Forgiving the Unforgivable
Forgiving the Unforgivable
“Hate is their currency. Ignorance is their sacrament. Racism is their communion.”
North Carolina Senator Julia Boseman
I haven’t been able to write about politics lately. That’s why you’ve had the commentary about Deb’s Life or other things because ever since the midterm elections I have been afraid and angry. Trying to write about the current political scene leaves me sputtering, bitter and simply pissed off to the highest level of pisstivity.
The midterm elections left me rather despondent over the state of our nation. Despite the fact that many have pointed out that Obama’s numbers are better than Clinton’s or Reagan’s at the same point during their time in the Oval Office; despite the fact that many have pointed out that Clinton lost both houses while Obama only lost one; despite the fact that Obama continues in the same vein as he has since day one, there remains a certain lingering dissatisfaction with President Obama. Conservatives have never cut him an inch of slack and liberals are tired of seeing him bullied without fighting back. We keep waiting to back him, the champion of our cause, but he never seems to rally us troops. He merely says wait, no need for battle. Meanwhile the battle rages around him and he never seems to see it. There was that one slip about them “talking about him like a dog”, and it’s true. The GOP has never stopped short in their racist bashing of Obama. Yet, he is the one who has called these types of slights “petty”. Yet his refusal to respond to them makes him seem naïve and unwilling to admit that racism isn’t a petty faux paus committed by ignorant white people. It is a sharp edged tool, wielded by those in power and keeps us all on the razor’s edge between life and death.
No, thehe media and the Republican party certainly aren’t letting up on Obama. Their half-hearted and backhanded racist attacks have not abated one whit. The 2010 Midterms spurred the GOP to battle the President on any issue from Cabinet Appointments to whether or not his birth certificate allows him to have a driver’s license. The GOP continues to respond to the call of the likes of Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly. Like tired Orkai on the way to Mordor, they cannot help but heed the drumbeat of the media cycle and Beck’s madness. They’re tired and not sure really what they’re fighting against – and they even fear that their own destruction is at stake. But they’ve been created for this cause, so fight they must, even at their own peril.
Once the GOP only had to fight Barack Obama, but the Tea Party has divided Republicans against themselves. Many Republicans have walked the fine line between not angering the Tea Party and keeping office but they have only done it by paying homage to Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin who remains the fly on in the ointment for conservative and liberal alike. The buzzing mosquito that and self-respecting liberal would love to swat but can’t catch
Sarah Palin is such an awful person and politician that she actually has liberals like me longing for the days of simply evil Bush era politics. Even Bush could be made to blush now and again over his gaffes – not being able to open ornamental doors, giving unwelcome backrubs to the Chancellor of Germany; or say, letting New Orleans drown and die for five days before sending help. He even squirmed a little through the press conferences of the Plame affair once he realized Rove and Cheney were involved. Of course he came through it in fine fettle and he never apologized for anything, but he did at least recognize a problem when he saw one or when people told him there was one.
Sarah Palin does not know the meaning of the word blush or shame. Her many gaffes, errors and plain spouting of erroneous information have been well documented yet thoroughly ignored. The media and her supporters simply explain away her incredible and appalling dim-wittedness as one would overlook a child’s tantrum.
Because we tend to think in terms of the current news cycle, maybe only the most recent Palin gaffes or errors will come to mind. But it takes this list of Palinisms to make one realize that she has committed enough gaffes and errors to enable someone to create an entire website around them.
Barbara Bush, recently quoted as wanting Sarah Palin to go back to Alaska and stay there, has nothing on me when it comes to having a distinct dislike for Palin. Unfortunately, we share a dislike of Palin for entirely different reasons. Palin represents a populism that threatens the Bush family dynasty hegemony. In my case, Palin represents a “whites only” populism that threatens my life. I don’t think Barbara Bush really cares much about black people but I don’t think she questions our right to exist. In her world, someone has to do the work and it may as well be the brown people she doesn’t have to worry her “beautiful mind” about.
