You know, I have to be honest here. I
really can't imagine most of the loudest members of the Republican right wing
fart machine, like Beck, Limbaugh or Hannity, lynching a black man. It's unlikely someone like Tom Tancredo or Representative Joe Wilson (not
to be confused with Valerie Plame's husband, of course) would ever run their
cars over a group of undocumented immigrants selling oranges on Santa Monica
Boulevard. In other words, on the racism scale, they're not at the top. I guess
that's a good thing. They're definitely not mass murderers. But has our society
become so coarse that not being a mass murderer is a badge of honor?
But while I can't imagine Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or any of the rest of the gang of right wing idiots polluting our media actually burning a cross on the front lawn of the White House, I have no doubt that, if they were walking down Pennsylvania Avenue and saw one already burning, they’d be more inclined to toast a marshmallow or grill a steak than to actually call the police or fire departments. Careful guys, you shouldn’t eat food cooked over a gasoline fire.
The Republican Party is in a right pickle
right now. Back in 1964, they got their asses handed to them in an election,
and they went searching for a constituency to boost their fortunes. Suddenly,
an opportunity arose when Democrats pushed through the Civil Rights and Voting
Rights Acts, passed Medicare and the Great Society, and overall helped “them
people” feel like more like a part of society and less like outsiders. In the
process, the Democratic Party developed a collective conscience, and suddenly,
the racist wing of the Democratic Party, who were only in the party because
Republicans ended slavery anyway, felt as if they'd lost their political home,
and needed another.
Now, a responsible major political
party tends to treat fringe elements as outcasts. But the Republican Party has
always been about freedom, with nary a nod to the responsibility that comes with it. So,
after Democrats dared actually try to make the
It worked like a charm, and pretty
quickly, as well. By about 1972, the right wing of the Democratic Party, which
had always been kept in check by that party's liberal and left moderate
factions, found a new, far more fertile home in the Republican Party. There, when
they combined forces with the Taft Wing, they could let their freak flag fly.
They could be as racist and right wing as they wanted, and they no longer
clashed with the other elements of the party. Because 85% of their political
views were aligned with the Taft Wing of the GOP, they were allowed to call
themselves “conservative,” and people wouldn’t laugh at them. As a result, a
group of racist crackers, who are not only ignorant themselves, but who embrace
profound ignorance as a lifestyle choice, became the Republican Party's
"base."
This is a group of people who should
always be on the fringe, if indeed they are allowed to participate in the
political process at all. Frankly, I think perhaps the Amish have the right
idea, in that they tend to “shun” people who actively work against their
society. Instead, we “English” give them their own network and equal time with
people who aren’t completely stupid.
Right wingers see their opinions as
fact, and thus, cannot tell the difference between an opinion and a fact. They
develop preconceived notions based on an alternate version of reality that
doesn’t actually exist in the real world, and they only accept those
"facts" that fit that notion, discarding all others. This is why they
would rather not deal with science. This is why they don’t read the Bible; they
let others tell them what’s in it.
Yet, these fringe elements now
dominate Republican Party politics. And politicians, even the scant few
"moderate" Republicans who have managed to stick it out with the
party, and a few "Blue Dog" Democrats who were elected in
majority-cretin states, have no choice but to kowtow to them. We used to laugh
at people like this, remember? I remember driving across the western half of
the country, and hearing people like this on tiny little radio stations in
podunk towns, and laugh my ass off at their idiocy. Now, they’ve gone
mainstream, precisely because one major political party has come to depend on
them to stay at least minimally relevant. Now, we're forced to listen to their
pabulum echo throughout the land on a daily basis, and we have spend inordinate
amounts of time fighting the tide of complete bullshit that has come about
because the media and political elites gives voice to their idiocy. No, they
don’t just give voice to it; they feed it. They throw red meat to these savage
assholes, and delight in the carnage that results.
Anyone with an IQ over 50 and the
ability to spell words of more than four letters knows that Jimmy Carter was
absolutely right. That includes many of the people who are bitching the most
about his pronouncement that the racism in the health care debate has become
ridiculous. Of course, they bitch about his pronouncement, because it's part of
the act. Even if you could make the case that the "kings" of the
right wing media and the leadership of the Republican Party itself weren't
overt racists, there is absolutely no doubt of their covert racism. And I think
most of us would agree, covert racism is a far more despicable type. Minorities
can handle the guy who openly hates them and calls them racial epithets; it’s
more difficult to deal with racism that has a veneer of legitimacy. And as the
right wing and the Republican Party lose power, their rhetoric becomes even
more shrill and desperate, and even more dangerous.
