Saturday, August 25, 2012

America Needs To See...

As I write this, Tropical Storm Isaac (soon to be Hurricane Isaac) is spinning just off the coast of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and headed into the Florida coast, just in time for the Republican National Convention.  Now some of my fellow liberals (myself included) have taken to the hope that the Hurricane will hit Tampa, Florida head on, forcing the GOP to postpone or even cancel the convention.  After a little soul-searching, and a lot of prayer, I've come to realize that kind of thinking is wrong.

The most obvious reason is that his is a Hurricane we're talking about.  Whatever we feel about the Republican party as a whole, there are a lot of innocent Floridians who's lives would be severely disrupted, or even lost if Isaac were to hit.  That's not something I would wish on anyone, especially after witnessing the worse that a hurricane can do with Katrina.  There's also another reason that I'm hoping the RNC would be spared, mainly having to do with the steady drip of bat-crap crazy coming from the GOP since the primaries.

You have Michelle Bachmann starting off her campaign by confusing John Wayne "The Duke" with John Wayne Gacey the Serial Killer and claiming the Founding Fathers "worked tirelessly" to end slavery, which they didn't.  There's Newt Gingrich wanting to build an Earth colony on the moon, or perhaps on his wife's home planet of Mars.  Then you've got Rick Perry who can't even remember which government programs he wants to abolish, Herman "999" Cain of "Uz-Becki-Becki-Stan-Stan", Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum, and let's not forget Tim Palen.....(YAWN!).  Then there are the GOP mouthpieces like Sarah Palin and her revised midnight ride of Paul Revere, Foster "aspirin between the legs" Friess, and GOP leader Rush Limbaugh who believes women are sluts who pop birth control pills whenever they have sex.  You've got primary audiences who believe sick people without health insurance should be allowed to die, who cheer Texas' 300+ executions, and boo Gay soldiers who are fighting for their right to boo gay soldiers.  And the cherry on top of this cake...Todd Akin, who give us this gem of scientific brilliance regarding pregnancy by rape in defense of  his absolutist stance against abortion.
"If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.  But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something: I think that there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child."
And this is just the stuff that didn't come from Mitt Romney.  Even before he became the presumptive nominee he was telling us that corporations are people, making $10,000 bets with his fellow candidates, bragging about how many cars his wive drives and the elevators he's built for them, bragging on his friendships with NASCAR owners, and telling us he likes to fire people, and this is just the short list.  Since becoming the nominee he's refused to release more than two years of his tax returns, assuring us that we should simply trust that he's never paid less thant 13% in income tax.  He's refused to discuss his time at Bain capital, particularly the time between 1999 and 2002 when he was alegedly "retroactively" retired, even though he claims his business exprience makes him more qualified for the job of president than Barack Obama.  He takes an overseas "diplomatic" trip and makes a total ass of himself.  He picks one of the most extreme conservative members of the most hated congress in the history of the republic as his running mate.  And three months after securing the nomonation, he's still trying to win over the most rabid, racist wing of his base, culminating in this dog-whistle at a campaign stop in Michigan.
"I love being home, in this place where Ann and I were raised.  Where both of us were born...No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate.  They know that this is the place where we were born and raised."
 Now imagine an entire week of all this times fifty-eleven.  Do you really want a hurricane to mess this up?  I don't think so.  America needs to see all of this.  America needs to see the GOP cut loose in all of their hate filled glory.  The country needs to see all of the bigotry, the sexism, and the homophobia that will be flowing as freely as the hateorade-spiked punch they'll be serving.  They need to see the utter contempt today's GOP has for minorities, for immigrants, for Muslims.  Their contempt for Gays, for women, for young people, for seniors.  Their contempt for the poor and the unemployed, for the middle class.  Their contempt for workers and unions, for teachers, firefighters, policemen.  Their contempt for anyone who isn't a wealthy heterosexual White male who can drop $10m towards whatever hate campaign they happen to be running.  Most of all they need to see the total disrespect and contempt today's GOP has for our President.  A contempt so deep and so blinding that they would sooner see this country go down in flames than lift a finger to help save it, for fear that a Black man might get some of the credit.

As ugly as it is, America needs to see all of this.  We need to see the GOP for what they really are, and God (and Hurricane Isaac) willing, we'll get to.  I'm praying for clear skies.

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