I don't write diaries. I usually just write snarky comments. But.... My dander is up... My hackles are raised...
Yesterday, Rep. Louise Slaughter threw down the gauntlet on behalf of seniors in our country. She told the attendees to the Health Care Reform Summit the story of a woman who wore her dead sister's ill-fitting dentures because she couldn't afford to get her own. Now, ordinary, caring Americans hear this story and probably want to ask how they can help - if they even can anymore.
Not old Rushbo. No, no, no...
Rush won't have any part of that. The tone-deaf, heartless comedian - like much of the Right Wing-o-sphere pounced on Rep. Slaughter's comments and mocked the woman in question.
LIMBAUGH: You know I'm getting so many people, this Louise Slaughter comment on the dentures? I'm getting so many people, this is big, I mean, that gets a one-time mention for a laugh, but there are people out there that think this is huge because it's so stupid. I mean for example, well what's wrong with using a dead person's teeth? Aren't the Democrats big into recycling? Save the planet? And so what? So if you don't have any teeth, so what? What's applesauce for? Isn't that why they make applesauce?
Wow. Where do you go from there?
Rush has lost it. There is no sign of any humanity in him. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Rush has done great for Rush. He's damaged our society in the process. He took a cue from Lee Atwater and ran with it. Now, he has an army of Rush-wannabes and is leading the GOP and a significant portion of our country over a cliff. I'll repeat:
what's wrong with using a dead person's teeth? Aren't the Democrats big into recycling? Save the planet? And so what? So if you don't have any teeth, so what? What's applesauce for? Isn't that why they make applesauce?
As someone who once lived out of his car and picked picked bologna out of a garbage can to stave off hunger, I'm shocked. It was a Liberal man who gave me a job - an opportunity - to turn things around. It was a Conservative who gave me the opportunity to become a success. It was community that saved my life.
So, what's wrong with our country today? Not to go all nostalgic on you, but there was a time when we could all share in empathy. The last time I remember any major collective empathy, kumabaya moment was after 911 before old W decided to bomb the Iraqis. Why can't we all feel something for those less fortunate? What happened to "compassionate conservatism"? While it always seemed to be just a hollow, empty campaign slogan, I also believed that when push came to shove that the Conservatives were members of the human race too; that they would step up and do the right thing.
I don't believe that anymore. I haven't believed it for some time - probably since '94 and Gingrich's Contract On America. Our society has become poisoned.
When a society at any point roundly approves of torture whether it's called "enhanced interrogation" or "physical coercion" or whatever, we as a society need a wake-up call. When a society brands those who question the military industrial complex as being unpatriotic, we need a wake-up call. When a society steals from the poor to give to the rich as we've done in the banking and mortgage scandals, we need a wake-up call. When a society mocks those in most dire need of assistance - and have been doing it since St. Reagan's invocation of the phony welfare queen meme back in the 80s - we must DEMAND a wake-up call.
For too long the GOP, following the messaging of Lee Atwater, the original Right Wing Messaging gangster, has engaged in a war on the poorest among us. The tradition following his death has been carried forward by the Right Wing Noise Machine and those too stupid to realize they've been snookered. Yesterday, I believe it hit its nadir.
Below is Louise Slaughter's tale for you to see if you haven't already.
Do we as a society have no shred of decency left?
Your wake-up call:
Apple sauce... Indeed...
hat tip to atrios and No More Mr Nice Blog...