Palin on the other hand would take even Barbara Bush’s loathsome “stay in your place” racism and turn it into a rootin’ tootin’ open season shootin’ match on all minorities. She thinks in the simpleminded terms of an untrained hunter – aim, shoot, kill everything that moves and doesn’t look human.
And to the likes of Palin, black people and other minorites don’t seem human at all.
Americans of all colors are a forgiving people. We’ll forgive Bill Clinton for shagging Monica Lewinsky. We’ll forgive Johnny Bench for betting on baseball or Michael Vick for bashing in the heads of a few mongrels. Hell, we even forgave Bush for blowing up Iraq and making sure Sadaam & Sons got good and hung. After all, the bastard had it coming for trying to have his dad killed and we don’t even know where the hell Iraq is on a map and we had to kill something or somebody after 9/11 – Iraq was as good as anywhere else, just killing two or three million birds with one stone – after all, those people don’t seem human at all.
How much more are we willing to forgive. Julian Assange sits in a jail cell at this moment and I’m sure he’s shaking his head, ruminating over the fact that he is in jail for telling the truth. For exposing American lies, propaganda and our death march that seems to encompass the globe.
And what’s more, American’s don’t care. We are quick to make people out to be villains and Assange is an easy target. But it’s much harder to point the finger back squarely where it belongs – at us.
How long will we continue to allow our government to sanction war and killing in our name? How long will we allow our government to spin a narrative of freedom, justice and sacrifice when we are the only ones doing the sacrificing? We are sacrificing our soldiers, our way of life and everything to hold onto the ideal that America is the good guy. That what we do is always in the name of good.
But what if that isn’t true and hasn’t been true for a really long time? How long will we continue to forgive the unforgivable? Indiscriminate killing in the name of the American people and locking up or outright killing anyone who dares to expose it.
Hitler only dreamed of such power. Even Russia has never really pulled it off to the levels they liked. Will such power finally be wielded by the United States?
And if so, can it be stopped?
“Hate is their currency. Ignorance is their sacrament. Racism is their communion.”
North Carolina Senator Julia Boseman
I haven’t been able to write about politics lately. That’s why you’ve had the commentary about Deb’s Life or other things because ever since the midterm elections I have been afraid and angry. Trying to write about the current political scene leaves me sputtering, bitter and simply pissed off to the highest level of pisstivity.
The midterm elections left me rather despondent over the state of our nation. Despite the fact that many have pointed out that Obama’s numbers are better than Clinton’s or Reagan’s at the same point during their time in the Oval Office; despite the fact that many have pointed out that Clinton lost both houses while Obama only lost one; despite the fact that Obama continues in the same vein as he has since day one, there remains a certain lingering dissatisfaction with President Obama. Conservatives have never cut him an inch of slack and liberals are tired of seeing him bullied without fighting back. We keep waiting to back him, the champion of our cause, but he never seems to rally us troops. He merely says wait, no need for battle. Meanwhile the battle rages around him and he never seems to see it. There was that one slip about them “talking about him like a dog”, and it’s true. The GOP has never stopped short in their racist bashing of Obama. Yet, he is the one who has called these types of slights “petty”. Yet his refusal to respond to them makes him seem naïve and unwilling to admit that racism isn’t a petty faux paus committed by ignorant white people. It is a sharp edged tool, wielded by those in power and keeps us all on the razor’s edge between life and death.
No, thehe media and the Republican party certainly aren’t letting up on Obama. Their half-hearted and backhanded racist attacks have not abated one whit. The 2010 Midterms spurred the GOP to battle the President on any issue from Cabinet Appointments to whether or not his birth certificate allows him to have a driver’s license. The GOP continues to respond to the call of the likes of Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly. Like tired Orkai on the way to Mordor, they cannot help but heed the drumbeat of the media cycle and Beck’s madness. They’re tired and not sure really what they’re fighting against – and they even fear that their own destruction is at stake. But they’ve been created for this cause, so fight they must, even at their own peril.
