(graphic via Erin O’Brien)
I believe that to meet the challenges of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for one self, one’s own family or one’s nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace.
- The Dalai Lama
I can’t tell you why, but I’ve spent a fair amount of time trying to figure why so many of those on the right side of the political spectrum have gone…well, bat-$#!% crazy. For a time, I thought about giving “low information voters” the benefit of the doubt. Surely, I thought, there has to be an explanation for why normally rational, lucid people would believe so much that’s provably wrong and patently ridiculous, never mind offensive and insulting.
Let’s face it, y’all; this ain’t Ronald’s Reagan’s GOP. If anything, today’s GOP is more attuned to the American Taliban than the Gipper. Rick Santorum’s ideology/theology is straight out of The Handmaid’s Tale. To his way of thinking, the separation of Church and State is a Liberal construct designed to keep God out of government. (Uh, yeah…it kinda is, and that’s a good thing…or do you want to be a Christian version of Saudi Arabia?)
Social Conservatives want to shrink government to a size small enough to fit into a woman’s vagina. Almost as bad, they pander to those who, like a certain bigoted White preacher, consider non-Christians to be “a virus.” Here’s some truth for all you Social Conservatives to ruminate upon: no matter how much you bleat to the contrary, religious freedom in the U.S. is not- repeat, NOT- in danger. Despite what you’ve convinced of, Christians are NOT a persecuted minority. Jeebus; get over yourselves, already.
Mitt Romney can express outrage with Bill Maher for his (admittedly out of line) comments about Sarah Palin…while giving Rush Limbaugh a free pass for his three-day-long misogynistic verbal assault on Sandra Fluke.
Republicans in Congress are opposing the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act. What seems to be lost on the clueless cabal of middle-aged White men is the message that their opposition sends to women. Hint: It ain’t good (Jeebus, y’all…can’t battered women look out for themselves??).
Right-wing pundits see it as their absolute right to insult a journalist and call her a “racist” simply because she doesn’t unquestioningly accept and push their twisted, hatred-driven propaganda. And then they wonder why people like me deride them as partisan hacks who care nothing for truth and facts? “Gotcha” journalism…and I use “journalism” on in the broadest sense…is the invention and exclusive property of the Rabid Right.
President Obama has said that many Republicans would have been founding members of the Flat Earth Society…and there’s no credible argument to be made against that assertion. It’s not about truth; it’s about what you can convince people to believe.
What I find most amazing is the GOP’s hilariously self-destructive drive to alienate voters. By declaring war on women and regarding them as second-class citizens incapable of making decisions for themselves, Republicans are not making any friends among the distaff half of the electorate.
As if that isn’t bad enough, there’s the Right’s collective disdain for Hispanics, another bloc it’s going to be difficult to win without. Rick Santorum’s “If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for Puerto Ricans” dismissal of Spanish is another example of a Republican working overtime to alienate an entire voting bloc. Is it any wonder that a recent poll showed that only 14% of Hispanics would vote for Mitt Romney? It would stretch credibility to think that a significantly higher percentage would vote for Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, of Newt Gingrich.
Speaking of Romney, here’s something he and his campaign really should take to heart: no matter what you think, you really can’t buy the Presidency. If you have no workable platform, no core convictions, and no integrity, you’re not going to be taking the oath of office on 1.20.13.
Lost in all of the Sturm und Drang about religious freedom, birth control, alienating women and Hispanics, personhood, and trans-vaginal ultrasounds is what we should be talking about. You know, things like the economy, health care, infrastructure, war, etc….
I work hard to avoid words like “stupid” when describing those I disagree. I don’t always succeed (yeah, I can be rather opinionated), but I do try. In this case, though, I don’t know how else it’s possible to explain how virtually the entire right side of the political has lost their collective mind. These intellectual and moral midgets wouldn’t recognize universal responsibility and the need to work for all humankind if they showed up in the form of Patricia Heaton bearing knee pads and a tube of AstroGlide.
And yet millions of Americans will vote Republican in direct contravention of their own best interests. I suppose reacting IS easier than thinking, no??
