I'm probably one of the most insanely patient people you will ever meet. But I guess it's true that everyone has their limits. I've had it - I am all done.
Although on completely opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum, I finally believe that Bill Maher and Leo Strauss are/were right. The American public is simply too stupid to be making any decisions for themselves.
I am driving home from work today and I hear that the president wants to speak to school kids about the value of education and staying in school; become a productive member of society and give back to your community. Then the very next thing I hear is what an uproar this has caused by a very vocal minority. Here in Arizona the mother of a kindergarten student marched her son into his classroom and announced that "NO N_____ IS GONNA TELL MY KID ANYTHING!" Apparently, the President of the United States of America wants to indoctrinate America's youth into communism or fascism, or make them all join the Nazi youth movement. I'm sorry but that kind of imbecility is simply epic. And as if that kind of complete ignorance isn't enough, it is only being used to mask what the real issue is.
Soon after the 2008 presidential election commentary turned to the question of whether America was finally a post-racial society. I never did hear anyone express any confidence that it might be true, but there was a fleeting moment when we could all be proud of the fact that we had finally overcome a major hurdle toward that end.
That moment proved all too fleeting as before long we started to hear that the president was actually a Muslim. OMG we would NEVER knowingly elect a Muslim as our president! Next came the bizarre claim that he couldn't possibly be the president because, despite all proof to the contrary, he was not born in the US! Then he wanted to kill all the white people, and on and on and on.
Now I'm not talking about the typical whisper campaigns that sometimes accompany this kind of unseemly gossip. No, this is right in your face, on the six o'clock news talk over the watercooler. Huh?
Then it struck me like a bolt of lightning. What had happened, was that there was a significant group of people, who as long as we had a white person in the power chair, could present this veil of tolerance and acceptance. When we the people, by a majority of the vote, elected a biracial person to that position, these folks came completely unglued. I'm talking Glenn Beck, off the rails, batshit crazy unglued. What these folks had managed to keep under wraps for so long was finally exposed, as the mask of inclusion was ripped away, exposing the rotting flesh of racism.
It became crystal clear that what was happening was a kind of social reverse engineering. These stellar citizens started with premise (we white folk simply cannot have a black man as our president) and worked BACKWARDS from that point. They attempted to rationalize any peabrained idea they could come up with as to why this would not be possible, all the while seeming to hold onto their civility. Then came the health insurance reform debate and this cadre of sheeple marched dutifully to their town hall meetings and raised holy hell on behalf of the insurance companies, lobbyists and PR firms that gave them their marching orders. Somewhere in there came a tipping point when the media actually gave legitimacy to these crackpots and reported on this as though it were a real grassroots movement. Then came the good soldiers amongst them who decided that bringing loaded weapons to the discussion was a great idea. This in the "greatest country in the world"? This from the fiercely patriotic America? THIS from the global guys in the white hats?????
I am ashamed. I am embarrassed. I am disheartened and I am depressed.
I would like to see the introduction of a constitutional amendment requiring anyone who would like a vote in this democratic republic to have to pass an IQ test. A test that would require that you are in touch with reality, that you understand the difference between fact and fantasy and that you can demonstrate critical thinking skills and reasoning ability.
Until then, I fear we are going to continue to devolve into a country of violent, hate-mongering miscreants.
So yeah, stick a fork in me - I'm done.