I had planned to spend this evening relaxing on the sofa watching some of the shows I’ve recorded that are filling up my DVR. That’s how I planned to spend this evening, but that changed after I spoke to my father. He told me he was looking forward to my visit to help him celebrate his eightieth birthday. The conversation was upbeat until Dad asked me if I had been working hard. I replied, “Yes, but not on anything you want to know about.”
I tried to tell my father that my recent efforts at writing were being well-received. He didn’t want to hear about any of it because he will never, ever “visit that communist site, The DailyKos.” He wanted to know why I couldn’t read sites like Breitbart? “Dad, I’ve tried. I just can’t understand where those people are coming from. It’s disgusting!” He replied, “Oh, then you don’t know about those New Black Panthers who want to kill cracker babies. I bet you don’t know about that, do you?” What? After the call I went and looked it up online. The video of what he was talking about was from 2010. There were posts at several conservative sites about an August 12 rant that a member New Black Panther Party had made on the radio against “crackers” and “black conservatives.” This is the kind of stuff that my elderly father, who does not have much time left on this earth, spends his time reading.
He went on to tell me that if President Obama is reelected, there would be anarchy in this country. Or did he say a revolution? Whatever word he used, he implied that people would rise up in revolt. He was ranting when I was finally able to break in, and ask a question. “But Dad, if President Obama is reelected, doesn’t that mean that the majority wants him to be our President?” He replied, “No! It means that the Democrats used voter fraud to steel the election! Do you know that we’ve passed laws against voter fraud around this country, and guess what the Democrats did? They filed lawsuits to stop them!” Oh, I thought. Well, now I know how the Tea Party is going to react when President Obama is reelected. They’ve already reasoned that one out.
He then moved on to ranting about religion and that “Sandra Fluke” and how they want to put religion in government by forcing birth control to be covered by insurance. “Do you know what the First Amendment says?” I said that I did. “It says that the government can’t make any laws about religion.” He ranted on and I finally said, “I’ve listened to you. Is it my turn to speak yet?” He said I had five seconds and then would have to go, and was silent for a moment. I said, “If you want to talk about religion in government, what about those personhood laws they’ve tried to pass in Colorado and Mississippi? Not only do those laws outlaw all abortions, but they also outlaw in vitro fertilization and hormonal birth control. They not only want to stop abortion, they want to stop people from preventing pregnancies. Talk about trying to input religion in our government? They want laws based on their religious beliefs that contraception should not be allowed.” He cut me off and once again started ranting, “Well 50% of abortions are second abortions. Did you know that? I know that because I looked it up. We should put chastity belts on those sluts.”
At this point, my father had worn himself out by working himself up into a lather. It’s impossible to just discuss a subject without him getting angry and outraged. In the middle, I tried to tell him we should stop talking about politics, but once he gets started, it’s difficult to change the subject. I firmly told my father that I love him. He responded that he loved me too and was looking forward to seeing me this week, and then hung up the phone. In my head I heard the words of fictional newsman Will McAvoy from HBO's The Newsroom, “The Tea Party believes in loving America, but hating Americans.” I’ve watched that video clip so many times it’s ingrained in my mind.
My father has proclaimed to me more than once that he is a proud member of the Tea Party. My father, who served his country for 20 years in the U.S. Army, including two tours of duty piloting helicopters in Viet Nam, is filled with anger and hate. My father is one of those angry white guys that Lindsey Graham says the GOP needs to generate more of in order to stay in business. My father will be 80 on Saturday, and all he keeps saying is that he wants to live until November 6 so that he can vote. I'd don't want to think about the fact that he might not be here in 2016 to vote in the election after this one.
Every time I try to discuss issues with my father and point out the facts, he just refuses to listen to reason. The last time I visited him, I pulled up a page like this on his computer: LISD 2009 "Hogs at The Trough". I scrolled down and pointed to the name of a friend I’ve known since middle school, who my father adores. She’s a dedicated, hard working teacher, struggling to make ends meet. His response was, “Well, in California those teachers are getting over $100,000 a year.” I thought that showing him that page would open up a discussion about what is wrong with make villains out of hardworking teachers. It didn’t. He immediately jumped up and walked away. When confronted with reality and real-world examples of somebody he actually knows, he refused to even discuss the subject. What would happen if he actually was forced to admit that even just one idea that he has learned from his Tea Party masters was wrong? Has anybody found a way to successfully change the mind of a die-hard member of the Tea Party who so firmly believes in all this stuff?
After taking a shower and thinking over what he said, I returned to the computer and read a wonderful diary, Dear Bigot, I get it. You hate me. Now get on with your life by BoiseBlue. It was exactly what I needed; a reminder that I could not let other people’s hate intrude on my own happiness and wellbeing, even if that person is my father. And then I watched that video montage from The Newsroom again, but this time I transcribed it because I wanted to absorb every single word.
