It's been said that the one of the keys to wisdom is to call a thing what it is.
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(It's been a while, writing on the fly. Hope it does someone some good.)
Today, while watching Meet The Press (and holding onto the faint hope that Chuck Todd will remember that he's supposed to be a journalist), it came as no surprise that Paul Manafort stumbled his way through deflection, misdirection, and avoidance. Manafort actually referenced the "policies that were put together in January of 2009 by President Clinton and Secretary Obama" (verified in the MTP transcript) as somehow responsible for the death of Captain Humayaun Khan in 2004.
(Apparently, the Republicans weren't satisfied with the birther nonsense, and now are intent on promoting the claim that President Obama is going to climb into his TARDIS at the end of his term in office.)
Later, as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Hallie Jackson, and (yes, really) David Brooks attempted to restore some mature evaluation and accurate descriptions to recent statements, there was Alex Castellanos.
At one point, Castellanos denouncing theocracies ("There is no separation of church and state within Islam") - most likely due to the inability of the GOP and its backers to get a copyright and franchise fees on theocratic rule. Then, there was Castellanos asking,
"You know, is it a New Testament election where things are going swimmingly and we turn the other cheek? Or is this an Old Testament election where we could lose it all and an eye for an eye?"
And followed up by this one from Alex:
"Is the angry white guy, is that a stronger component of this election than the hopeful -- ?"
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Well. That can't be what this election, this country and the world have come down to.
"The angry ... stronger ... than the hopeful?"
No. Don't accept that.
There is no logic or meaning in always painting everything with such broad brush; not unlike the misuse of the word "quality" and attempts to quantify anything and everything, typically when inappropriate to do so or with cherry-picked information.
On the GOP side, the analysis of "what they are angry about" typically reveals something that they can't articulate based on fact, and that really pisses them off. One of most volatile demonstrations of this I've ever witnessed was someone who many of us have encountered, the person who primarily speaks fluent cliche. He kept describing a Republican candidate as "the real deal" (why do they always resort to that phrase?).
Finally, I'd had enough, and calmly asked what to him was the ugliest question: "You keep saying he's the 'real deal' - what exactly does that mean?"
They hate it when you do that, don't they?
The reaction to my question helped me to determine who this guy reminded me of; my old man, someone who (I found over the years) embellished, lied, and was just angry at a world he thought owed him something. They are the "angry white guys" the Republicans are counting on, not unlike Doc Holliday's description of Johnny Ringo in the movie Tombstone:
A man like [that] has a great empty hole through the middle of him. He can never steal enough or kill enough or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.
I'm old enough to remember a time when the only object of significance orbiting the planet was the moon. I also remember a time, unfortunately not too long ago, when I was walking with a woman into a restaurant that had refused her service because of the color of her skin.
"The angry ... stronger ... than the hopeful?"
There are those of us who feel an anger, one brought about by injustice and frustration with the ignorance and intolerance we witness. It is also tempered with hope, that the anger can bring about a positive change that all will benefit from.
So, back to the opening line. Let's not allow Republicans to lay claim to values they supposedly possess. Let's not allow them to accuse open-minded people of "appropriating" patriotism and spirit from them, for those were never theirs to own (and let's be frank about it, the flag waving conservatives never truly believed in or practiced those things, other than as fund-raisers and bumper stickers).
While we're at it, no more allowance for them to relabel themselves as "pro-life" or "defenders of religious freedom" or whatever slogan they feel makes their close-minded and willful ignorance more palatable.
Whatever your cause, for women, for healthcare, for public education, for nonviolence, for BLM, for immigration reform, for LGBTQ rights, for financial reform — the list goes on — now, possibly more than ever, we all need to work together. Let's make "progressive" and "liberal" beautiful, and take those words back from those who would treat them as derisive punchlines.
Ready to join hands, raise our voices, and see what we can do? Yeah, me too.
