Remember the people who told you that to criticize the president was nearly treason; the people who questioned the patriotism of anyone who questioned the war, the Patriot Act, the torture at Abu Ghraib, the signing statements, the surveillance of citizens and all the other things that Bush wrought?
They haven't gone away, but like Tokyo Rose and Lord Haw Haw they're singing the defeatist song on every media outlet they can co-opt. Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin; The recession is Obama's fault, the record oil prices were Obama's fault. His ideas are killing the economy, says Rush. "there will be more Elian Gonzales snatchings" says Ann; more attacks like Waco. The Democrats have "Palin derangement syndrome" says Malkin.
Of course it's the identical tactic they used against Bill Clinton but honed and perfected over the years. "The failure of the Clinton Presidency" was a worn out phrase before the man took office and the crimes of Obama will be a tenet of the Republican culture before the ball drops in Times Square. "Do we wait until he makes a mistake?" asks Sean Hannity. Of course not: better to invent the mistake for him before he gets the chance to muddy the waters with facts and better to condemn him on Fox's terms than on his own.
No, we already know he's a Muslim, will raise taxes to near Reagan era levels. He'll take your guns and he'll give all your money to welfare queens and put abortion doctors on the Supreme Court and force men to marry men. He'll ruin your marriage, he'll make you drive some nasty little car and eat hemp sprouts and he'll take God off the money and open Madrassas in Arkansas and make Louis Farrakhan Secretary of State. He'll confiscate all your property. He'll do all that and more; he was born in Kenya to do it all, and so in their world he's already done it. He is already guilty, he's already failed and Fox is here to tell you all about it.
The struggle is not over. The struggle did not end with the election and the struggle will not end -- ever.
Fogg, Yes, I've heard some of this crazy stuff--what impresses me at this point is how far out of sync they are with the majority; you have the far right saying McCain/Palin lost because they weren't far enough to the right. With that kind of strategy, they would end up a tiny minority status party. I don't believe the extremist wing of the GOP will be successful in doing to Obama what they almost accomplished with Clinton during the first year of his presidency--to make him look like damaged goods. But the Democrats are going to need to exercise more vigilance than they did back then, and more willingness to fight smears, fake charges, demands for investigations, and all that rot. I'm guessing that too many people have too much to lose--their homes, jobs, everything--to let such diversionary tactics colonize their view of Obama. If Obama fails miserably, it's bad news for all of us.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, there is this from Libby at The Impolitic who quotes this from the WSJ:
ReplyDeleteThey mock the advice of Nobel Prize-winning economists and praise the financial acumen of plumbers and builders. They ridicule ambassadors and diplomats while promoting jingoistic journalists who have never lived abroad and speak no foreign languages. And with the rise of shock radio and television, they have found a large, popular audience that eagerly absorbs their contempt for intellectual elites. They hoped to shape that audience, but the truth is that their audience has now shaped them.
I think Americans have finally developed immunity to right wing media static. The GOP threw everything at Obama and lost by an electoral landslide. If the GOP continues this line of assault, they will marginalize themselves forever.
The wingnuts will spent the next four years developing their new meme: that Barack Obama's middle name is Nicolae Carpathia. And the "Mayan Calendar 2012" meme will aid in building dramatic tension. Yet somehow the world will fail to end when Obama takes the oath again on January 20, 2013. We will wonder for a few days before moving on to the next "end times" meme. It never ends -- or, as a wise man once said, "The wacky will ever be with you."
ReplyDeleteYep, it will never end, which means I'll spend the rest of my life pissed off, but not nearly so much as I would had Mr. Nasty and the Nitwit won.
ReplyDeleteI was at a local gun shop Tuesday: standing room only and people were buying like Obama was going to confiscate their guns tomorrow. Prices on used guns seem to have doubled and they can't keep AK-47's in stock.
I think it's wrong ever to underestimate the insanity of Americans.
Matt, maybe Obama will be like that character in the William Burroughs story “The Mayan Caper” who time-travels back several centuries and messes with the Mayans’ sacred prophetic instruments—he ruins the calendars and causes their downfall. Well, something like that, anyhow. It’s all a conspiracy.
