sorry, no pictures this time.
A while back I was chided by a conservative blogger (I'm still hesitant to use the term Libertarian) for linking to a blog that, he claimed, represented nothing but hatred. Anger and vilification of conservatives.
Never mind that when I read the post I linked to, what I saw was an American citizen, looking for understading of people who held opposing views in extreme circumstances, even flying in the face of factual data and against their own interests.
Nick ended by asking if we couldn't be better than that. Fair question, Nick, although when Rodney King uttered the same sentiment, he was mercilessly mocked by conseratives.
Since then, I've been thinking about my response; and whether it's even worthwhile. It's not that I'm esepcially bothered that Nick saw something in the article I didn't; that's certainly not unusual.
But in what has come to be known as the reality-based community, it has been apparent for sometime that conservatives, Republicans especially, feel quite comfortable in directing hatred and derision not just at the usual targets of immigrants and homosexuals, but also anybody who dares to disagree with them; when called upon to exercise restraint, the response is to decry their opponents for practicing the politics of hatred and division. It's a smooth move, and has been quite effective.
Yesterday, however, Karl Rove demonstrated better than any argument I could make why in the face of this nearly continuous onslaught of defamation and, yes, hatred, liberals and Democrats have absolutely no obligation to tone down the rhetoric. In the wake of Dick Durbin's ghastly caving in and apologizing for remarks that were, as even Andrew Sullivan admitted, innocuous but also certainly accurate, Karl Rove's comments succinctly demonstrate the scorched earth, take no prisoners political game that this batch of Republicans insist on maintaining.
As others have said today, I, too, am sick of having my patriotism impugned and my motives slandered every time I disagree with Emperor C+ Augustus and the brutes that are currently running our government. It is far past time to give as good as we get; Rove's remarks indicate that deference and decorum are not, after all, of any concern to the ruling party. But it is no longer time to 'play nice', but to play by the same rules that the Republicans seem to feel apply only to them. If you want my respect and deference, I damn well expect, no demand, that you demonstrate the same towards me.
Many of the political blogs have links to the Senate and House for contacting your congressmen to register your feelings on this. Atrios also has Karl Rove's phone number; although I would guess by this time it's been turned off. Resignation? Rove deserves to be fired, after apologizing on the senate floor, as they made Durbin. And then he needs to be forced to work a minimum wage job at Wal-Mart.
Dad Signs, Cont.
8 hours ago
Hey tc,
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I never said the blog represented nothing but hatred, I said the quote you particularly site (and link to) as resonating with you is nothing but hate speech.
Okay, that's overstated. It starts out as an interesting observation on conservatives (need heirarchy, fear being wrong, etc.), which then quickly degenerates into hate speech ladled on top of a whopping helping of sweeping generalizations (though sometimes original sweeping generalizations).
The first ten paragraphs I can see as "an American citizen, looking for understanding of people" though I would say he's not looking very hard, nor in the right places. But that is not the point. Or at least it wasn't my point.
My point mostly deals with paragraphs 11 onward (though you can toss in all the religious ridiculousness in 1-10). He calls most conservatives: stupid, bigoted, and easily frightened. He claims most conservatives will "happily kill anyone in any numbers" rather than face up to Bush's duplicity. He not only derides them, he pretty much insists that all conservatives say "Sorry, we were wrong, you were right." About EVERYTHING.
Please.
Then a nice little story about how he verbally abused a girlfriend until she finally breaks down and throws a plate at him. Nice guy. Wonder why that relationship didn't work out.
But anyway, from this guys viewpoint, all conservatives are that woman. According to him, we'll all "happily burn the world to the ground" before admitting Bush was wrong. What a crock.
Liberals talk a lot about nuance and tolerance, but honestly, there is no more tolerance or deep understanding of human nature on the liberal side of the world than there is on the conservative.
Anyway, perhaps I exaggerated his statements. Clearly we focused on different aspects of those statements. That's okay. Probably even healthy.
Here's the thing. What you end your entry complaining about, "the politics of hatred and division", is not contained to conservatives. And playing tit for tat on the "hatred and division" gameboard really doesn't get us anywhere.
Which is mostly what I was trying to say in my post. Also for the record, I would never impugn yours, or anyone else's, patriotism without something more than disagreeing with the administration for a reason. Hell, I do that almost as frequently as I criticize those criticizing the administration (how's that for a convoluted thought?).
Also for the record, Karl Rove is much of what is wrong with politics today in a nutshell. He's Howard Dean with subtlety and guile. Unfortunately, he's really good at it, and, even more unfortunately, he backed one of the worst possible Republican choices last time around.
Right, maybe I'll have to carry on with this on my blog. It's an area I've been trying to wrap my head around for a while now. This may do the trick.
Carry on with the blogging, young man, folks are indeed reading. And hey, this is my second post, so you are rolling!