A coworker today told me she didn't like the Republican candidates, each for a different reason--Gingrich is clearly mentally unstable; Romney is a Cylon robot; Ron Paul is an anarchist; Ron Santori is a demagogue. But she doesn't like Obama either because he's ineffective and has accomplished nothing.
I tried to think of what to say: Well, he is ineffective because of anything he has failed to do, or because of anything he has done? Or is he a failure because the Republicans in Congress have been successful in making the government fail? The Republicans say, we are going to make this man fail, the fate of the country be damned. So is that his fault?
But that is not a line which is memorable or even works.
What can you say to a crowd which watches a playground bully, like Mitch McConnell, walk up and start pounding on the fat kid and the crowd says, "Well, the fat kid should have done more" ?
Blame the victim.
Mitch McConnell says right on camera his highest priority is preventing the re election of President Obama. Not jobs. Not repairing the economy. Not protection of the nation from terrorism. Defeat Obama. That's all that matters.
And there's a majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives who feel the same way. And there's 51 senators who feel the same way.
So the intransigence of the Congress is a reason to turn Obama out of office.
The last Democratic president, the Republicans impeached for marital infidelity, and the Republicans who led the charge were Newt Gingrich, who even as he inveighed indignantly against this moral reprobate in the White House was carrying on with a woman dozens of years his junior, behind the back of his wife. And Henry Hyde, same thing. He had an affair when he was just Clinton's age, behind his wife's back, but oh, that, he said, was just a "youthful indiscretion." Wink. Wink.
But all this is is just fine.
Is this a great country or what?
Until we get our own heads on straight, how can we hope for a leader who has half a chance of succeeding?
The Republicans have truly solidified their position as the party of hypocrisy!
ReplyDeleteHow does Newt get away with this? Where is the moral right fighting for the sanctity of marriage? And why o' why will the right not let the let Clinton's infidelity go? Jezz, it was, what, 13 years ago?
ReplyDeleteHypocrisy is fascinating, especially when it is so obvious and yet unseen by so many. And yes, one wonders about who it is who forgives Newt and yet continues to vilify Clinton. Politics is the art of the possible and the science of the irrational.
ReplyDelete--Mad Dog