I feel like Anakin Skywalker right on the edge of going to the Dark Side, and I have a lot of people to “thank” for that, but the guy who really has pushed me right up to the edge is Al Franken. I made the mistake of reading Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right last night while I was on my shift, cover to cover.
You know, it’s hard to take a principled stand when it is demonstably proven that the people “on your side” are numbskulls (you know who I mean, the usual talking heads like Rush and Hannity and that bitch Ann Coulter, among others). I haven’t exactly had the time or desire to research Mr. Franken’s book but I can say this: if it is even 50% true I have reached the point of disillusionment with the Republican Party specifically and conservatism in general. It used to be easy to figure out, but noooo, I had to go and grow a conscience. Now I have to wrangle over tax cuts. Now I have to beat myself over the head about abstinence-only sex education. I’ve already won the personal battle over homosexuality (I’m for civil unions) after much internal strife, and I’ve made some resolution towards abortion. I even voted for friggin’ John Kerry in the last election. In GD I am condemning the idea of nuclear retaliation, unthinkable to me only a few years ago. Hell, I’m even softening on Clinton, who is personally a scumbag but in all honesty wasn’t all that bad a President.
I think you guys need to give me just a bit of leeway in the political discussions for a while, because at this point I’m right on the edge and I need to figure out where to go from here. I tell you this, though. If the Congress, specifically the Senate, goes through with the “nuclear option” in these next few days they will pay dearly, not only because of the reversal they’re sure to suffer in the future but because in general they (being the Republicans) will have lost my vote for a very long time unless it’s someone principled like McCain.
I am going through a bit of an epiphany, and I have you jerks and now Al Franken to blame for it. Thanks for nothing.
Okay Airman, keep cool and good luck. We’re here for you.
Remember a few things:
Al Franken is a political commentator but mostly a humorist. He may not outright lie on the scale of someone like Ann Coulter, but he can exaggerate or spin to make a rhetorical point or for the sake of a laugh.
There are lots of very respectable and principled conservatives out there, although admittedly not so many among the highest-profile Republicans these days.
The more stupid numbskulls you have on your side, the more important it is to stick to your principles and not allow the numbskulls to dominate the debate. (And I’m a liberal anti-war environmentalist, so I know whereof I speak.)
I agree, but I will say that I think Mr. Franken is exceptional in his field for intellectual honesty. He backs up everything he says with solid facts (not twisted ones, as far as I’ve been able to tell) and when he screws up, he admits it.
Relax, you’re reacting perfectly normally. I was already a lifelong donkey before I read Franken’s book and, as you say, if only 50% is true, then leaving the Republican Party is the only honorable thing to do. It would be interesting if someone could introduce any alleged factual errors in Lies and the Lying Liars That Tell Them as fodder for debate. Franken obviously puts his own spin on things and uses facts selectively, but I can’t say that anything in the book is patently untrue.
I understand that, and I was also able to pick out where he was kidding and where he was not. At least, I’d like to think so. This does not appear to be a Michael Moore lying with quotes type of situation. He appears to have done his research in spite of his humor.
Sure there are. There always are. When all is said and done here I will still probably be among them, in all honesty. It’s kind of hard to unlearn that which you have grown up with. But dammit, what we have now is NOT what I want to be associated with politically.
It’s not easy. And you guys don’t make it easy, with your damn crises of conscience you keep throwing at me. Now you know why I’m a registered independent. I’ve always known that both parties were full of it and I’ve always known that some things were wrong and that I needed to take the best of both worlds and merge them somehow, but I never knew I’d end up arguing with myself. My God, I’m to the point that I can take almost any position and defend it with only a slight pang of conscience. What does that make me, amoral? More like confused.
All in all, it is time and past time to expel the Republicans from the Conservative movement. They are big-government, borrow-and-spend types. This is not what conservatism is.
Please, no! Conservatism in general and the Republican Party specifically must have *something * to say to the American public. The Democrats need a rational counter-balance against whom to test their ideas and policies. Please, conservatives, *take back * the Republican party; it’s only in the course of reasoned debate that the Right (as in, “correct”, not, well, you know) can be found.
Those people who are most inclined to leave the Republican party are exactly who the party needs right now. As a Democratic-voting, left-leaning big-L Liberal, I implore you, stay! Fight!
Whatever, dude. I’m sure I’ll get accused of kicking a man when he’s down or something for saying this, but that just fucking annoys me. As somebody who’s had a hell of a lot more internal strife than you have over “homsexuality,” I hope you don’t mind when I tell you to take your civil union and shove it up your ass.
It’s not left vs right, it’s not conservative vs. liberal, it’s right vs. wrong. If you can get married, I can too. Simple as that. I don’t even give a rat’s ass if you think that all marriages should be civil unions; I’m a Christian and I want to get married, just like my parents did. And no number of books written by political pundits, or people trying to promote inequality as if they were making any kind of real concession, is going to change that.
My apologies. I should not have made that assumption.
Amen to that. Give me back the Republican Party before the neocons hijacked it. I often wonder if Goldwater, Nixon, and even Reagan are rolling in their graves to see what has happened to their party.
You might be a wee bit hard on Nixon. Although he did have some lapses in judgement and some character flaws, I wouldn’t go so far as to say he was evil.
I got Al’s book when it first hit the shelves and loved it. I don’t always think Al’s style of sarcasm and ridicule is helpful but what the hey!! He’s a comic.
Has anyone listened to his radio show?
I’m a huge advocate for truth telling. It was a great disappointment to me that Michael Moore’s film got sooo much attention while “Uncovered” was so much more honest and could have actiually swayed more people IMHO.
One problem I see is that their is so much political dishonesty in both major parties.
How can we critisize the scumbags on the right and not hold the left up to the same standard?
Anyway, good luck Airman. There is honor in the struggle.
You’re not alone, Airman. As I age, I do feel I’m getting more fiscally conservative and libertarian, but my social conscience takes one look at the unethical antics going on with the prominent members of the Right and shudders.
I wish there was a party that combined moderate libertarian values with liberal social politics (we need a safety net to prevent poverty and crime explosion, but we need to scale down the government and no moral interference with peoples lives; live and let live, let people marry and fuck whoever and however they please). Sadly, conservatism in America means that, as an atheist, I’m just persona non grata with the Bible Belt types and the hate-mongers.
Good luck to you, Airman. I know this can be a painful process.
Back when Goldwater was active, it was fashionable for Dems to loathe him. His ultraconservatism was extremely distasteful. But now I miss him. He was on the wrong side of the political spectrum, but he had some honor. He wasn’t a parody of himself, like the CARBs are.
The sooner the Reps grow some morals and the sooner the Dems grow some sack, the better off we’ll all be.