ReplyDeleteFogg, I’ve heard that these paranoia-stricken originals stock up after every election, as if the mere reminder every four years that there’s a national government drives them off the deep end. But I’m sure Obama has made them double down on their determination to buy as many AK-47’s as possible. They would buy surface-to-air missiles and bazookas if they could. I’m fine with the Second Amendment, even with the Second Amendment being interpreted broadly (i.e. without the antiquated “militia” language) as the Supreme Court has recently done. But the behavior of the gun super-freaks is really a rootin’-tootin’ sight to behold: Ya-HOOOOOOOOOOOOO! YEEEE-haaaw! Of course, it isn’t even Yosemite Sam or latter-day cowboy stuff we’re dealing with here, in all seriousness: it’s utterly paranoid, castration-complexificated middle-aged white men wearing military fatigues and living in a cave in Idaho stocked up with SamAndy survival food. Or damn near. I mean, at least that’s their ideal. Yessir, the guv’ment gonna come and take yer guns! Their higher, more powerful archetype would be General Jack D. Ripper from the Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove: the nut case who launches World War III because of a sexual dysfunction that he believes to have been caused by a communist conspiracy “to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”
Of course the people who sell guns, accessories and shooting supplies are trying to spread the hysteria to people who are already a bit prone to that defect.
ReplyDeleteSome of it is just about money.
Wow - ummmm - yeah - boy oh boy - it's SO nice to know I am living in such a well armed country with ak47s residing at my neighbors' houses. Ever at the ready.
ReplyDeleteI feel so suddenly safe, protected, reassured, confident, cherished . . . yeah.......
(I am seriously scared - guns don't kill, PEOPLE WITH GUNS kill. Personally, I am all for striking the second amendment - & don't anyone bother to try & argue the point with me - I am absolutely unbudgable on this issue.)
Yes, I'm sure "business is booming." I’m not a gunner myself, but I think the whole affair is a loserman express for Democrats politically – it’s the perfect wedge issue for right-wingers to exploit because of the paranoia no doubt underlying many people’s desire to own a firearm. For me, the bottom line is that the Second Amendment isn’t going anywhere. Only good education and a high degree of prosperity might help cut down on gun violence. But there are still so many suicides and crimes of passion every year—and if studies I’ve come across are any indication, a lot of suicides are impulsive and largely dependent upon the means being available at the moment. (One such study was done on bridge-jumpers in San Francisco—most of the rare survivors of Golden Gate leaps went on to live normal lives. Many said they were glad they got a second chance and regretted their action the moment they went over the side. Same problem with gun suicides—tragically few get a second chance.) While I can think of a few situations where I might miss having a gun, I can think of many more where it would be best not to be within a hundred yards of one. And a lot of the “you’d want a gun” scenarios are pretty stupid and obviously driven by male panic or whatever the hell it is: you know, guy magazine stuff like, “what if two thugs carjack you?” Uh, give them the keys to your car. A material possession isn’t worth killing anybody over, or losing your life over. That’s why you have insurance, no?
ReplyDeleteI’ve never bought the notion that “an armed society is a polite society.” I think a fully locked-and-loaded society would consist of an alarming percentage of cocky people who think they can act like jerks whenever they like, so long as they’re willing to pull the trigger to back it up, and an equally alarming percentage of nice people who would still get stomped on because they don’t want to do anything extreme even when provoked. Not a good scene. Or you’d get two hotheads killing each other over silly things: “Hey! I was in line for that parking space before you! No you weren’t. Yes I was. Oh yeah? Ker-BLAM!” Consider how arrogantly some ordinary Joes or Janes act behind the wheel of a SUV, or indeed any piece of plastic-and-metal on the road. They’re safe behind their deadly weapon, so they go right ahead and do whatever they like, the law and their fellow drivers be damned. Then they blame you for having the audacity to drive in the proper lane at a reasonable speed, to fail to run the red light they wanted you to run, etc. Somehow these people are all going to become polite as the angels above when they’re also carrying a .38? I don’t think so. So on the whole, I hope not too many of us will take up the Supreme Court on its generous interpretation of our gun rights. I think I’ll pass, thanks.
OK, Dino, what part of "don't try to argue the point with me" didn't you understand?!
ReplyDeletejust kidding
Your amusing yet pointed comment largely proves my point - guns are a menace - end of story. How many children must kill or be killed by guns that were supposedly locked up & safe before we get this? And that's just one example of the stupidity of guns.
I am a passivist Squid - to the core. And no, I don't think killing Bambi with a scoped rifle is all that sporting or necessary either (ah, yes, I hear the hunting crowd indignantly gasping . . .).
As I said - I am unyielding on this point.
