As I'm enjoying my morning coffee and contemplating heading off to they gym, I've been watching the news on MSNBC. During a story on the Tea Party Convention in Nashville, the reporter covering the story stated that this morning's opening orator would be speaking on the subject of how the Obama Administration is similar to Latin American dictatorships.
Uh...WTF??
As I continued to listen to the story, I kept coming back to the subject of the speech. In doing so, I find myself wondering what you have to be smoking in order to honestly believe that a democratically elected government is ANYTHING like some of the corrupt, ruthless dictatorships south of the border. Do the people who put forth this verbal vomit REALLY believe what's coming out of their mouths? Or are they merely spewing hatred as the product they want to push because they have no other, more constructive ideas?
I can understand, and I accept, that good and decent people can, will, and do disagree on issues that impact us today. Such is the nature of a healthy, functional democracy. What I refuse to countenance is the rampant, unchecked ignorance that's spread to the four winds simply because someone lacks anything positive to add to the public discourse. Have we really reached the point where people can feel justified trafficking in unchecked racism, world-class ignorance, and fear-mongering simply because they've been thoroughly propagandized? Have so many really lost the ability (and the willingness) to think for themselves that they've become a prisoner of their own ignorance and feeling of powerlessness? Why traffic in the challenging realities of fact and reality when you can wallow in fear-mongering, racism, and reaction?
I realize that I'm running the risk of sounding horribly arrogant and self-superior. Even so, from where I sit it's hard to see the rise of Tea Party Nation as anything but the triumph of ignorance, reaction, and racism. I find it telling that none of these folks said "Boo!" while The Worst President EVER © occupied the White House. George W. Bush took this nation from a budget surplus to the largest deficit in our history- in EIGHT years. Now a Democrat (and- GASP!!- an African-American) is sitting in the White House...and people are screaming about socialism and birth certificates? The problems we face today didn't magically manifest themselves on 1.20.09...though millions of Teabaggers will scream to the contrary until their blood pressure cuffs pop.
I find it difficult to get past the realization that we've become a nation of morons. As a whole, this country has morphed into a collection of screaming, irrational zealots willing to believe whatever hateful untruths happen to resonate within their lizard brains. When Fox News Channel can be considered the most trusted name in "news", you have to know that the crazy train has long since left the station. Somewhere, Josef Goebbels is smiling....
WE DESERVE BETTER.
Good Lord, y'all...perhaps I should just turn this into a gardening blog and cede the playing field to the ignorant and the irrational....
