I’ve met some very nice, intelligent Republicans who actually believe that Obama has Maoists in his Cabinet. That’s simply insane. And it’s troubling, since these are people with half a brain who work in Washington. People like Gingrich. They’re the modern children of McCarthyism. And it’s hard to know how to deal with them, how to even react, because, at their core, they’re all a little nuts. I remember in a Shakespeare class my senior year of college the professor asked us if we could understand Lear’s madness. None of us could. She explained the conundrum. If you’re sane, it’s impossible to understand madness.
One of the things that has truly amazed me since November 4, 2008, is how so many normally lucid, well-meaning people have convinced themselves of things that are so far out of the realm of reality as to defy comprehension. By now, you’ve heard some of all of these wild conspiracy theories. Depending on who you listen to, Barack Obama:
- is not a US citizen, because he was born in Kenya,
- is in office due to a conspiracy that goes back to the day he was born,
- wants government “death panels” to determine a citizen’s worthiness for receiving health care,
- wants to take away our guns,
- wants to take away our right to fish,
- is a Socialist,
- is a Communist,
- is a Muslim and an Islamofascist plant,
- has hired Maoists as some of his closest advisers,
- is the modern incarnation of Adolf Hitler….
I could go on, of course, but you get the point, right? It’s as if we’ve become a set for the filming of Idiocracy II: Creeping Brain Death. Perhaps it’s just that the media has decided to focus on the entertainment value provided by these loons, but some of these folks are in CONGRESS (et tu, Steve King??). People who can in all honesty argue that the President is a Socialist and a terrorist sympathizer get inordinate amounts of air time. And don’t even begin to argue that it isn’t because he’s Black. Interesting how little of this madness we heard when George W. Bush was President, isn’t it? (Yeah, he was incompetent, but at least he was White….)
If you look at some of the folks who attract media attention like flies to…well, you know…it’s hard not to wonder why good and decent people are all too often roundly ignored. People queue up to see and listen to Sarah Palin, treating her like some sort of hero and prophet. To call her a grifter and an intellectual lightweight would be charitable, because it doesn’t begin to address the ignorance, the reaction, and the incitement to violence she willingly lends herself to. When ignorance is considered a virtue, when intellectual flexibility is considered a vice, what does it say about our future when someone like Palin is hailed as a leader? When even an ostensibly intelligent person like Newt GIngrich appeals to the ignorant and the reactionary by speaking the language of ignorance and reaction, what does our future hold? And what could Glenn Beck possibly represent but the collective willing suspension of disbelief and reason for millions of Americans?
It’s true; if you’re sane, it’s impossible to understand madness. If you honestly believe that there are Maoists in the White House, and that Barack Obama wants to take away your right to fish, how about doing the right thing and turning in your voters registration card? It’s not as if you’re doing anyone any good. I don’t understand you or what passes for your thought process, but I do know that you and people like you represent a danger to those of us who actually think. Yes, I suppose that might sound arrogant and “elitist”, but I happen to like rational intellectual debate grounded in reality and truth. Feel free to join me….
