CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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A Few Things I Learned Over the Summer of 2009 Part 1

Monday, September 14, 2009

this entry brought to you by the white stripes, "conquest"


Bill Maher, over the summer, said something that I quite agreed with. The Democrats used to be liberal and the Republicans used to be conservative, but things have changed. The Democrats are now the conservative party, and the Republicans are the batshit party.

What's so frustrating about the Republicans versus the Democrats is that the Democrats don't seem to have any cohesion. They genuinely feel like what the legislative branch was originally intended to be: differing opinions trying to find a middle ground. Unfortunately, the Democrats, assuming that they will lose their most progressive ideas in the congressional process, start from the middle and work from there-- this has been exemplified perfect in Obama, but is true of the party in general-- but there's still a semblance of a meeting of minds with the Democratic party. Unfortunately, this isn't as good of an idea it would sound. 60 rational people-- erm, 59 now, I guess-- trying to get their differing opinions and views to mesh sounds like a good idea, but the Republicans don't work that way.

I'm not sure exactly how it works. I'm not sure if the Republican leaders meet with the conservative lobbyists and get together, and have a very well interconnected web for spreading the message once it's been conceived, or if Republicans think in a hive mind, but their talking points are instantaneously hatched and executed with perfect melding, and it doesn't matter if these talking points make any sense, are based on any facts whatsoever, or are just downright fucking insane. The moment you hear it from one person, be it Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin, Chuck Grassley, or some corporate shill on Fox News that nobody understands fully why they're being listened to, but once one of them says it, the entire mob of Republicans is already on message, echoing it around like the drone of bees.

It is destructive, it is horrible, but it works. They understand that it doesn't matter what it is they say; if all of them say it, it will break into the mainstream, regardless of the content. It doesn't matter how crazy or utterly off basis it is. It doesn't matter that there are no death panels, or that there are already death panels in your insurance company. It doesn't matter that there are no death books, or that the thing being purported to be a death book has been around unchanged since George W. Bush. It doesn't matter that nowhere in the bill does it mention tax payer dollars going to support abortions or illegal immigrants. It doesn't even fucking matter that Barack Obama actually is a born American, and that the public has had his birth certificate for a long time now. None of these things matter, because the people they are speaking to just need a reason to hate, and will feed off of it regardless of what it is, and confuse people who don't pay close enough attention.

Nobody in the media is willing to admit this, but the reason they are trying to scare old folks into believing this death panel bullshit is because old folks are easily manipulated, and they prove it time and time again. Old people are incredibly into politics, yet much more likely to pay less attention to current events and the world at large, and they're easy to form long-term loyalty with. Old people aren't stupid, they are ignorant and suggestible. I'm not trying to make fun of old people. I'm just saying that if it weren't for the G.I. bill, not nearly as many of them would have had a college education.

So of course the Republicans are taking advantage of old people, just like toy manufacturers and snack makers take advantage of children. Simply put, they are buying what they are selling.

But while getting old people confused and scared is disheartening and cruel, it only gets worse when you factor in that the Republicans and the entire right wing haven't just stopped there. As we watched McCain unleash Sarah Palin last election cycle and the country got the treat of watching her immediately dive gleefully head first into the pool of the most insane populace of the country, a group of people McCain quickly showed himself unable to control, we now see the entire right wing doing the same. They have moved past any semblance of rationality and with a bold disregard of facts, they are more than willing to fan the flames of hate and fear amongst the most obvious politically active people with the least amount of facts-- facts that they are proud to be ignorant of. The birthers. The deathers. The tea baggers. The Texan secessionists. The gun toting freaks holding up signs that talk about the blood of tyrants. The crowds of booing, chanting, anti-American adults with the id of children shouting "Assassinate Obama." Do you remember those people at McCain rallies shouting "Kill him!"? Now they're all over the goddamn place.