Republicans and right wing media are
all about money and power, so they have no choice to be racist, because their
key demographic is ignorant and racist. And they can no longer excuse
themselves. Even if a Republican politician wouldn't treat a member of a
minority badly, personally speaking, the fact that they are more than willing
to openly play to racists, and give them a wink and a nod in order to get votes
and support makes them racists themselves. When you play to scumbags to gain
power, you yourself become a scumbag. When John McCain, who is not personally
racist -- and by that I mean, he has probably never treated a minority badly
himself -- embraced the racist wing of the Republican Party in order to try to
win the presidency, he demonstrated racist tendencies, whether he meant to or
not. That made him a racist. When the Republican Party talks about illegal
immigration, they invariably invoke images of brown people swimming across the
Rio Grande, or tunneling under the border fence. This, despite the fact that
MOST of the undocumented immigrants in this country come here legally and just
stay beyond their visa, and more than half are not from Mexico or points south.
But there is no political advantage to be gained by discussing the actual facts
with regard to illegal immigration. Because of the makeup of their “base,” they
are required, politically, to scare the idiots with the image of a swarm of
brown people who talk funny and take their jobs
Listen to me, Republicans and right
wing media elite. If you don't absolutely denounce racism in all forms, you
become racist yourself. And as much as we all wish you weren't, you are
figureheads in this country, and you have a responsibility
to defuse the powder keg, not to exploit it and jam it with more powder. Yet, with a black man in the White House, the
racist powder keg about to blow, and all of these powerful talking sphincters
are not just all too happy to light the fuse; they're actually blowing on the
fuse to make it burn faster.
Most of the people the right wing fart
machine cater to and exploit harmless blowhards. But within that element are
some seriously dangerous, disturbed people.
Right wingers talk about Christianity and "family values," but
they don't really give a damn about any of that; they're far more concerned
that "revenooers" are on the way to take away their trailer, their
guns and their freedom to beat their wives, eat too much pork and drink too
much beer. They see all of "them people" as a danger to their way of
life, such as it is, with "them people" constituting anyone with a
hue slightly darker than Paris Hilton. They have no regard for reality
whatsoever and they view "heroism" and death as equivalent. The more
their fire is stoked, the greater the likelihood of a Timothy McVeigh, a James
Earl Ray or a Lee Harvey Oswald popping up and wreaking havoc on the populace.
I've been noticing some changes in the
ignorant Fox News-consuming masses lately, and it should be worrisome to
everyone. What’s happening doesn’t qualify as a Bill Clinton-style hatred; this
is far worse. I mean, don't get me wrong; Clinton hatred was the worst I'd seen
to that point, and wholly irrational. And I have little doubt that the Secret
Service had to deal with a large number of threats during the Clinton
Administration.
But the current situation seems to be
more troubling, because it’s combined with the irrational concept that,
somehow, skin color is a determining factor in worthiness to live in the United
States. People used to hide their hatred. Now, they're showing up to rallies
and protests with a sidearm or a shotgun. They're not even the least bit ashamed
to invoke Hitler in signs and posters. And most of the anti-Obama rhetoric has
little or nothing to do with his policies, which are actually quite moderate,
and even conservative. Everything is about the color of his skin. When they
talk about "taking our country back," what would they be taking their
country back from, exactly? They seem obsessed over the mere concept that
"them people" have "taken over" the country.
If what is happening doesn't scare
you, it should. I know there’s a tendency on the part of progressives to see
the best in people, but if you’re comparing the rhetoric now with the rhetoric
used during the Clinton years, then you’re not paying attention. When Clinton
was in office, Republicans were still very powerful. Now, they have almost no
power, and they’re desperate to get power back, so they’ve pulled out all the
stops and amped it up several notches. All it takes is a small number of these
people to create major problems.
Anti-government loons can pretty much
be trusted to do something drastic in order to gain attention, and they have a
red-letter cause to rally around, what with a black man "ordering them
around." These are people who had to be forced to allow people with dark
skin to eat in the same restaurant and sleep in the same hotels as they. These
are people who still swear that every brown or black person who done anything
with his life only got there because of "affirmative action quotas."
These are people convinced that all black and brown people are inferior to all
white people, by virtue of their dark skin. Apparently, in their eyes, God
color-coded us, to mark the ones with brains.
The right wing fart machine is stoking
these people, and it really has to stop. These people need to be driven back to
the fringes where they belong, not placed on a pedestal, as if they have
something to say that is worth hearing.
And it's time that those in the media and in politics who cater to these
idiots are pushed back into the fringes with them.
I believe in freedom of speech, but
this isn't about freedom of speech. With freedom comes responsibility, and this
is about responsibility to your country and your society. See, one of the
hallmarks of right wing "thought," such as it is, is this notion that
the right to free speech means that no one can counter it. In other words,
their version of free speech actually infringes on others' free speech. (Hey,
right wingers lack an irony gene; what can I say?) They’re allowed to say
whatever they want, but screw you if your disagree with them. They want free
speech with no consequences, and it's time they learned there is no such thing.
