Quote:
It's been not even a year since this country elected Barack Obama, a man who ran not to be the black president but the president. As he stood there that night in Chicago, and again a few months later in Washington on the steps of the Capitol, he pledged not to divide the country but to heal the divisions.
What happened?
How is it that nine months into his presidency, the name calling is so out of hand that it is a relief to get an e-mail you don't have to delete because it's full of hateful obscenities? And I'm just a little fish in this fight. I talk to people who are bigger players — elected officials and political leaders, talking heads with their own shows and more newspapers running them than I'll ever have — and we whisper about how scary it is "out there." But it's not "out there." It's right here, on your computer, on your radio, on your TV, everywhere you look.
Of course, as B.A. reminded me, Nancy Pelosi et al. did not exactly treat the presidency with respect when George W. Bush held the job. Neither did many liberal commentators, which is one reason they have their own shows and websites and beach houses. I can say, with all honesty, that I never preached hate, but so what and who cares? Lots of others did, maybe not heckling from the back of Congress in a joint session (sorry, B.A., but I do think that's different), but certainly in other places.
The problem is that there's no end to this game of tit-for-tat. You destroy Obama because we destroyed Bush. We destroyed Bush because of what you did to Clinton. Hard economic times only make it easier. It's not difficult to fire up people when they are frightened and insecure, which so many of us are, with reason. Who doesn't feel like yelling and screaming when you see your pension disappear or you can't make your house payments and you don't even know how to explain to your kids that you don't have the money to buy them what they want or need?
Two wrongs don't make a right. "He started it" is not an excuse. Isn't this what we all teach our children? Why doesn't it also apply to us? Eight years of wrongs do not justify eight more, and then eight more after that.
Health care reform is important. But civility and decency are even more important. Our democracy cannot survive without them. Sticks and stones are not the only things that hurt. Names hurt, too. We will end up not just hating our presidents, but hating each other.
So I wrote back to B.A., and she wrote back to me. "May God help us all find our way back to civil discourse," she said in closing. Amen.
What happened?
How is it that nine months into his presidency, the name calling is so out of hand that it is a relief to get an e-mail you don't have to delete because it's full of hateful obscenities? And I'm just a little fish in this fight. I talk to people who are bigger players — elected officials and political leaders, talking heads with their own shows and more newspapers running them than I'll ever have — and we whisper about how scary it is "out there." But it's not "out there." It's right here, on your computer, on your radio, on your TV, everywhere you look.
Of course, as B.A. reminded me, Nancy Pelosi et al. did not exactly treat the presidency with respect when George W. Bush held the job. Neither did many liberal commentators, which is one reason they have their own shows and websites and beach houses. I can say, with all honesty, that I never preached hate, but so what and who cares? Lots of others did, maybe not heckling from the back of Congress in a joint session (sorry, B.A., but I do think that's different), but certainly in other places.
The problem is that there's no end to this game of tit-for-tat. You destroy Obama because we destroyed Bush. We destroyed Bush because of what you did to Clinton. Hard economic times only make it easier. It's not difficult to fire up people when they are frightened and insecure, which so many of us are, with reason. Who doesn't feel like yelling and screaming when you see your pension disappear or you can't make your house payments and you don't even know how to explain to your kids that you don't have the money to buy them what they want or need?
Two wrongs don't make a right. "He started it" is not an excuse. Isn't this what we all teach our children? Why doesn't it also apply to us? Eight years of wrongs do not justify eight more, and then eight more after that.
Health care reform is important. But civility and decency are even more important. Our democracy cannot survive without them. Sticks and stones are not the only things that hurt. Names hurt, too. We will end up not just hating our presidents, but hating each other.
So I wrote back to B.A., and she wrote back to me. "May God help us all find our way back to civil discourse," she said in closing. Amen.
And here I thought the anti-Americans were too dumb to figure out that there would be a backlash against any Dem pres after the hatred poured out on GW Bush. If they are SO willing to turn the other cheek, SO willing to "be the bigger man" and let overseas and internal crooks continue merrily in their crimes against humanity, why not let go of 1) hatred of conservative morality and moralists and 2) concern over the backlash? Take your medicine and (wo)man up! Don't act like shits for 8 years and then whisper in fear to each other about how scary it is - that's like the school bully collapsing in tears after a victim fights back with similar insults.
And the nation was upset with Slick Willie, not because of his nice hair or smooth speech, but because he was a lying lecherous b*****d (literally). We don't like having Peyton Place refugees in charge of us. It's one thing to disapprove of a lowlife at the local bar trying to score with a drunk chick. It's another to have the ******** as our commander in chief. It's like getting raped and not being able to ever be clean enough. The filth is still inside and we're still hysterical.
And, and,
"Neither did many liberal commentators [stop being hatred-spewing asses], which is one reason they have their own shows and websites and beach houses."
You. Shits. Sell out your country and get paid for it. Rebel against the values of your forefathers and foremothers and get paid for it. Piss on what made your country great and get warm fuzzies and money.
Don't you dare, don't you DARE, get pissy when your own chickens come home to roost. You shut up and swallow your pride and accept that you were wrong. I hope it doesn't take a Moslem invasion of Israel, or the US, for that to happen.
For all the Western Jews who participated in the hate spewing - do your Aliyah thing. Go back to Israel for a time. See how it is there, how the people continue with their lives even after getting bombed, shot and knifed by Arab "palestinians." Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs continue to build their country, knowing that their chance of dying that day is a little higher than the rest of the nations'. Lower your heads in shame that the honest working man or woman, with so much less education, money and maybe even confidence than you, is a better person. Much better than you.
Learn your lessons, ugly-spirited liberals. Learn them well.
There is a quote from some long-ago person - "He who will not answer to the rudder must answer to the rock."