Some of the times I've been glad to have a firearm were during the hurricanes of 2004 when on two occasions a large group of young men came into the neighborhood, some wielding bats, and looking for something to steal, or someone to beat up or terrorize, telling me they would kick my ass and calling my wife a Chink whore. We live in an unincorporated area and there was no way to call the sheriff with all communications gone for a month. I would have been dead by the time anyone arrived anyway. Sure, I tend to be a peacenik sometimes, but that doesn't extend to allowing anyone to kill or injure me or my family for sport or profit.
ReplyDeleteMy parents used to keep that old 20 gauge Remington 870 for skeet shooting, but as a deterrent, it saved life and limb without even being loaded. In fact I've never fired the thing.
I have other similar stories, so it doesn't sit well to hear that I'm some sort of deranged paranoid dreaming of mayhem, or that I'm likely to go berserk because I enjoy a once a month trip to the rifle range with the guys from the yacht Club. It's too easy to stereotype gun owners and no more accurate than any other kind of political characterization.
To allow the big and the violent to bully everyone else is hardly a good foundation for civilization. To take away the right and ability of self defense is tyrannical and traditional for tyrants. Faith in the good intentions of others and faith in the ability of police to control or prevent violence is more than a bit naive. It's been deadly for many.
This area must be the home invasion capital of the country because of flimsy "manufactured" homes and trailers. Fortunately many otherwise helpless people have been able to save their own lives because there are no prohibitions on keeping a handgun in your home. Actually, since Florida passed the "Shoot the Avon lady" doctrine, no Avon ladies have been harmed and the crime rate has declined substantially. Yet many people are indignant that the 87 year old grandmother is no longer legally required to jump out the window and run away before taking action to defend herself.
When I lived up north, the problem of overpopulated, starving deer was at a crisis level. Flocks of them were ravaging backyards and gardens and several people were badly injured when deer began running out onto the highway. The mayor refused to allow anyone to harm "bambi." Bambi is a fictional character, real animals live by tearing other animals to pieces or being dismembered and killed by other animals. Walt Disney is not a naturalist.
I am not a hunter, I don't kill things for sport (OK maybe I go fishing on rare occasions) but I'm not a vegan and animals die under worse conditions in slaughterhouses and live in worse conditions in factory farms than animals in the wild. As we have removed predators, out of necessity, we have condemned many wild animals to starvation and disease. Hunting is indeed sometimes necessary if we don't allow wolves, coyotes, bear, puma and alligators to do it for us.
Impugning the character, the intentions and even the sanity of anyone who likes trap shooting or archery or who lives in a remote area or an area prone to violence against the elderly, does indeed make me indignant. It seems quite a bit more phobic than rational, every bit as phobic and irrational as the NRA -- and I think that's an understatement.
Fogg,
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm talking about isn't somebody who has a gun or two for basic protection purposes and who is willing to take the risk of having a weapon around--I think that's exactly what the 2nd. Amendment is for. I refer to the frenzied stocker-uppers of weapons, as if they were expecting some apocalyptic event or an Orwellian takeover by the feds. And apparently, they are many--now that really is a form of paranoia, even though I suppose not much comes of it by way of violence, unless, as sometimes happens, the guns get stolen and end up in the hands of criminals who really do intend to use them.
Hi Captain Fogg. During the 2004 hurricane season, my home was not far from yours … just north of Sebastian Inlet … and I certainly recall the post-storm hardships. Blessed with watchful neighbors, there were no incidents as you described but there could have been because my beach was remote and sparsely populated. There were times when I gave gun ownership serious consideration except for this …
ReplyDeleteYour resident 8pus can have a nasty temper. Maybe this feistiness got started back in Octopode Preparatory School where the older classmates bullied the younger ones. In short order, I learned to defend myself and, soon, the bullying stopped. It was not until my hippy days that 8pus turned peacenik octo facto.
About that deer scourge you described, my hometown of Princeton has them too. Denuded trees and shrubs, nightly road kill, and 16-foot high deer-proof fences are ample proof that all natural predators had been eliminated due to hyooman sprawl, and Lyme disease is nature’s sweet revenge.
No, I am no Bambi worshipper either. In fact, I think open season should be declared not just on deer, but those awful creatures that created this imbalance … those nuisance hyoomans, especially the males. But you don’t need guns to hunt them. The males are easily baited with facsimile Anna Nicole and Sarah Palin dolls. Just hold out a fetish in one hand and a sturdy club behind your back. Then, SMACK!, knock them silly.
No, I do not hold court over anyone who chooses to own a gun.
It's the true gun nuts I laugh at too and some of them are scary, but most of the owners I know are plain ordinary people and gentlemen sportsmen and no weirder than those who have fishing rods.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else, I hate to be stereotyped.