You Must Read This Post
The post is really too good and too complete to give a good excerpt. It’s called “An open letter to conservatives” and it’s a well-researched post on some of the Republican hypocrisy, lies and calls for violence with many, many links included.
Now the advice. You’re going to have to come up with a platform that isn’t built on a foundation of cowardice: fear of people with colors, religions, cultures and sex lives that differ from your own; fear of reform in banking, health care, energy; fantasy fears of America being transformed into an Islamic nation, into social/commun/fasc-ism, into a disarmed populace put in internment camps; and more. But you have work to do even before you take on that task.
Your party — the GOP — and the conservative end of the American political spectrum has become irresponsible and irrational. Worse, it’s tolerating, promoting and celebrating prejudice and hatred. Let me provide some expamples — by no means an exhaustive list — of where the Right as gotten itself stuck in a swamp of hypocrisy, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy and hatred.
Just another small taste:
Hatred
You have to condemn those among you who:
call members of Congress n*gger and f*ggot;
elected leaders who say “I’m a proud racist”;
state that America has been built by white people;
say that poor people are poor because they’re rotten people, call them “parasitic garbage” or say they shouldn’t be allowed to vote;
call women bitches and prostitutes just because you don’t like their politics ( re – pea -ted – ly );
assert that the women who are serving our nation in uniform are hookers;
mock and celebrate the death of a grandmother because you disagree with her son’s politics;
declare that those who disagree with you are shown by that disagreement to be not just “Marxist radicals” but also monsters and a deadly disease killing the nation (this would fit in the hyperbole and history categories, too);
joke about blindness;
All of these statements have links, some of them multiple links. It’s a great resource post and I’m planning on putting it in my favorites folder.
I’m sure, if you cared to look, that you could find plenty of instances where individual democrats say stupid things, and call people to violence,and say racist shit.
I don’t get the point.
This isn’t about individual Democrats — this is about a wholesale culture of belligerence that is supposed to substitute as political discourse. If there was a Democrat calling for bricks to be thrown, there would be lots of Democrats out there telling them to stop it. Republicans almost never call for their own to stop this BS and even go so far as to claim that some of it (Ann Coulter) is supposed to be comedy.
These people do this and they do it more frequently because they are in a party that provides a silent sanction of it.
Well, but they don’t “have to” do anything about it. This letter is completely tone-deaf, politically. It’s just the sort of sanctimonious finger wagging that gets the left in trouble in this country.
It makes ME want to put my hands on my hips and say, “You’re not the boss of me!”
Communication #fail.
Republicans have gone insane. Not only have Republicans gone insane, there now a self-perpetuating insanity that pulls new insane people into the Republican party. Those teabaggers who claim they are independents? They are Republicans.
We keep going on a unicorn hunt for “sane Republicans.” Even Obama is doing it. But there aren’t any.
All responsible conservatives have now become Conservadems. That is where the sane conservatives can be found. And I’m not too sure about them either.
Those teabaggers who claim they are independents? They are Republicans.
Very true, which will make polling “Independents” tricky and deceptive – especially given the weight MSM attaches to this group.
I agree with fighting bluehen. Some of this stuff is silly. The elected official who said I am a proud racist was being sarcastic because some group called him a racist for opposing illegal immigration. He said if that makes me one than I am a proud racist. It is called sarcasm and taking away a weapon. The people we need to condemn are the people who bandy about those terms as a tool.
Progressive policy is eating away our American heritage like a cancer. It should be said.
I weary of nit wits who have to wring their hands and act as if the problem is with the people saving the country and not those messing it up. I don’t have time for them. If he wants to condemn 3 people out of 40K who yell somethings which were vicious and vulgar, do it. Most of us agree. However that was so unrepresentative of the entire day that it hardly is worth a mention. Don’t act as if the entire Republican party should drop everything and focus on people who don’t even claim to represent it. I could pull quotes from Democrat leaders including the ones who were insulted that called their opponents names that were equally vile. Racist, Hitler like, Mobs, etc. A few hot heads responded. What does that prove? We can all dial back one notch and take a breath.
I do not understand the beltway types who get their reality from the Washington Post and CNN. They should actually walk out in one of the crowds on their doorsteps. They would get a more balanced picture.
I don’t know about tone deaf. The wingnuts who comment here have already delivered on this prediction:
(Anticipating your initial response: No there is nothing that even comes close to this level of wingnuttery on the American Left.)
It is a great inventory of the bullsh#t from the right that is supposed to somehow be meaningful political conversation. What is unfortunate about that inventory is that it is only the grown-ups among the repubs who would appreciate how far they’ve gotten out of the discourse.
Progressives are “nitwits” and a “cancer” – Republican David
But we would not want to think you are one of the “3 people out of 40K who yell somethings which were vicious and vulgar”.
R. David, all the actual “crowds” you’d find on an average day in DC are black and suffering from Taxation Without Representation. And I agree, talking to them would get you a MUCH more balanced picture.
You’d think “Teaparty” activists would be all over correcting that whole TwR thing, wouldn’t you? I must have missed the coverage of that rally.
Why does David think it is only 3 people that are the problem. The linked post documents many different people, many of whom are elected officials. The problem I see is they are encouraging this behavior. Members of Congress like Michele Bachmann and Mike Pence addressed the crowd that spit and harrassed Congressmen because of race or sexual orientation. You can’t just say it’s bad apples if you’re encouraging the rot.
