And sadly, I come back and not only has nothing changed while I was gone, but the crazy is amping up. There can be no denying it, one of our major political parties has gone completely off the rails. Just imagining one of those GOP presidential candidates as the next President of the United States absolutely terrifies the holy hell out of me and sends me back to the security of my bedroom where I can curl up in a fetal position and cry.
I cannot describe the mixture of emotions I feel when I watch the current GOP presidential candidates compete to out-crazy each other. And then to watch the audience eat it up with so much glee just makes my stomach turn. Who are thesefreaks people?
To think that today, just a little over a year away from the 2012 presidential elections, one major political party in this country still finds running on a platform of pure unadulterated homophobia political gold is just mind-numbing and devastating. Do these people not realize that for every glbt American they want to strip of dignity and worth there is a mother, a father, sisters, brothers, and other relatives, not to mention friends and acquaintances who love them?
Now my rational self knows why this stage of the game is so crazy, but the idea that a party could have a fringe to their base that is so vile and so putrid that they can only be satiated and aroused when the conversation turns to executions, letting uninsured people die, booing gay soldiers in Iraq, and promises of reinstating DADT is really depressing. Is winning the nomination for the party so important that one must sell their soul to please people who should be shunned, not courted? I guess if you are a Republican the answer is a resounding YES.
Let me finish with some YouTube reminders of what the Republican Party has become:
Herman Cain telling the women on the view that being Gay is a choice. And for his ignorance and homophobia, he is rewarded with escalating poll numbers:
Michelle Bachmann bragging about being a better homophobe than the others:
Rick Santorum promising to reinstate DADT after the audience boo'd a gay soldier in Iraq asking the candidates a question about DADT. No "thank you for your service", no admonishing the heathens in the audience, no anything that even resembled presidential material, just the same ignorant lunacy we've come to know and hate about this has-been politician, no wonder Mr. Santorum has a Google problem - he earned it quite honestly. Embedding has been disabled by request so you'll have to click over to watch this piece of nastiness if you haven't seen it already.
And then there is the slippery, snake-oily, spineless, plastic-y Romney refusing to take a stand on the booing of gay soldier in Iraq:
And just a quick reminder of whom Rick Perry chooses to rub elbows with:
And last, but certainly not least, the candidate who could have been our Vice President in 2008 and has finally spared this country further embarrassment and bowed out of this race (I hate you John McCain and I shall never forgive you for inflicting this emotionally stunted shrew on this country). This is a must-watch:
And finally, a quote from Andrew Sullivan that I found quite appropriate for this post:
I cannot describe the mixture of emotions I feel when I watch the current GOP presidential candidates compete to out-crazy each other. And then to watch the audience eat it up with so much glee just makes my stomach turn. Who are these
To think that today, just a little over a year away from the 2012 presidential elections, one major political party in this country still finds running on a platform of pure unadulterated homophobia political gold is just mind-numbing and devastating. Do these people not realize that for every glbt American they want to strip of dignity and worth there is a mother, a father, sisters, brothers, and other relatives, not to mention friends and acquaintances who love them?
Now my rational self knows why this stage of the game is so crazy, but the idea that a party could have a fringe to their base that is so vile and so putrid that they can only be satiated and aroused when the conversation turns to executions, letting uninsured people die, booing gay soldiers in Iraq, and promises of reinstating DADT is really depressing. Is winning the nomination for the party so important that one must sell their soul to please people who should be shunned, not courted? I guess if you are a Republican the answer is a resounding YES.
Let me finish with some YouTube reminders of what the Republican Party has become:
Herman Cain telling the women on the view that being Gay is a choice. And for his ignorance and homophobia, he is rewarded with escalating poll numbers:
Michelle Bachmann bragging about being a better homophobe than the others:
Rick Santorum promising to reinstate DADT after the audience boo'd a gay soldier in Iraq asking the candidates a question about DADT. No "thank you for your service", no admonishing the heathens in the audience, no anything that even resembled presidential material, just the same ignorant lunacy we've come to know and hate about this has-been politician, no wonder Mr. Santorum has a Google problem - he earned it quite honestly. Embedding has been disabled by request so you'll have to click over to watch this piece of nastiness if you haven't seen it already.
And then there is the slippery, snake-oily, spineless, plastic-y Romney refusing to take a stand on the booing of gay soldier in Iraq:
And just a quick reminder of whom Rick Perry chooses to rub elbows with:
And last, but certainly not least, the candidate who could have been our Vice President in 2008 and has finally spared this country further embarrassment and bowed out of this race (I hate you John McCain and I shall never forgive you for inflicting this emotionally stunted shrew on this country). This is a must-watch:
And finally, a quote from Andrew Sullivan that I found quite appropriate for this post:
Today's GOP, for example, favors repeal of the repeal of DADT, a constitutional amendment to ban all relationship rights for gay couples, criminalization of all abortion including cases of rape and incest, the undermining of evolution in education, disbelief in climate change, support for torture, cheers for the death penalty, and a global Judeo-Christian war against Islam.
3 comments:
I hear you there! The booing of the gay soldier was the last straw for one of my friends. She was never a fan of the GOP to begin with, but that just clinched her complete hatred of the party. In her mind, you do not boo the men and women who serve to protect our country.
I cannot imagine what my state of mind would be, given the current climate of American politics, if I did not have almost 30 years of Zen and Mindfulness training and practice under my belt. I am not saying this is something everyone should do. Everyone has his or her path. And my root teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, is someone who pioneered what is called Engaged Buddhism. Engaged Buddhism is completely uninterested in staying in the confines of a monastery or Zen Center, taking pride in how well one can twist his or her body into a pretzel or how self righteously one can speak with a soft voice, keep a fake smile on ones face and smugly proclaim how much better one is than the next person. Engaged Buddhism is about understanding the relationship between spiritual awareness and radical social action.
Still, even with this firm and wonderful foundation it is difficult for me to listen to *any* of the RepubliKKKan presidential candidates and not pull out my hair. I understand that this is all part of a process that I am imagining will ultimately end with this political party being rendered completely obsolete and fossilized. But dayum if these people don't try my very last nerve!
Glad you're back. Understandably, seething is exhausting. But you are to be admired for your dedication to GLBTQ rights and your courage. I'm glad you take breaks occasionally, even though I miss your posts.
Just when you thought the rhetoric couldn't get any uglier, that the stoopid couldn't get any stoopider, the GOP Tea Partier steps forward and proves there are no limits to how low human beings can sink.
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