# Damn AARP fruitcakes! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 21, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247 "2005-02-21T22:29:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/21 "2005-02-22T01:27:32Z")
**matt\_mcl** : They also opposed Ohio’s marriage amendment [on the grounds](http://wcpo.cincinnati.com/news/2004/local/10/12/unmarried_couples.html) that it would “deny rights of property ownership, inheritance, pensions, power of attorney and other matters of vital interest to the health and well being of unmarried older couples.” The amendment was also opposed by both of the state’s Republican Senators, along with the Republican Governor and Attorney General. So I guess these gentlemen will be USA Next’s, uh, next targets. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/22 "2005-02-22T01:48:22Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > What is the connection between old folks and a gay couple kissing? Maybe we’re misjudging USA NEXT. Some people might interpret the ad as claiming that the AARP is anti- Brave American Soldiers and pro- ungodly sodomite marriage, but the ad is too vague to be sure that was their intent. There are other ways to take it. Here are three: 1.)The real AARP agenda is to teach people who have, or know people who have, severe respiratory problems to avoid environments that have high rates of particulates in the air and to learn mouth to mouth resussitation. 2.)The real AARP agenda is to remind people that, in the immortal words of Michael Jackson, the AARP is “a lover, not a fighter”. 3.)The real AARP agenda, as stated in its annual Oscar preview newsletter, is to give advice on what is, and is not, appropriate attire on the red carpet at the Academy awards. So let’s not jump to conclusions, people. The AARP is almost never mentioned on USA NEXT’s website. With such a paucity of information regarding how USA NEXT feels regarding the American Association of Retired People, I prefer to withold judgement. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/23 "2005-02-22T02:22:17Z")
Here’s what the NEXT USA has Art Linkletter saying about the AARP: > [@](#): > > But first, I’d like to ask some blunt questions: Do you want more taxes taken out of your earnings? Do you want more unelected bureaucrats taking over more details of your life and your family’s life? Do you want federal regulators making your health choices, instead of you, your family, and your doctor? Do you want government regulators to control the investment and retirement decisions of your family, instead of you? > > If you answered “Yes,” then AARP is your group. They continuously work to create high taxes, big, invasive, bloated government, herds of regulators, and dependency of citizens on unelected bureaucrats. [http://www.usanext.org/full\_story.cfm?article\_id=101&category\_id=1](http://www.usanext.org/full_story.cfm?article_id=101&category_id=1) Dammit! Are we going to have to go 10 rounds of “Gee, it isn’t clear to me that this is linked to any other prominent republican” with this one too? I have to hope that this is simply that point in the witch hunt when the accusers finally make an accusation that causes all their supporters to stop, take a look around, put their torches and nooses down and leave the room with their heads hung. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/24 "2005-02-22T03:31:16Z")
Okay. Given the Ohio and Hawaii stuff, I understand where the pro-gay marriage part comes from (it’s weak as all hell, given that in both cases they weren’t for SSM as against the amendment for other reasons, but that’s good enough for smearing purposes). But what’s the justification for the anti-soldier part? ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/25 "2005-02-22T03:55:34Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > I’d like to thank you **Dave** , for taking time out from your busy schedule of raping kittens and fundraising for al Q, to portray anyone who objects to wild attacks on an organization as being a lover of that organization. > AARP fucked up medicare big time. That doesn’t mean they spit on soldiers or advocate gay marriage. Even if they did, those charges are _irrelevant_ to the social security debate. Of course, no one really cares what a kitten fucker, such as yourself says about anything, do they? Likewise, anyone who says you are not one of bin Laden’s major benefactors is in love with you. > -very amusing! That’s an interesting rant. Not very coherent, and oddly enough directed at someone who said “I have no opinion on USANext”, but interesting. Do you have anything to say that makes any sense, or was it merely time for your daily spleen venting and I just got in the way? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/26 "2005-02-22T04:04:11Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Screw sarcasm. When the wingnuts engage in another campaign of lies and deception, _they_ should be called on it. > Blaming the victim, even in jest, isn’t sarcasm, and it isn’t funny. You could bend a steel bar with your sphincter, couldn’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/27 "2005-02-22T04:20:53Z")
I have no love for AARP, but these asshole are getting pretty fucking bold, no? Because AARP opposes a phony SS “fix” that actually does nothing to “fix” anything, they hate the military and love gays to have teh ghay sexh? What a bunch of asswipes. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/28 "2005-02-22T04:41:35Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > You could bend a steel bar with your sphincter, couldn’t you? Why yes, yes I _can_! Can you recognize a smear campaign when you see one? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/29 "2005-02-22T05:12:00Z")
What I find interesting is the quick reversal of rhetoric from this administration\*: Last year the Bush administration used AARP’s endorsement to jam through a massive Medicare prescription drug bill that even the GOP wasn’t enthusiastic about. The AARP provided very necessary cover for GOP congressmen, and this bill might not have passed without AARP support. This year, the AARP is anti-soldier and pro-gay. Not real Americans. Scum. Traitors. \*yes, the rhetoric is from USANext, but does anyone doubt that this ad (and no doubt the coming talking points that we’ll hear over the next week or so from the right) isn’t a new PR front in the administration’s war on Social Security? ---
