Hey Republicans, can we have at bit of a talk? It’s been a while since we all sat down but I thought that this seemed an apropos time to have a heart to heart. You see, you all seem to be having a huge problem with anger, and frankly, it is affecting your ability to be considered functional.
Just take a look at this thing with Rush Limbaugh. I know that he is an icon in the world view of most in your party, but really you are going to come to the aid of someone who calls a woman who presents her side of an issue of national import a slut and prostitute? And then goes on to double down on it the next day?
It seems like a lot of the folks on your side of the aisle think that it is okay to defend Rush. After all Pam Geller is right out there insisting that this law student is a liar and should be reviled.
She is also saying that the advertisers who are abandoning Limbaugh (seven at last count, but that is likely the start, not the finish) should also abandon Ed Shultz. You probably know that Ed called Laura Ingram a slut on his radio show last year.
But you see there is a difference, Ed actually apologized, unlike Rush. He didn’t try to spin it as satire or defend his actions. He went on his TV show and said:
Calling his remarks “inappropriate” and “terribly vile,” he said, “I apologize to you, Laura, and ask for your forgiveness. . . . I have embarrassed my family, I have embarrassed this company. This is the lowest of low for me.”
I know I am just a godless pinko liberal and all, but even coming from me you should be able to see the difference between that and this
written statement:
For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.
I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit? In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone's bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level.
My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.
The first shows contrition and recognition that a major mistake was made, but Rush’s statement is not even close to that. He tried to defend his position first, by puffing up the amount of time that he spends on the taking, then apologizes only for the choice of words not the fact that he set out to castigate a women testifying about her health to a committee of Congress.
Now, Republicans, if this were the only area of anger, well it might (probably not) be excused, however, it is far from the only place that you show unreasonable and irrational anger.
You see there is also the issue of immigration in this country. Sure, everyone recognizes that it is a problem to have 11 million or so people who are in a shadow economy living and working here. But the punitive way that you and your Presidential candidates talk about this problem really shows some dysfunction.
Applauding the idea of “self-deporting” or worse, rounding these folks up and shipping them elsewhere is not a healthy thing. The shocking lack of humanity exhibited there is very disturbing, not just from the point that we have to depend on people from your party as part of our government, but from a purely personal one.
It gets worse when we hear members of your party cheering the execution of 248 people in Texas, at least one of whom was almost certainly not guilty. That kind of behavior is more often associated with folks we institutionalize than a major party who wants to run this nation.
Then we get to the whole war in the Middle East thing. Most Americans were okay with going to war in Afghanistan. After all they were harboring Al-Qaeda and we were confident we could get Osama bin Laden. Many were in favor of going to war in Iraq, though it turns out that was because they were misinformed (I hate to point out that this was the fault of Republicans who lied, but that is also the truth).
But this idea that we should go tot war with Iran and right now to keep it from getting nuclear weapons is really a bridge too far. Yes, a nuclear armed Iran is probably going to set off an arms race in the Middle East (with all that money and not a lot of trust of the Islamic Republic by its neighbors it seems like a no brainer), but there is just not that big a threat to the United States to justify us attacking another large nation in that part of the world.
But beyond the policy aspect of this it goes to show the patter I am talking about, this pervasive and non-rational anger that is everywhere in your world view. This is just not healthy.
You know it doesn’t have to be this way, right? Not everything has to be a fight to the death with ever more intense rhetoric to and more unreasonable positions to defend. Really, Republicans, isn’t it exhausting to carry all that anger around all the time?
From here it looks as though you have become addicted to anger. I get it, really I do, there is something so sweet about the white hot rush of new outrage and something warming about a grudge nursed like an ember deep in the ashes of old fights, just waiting to burst into new flame.
But you see fire consumes, eventually it consumes everything, and then there are only flakes of carbon left, unable to hold themselves together against even the gentlest breeze.
This is where you’re headed if you don’t get some help. The first step is acknowledging that you have a problem. Maybe it will happen this fall when you get your asses handed to you at the ballot box when women, and Latinos show that they are not going to sit by and be the focus of your anger addiction. Maybe it will be later when you’ve been hammered a few more times.
Maybe it will have to wait until your aging demographic shuffles off this mortal coil and younger folks with less anger addition problems come to power. In any case it has to happen eventually, if not for your selves then for the nation that you all resolutely claim to love.
Well, that is all I have to say. Good chat. And really, with love and concern, get some help for those anger issues.
The floor is yours.