The Republican party proudly and smugly gloated this past August when Congress was on recess about being able to arrange these people to go to their local rallies with Congressmen and to shout them down, leave them unable to talk. And although the website of the right-wing organization behind these rallies proudly says to bring cameras of the mob rule, to post them on Youtube, they turn to the media and say these are all "Grassroots", all of them equipped with the same literature and talking points, all with the mission to stop actual democracy. They claim they want their country back, but they have no idea how an actual civilization is supposed to behave. Shouting "Kill the President!" is supposed to be for third world countries filled with savage rebels who overthrow their leaders and chop off their heads, putting them on pikes outside of the building as a warning to those who dare oppose them. And yet here we are. We're supposed to be the super power, the only first world country that really matters, yet our country is uncomfortably full with these barbarians

But it's not all of the people at these rallies that are the insane, the fringe, the crazies who announce themselves as "Proud American Terrorists". Some of these people are just gullible and misinformed. Some of them, like the old folks, are just ignorant to the world around to them, and easily manipulated. It's not fair that the government should have a system to kill Grandma, they think. That's what the Nazis did, they think. Well, that's not quite what the Nazis did, but they're right that it would be evil. They just don't take that second thought and say "Wait, that makes no sense." They go immediately to fear and anger.

And it's these people that the Republican party is most counting on. They know that ultimately embracing the fringe isn't going to get them more votes. What they're counting on is the spillage from the froth. If they can get the nutcases to yell loud enough, eventually their words will start to get into the minds of Those Who Don't Know Better. All they need is a seed to plant. Those Who Don't Know Better might work with these people, might be neighbors. And sure, they might hang a Confederate flag outside of their house, but they bake cookies sometimes and invite my kids over, they can't be all bad.

It's with these people in mind that makes me wonder something that I have not gotten the answer to.

When Democrats, who are trying to be civil, respond to the out-and-out lies of the opposition, they dismiss this evil bullshit as "just politics." But it's not "just politics". Politics is when someone says or does something, and the opposition takes that and pushes it to an extreme to gain an advantage. When Hillary Clinton suggested in the primaries that Barack Obama might or might not be prepared for that three-o'clock in the morning emergency call, it was somewhat silly, but it was an honest question, and it was just politics, even though it suggested if you elected Obama we were all doomed to die somehow in the middle of our sleep. The end statement is an untruth, but it got there with something legitimate. That is "just politics".

But that's not what's happened, that's not what the Republican party has been doing since we elected Black Guy, and especially over this past summer. They are lying. They know they are lying. They are lying anything they can make up, they are using the most out-and-out untrue tactics, they are fearmongering and making up their own set of rules. That's not "just politics".

And it's dangerous. It's creating a whole country covered in a frothing hatred, and some of that is seeping into innocent people who wouldn't otherwise be swayed to believe these things.

We are the most litigious country in the nation. A celebrity can sue a tabloid for making up stories about them being pregnant, and in the context of the whole world, this is relatively harmless. Yet they can still sue because it can ruin their reputation, and in turn ruin their career. Here in the world of politics, out-and-out making up things can literally hurt people, and in the world of health care, can end up literally killing thousands of Americans. Literally. Without exaggeration.

Why can't we just sue? Maybe when Glenn Beck opens his mouth he honestly believes the things he says-- and he doesn't, but let's pretend he does-- but when a Senator opens his mouth and says "You ought to be afraid about death panels", he knows he is wrong. Why can't somebody just fucking sue him? Why can't a lawyer knock on his door and say "You know fucking better than that, and if you don't, you should. See you in court. Also, you're going to lose your job." Why can't that happen? If some idiot starlet can sue for defamation of character, why can't the government sue for defamation of the United States of America? Why can't we do something to stop these lies? Why do we allow them to run around completely free, saying and making up facts at their will?

We obviously can't rely on the media to correct them, and even when the media does correct them, the problem is that the correction might not be heard by everyone who heard the first lie. The seed had already been planted. The already boiling pot was added that much more into it, that much more to spill over the side, that much more to seep into ignorant but innocent people.
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with love from CRS @ 3:21 PM 

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