Once the GOP only had to fight Barack Obama, but the Tea Party has divided Republicans against themselves. Many Republicans have walked the fine line between not angering the Tea Party and keeping office but they have only done it by paying homage to Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin who remains the fly on in the ointment for conservative and liberal alike. The buzzing mosquito that and self-respecting liberal would love to swat but can’t catch
Sarah Palin is such an awful person and politician that she actually has liberals like me longing for the days of simply evil Bush era politics. Even Bush could be made to blush now and again over his gaffes – not being able to open ornamental doors, giving unwelcome backrubs to the Chancellor of Germany; or say, letting New Orleans drown and die for five days before sending help. He even squirmed a little through the press conferences of the Plame affair once he realized Rove and Cheney were involved. Of course he came through it in fine fettle and he never apologized for anything, but he did at least recognize a problem when he saw one or when people told him there was one.
Sarah Palin does not know the meaning of the word blush or shame. Her many gaffes, errors and plain spouting of erroneous information have been well documented yet thoroughly ignored. The media and her supporters simply explain away her incredible and appalling dim-wittedness as one would overlook a child’s tantrum.
Because we tend to think in terms of the current news cycle, maybe only the most recent Palin gaffes or errors will come to mind. But it takes this list of Palinisms to make one realize that she has committed enough gaffes and errors to enable someone to create an entire website around them.
Barbara Bush, recently quoted as wanting Sarah Palin to go back to Alaska and stay there, has nothing on me when it comes to having a distinct dislike for Palin. Unfortunately, we share a dislike of Palin for entirely different reasons. Palin represents a populism that threatens the Bush family dynasty hegemony. In my case, Palin represents a “whites only” populism that threatens my life. I don’t think Barbara Bush really cares much about black people but I don’t think she questions our right to exist. In her world, someone has to do the work and it may as well be the brown people she doesn’t have to worry her “beautiful mind” about.
Palin on the other hand would take even Barbara Bush’s loathsome “stay in your place” racism and turn it into a rootin’ tootin’ open season shootin’ match on all minorities. She thinks in the simpleminded terms of an untrained hunter – aim, shoot, kill everything that moves and doesn’t look human.
And to the likes of Palin, black people and other minorites don’t seem human at all.
Americans of all colors are a forgiving people. We’ll forgive Bill Clinton for shagging Monica Lewinsky. We’ll forgive Johnny Bench for betting on baseball or Michael Vick for bashing in the heads of a few mongrels. Hell, we even forgave Bush for blowing up Iraq and making sure Sadaam & Sons got good and hung. After all, the bastard had it coming for trying to have his dad killed and we don’t even know where the hell Iraq is on a map and we had to kill something or somebody after 9/11 – Iraq was as good as anywhere else, just killing two or three million birds with one stone – after all, those people don’t seem human at all.
How much more are we willing to forgive. Julian Assange sits in a jail cell at this moment and I’m sure he’s shaking his head, ruminating over the fact that he is in jail for telling the truth. For exposing American lies, propaganda and our death march that seems to encompass the globe.
And what’s more, American’s don’t care. We are quick to make people out to be villains and Assange is an easy target. But it’s much harder to point the finger back squarely where it belongs – at us.
How long will we continue to allow our government to sanction war and killing in our name? How long will we allow our government to spin a narrative of freedom, justice and sacrifice when we are the only ones doing the sacrificing? We are sacrificing our soldiers, our way of life and everything to hold onto the ideal that America is the good guy. That what we do is always in the name of good.
But what if that isn’t true and hasn’t been true for a really long time? How long will we continue to forgive the unforgivable? Indiscriminate killing in the name of the American people and locking up or outright killing anyone who dares to expose it.
Hitler only dreamed of such power. Even Russia has never really pulled it off to the levels they liked. Will such power finally be wielded by the United States?
And if so, can it be stopped?
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