Bill Maher's show last night had me so angry I practically tossed the TV. Using profane terminology, former senator Alan Simpson castigated Maher for saying "demeaning" things about right-wingers and fundamentalists.
"Demeaning?" Good lord, Mr. Simpson -- if you want to hear some demeaning commentary, just turn on any AM radio, any time of the day or night, in any state. You'll hear a ceaseless barrage of blood-curdling, no-holds-barred invective lobbed against Democrats. You'll hear fundamentalist preachers spew endless propaganda, combining political and religious rhetoric in defiance of their tax-free status.
By comparison, Bill Maher is on HBO for just one hour a week only part of the year, and he always allows the other side to have its say.
In this past election, we heard our candidate slammed as effeminate and "French." We heard lies about his record. Lies about his faith. We heard filthy lies that Democrats wanted to ban the Bible.
How DARE any Republican complain that conservatives have been demeaned? That's like a Hitler apologist claiming that Poland invaded Germany!
One of the odd quirks of human behavior is that oppressors often convince themselves of their underdog status, and the most arrogant individuals are the quickest to feel slighted.
Southern fundamentalists are notoriously worried that northern "elitists" may look down on them. Yet all my life, southerners have felt free to speak to me in the most condescending terms imaginable. Want an example? Here's a direct quote from a former friend who lived in Tennessee: "You guys in California may not understand what a true marriage is..."
More than a decade later, I'm still infuriated by that one. And I honestly cannot recall ever having a single conversation with a southern male in which an arrogant zinger of that sort did not slip in. Can you?
Later, Andrew Sullivan repeated much of Simpson's nonsense. The argument seems to be that we should allow thuggish reactionaries and religious bullies to toss rocks at us day and night, while we should never pick up a rock and throw back. Conservatives want all liberals to act like alan colmes.
Well, screw that.
Throughout the 1980s, Democrats behaved like gentlemen while the reactionaries kept sinking to new depths of brutishness. Our losses then were far worse than our near-win of a few nights ago.
The lesson: When someone throws rocks at you, grab bigger rocks and throw back harder. Conservatives are bullies, and most bullies are cowards.
Incidentally, Andrew Sullivan called Noam Chomsky an apologist for the Soviet Union. While I am by no means an uncritical Chomsky admirer, the accusation is a lie. I may still have a cassette of the recorded lecture Chomsky gave circa 1988 in which he railed against the USSR as "a dungeon," and I've never seen the opposite opinion expressed in any of his writings.
Andy, you're a liar. I don't care that you voted for Kerry. Go back to the other side. The Republicans are the party for liars.
1 comment:
I am of two minds about this past election. I am fairly convinced that the Democrats lost this election two or three years ago by not fighting the bullies in Congress full-bore then. However, I don't think the way to go is to throw bigger rocks. Something gets lost that you can't get back when you sink to the level of your opponent. For us to be nastier and more Machiavellian politicians than the Repubs (if it's possible) would not be worth whatever small edge we would gain.
Michael Moore's recent "17 Reasons not to slit your wrists" is powerful and absolutely dead-on intelligent thinking about the next four years. What he says in a nutshell is that the Repubs have an uphill battle and we are not powerless and vanquished the way we are being painted as being.
And of course the real edge that we have is that George W. Bush is in self-destruct mode. He has serious mental disabilities that are going to destroy him. The same problems that caused him to self-medicate with alcohol are still with him. He is either bipolar or schizophrenic which causes him to have feelings of inflated self-esteem and grandiose delusions. With this victory, his symptoms will only get worse and he will require stronger and stronger medication. This is a battle he can't win.
So while we set about putting our Democrat house in order, investigating voter fraud and confronting the problems the Repubs have given the world as best we can, we also can watch George Bush's downward spiral, and the civil war within the Republican party...the visible demise of the so-called victors will be in two years or less, not four.
Ratfuck Diary (http://ratfuckdiary.blogspot.com)
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