You voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004? You supported his tax cuts? You cursed out the Dixie Chicks and Michael Moorez when they spoke out against the Iraq war? Do you argue with liberals until you’re angry but only nod your head when someone quotes Rush Limbaughz? Do you think MSNBC is too slanted but don’t understand why people complain about Fox? Then you are a conservative. You’re not an “Independent” or a “Libertarian” at all, you’re a conservative who is ashamed to admit it. And you should be.
The title of this post expresses just about everything I think is wrong with the American Sheeple. While I realize that referring to the American electorate as “Sheeple” may not seem polite, I’m neither the first nor the only person to do so. There’s so much in American life today that makes the political process look like a collection of outtakes from Idiocracy (e.g.- the Tea Party). Most Americans possess neither the inclination nor the ability to take a good look at what those on the Right are doing to this country. No, it’s so much easier to rely on Fox Noise Channel for their news and to swallow their propaganda as Gospel. Rather than questioning or even thinking about what’s being fed to them, too many Americans take in what they see and hear on FNC and other Right-wing media outlets without ever considering that propaganda is not the moral equivalent of objective journalism. They make decisions based on lies, misinformation, and half-truths packaged in ways that appeal to emotion, ignorance, and inattention. This explains Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, etc., etc., ad infinitume, ad nauseum.
We live in an America that has become meaner, weaker, and more divided than ever before. Republicans at their party’s debates have cheered the execution of an innocent man and cheered the idea of allowing the uninsured to die. They’ve also booed a gay soldier while their candidates stood on stage like wooden Indians. Not one of them had the decency to stand up and do the right thing by denouncing such hatefulness when it occurred.
Rather than find ways to come together and accept the reality that we’re stronger together, Americans now increasingly look out for their own interests above any other consideration. They reject the social contract, they accept the idea that any government involvement in our health care is “Socialism”, and they reflexively reject anything that smacks of “Liberalism” as both evil and anti-American. The fact that many Americans likely couldn’t define “Socialism” or “Liberalism” seems entirely beside the point, because ignorance is the new meme on the campaign trail for Republicans. “C” and “D” students are hailed as Heroes of the People, while those smart and competent enough to actually have a shot at making things better are treated as if they’re some sort of anti-American freaks.
And Heaven forbid that Conservatives would actually own up to their failures. No, it’s so much easier to blame Liberals instead of owning up to the truth and admitting that, because you could only react instead of think, we ended up with 8 years of The Reign of Error ©.
[W}e did it your way for 6 years. Weren’t those heady times for you? Those dumbass liberals knew their place and Democrats just folded like a cheap suit and went along with everything your party wanted. You were on top of the world!….
You were a conservative and you were proud to be counted among their number.
But then it all went so wrong. The wars dragged on and American soldiers kept dying or coming home maimed and crippled. Those tax cuts that were supposed to make you rich didn’t actually do much for you at all and the economy collapsed. The government exploded in size and your civil rights were trampled. We were deeper in debt than ever before and the absolute worst part was that you were in charge! You want to blame Clinton and you try really hard but it sounds forced, even to you. You want to blame the Democrats but there’s just too much video of Bush advocating the policies that we all know screwed the country. You were put into an impossible position. So you lied.
You never supported those wars!
You never asked for those ruinous tax cuts!
Of course, the one thing that Conservatives find difficult, if not impossible, to do, is to admit when they’re wrong. Invariably, they can twist reality to blame their failings on “the Liberal media”, “Islamofascist terrorists”, “the unemployed”…or really any other group they think they can deflect blame onto. When you have Fox Noise Channel (after all, they’re “fair and balanced”) to propagandize you into believing that Liberals are responsible for all of this country’s problems, why would you even have to think about taking responsibility?
It would be nice to think that the American Sheeple could have an honest and open conversation about where we are and how we might get there. It would be nice, but until Americans can be bothered to think instead of react, America will continue to drift without a rudder. What we won’t be lacking are battalions of Right-wing pundits willing to blame all America’s ills on Liberals and/or the “Liberal media.” It’s too bad we won’t be able to deal in the realm of fact, truth, and reality.
Somewhere warm and breezy, Josef Goebbels is snickering into his Corona….