We as a society must stop allowing
this crap to continue. When are we going to take steps to stop it? Yes, of
course Rush Limbaugh has the right to be as racist as he wants. He can start a
blog, or publish a newsletter, or rent a hall and make a speech, anywhere he wants
to, where he can call for segregated school buses and proclaim certain types of
racism "justified" to his heart’s content. But he doesn't have the
right to do so on OUR airwaves. The stations that carry him have a license,
which is a contract with the people who actually OWN the airwaves (that's us!)
to operate in the public interest. Sorry, but spewing racism and lies to keep a
tiny fraction of the public motivated to continue voting Republican is not
"in the public interest." Stoking the fires of racism and motivating
dangerous people into thinking "the Negroes" have taken over our
wonderful "white" country in no way constitutes "the public
interest." We need to go after the advertisers, and we need to blanket the
local stations and let them know this kind of crap will no longer be tolerated.
And we have to contact our members of Congress to demand a return to oversight,
and start filing complaints
with the FCC. Send letters to your
local station, and let them know you're filing the complaint, and to local
advertisers, and let them know you'll stop supporting them unless they start
putting these people on notice, that stoking the fires of racism and violence
will no longer be tolerated.
Stop waiting for Congress and the FCC
to do something; WE have to power to stop this crap. Hit them in the wallet;
that's where it hurts most.
And while Fox News does not fall under
FCC jurisdiction, to say there's nothing you can do is just silly. Look at
Glenn Beck for a clue. At least 60 advertisers have pulled out of Glenn Beck's
show, and for the time being, he has record ratings, but Fox is losing money on
his show. We can do the same on all of the other shows, as well. But just as
importantly, we should be putting pressure on the cable companies, as well. Do
you realize that all cable companies work under a franchise granted to them by
your local government? Cable operators have a duty to the public , as
well. Send complaints to your local
cable franchise board, and your city, town or county government. If they get enough of them, they'll feel
pressure to act. You can also cancel your cable. I don't know if you've noticed, but you
really don't need cable tv anymore, anyway. Between dollar a night DVD rentals,
podcasts, and Hulu, there is almost no reason to have it anymore. Cut off your
cable, cite as a reason your disgust with the content on Fox News, and tell
them you'll come back when they either get rid of Fox News, or offer a la carte
programming choices, where you can have cable without it.
Just because the idiots at Fox News
technically have the right to free speech and free press does not mean they are
entitled to have access to your television.
The leaders of the right wing fart
machine are all about political and financial power, and they don't give a damn
about this country, or the people in it. Hell, they don't even care about the
people they're exploiting. Have the
right wingers who support these assholes even checked their own fortunes
lately?
Hey Fox nerds in red states; have you
noticed you're significantly poorer than the "liberal" folks in the
blue states? Have you noticed that you tend to have higher murder, divorce,
drug addiction, teen pregnancy and abortion rates than the blue states? Have
you noticed that, while taxes on the rich have gone down quite a bit, yours
have gone UP? Since idiots like
Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck and O'Reilly have been saying exactly what you want to
hear, and your politicians have been kissing your asses to get you to vote for
them, what's actually changed for the better in your life? Oh, sure, the fish
have two heads, which makes for a better stew, and that toxic waste dump with
all them good $10 an hour jobs wasn't there before, and ya now got a Wal-Mart,
so's ya don't hafta drive all over town to buy shit anymore. But really; has
your life gotten any better? At what point do you figure out that they're using
you to gain power and money, and they have no interest in you at all?
As a nation, we're entering into very
dangerous waters, and unless we nip this in the bud quickly, I'm afraid we may
be looking at some major tragedy coming down the pike. We can no longer afford
to give those who encourage hate speech to continue down this road. I fear for
this country's future if so much of the media is allowed to continue stoking
the fires of racism and hatred.
And one last important thing.
Support progressive media, especially
mainstream media. It’s not enough to know Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann are
on the air. Be proactive in your support. Don’t just listen to Stephanie
Miller, Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz online; start making waves, and demand
that they be carried locally. And if they are being carried locally, make sure
your local station gets your support. Support your favorite bloggers with a
couple of bucks once in a while, and if they have advertising, show your
support to those advertisers, as well.
We have to do this, folks. I don’t
want to see a repeat of the 1960s, where we lost the best and the brightest to
bullets fired by assholes, who were encouraged to do so by right wing clowns. I’m
really afraid of the road we’re going down, but we can stop it. We really do have that power.
