POLITICAL OBSERVATIONSToo Pathetic to Pity
I really, really, really would like to feel sorry for gay Republicans. Pat them on the head. Speak in low, soft, calm tones so as not to upset them. Buy them a cool diet beverage under spreading shade trees out of the summer sun. And you see them occasionally at street fairs at their booth. Either one of two things is happening. They sit there lone and forlorn. Or some Democrat, liberal, left wing person is berating them and trying to get them to see the error of their ways. It’s almost sad. But not quite. Were it not for the fact that they are a danger to the rest of us, I would perhaps pity them. Not that they want my pity. And it doesn’t seem that they care what the rest of us think, much less do they seem concerned with facts, logic, sense, and reality. About President Obama: after he was in office a few days one Republican acquaintance of mine demanded to know why the President hadn’t fulfilled his campaign promises to us. I’m not making this up. Just a few days into his administration and this was this gay Republican’s demand. No matter that W was a menace to us all. Old “get ‘em to the back of the bus” George was no friend to the gay community. And somehow behind all this is the notion that somehow when we elect a president, we actually elect a dictator, who can just wave a wand and everything changes. Mention this or the other branches of government, and they ignore the comment or change the subject, two of the most often used counter-arguments of the right wing. Or when President Obama, with Congress, actually accomplishes something, their comment is, “Well, it wasn’t done fast enough.” Have these people no sense of history? From Dred Scott in 1858 up to Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, African Americans actually lost the vast majority of the cases they took to court. Further, W and the vast, vast majority of the other Republicans worked against us. W accomplished nothing. But that doesn’t seem to turn them against the Republicans. The argument is often made, we’re working within the party to change them. But that argument works both ways. What policies is it of the Democrats you don’t like? Fine. Then why don’t you work within the Democratic party to change them? Why work with the Republicans who want to put you in the back of the bus, take away your dignity, and relegate you to second class citizenship? And don’t even start on that nonsense about lower taxes and lower deficits. It is true from all statistics that in the past administrations it was under the Republicans that the deficits exploded, unfunded wars were waged. And that taxes are lower now under President Obama than they have been in decades. In response, they tell the lie that the Affordable Care Act is going to raise their taxes. No, it’s not. Except on a small group, which I’ll get to in a minute. But don’t dare ever put reality in front of gay Republicans. They bring out the tried and true counter-arguments of the right, ignore reality or change the subject. And the gay Republicans insist they want the government out of their lives. Yet it is those very Republicans who most want to intrude in their lives. And the gay Republicans talk about smaller government. The few I know or knew who refused to purchase health insurance or didn’t have jobs that offered it as a benefit, ah my, what blatant hypocrites. They pooh-poohed and sneered endlessly about evil health insurance, evil big government. Oh, yeah? Two things, one, when they got sick, they went to the emergency room. One man with no health insurance I know, who had a bachelor’s degree, and a master’s degree, from prestigious institutions informed me that his treatment was free. As we in the reality based community know, someone was paying for it, and the person paying for it was we who had health insurance. Why did they think there were outrageous costs in hospitals? Because the rest of us were paying for him. But he did what they all do when faced with this information, changed the subject or ignored the question. Except when he got old enough for Medicare. That’s the second thing. I can’t count the number of right wing people who’ve railed against evil government intrusion, but put off operations and medical treatment until they were old enough for Medicare. Then they rushed to the government sponsored health system. In this situation we liberals are stuck by our own kindness, beliefs, and morals. Do we say to these right wing, gay Republican, freeloaders when they get to the hospital door, “You’ve screwed the rest of us for years, turn around and die?” No, we don’t. We are cursed with caring and consciences. And they know it, and they use it against us. So their arguments are nonsensical. And if you argue with them, they just get louder and more emotional. As if volume and intensity were the arguments themselves, rather than the signs of emotional inabilities on their part and the lack of logic or sense in their rants. When their logic falters, they’ve been taught by right wing radio and television to just get louder and more emotional, to ignore the question at hand, to change the subject. Well, this liberal is fed up. I don’t pity these morally bankrupt, willfully stupid, blind fools. As the gay Republicans rush off to attempt to relegate us to the back of the bus with their allies who preach perdition and hell, I’m going to do all I can to help reelect someone who is on our side. It’s Not About the First Amendment
This whole Chick-Fil-A kerfuffle? It’s not about the First Amendment or fast food chicken. Nope. Sorry. Not a bit. Recent rants by the former governors of Minnesota and Alaska, Mr. Pawlenty and Ms. Palin, about what elected officials may or may not do about the fast food chain setting up business in their towns, are simply a clarion call to the homophobes, telling them that they have a home in the Republican party. Why the homophobes need to be reminded of this is a bit of a mystery. Maybe they have short attention spans. Then again this inability seems to come naturally to the reality-challenged. And did the reporters in the news stories I read ask the correct question? No, they did not. The correct question needs to be formulated something like this, “So by your patronizing this restaurant, you are saying you support homophobia. Why do you support homophobia?” Which party supports a ban on gay marriage? Which party is home to those who hate us? The homophobes all know the answer to that, the Republicans. Some of us are old enough to remember Lester Maddox in Atlanta and his Pickrick Restaurant. As with so many, he attempted to cover his racism by claiming constitutional property rights, being pro states rights, and being against giving special protection to minority groups. Sound familiar? The only thing that’s changed is Maddox was a Democrat. The days of a non-racist holding office in the South is long past. It is very true that not all Republicans are homophobes, or bigots, or racists. It is also very true that if you are a homophobe, a bigot, or a racist, you are almost certainly a Republican. As with both the coded racist attacks and the blatant racist attacks on President Obama, so too are these Republicans making it clear to their minions that homophobia is okay with them and the Republican party is a safe place for them to be. If you are not a homophobe, a bigot, or a racist and you are in the Republican party, you have sold your soul and made an unholy and shameful alliance in a desperate bid for power. And the presumed candidate for president of the Republican party? His calling the violence perpetrated on a classmate in the 1960’s a ‘prank’ is more than troubling. The lack of apology on his part is profoundly disturbing. His inability to recall the incident is alarmingly horrific. Not recall it? Well, we all recall, I recall, what it was like on the receiving end. No, not of violence back then. I was lucky to not be physically assaulted, not as a child. But the daily verbal bashings and tongue lashings, every vile epithet, oh my, yes, they come back all too often in the sting of pain of old memories unbidden come alive. No, the message is clear from all their leaders. Those who hate have a home, and its name is the Republican party. And if they win this November, when I am in the back of the bus, I will point to them and I will point to you, gay Republicans, who will be sitting next to me, that, yes, it is your fault, you willfully ignorant dupes. Will pointing at those who are to blame then do much good? No. Will pointing out now, while we face very real enemies and that some of our own are making alliance with them, make a difference? At the very least it may rally the rest of us to rush to vote this November. With luck, on that day, enough of those others will cower in shame and not appear in public. A NEW TOM AND SCOTT MYSTERY
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TRUE STORY # 2
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