It’s their typical lone wolf alibi.
David’s rationalizations here are NOTHING compared to the Full Monty of denial he puts on defending Christine O’Donnell.
Best quote:
“At least she is an anti-tax candidate so a tax lien won’t hurt her base. ”
That would be the same base that believes it is OK to break the law if you are anti-government.
Because laws are from the government, and the government is illegitimate as long as Democrats are in office, right?
Just in case you don’t think that Republicans are rewarding rude and boorish behavior, check this out:
Cassandra, yes, it’s a great inventory of bs. As such, it’s written entirely for the left. Just about every person on my heavily lefty twitter sent me a link to it this morning. But it’s supposed to be addressed to Conservatives. If that was the intention ( which I doubt) it’s sanctimonious, dismissive, and hubristic. It’s written aggressively, and it completely glosses over common concerns of the left and the right or the kind of thing that MIGHT make enacting policy in a two-party system more possible.
I don’t disagree with most of the content. But it has “nana nana boo boo” written all over it, and, on the whole, I think that’s a bad thing.
Just because someone is conservative doesn’t mean they are required to repudiate boorish behavior by other conservatives.
That would be like requiring all residents of New Castle County to repudiate the batshit craziness that spews from Nancy Willing.
He didn’t call Stupack a baby killer. He said it (the bill) was a baby killer. All should recognize that Congressman Stupack is a solid leader with a 30 year track record in life issues. He is a good man that I respect. He was working the best deal that he could get and won’t stop until there is a permanent law. It is regretful that such division is being hyped.
Stop bashing Nancy when she hasn’t even said anything here. She is a generally thoughtful person.
“He didn’t call Stupack a baby killer. He said it (the bill) was a baby killer.”
Since you believe all GOP bullshit, I’m not surprised you believe this obvious falsehood. As for all the horseshit you spouted about progressives, please apply the rubber-glue schoolyard rhyme. It’s at a level of intellectualism you can understand.
David, you have been duped if you think that someone yelling babykiller at someone giving a speech was referring to a bill. You are obviously impervious to logic.
Thanks Dave! You don’t have to worry about A-Holes who go around under the cover of a cowardly anonymity and ‘lock and load’ at me. Anony is trying to pretend that calling me names will invalidate my criticisms.
This is typical of a few of the contributors and commentors here – just another ad hominem from the ‘shoot first and think later’ crowd.
I never recall seeing posters of W anywhere with Hitler-type mustaches and dressed as a storm trooper. No David, your side has lost the argument because you have lost all civility.
You missed out then, MJ!
Some thoughts:
maybe it’s just me, but I don’t really think it’s appropriate for a congressman to scream “baby killer” in any context during a bill discussion. He’s allowed to, I just think he should probably be above that.
Progressivism = Cancer, someone watches Glenn Beck! and actually David is absolutely correct. It’s eating away at the parts of our heritage where people suffered in oppression and unequality. Like social security ate away at our tradition of impoverished elderly, or how civil rights ate away at centuries of inequal treatement for African americans (i mean the founders were awesome, but they still owned slaves). Or how women’s sufferage took a big bite out of women not having a say in this country, and the Lily Ledbetter act recently came back for seconds.
Bachman and Pence never encouraged the vial behavior of the few. You know it. It is just a club that a few emotionally charged nit wits gave you. I can’t blame you for trying to use it, but you have stretched too far. We all condemn calling people the N word and the F word to tout them. It is not effective lobbying to say the least, nor does it have a place in the civil discourse. You know that we all know that.
Why pretend otherwise? It is all that you have left. Smear, gossip, and distort. It won’t work in November so waste your time on it.
She didn’t encourage slurs but Bachman said on national tv that she wanted an investigation in congress to see who had “unamerican” beliefs.
just sayin’
Wow, methinks the bedwetters are running out of excuses!
Given that this country was founded by a bunch of “progressives”, it’s not really a stretch to say that progressive tendencies have been and always will be part of our makeup.
BTW – suck on this Messieurs “WE’RE A CENTER-RIGHT NATION!!!!!!ARRRRGGUGHHH”:
Strong Democrat 18%
Not strong Democrat 12%
Independent, lean Democrat 17%
Independent, not lean 20%
Independent, lean Republican 13%
Not strong Republican 8%
Strong Republican 13%
http://ndn.org/paper/2010/american-electorate-21st-century-poll-presentation
But keep on saying it and try clapping harder, Dodos.
Also, if anyone saw Morning Noe this morning – Joe broke out the false equivalency he (and his ilk) always does when people bring up the teabaggers and their Nazi signs….”Well I remember when anti-war protesters were calling Bu$hCo the second coming the SS, ect…”
First of all, bullshit. On one hand, you had a war (which means killing
brownpeople) trumped-up on lies, greed and wishful thinking (which has been proven, btw), and on the other – Health Care. Are you fucking kidding me?Now, I’m sure some liberals compared Bush with Hitler, and why not? Some comparisons are apropos:
http://archive.democrats.com/preview.cfm?term=Bush%20Hitler%20Comparison
But a liberal politician never had, but conversely conservative politicos certainly called Obama Hiter or Stalin or Mao or other words to conjure-up fascist/SS/commie associations.
It cannot be refuted.
moderation blows
http://livingtheliminal.com/2010/03/24/a-note-to-those-considering-domestic-terrorism/