During the Presidential election there was a man who wrote a column about how terrified he was. I don't remember his name now but his column (apparently he is a well known writer) perfectly expressed how I felt every day. I knew that George Bush invited fundamentalists to the White House almost every day. I knew that he was filling our government with them. I knew that the man at the EPA was charged with doing all he could to ruin the environment (okay, maybe not quite, but he did more to get rid of the protection of the environment than save it). Worst of all, I had a family member in one of their biggest cults.
What NBC said tonight has me frozen with fear again. It's not so much what they said but now I am convinced that there is NO MORE NEWS. I have never heard Chuck Todd say a decent word about the President. He equivocates.
All week they are going to be touting their latest poll. All Todd remarked (that being Chuck--how about if I just call him the WSJ shill) was that his likability was high, they people who thought he could do his job was below 40% ( right) and either 60 or 80% trusted Generals to make better decisions that the President about how many troops to send in. I don't know who would even ask such a stupid question. To be really stupid they could let America's prison population decide.
The Wall Street Journal is owned by Fox. There is no way on earth I would trust them to be my dance partner. You'd be lucky to survive the dance. At the least you'd be mauled. Why in the world would NBC choose FOX? Do the have pictures of Todd with... well you know...
Worst of all, I have a family member in one of their biggest cults. I had been following it for 24 years and I knew that their ultimate purpose was to take over the United States and make it a Christian nation, their sect of fundamentalist Christian run nation. The nice Jewish man wrote a column expressing exactly how I felt and now it is getting pretty important that I know what other people think of this.
This is part of what he said and I remember it because I felt exactly the same way. I was able to relax a bit for a while but now I am as bad off as before and I have given myself first an ulcer, and second a small cancer. They cut both off of my ears. Honestly, the irony is amazing. I had one on the back cartilage of each. Now it looks like a cat bit me on the back of each ear.
I never know specifically what will set it off but tonight it was Chuck Todd, bragging that poll. I went to their website and they did not have it up yet and I have not been back since. First, it is absurd to give us three questions, that almost aren't related. I don't even believe the good number. It's like they threw it in to make the stupid ones believable. So what if 60+% LIKE him. You know they are building a case. For some reason NBC has flipped. If I die of heart attack tonight will someone please go to the police and tell them it was NBC.
Bam. Right back in there. Think of fundamentalist republicans as cockroaches. Their leaders have admitted that they need a good bit of religion to stave off their sexual desires. (I think I read this in Republican Gomorrah by Max Blumenthal but it may have been The Family by Jeff Sharlet as I have read both recently). They are relentless. They will come back and unless you are on top of their every move they will outsmart you.
Case in point... I work with the League of Women Voters. Talk about a bunch of sweet, older, bipartisan, mostly grannies and you have a pretty good picture. They do things like set up local debates, teach how to vote, things like that. They sometimes express an opinion after a very long study and it is a more mild opinion. This time it was something like "we do need health reform". Then I get an urgent email from the head of the National League and she is asking for donations for security. They are getting death threats and generally bad threats and she is scared. 90 years they have done this with no problem. And the republicans are mailing out a piece from the "American League of Women Voters" and they are against health reform. So they are imitating the LWV.
So, the nice Jewish man wrote the column and it was like this:
I wake up in the morning frozen with fear, having slept very badly. I spend the day feeling sick. It is hard to eat. (I did lose 15 pounds which I have kept off... maybe I'll write a diet book.) I feel like crying all the time and it is affecting my work, my well being, my family, and every aspect of my life. I won't go out if Rachel or Keith have a show.
When the President won I had maybe a week or two of rest. Then the Palin tour of hell started. I mean I saw more of her than my husband and I really tried not to. Since then I have seen everything from guns at Presidential speeches (outside of course) to a man writing a book hoping to shame the Secret Service into covering the President the way they should. He was on Jon Stewart.
Plus, a lot of people on the left got so mad at him that they were writing emails filled with as much hate as the republicans. I cut off my notifications from Huffington Post and everyone. Honestly when you republish the same story over and over just to stir people up, it's pretty obvious. I only read Kos. People can be mad but not insane here. It is my safe place to go. I don't mind free speech about the President (not ever having free speech again is what scares me) but the vitriol is pretty absent. People here are fair and balanced. Plus usually truth is in the air.
What finally brought me around was the ear. I mean the ulcer hurt like crazy and you don't want cancer even if it's tiny. I was lucky my Doctor caught it.
What I would like an opinion on, please, is what you all think.
- The President may not be perfect but if he loses his coat tails we could be in
trouble. If his approval rating goes below 50% then we may get another Bush.
- Everyone is disgusted with the Senate. They don't like the republicans (although
they are improving their approval ratings) but the Democrats seem like pure idiots
and for good reason. What the general public does is look at what gets done.
Karl Rove told people to run for whatever party they could win. There is one
guy in the house that always votes republican. I looked everyone up. It took forever.
Then I lost the paper I wrote it on. He did not even vote for abortion in a case of
rape or incest. I don't even understand why there would be such a vote. It is law.
- Republicans are winning. The guy in Virginia practically spray paints "I hate women"
on his house and he is 10 points ahead. (Not really, he wrote a paper 20 years or
more ago, at college about the "place of women" in front of the stove). But as
recently as 2007 his record doesn't look so good. He has not changed. I cannot
fathom how this can happen but then we have Bobby Jindal and Texas.
- In my local races they don't seem to be favoring the Democrats. We are just
getting rid of a mayor who didn't believe in stem cell research.
I know I didn't give any proof here. But honestly I am so frightened by the new NBC poll I'm afraid to stand up. I may be really sick if I move. And the things I've said are purposely mild because of that.
Okay, I'm frozen with fear. I grew a second ulcer today, rats. It's tiny but it hurts so I know the fear is back. George Bush scares the hell out of me. And Cheney is like a rabid dog chasing me around the block. I come from a really nice family, middle class, kind, but the relative who is a fundamentalist is the meanest person I have ever known. She has ruined her family's lives and I have had to stay away or she would ruin mine. By thirteen one child was on drugs and worse. She came to live with me when they threw her out, we found a way for her to go to college, and she is great. My sister has tried to frighten me to death and it works. She tells me all their plans. I do and don't want to know. But if they got their way one of their fake preachers would run the America. When they called for a peaceful takeover of the White House, they were trying to tell fundamentalist soldiers that it was time. They just didn't have enough soldiers to believe that God really wants them to do that... yet. I guarantee you that there are thousands of people like me out there. Could you please tell us what you think?
Any help you can give me would be unbelievably appreciated. Plus I cannot be the only one. Somewhere out there is a nice Jewish man who is very scared....