You have to wonder: is there such a thing as a party going too far? This is one of "our troops," whom politicians of all camps promise to "support." He is on duty in Iraq. And a crowd is booing him ... because he is gay? This is like booing black troops, because they were black, after Harry Truman ordered that the the military be desegregated in 1948. People who would have done that in those days were out-and-out bigots -- people who let color prejudice turn them against fellow Americans who were sacrificing on their behalf. And their successors who booed tonight
My question: Why was Fallows still wondering? Hadn't we enough evidence before latest line-up of blathering GOP candidates that the Republican Party has gone too far? During a previous debate, when a question was put to Ron Paul about a hypothetical case of a 30 year old man without health insurance who became gravely ill, and Wolf Blitzer asks Paul, 'But, Congressman, are you saying the society should just let him die?', and audience members shouted, 'Yeah!', wasn't that enough to make Fallows wonder? And when the crowd at the GOP debate applauded wildly when Rick Perry said he did not struggle at all with the 234 executions (now 235) which took place during his terms as governor of Texas, didn't that make him wonder if the party had gone too far?
H/T to Counterlight for the link.
My answer to Mr. Fallows' question is: "Did you think all that clamor in Congress from the GOP leadership, and the actions of the GOP in Washington, were just political kabuki? Booing is going to far, but what the GOP has done since the mid-terms is just politics?
ReplyDelete"Really?"
I think that it is very telling that most of the comments and astonishment coming from these debates is not about what any candidate said, but over the crowd reactions.
ReplyDeleteListen to what Rick Santorum says: he says they are "privileging" a class to have sex while serving in the military.
ReplyDeleteLIES
LIES
and MORE LIES
This country is getting scarier by the hour. God help us if these people get into power! They are driven by fear, hate and lies.
ReplyDeleteRmj, yhe congressional critters incite the Tea Party folks, and then they are surprised when their followers 'go too far'. It's no mystery. You reap what you sow.
ReplyDeleteCounterlight, the followers get outrageous and out of hand enough so that the outrageous statements of the politicians pale by comparison.
IT, Santorum said, 'Sex has no place in the military', which makes me want to ask him the followup: Do you think all members of the military should be celibate? He said one true thing: 'Sex is not an issue.' That's right. It's nobody's business, much less the government's, to pry into the private sex lives of members of the military.
whiteycat, it is. If these folks take power, things will get much worse in the country, but, in my most pessimistic moments, I think things will have to get much worse before there is a change in direction.
---shudderrrr---
ReplyDeleteWe. Must. Not. Despair.
It's exactly what they want.
I second Margaret's comment.
ReplyDeleteHey! Just because I'm a pessimist, doesn't mean that I suggest we give up the fight. If we go down, I'm all for going fighting and then getting up to fight another day. Pessimism is not the same as despair, which suggests, at least to me, giving up. But that's not to say that I don't have my days when I come close to despair, days when I want to give up.
ReplyDeleteI think a good dose of pessimism keeps despair at bay, Grandmere. Keep on fighting. I'm right beside you. --and, is it fair to call "bitching" the same as pessimism? --'cuz I've been known to bitch... !!
ReplyDeleteI'm actually just as afraid of what might happen if their choices _aren't_ elected. And that fear is scary in itself.
ReplyDeleteLook, it's part and parcel: they think gays only exist about and around and because of sex. Show Santorum a gay man and all he sees is a ... well you gt the idea. So they denigrate the service of a gay American because he's gay . Apparently, the REpublicans only want to be commander in chief of the straight ones.
ReplyDelete"Cheering executions and booing a gay soldier in prime time are not good for the brand" - Guardian
ReplyDeleteTobias, you have a point.
ReplyDeleteIT, you're right. What anti-gay folks see when they look at gay people is sex, sex, sex all day, every day, every free moment. Who does the grocery shopping?
What they don't see is that sex, sex, sex is what is in their heads.
Lapin, and Ana Marie didn't even give me a tip of the hat. ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou know me: I call the Republican Party the "Rethuglican" Party on (more than one) occasion.
ReplyDeleteAnd even *I* thought booing the American Soldier Serving ***for us*** in Iraq was a new low.
Can't bring myself to watch it tonight. It's pretty depressing, and only getting more so ... for now, anyway.
ReplyDeleteCathy, I understand. I couldn't bring myself to watch the debate.
ReplyDeleteRick Santorum now deplores the 'Boos' and says he didn't hear them. What are the chances?
I think Santorum CHOSE to not hear the Boos. He practices a "Not hearing Boos of gay soldiers" LIFESTYLE.
ReplyDeletewv, "norove": Karl? Can't argue w/ that!
Funny how politicians are sometimes mysteriously afflicted with deafness.
ReplyDeleteMy father called it the deafness of convenience.
ReplyDelete