THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Joel Gilbert
In addition to the relentless onslaught of mostly negative ads from the Romney and Obama campaigns and their affiliated “super PACs,” the good people of Ohio are finding themselves targeted by a right-wing conspiracy maven who is dispensing a DVD that pushes beyond the birthers into a new level of paranoid fantasy…. “Dreams From My Real Father” is being sent to 1 million Ohio voters. The DVD makes the claim that, rather than being the son of a student from Kenya, the president was sired by a communist from Chicago named Frank Marshall Davis. Tens of thousands of lucky citizens of Nevada and New Hampshire have also found the DVD in the mail, thanks to the film’s director and producer, Joel Gilbert.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: free speech can be, and very often is, offensive and reprehensible speech. Such is the beauty (and the inadequacy) of the 1st Amendment. Any jackass with a keyboard (like me, f’rinstance) or a camera and editing software can put anything out into the ether without having to worry about veracity…or lack of same. Fact checking? That’s for losers and Liberals….
I could ignore the idjits who feel justified in tossing all manner of ridiculous unsubstantiated allegations at Barack Obama…if not for those idjits inclined to believe anything, no matter how absurd, about the President. When you view Ted Nugent as a patriot who speaks the truth, you have bigger problems than you know. When you’re so gullible that you will believe ANYTHING that paints the President in a negative light, regardless of whether it’s true or not, all you’ve done is demonstrate yourself to be an intellectual and moral black hole.
Perhaps the biggest difference between Liberals and Conservatives these days is that Liberals actually care about the truth. No, we don’t hold a monopoly on integrity and virtue, but you won’t find us making up stuff about Mitt Romney and spreading it as if it was unquestionable, verifiable truth. Many Conservatives seem willing to engage in any sort of character assassination they believe improves the prospects of their chosen candidate. Destroying an opponent by any and all means available and necessary seems to be the only rule. The fact that your opponent disagrees with you (or whose skin is a different color) means that he (or she) is fair game for the Right-wing character assassination machine.
There are those on the Far Right who would rather see America burn to the ground than see a Democrat, a Liberal, and/or and African-American in the White House. I think that says more about them (and their ignorance and prejudice) than anything I could possibly say. I just find it sad that so many on the Far Right feel perfectly justified in working to vilify and destroy a person simply because they believe differently.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
