On Nov. 22, 1963, just as we learned President Kennedy had been murdered down in Dallas, half the kids in my high-school English class in suburban Oklahoma City stood up and cheered. A few cried.
When I tell people this now, often and understandably, they think I'm making it up. I'm not. I've asked fellow Army brats whose families were also stationed in Oklahoma and Texas if they had the same experience in their Southwestern schools. All of them said yes. JFK was hated by many people in that part of the country, and probably still is.
So, I've seen this kind of ugliness and viciousness before. Just not outside Oklahoma/Texas politics.
Beauty, someone once joked, is only skin deep, but ugly is forever. That's one of many things today's venomous right-wing extremists don't get. The Fox News crowd has gone well beyond the bounds of common decency recently, and we shouldn't let any of these merchants of hate forget that they've left a permanent stain on our democracy after their disgraceful tactics and countless lies during the health-care debate.
Does anyone else remember George Bush's Karl Rove-inspired vicious attacks on the classy Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas governor's race? In Texas and Oklahoma, I learned from living there, it's a football mentality -- winning is all that matters, no matter how ugly you win. I've seen this poisonous mentality spread throughout the country, largely abetted by the ugliness that is Fox Noise.
Spitting on black Congressmen and spewing homophobia at Barney Frank? Hey, why not? Yelling "Baby Killer!" at pro-life Bart Stupak? It just feels right to the poisonous right.
San Francisco Chronicle blogger Mark Morford noted this about the behavior of the far-right loudmouths who are the darlings of Fox News during the past few days of the health-care debate. The bottom of the barrel just got a whole lot deeper.
"Like millions, I was fairly convinced it simply could not get much worse or more acrimonious than when Dubya ran the nation into the ground, embarrassing and humiliating us planetwide a thousand times over as the rogue idiot pseudo-cowboy laughingstock war-hungry prick of the civilized world. I was wrong."
Many of us lefties said plenty of unkind and unflattering things about Bush, but it was mostly out of disgust. Viciousness of the kind I experienced in my high-school days in Dubya's Southwest is something I hadn't experienced much since then -- until the health-care debate's shameless, nonstop litany of lies and fear-mongering.
Morford again, on the not-so-grand Old Party's disgraceful behavior :
"The Republicans have been pure venom. Theirs was a systematic fearmongering, a nonstop bombardment of misguidings and untruths, an acid bath of panic overlaid with a fine sheen of racism and rage. This is turning out to be easily the nastiest, meanest GOP organization in ages, the house that Karl Rove built, a group shaming their own party's once-noble legacy. Even Reagan, who claimed Medicare would destroy the country, would be stunned at this gang's level of savagery."
I'm dismayed that the level of nastiness and venom I saw in high school has made it out of Oklahoma and Texas politics into the national arena.
Being a Republican is in my DNA. I was a registered Republican until 2006. Both my parents were rock-ribbed Republicans when they were alive. But they'd never recognize this current bunch of oleaginous hypocrites and fearmongers. I didn't leave the Republican Party. It left me.
The party of moderates/conservatives I grew up in and once loved has become a rallying point for far-right extremists. It's truly a national disgrace.
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My parents were conservative Republicans,.....in the older, mainstream sense.
I suspect the only Democrat they ever voted for was probably JFK (they were Irish from Fall River, Mass.)...and even THAT'S not a sure thing.
Nixon was a sitting Vice President, after all.
I don't recall the folks ever saying they "hated" anybody...and we kids were admonished not to use the term (which, in our case, was invariably in reference to opposing sports teams or members thereof...heh)
To my mind, racism and greed have always been an element of what the Republicans have been selling. Gradually, over the course of my lifetime, all other elements of the Republican message have fallen by the wayside.
Most still mouth the platitudes that reflect the bygone values of the once "Grand Old Party".
Patriotism, a strong national defense, (and the PRUDENT application thereof), respect for time honored traditions and cherished institutions, genuine concern for fiscal responsibility, etc...... only a tiny handful actually hold these values dear.
It has become abundantly clear that the current crop of Republicans would be perfectly happy, even eager, to see America fail, to see: the economy in ruins,
to see our troops bogged down in lethal, unwinnable conflicts
to see our political system rendered unable to adress the simplest functions,
to see the judiciary & rule of law itself , disrespected and ignored
all so long as some percieved political (and even personal, monetary) benefit might accrue.
continued
I wonder how far down the treasonous Timothy McVeigh wing of the Republican party is willing to see America go before they remember that:
our system of checks and balances is predicated on a vibrant opposition party OPERATING IN GOOD FAITH.
and that
A "loyal" oposisition whose message appeals only to the base fears, hatreds, and parnanoic of fantasies of the most simpleminded among us is more threatening to our way of life than a thousand Al Quaidas.
Regards
TM
Many of us started noticing this disturbing trend during the 2008 elections...sadly, it seems to be getting worse, and most members of the GOP are only continuing to fan the flames, even as they 'denounce' the more violent actions of some americans. They keep saying "americans are upset and angry", well, because of YOU ALL! You've got a portion of this country fearing socialism, marxism, fascism, government takeovers, offing grandma, death panels, "rationed" care (from the government...apparently they're ok with private insurance rationing care), government dependency, loss of liberties, loss of gun rights...the list goes on and on. So now we have a situation where the GOP has created a bloc of the american populace (who aren't innocent either, as the lies don't have to be believed) who fear EVERYTHING about this administration...and sometimes, people do crazy things out of irrational fear. I can only hope that there's some respectable GOP members who will take a REAL stand against the charged atmosphere they helped foster.
this stress, anger and even hate exhibited on this forum is killng the worlds and is making you sick people.
and you don't want to get sick, don't you? healhcare reform or not.
maybe it won't cost you much but you'll still be sick and waiting, and waiting, and waiting to see a doctor.
low level politics all by themselves.They have all the answer and know what is
right and the jerk Gov. already wants to secede so the die is cast.
And I'm not trying to be an hysteric. But I truly believe the Republican party has gone some place so filthy that there's no redemption. They're not going to get any better. It's been there since the Southern Strategy was first implemented, it was carried foward by an unholy marriage with the evangelicals, the debacle of Bush and Cheney. But with the first step on a stage by Sarah Palin all decency left. They don't even pretend to be anything more than racists and fear mongers. They're proud of. I don't think you can cure that.
I'm an Independent who grew up in a red state. I don't recognize these people either. I think about the only solution is for any actual conservatives (are there any or did they go the way of the Dodo?) to leave and form their own party. That's the only one way that this Independent will ever be giving a vote to a conservative candidate again - if they don't have an R in front of their name. That's a deal breaker.
it's not just this country that views them with disgust, the entire world sees them the same way.
you reap what you sow, in due time everything is going to come crashing down on these people and Fox News.
My favorite line of the article.
citizens are aware of the GOP tactics and they
are over it.
I still recall the principal of the school taking two other boys and me from class and directing us to the school flag pool so that we could, with all reverance, lower the flag to half staff. He was an ex military officer and he took our small group out like a military unit and instructe us how to perform the task properly.
Many, many tears that day in that Texas school.
Don't get me wrong the Tea party has big numbers and big hate. But they are still way in the minority.
As was the man who appointed them and took over as president for Kennedy.
But whenever I point out in my comments in HuffPo that it is the beliefs and attitudes of the American people that create and are reflected in the attitudes we see by our representatives on capitol hill, I am ignored.
It's easy (a cliche in fact) to blame "politicians" for all of the social problems of this society. But readers of HuffPo still don't seem able to face up to the idea that their neighbors, friends and family that are (still) proud to put an "R" next to their name are the real heart of our problems.
So sad.