear of terrorists after 9/11 to convince Americans and Congress to go to war in Iraq, but even President Bush himself had to admit that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Thus, it necessarily and logically follows that the Iraq War had and has nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks and the Americans who were lost that day eight years ago.
But facts do not matter to New Republicans. The truth does not matter. The only thing that matters to them is their own beliefs, and God help you if you challenge their beliefs with, you know, inconvenient truth and actual facts. When you do that, they get angry. We saw that anger at town halls this summer. We saw that anger at the Palin rallies during the last campaign. And we saw that anger last night in the disrespectful and dishonorable scream of Joe “Liar” Wilson. And Joe Wilson was not alone. As has been documented elsewhere, the minority party in Congress last night was, en masse, a tutorial in immaturity and disrespect, with the minority whip finding more important things on his blackberry, to another Congressman walking out on the President.
Joe Wilson is now said to be the poster “child” of the New Republican Party. In my mind, he is a perfect example of their anger resulting from being unable to reconcile their beliefs to the inconvenient truth. That anger led him to set aside 232 years of Congressional decorum and tradition and scream “You Lie!” Other New Republicans across this land have manifested their anger in other ways. They bring guns to the President’s public appearances. They shout down their Representatives. They send death threats to their Congressmen and women. They pray for the President’s death from brain cancer. They scream about birth certificates to Mike Castle. They scream, they holler.
And their screams and shouts usually make no sense to us. For example, how can these people complain about tyranny through taxes under Obama when they actually got a tax cut under the stimulus package, meanwhile they just loved the exact same tax rates under their Dear Leader, George W. Bush. They scream about deficits and spending now, under Obama, when they were applauding the same spending and deficits under their Dear Leader just 10 months ago. They scream about the government making personal end of life healthcare decisions now, but four years ago they demanded government intervention in the Terri Schiavo tragedy, and everyday they demand the government make a woman’s reproductive decisions for her, and everyday they demand the government force religious teaching in all matters of public education.
The reason why it makes no sense to us is because we just live in two entirely separate realities. We can’t even comprehend their beliefs. We cannot understand them, since they are so contrary to the known and verified truth and public record. Someone once wrote a book called “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus.” Well, liberals are from Earth and New Republicans are from Sirius (the planet those lizards were from in the 80’s sci-fi classic “V”).
We can’t find common ground. We can resolve the argument. We just talk over each other in an endless cycle.
This relationship is irreconcilable, certain to end in divorce.