Warning: This is a rant. Should not be taken internally by anyone on the right side of the spectrum. May cause uncontrollable giggling or sudden outbursts of "Hell yeah!" among unapologetic leftists. If you were a swing voter responsible for Bush’s elections in Ohio or Florida, these words may cause nausea and uncomfortable stomach cramps. These are called pangs of conscience. Do not read this column near small children, your grandparents, or anyone else who’s future you may have wrecked.
I have been reveling in our wonderful landslide victory these past several days, a measure of my confidence in the American electorate and political system restored at the election of Barack Obama as our President.
That being said, the arrogance of ignorance marches on. I am surrounded by it in letters to our rag of a local newspaper (The Yakima Herald), the number of people I know who quote Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, and even Michael Savage as legitimate news sources, and even by members of my own family who feel compelled to lecture me on politics and liberalism, which they use as a cuss word.
I argue in debate format. I ask for sources, I offer evidence of my own, I do my level best to moderate the tone of my voice. But as MLK once said in a letter he wrote from his own ideological and physical prison, "There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over..."
This is a Rant against anyone who says the word "liberal" the same way they use the word "fuckers", e.g. "God help us when these liberals get through with our country..."
I am a liberal. I have been one for a very long time. We value peace and justice and equality. We question our government. We participate constructively in it. We are tired of ignorance and we actively resist it. It is a proud, progressive ideology and I am glad to subscribe to it. Aside from hating liberals, I'm not sure what their ideology is anymore.
This is a rant against those who believe any one of the myriad smears and lies about Barack Obama, that he's a terrorist, a Muslim, not a citizen, etc.
I had to engage in an hour long debate with my Father-in-law last night about, of all things, Obama's citizenship. He had all the talking points parroted by the Hannity faithful and the Savage few, he just didn't have any evidence or commonsensical arguments, and utterly refused to be presented with facts. I don't know what to do with such willful ignorance. As a teacher, I despise it. It's a cancer on our society.
This is a rant against President Bush's supporters, who for years looked down their arrogant noses at the rest of us, questioning our patriotism, our motivations and sometimes our parentage, and who STILL, EVEN NOW, have the temerity to be proud of their "accomplishments" and question the direction of the country under Barack Obama.
Are you kidding me? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? You mean to tell me that you let Bush take the environment, OUR ENVIRONMENT, and toss it in the crapper, and ignore the wisdom of every scientist? Then you let him and his cronies take my parents’ health care and retirement security and use it for cannon fodder in a dead end war over non-existent weapons with $700 billion wasted, 4100+ dead Americans, 30,000+ wounded Americans, hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis and Afghans? Then you cheered as our government forced your hypocritical, follow-only-the-commandments-that-are-convenient brand of Christianity into our schools and our faces, using my tax money to do it? You bragged as Bush swung the Supreme Court to the right for the next 30 years, ignored human rights in our country and the world, backed out of humanitarian and common sense international treaties, pissed off all of our friends, robbed the country blind, sold our resources to the lowest bidder and government contracts to no bidder at all, told me to "love my President or leave my country", supported a policy of arbitrary imprisonment and TORTURE ‘cause "They’re just a bunch of ragheads", used my civil liberties and my Constitution for toilet paper, wiretapped our citizens, wrecked our budget and let New Orleans drown AND YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT THE DIRECTION OF THE COUNTRY UNDER BARACK OBAMA??!!
Shut up. Shut the fuck up. You don't get to play for a while. It's a new rule we have called a mandate. We are going to run this country, for the next generation if I and my 3 million closest friends have anything to say about it. Because of you, we'll probably spend most of that time cleaning up your godawful series of messes. The least you could do is keep your mouth shut until you open it to say "Thank you," and "You were correct, my good Sir," and most of all, "We Were Wrong."
It's called an apology. And you owe us a huge one.