Cheap personal insults: Always a great way for Republicans to score points with their base

Senator Orrin Hatch spoke recently at the Federalist Society’s annual conference and had some tough words (from a politician, anyway) for his ideological opponents, laughing as he called progressives just “straight old dumbass liberals.”…. Hatch touted how the midterm voters “delivered a decisive blow” to President Obama, as well as “his progressive agenda.” And here, Hatch went off-the-cuff, remarking, “I get a big kick out of them using the word ‘progressive.’ My gosh, they’re just straight old dumbass liberals anyway.”…. The crowd, of course, loved it.

Ah, yes…the prototypical Republican strategy: When you have nothing of value to offer, insulting your ideological adversaries is ALWAYS a good call. Your audience may not be able to grasp the nuance of policy debates…but they hardly need to be convinced that Liberals are dumbasses. That’s a matter of faith…and emphasizing that is a great way to make your smug and arrogant audience feel superior.

Sen. Hatch, no shining beacon of humanity himself, really doesn’t have anything of value to offer American. His Republican Party has led America into two protracted and bloody wars and several recessions during his Senate tenure, the last one having come close to bankrupting America. Republicans have presided over the creation of the largest gap in income inequality in this nation’s history. They’ve taken the federal budget from a surplus under Bill Clinton to a multi-TRILLION dollar deficit under George W. Bush. The Bush tax cuts financed the enrichment of the 1% while impoverishing those at the other end of the economic food chain- “trickle up” economics at their very worst.

To respond to Hatch’s moronic, sophomoric insult directed at Liberals would only dignify it. I’ll say only that he who inhabits a gasoline tank probably shouldn’t be lighting matches, knowhutimean??

Not that Hatch will pay attention or even be favorably disposed to accepting advice, but I’ll pass along some words of wisdom once given to me. Before you begin ridiculing others for their shortcomings, you might want to first make certain that your own house is in order. Otherwise, you come across as a pompous jackass with nothing of value to contribute but snark and cynicism.

Et tu, Senator??

Oh…and one other thing. Smug arrogance is a damned poor contribution to the public dialogue.