**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/30 "2005-02-22T05:41:22Z")
There’s more. In [this](http://www.spectator.org/_ads/3.gif) ad, AARP is shown in a lineup with the Clintons, Ted Kennedy, and Jesse Jackson as one of “America’s Liberal Powerbrokers.” In [this](http://www.spectator.org/_ads/6.gif) one, you are asked to choose the most liberal organization. The choices are: AARP, ACLU, NAACP, and NARAL. Somebody should tell these guys about AARP’s support for Bush’s medicare plan. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/31 "2005-02-22T05:52:03Z")
Please, Usual Suspects, rewrite history for us so that we can understand what we should believe about the AARP! ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/32 "2005-02-22T06:23:07Z")
> [@Apos](#): > > Please, Usual Suspects, rewrite history for us so that we can understand what we should believe about the AARP! If this follows past campaigns, we might see: - President Bush on Wednesday praises & hugs AARP, calls them great americans or somesuch. Uses issue to discuss how important \ is for america. - By Friday, a book or movie is announced from a deniably GOP-sponsored group, that shows the AARP leadership to be pansy hypocrite anti-military fag-huggers. - By Sunday, talking heads will be wondering why Liberal America Hates Seniors who Like Fags, so, therefore, the Left is hypocritical. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/33 "2005-02-22T06:57:57Z")
It’s business as usual. The GOP has “plausible deniability;” USANext is “not connected” with the GOP. It’s the same old smear and fear, fear and smear. It worked in the campaign, and it will work here. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/34 "2005-02-22T07:33:04Z")
I’m hoping that this turns around and bites USANext/Swifties in the ass. I don’t think a lot of Americans will accept the smearing of a group of senior citizens – after all, that could be your _grandmother_ they’re talking about… ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/35 "2005-02-22T11:28:01Z")
> [@Lamar Mundane](#): > > I happened to see the guy who runs that organization while flipping channels the other night. > > He is the poster child for the angry-white-male Republican. He snarls instead of speaking. He visited every conservative talking point in about two minutes. Taxes. Social Security. Liberals. Gays. Hillary Clinton. **The Free Market.** It was amazing. It was like a highlight reel of the Republican National Convention. (Emphasis mine.) Um, excuse me, and I don’t intend to wrestle you to the ground over this, so don’t fret that I have any hijack intentions, but you DID make the highlighted assertion, and as a member in good standing, I have the privilege to respond to it, kindly extended to me by those who represent the board’s owners… Anyway, the thing is, I’m not going to let the Republican Party steal any more liberal buzzwords and abuse them into meaninglessness. They’ve already made freedom a dirty word — manifestly intent on shoving it down the throats of the whole world, but equally intent on obliterating it here at home. They’re not going to get “free market”. Some of the most elephantine bureaucracies ever created were created by Republicans. They are full-on participants in proscribing the most ridiculous and arbitrary restrictions on free trade among free people. They collect and spend government loot like an F5 sucking up and spitting out whole towns. They are not going to make “free market” mean something other than a market free from coercion. Not as long as I can type. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/36 "2005-02-22T11:33:02Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > I’m hoping that this turns around and bites USANext/Swifties in the ass. I don’t think a lot of Americans will accept the smearing of a group of senior citizens – after all, that could be your _grandmother_ they’re talking about… Iunno, man… my grandmother actually is for SSM. Robin ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/37 "2005-02-22T14:01:35Z")
> [@Apos](#): > > I have no love for AARP, but these asshole are getting pretty fucking bold, no? Because AARP opposes a phony SS “fix” that actually does nothing to “fix” anything, they hate the military and love gays to have teh ghay sexh? What a bunch of asswipes. Exactly what I was trying to convey in my OP. Thank you for putting it so clearly. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/38 "2005-02-22T15:34:30Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > Iunno, man… my grandmother actually is for SSM. > > Robin As is mine. She’s remarkably open-minded that way. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/39 "2005-02-22T15:50:21Z")
I gotta admit, taking on AARP as opposing a republican issue **is** pretty fucking bold. If AARP’s membership isn’t a significant contributor to the republican party I’ll eat my cat. Pissing them off when they can make sure the next 12 issues of the AARP magazine distributed to members has pictures of Bush and Frist and Delay pissing on the flag. This isn’t like when Clinton told the NRA to take a hike. He knew they weren’t going to EVER back him. This is republican’s alienating a large voting bloc. And that’s weird. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247/40 "2005-02-22T16:21:37Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > That’s an interesting rant. Not very coherent, and oddly enough directed at someone who said “I have no opinion on USANext”, but interesting. Do you have anything to say that makes any sense, or was it merely time for your daily spleen venting and I just got in the way? I found it a great rant, and a very telling use of USANext rhetorical techniques against you, you kitten rapist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-aarp-fruitcakes/291247.md?page=3)