(Cite is available at Salon.com, you have to sit through a Cadillac commercial…)
Congressman Chris Cox, speaking at a gathering of GOP muckety-mucks at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Of special note to us in the People’s Republic of Minnesota (“Stay Away! Don’t Move Here! It’s Too Cold! Iowa! Iowa is nice!”) is the presence of that smarmy little pustule Norm!, who currently infests the Senate seat that was filled by the late lamented Paul Wellstone (you remember him, right? The guy who made the mistake of telling you the truth…)
You gotta wonder what planet these people are from. What forms of denial are neccesary to sit quietly and listen to utter crap, applaud politely, and not barf all over your rubber chicken.
So…the question I put before you…did anyone in the room actually believe this steaming turd dropped so sublimely into the punch bowl? Or did the speaker know he’s full of shit, the listeners know he’s full of shit, and nobody cares?
Or have they managed to divorce themselves from reality so entirely that they sincerely believe this festering gob? Jesus fuck a shit souffle! Are we aligned against people with no concept of reality whatsoever? Is this what the terminal stages of Cognitive Dissonance (number one threat to the Republic!) looks like?
(PS: if you go to the Salon site, you are treated to a poster of Uncle Sam as GeeDubya, rolling up his oh-so-masculine! sleeves over his hard, throbbing muscles about to kick somebody’s butt fer sure! Keep a copy on hand for emergencies, better than ipecac if you need an urgent agent for technicolor yawn.)
But reality is what iselucidator. That’s not flexible. The trouble here is that these GOPer’s belief system is not flexible enough to accomodate reality.
And we’re the ones who have to live with the consequences of their “reality”–and many of these folks(everyday Reps) are rabid and not even open to questioning the stuff fed them. It’s like they never learned critical thinking.
By no means do I blindly endorse any candidate’s position or any party’s. But as the BS gets piled higher and deeper–I have to question the intelligence of most Bush supporters.
then again, most days I can only shake my head in dismay and wonder.
I put Republican voters in three categories: Millionaires, fundamentalists, and dupes.
Millionaires … they’re the only ones actually being served by the current party in power.
Fundamentalists … well, they get thrown a bone now and then. Not as much as they think they deserve, but more than they’d ever see from the Democrats.
The millionaires and fundamentalists, their support of the Republicans is actually rational. I disagree with they stand for, but, hey, that’s what democracy is all about.
Everyone else … that’s where I shake my head. How high does the bullshit have to pile up before these people realize that the modern Republican party is profoundly disconnected from reality?
Yes. And so are they. They hate Bill Clinton the same way you hate George Bush — not because of anything significant, but because of self control and fumbled speech. They curse your values; you curse their God. They steel your causes; you give them up without a fight. They stop acting like stooges in a funhouse; you take upon your shoulders the role. They think nothing’s wrong with Mel Gibson; you think nothing’s wrong with Michael Moore. They hated Farenheit 9/11 even before it was produced; you hated Passion of the Christ same same. The two of you spent years honing and perfecting conspiratorially the political exclusion of every party but your own. Now you hold an unassailable monopoly on power. You’ve made it so that each of you has only one enemy. You’ve created the dichotomy that now divides all issues into black and white. Until a recognizable name or label is attached to a quote or action, you often cannot tell which side to be on. Had this been a declaration that Republicans hate America, you would be here cheering the speaker. You’ve divorced yourselves from reality, both of you. You’re now Godzilla and King Kong, fighting it out as you make ruins of everything around you. You both cover your ears and scream as loudly as you can. Republicans no longer care about how they spend the treasury. Democrats no longer care about how we lose our liberty. You both play to the middle of the political bell curve. And you’re becoming indistinguishable from one another.
There are alot of different “you’s” in your post, Liberal --perhaps you would like to clarify. The Dems are not to blame for the current black and white thinking that pervades Wahsington today. Famous quote by W:“I’m going to change the tone in Washington” (or words to that effect). He is the one who would not meet with the NAACP, for example. He is the one who, while picking a diverse cabinet (ha!) also picked one with no dissenting voices. To this admin, a political adversary is by neccessity a political enemy. There is no middle ground for them. Their attack dogs have called me, and those who believe as I do, traitors to this nation. Like we’re supposed to just say, “oh, those rabid conservatives! Such cards are they!” IMO, the tone has gotten so ugly b/c of the issues on the table. Moderation breeds moderation–extremists tend to do the same.
But, also, IMO, pointing fingers at who is to “blame” (MM vs Mel Gibson?) is missing the point. It is also a non-productive exercise.
thank you for roundly chastising us. I’m sure to straighten up and fly right now. If only I had had the benefit of your schooling awhile back–I would have voted a different way… :rolleyes:
More like two clowns in crappy rubber suits playing monsters for cash.
As far as the rest of your post Liberal, I do think the right is to blame for starting this whole black/white mess. Don’t get me wrong, the left certainly isn’t helping things. They seem now to be all to willing to go the extreme yelly insulting route in order to get attention. The right simply got the ball rolling by labelling the left as “too liberal,” a phrase which I still don’t understand. Add in talk radio and the various vitriolic authors and you have a force for demonization that the left still can’t compete with.
Without “offically” changing the tone, though I may recall some memos from Republican party mucky-mucks about how to fling the shizzle, the right changed the tone and turned politics into a street brawl. The left has simply decided to descend to their level and play on their terms. This of course is very helpful. :rolleyes:
Those old enough to remember Goldwater know that the dirty word used to be “conservative”. Being painted as an extreme conservative was what destroyed his political career, despite his eloquent response that, “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice.” Continuing the same theme from my post, each of you blames the other. You did this as partners: Demublicans and Republicrats, passing onerous ballot access laws, ignoring parties with alternate views, refusing to debate them, making yourselves into the only two games in town. And now, you’re in the process of fighting it all out. It’s a Janis Joplin get-it-while-you-can world. You’re like two trees that have grown so large that your shade has destroyed all the others, and now your roots are entwined and it’s hard to tell which is which. All the rest of us can do is wait for you to die from the malnourishment that you’ve brought on yourselves. New sapplings will take your place, but not in my lifetime.
No WMD were found in Iraq. That is fact. No photos, no remains, not items were found. So now, on one hand “they” are saying the stuff was everywhere and they found it. On the other hand “they” are saying in other venues that it was all magically transported to Syria and (maybe) Iran (not found). If you want to lie, you should at least make some effort to keep your stories straight. The UN inspectors said “none found”. The CIA said “none found”. If there was anything at all found it would be all over the news, complete with pictures, items, a big road show, the whole nine yards. If there had been something to find, the old “Iraq has or is working on WMD” story would still be on the president’s lips. Instead, during the debates and elsewhere, the story changed to Freedom. WIthin the “ruling party”, the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. They aren’t even good liars.
When was the last biological weapons facility discovered in Iraq? When was the last chemical weapons facility discovered in Iraq? When was the last biological weapon discovered in Iraq? For that matter, when was the first biological weapon discovered in Iraq? When was the last chemical weapon discovered in Iraq?