What To Do, What To Do

The Republicans.

What to do, what to do.

Do we stand and argue against the likes of Eric Cantor and Sarah Palin, or is that a little too "shooting fish in a barrel"? I mean, every single poll out today, save for those fair and balanced FauxNews polls, shows that at least 55% of Americans, real Americans, not just the sign-wilding Teabaggers, disapprove of Sarah Palin. Now, to be fair, that's down slightly from her post quitting-my-job-as-governor-because-it's-too-hard heyday, but still, a whopping half of the country doesn't like her, and yet Republicans like Gramps McCain are trotting her out in her Lesbian-chic biker gear to stump for him.

What to do, what to do.

Do we point out the flaws in their arguments, or will people actually listen? Like, that poster boy of Republicanism, when he isn't flip-flopping his positions, Mitt Romney, who worked overtime to set himself apart from the health care reform even though the plan is almost identical to the reforms he pushed through as governor of Massachusetts. So, Mitt, what is it about the health care reform you gave Massachusetts that isn't good enough for America? Is it because it came from a Democratically controlled administration and not the Republicans? I can't help thinking that if Pretty Boy or Grampa had been elected and they pushed through this same reforms, that they wouldn't be cheering.

What to do, what to do.

Mitt even went so far as to say that enacting reform was an “unconscionable abuse of power,” a “historic usurpation of the legislative process”. Um, it was voted on, Mitt; that's the way it works. And the more you talk, the more you sound like you're a recent grad of the Sarah Palin School of Legislatery and Reformery. It's called voting.

And there are still Republicans angry that the bill passed even though a majority of Americans are against it. But, see, this is how government works: opinion polls don't create law. Simple, right? But, um, could someone pass that along to Palin and her Tea People? See, while many Americans disapprove of Obamacare, many of those people disapprove because it doesn't go far enough. And then, factor in a recent Gallup poll taken after the bill passed and you'll find that most Americans, by a modest albeit significant margin, are pleased that it passed.

But that doesn't stop the Party of No from spouting the most unbelievable claims. House minority leader, John Boehner, declared passage of health care reform as “Armageddon.” And the RNC put out a fund-raising appeal that contained a photograph of Nancy Pelosi in a ring of fire, saying it was time to put Ms. Pelosi on “the firing line.” And, of course, we have that Queen Of Illiteracy, that Master Of The Uninformed, that Lipstick Wearing Pitbull who calls all of us Tea Partiers, Sarah Palin, and her map of America that literally put Democratic lawmakers in the cross hairs of a rifle sight.

Now, as I've said before in other posts, this is politics. There will always be two sides who vehemently disagree with one another. That makes life, and my little old blog here, kinda fun. But, try to find a time when the Democratic party, even in the W years of lies and wars for oil and "Patriot" Acts, seemed so bent on violence as an answer to something they didn't like about the opposing administration.

I don't recall Hilary or Barack using crosshairs to denote the targets of their campaign. I didn't see people calling W the new Hitler. I saw anger and confusion over the direction in which this country was headed, but I didn't see Keith Olbermann wield a bat on his show when talking about the Republicans; and I didn't hear Rachel Maddow declare that we needed to "wipe out" the Republicans as Limbaugh said about the Democrats.

But, for the Republican Party, this kind of hate speech, or at the very least, hurtful speech, is the norm,. Dick Armey, the second-ranking House Republican, and current Tea Party leader, once referred to Bill Clinton as "your president." Jesse helms warned Clinton that he “better watch out if he comes down [to North Carolina]. He’d better have a bodyguard.” And when the Republicans gained control of the Congress during the Clinton administration they actually shut down the federal government.

What to do, what to do.

Well, all this violence-speak about reloading and Armageddon, this business of bricks through windows and homophobic and racist taunts, will not serve the Republicans or this country very well. As they continue to be seen as the party that offers nothing but rhetoric, and violent rhetoric, the voter backlash may stun them. But, in the end, it will be America, and Americans, that lose, because, no matter my opinion of Republican Thuggery, we do need opposing voices in this country.

Without them, what to do, what to do.