Good evening. I'm Will McAvoy. This is Monday, August 8th [2011]. And this past Friday, for the first time ever, Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit rating of the U.S. Treasury. You would think that would be tonight's top story. Or you might think that it would be the Dow [Jones Industrial Average], closing 634 points down on its worse day of trading in three years. Or the austerity riots in Europe. Or any of the statements made today by the Republican candidates for president or statements made by the President himself. But it's not.
Tonight's top story is a woman named Dorothy Cooper. Dorothy Cooper is a 96-year-old resident of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and has been voting for the last 75 years. This year she's been told she can't. A new law in Tennessee requires residents to show a government issued photo I.D. in order to vote. Dorothy Cooper doesn't have a driver's license because Dorothy Cooper doesn't have a car. Dorothy Cooper doesn't have a passport; a vacation abroad was never in her future. Tennessee isn't alone. At this moment, 33 states have proposed or already adopted the same voter I.D. laws that have disqualified Dorothy Cooper from the one fundamental thing that we all do as Americans.
It's estimated that 11% or roughly 20 million people don't have government issued voter I.D.s and will be disenfranchised this November. Why? To crack down on the terrible problem of voter fraud. Governor Rick Perry of Texas who is about to enter the presidential primary race is serious about cracking down on the problem.
[Video of Rick Perry speaking] Making sure that there's not fraud; making sure that someone's not manipulating that process makes all the sense in the world to me.
To me too. Because voter fraud is such a huge problem that during the five year period under the Bush Administration, when 196 million votes were cast, the number of cases of voter fraud reached 86. Not 86,000; eighty-six. Here's what that number looks like as a percentage of votes cast: Four one hundred thousandths of a percent [.00004%]. This would be called a solution without a problem, but it's not. It's just a solution to a different problem.
Republicans have a hard time getting certain people to vote for them, so life would be a lot easier if certain people just weren't allowed to vote at all. I'm ashamed to say that 32 of the 33 voter I.D. laws were proposed by Republican legislators and passed by Republican controlled state houses, and signed into law by Republican governors. I am not, however, ashamed to say that I am a Republican. And that brings us to tonight's second story.
I'm what the Republican leaders of the Tea Party would call a R.I.N.O.; Republican In Name Only. That's ironic because that's exactly what I think about the leaders of the Tea Party; because the most conservative Republicans today aren't Republicans. Republicans believe in a prohibitive military. We believe in a common sense government and that there are social programs enacted in the last half century that work, but that there are way too many costing way too much, that don't. And we believe in the rule of law and order and free market capitalism.
The Tea Party believes in loving America, but hating Americans. Tea Party Congressman Allen West of Florida: I must confess, when I see anyone with an Obama bumper sticker I recognize them as a threat to the gene pool. They believe in loving America, but hating its government. Conservative Activist Grover Norquist. [Voice of Grover Norquist] I don't want to abolish government, I simply want to reduce it the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub. And they believe that anyone that disagrees with the Tea Party has sinister, anti-American motives.
Video of Herman Cain: The objective of the liberals is to destroy this country. The objective of the liberals is to make America mediocre.
Most of all, you must never, under any circumstance seek to reach a compromise with your opponent or do any of what Democrats and genuine Republicans both call governing. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term.
And one other plank in the Tea Party platform: if you're poor, it means you're either too lazy or too stupid to be rich. Here's Andre Bauer, Tea Party Leader and Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: My grandmother was not a highly educated women, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. It's almost hard to believe Republicans can't get Dorothy Cooper to vote for them.
During Tea Party rallies and campaign speeches we've been told that America has been founded as a Christian nation, and that if the founding fathers were here today, they'd tell us so. Here's John Adams in the Treaty of Tripoli: As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion-- And here's Thomas Jefferson: That our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions [See Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom]. And here's the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
What's more frightening then the perversion of our great history, is that sensible, smart, strong Republicans, the very men and women who should be standing up to radical fundamentalism, are so frightened of losing primary battles to religious zealots that they've thrown in the towel on sanity. So we get this.
Video of John McCain speaking: Yes, the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian Nation.
It's ironic because the biggest enemy of the phony Republican isn't Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, it's this man. He said Heal the sick. Feed the hungry. Care for the weakest among us. And always pray in private.
● Ideological purity
● Compromise as weakness
● A fundamental belief in scriptural literalism
● Denying science
● Unmoved by facts
● Undeterred by new information
● A hostile fear of progress
● A demonization of education
● A need to control women's bodies
● Severe xenophobia
● Tribal mentality
● Intolerance of dissent; and a
● Pathological hatred of the U.S. government
They can call themselves the Tea Party. They can call themselves conservatives. And they can even call themselves Republicans; though Republicans certainly shouldn’t. But we should call them what they are: The American Taliban. And the American Taliban cannot survive if Dorothy Cooper is allowed to vote.
Terry Smith is coming up with the Capital Report, this is News Night I’m Will McAvoy, goodnight.</ blockquote>