We Told You So. . .

First off, this post will offend a lot of my right-wing friends, and while I hate to be dick, I am angry, and this post is meant to share my anger with the world in a constructive way. Hopefully, you will understand why I'm angry, rather than get offended. But, with that said, we (the Left) told you (the Right) that your rhetoric was going to get someone killed. And it may have.

On Saturday, when I heard that Representative Giffords was shot, I immediately had a picture of a suspect in mind - white, conservative, and in his mid-20's to mid 40's. And guess what - so did everyone else. When asked, Giffords' father pointed the finger directly at the Tea Party, as did the Sheriff, and every other Democrat and/or liberal in this country. There's a good reason for that - Sarah Palin put a crosshairs on Giffords, her office was vandalized during the health care debate, protesters showed up to her events fully armed, and her Republican opponent held fundraisers where his supporters could shoot an M16 at target with her name on it.

Now, it may be the case that the gunman was not a conservative or a Tea Partier, but rather a lone nutjob with his own agenda. But here's the thing - does he fixate on Giffords without so much heat put on her by the right? Does he even know who she is? We don't know that much. But if it is true that he had no connection with the right wing, don't celebrate, or blame liberals, but rather, breathe a sigh of relief because you got lucky. Really lucky. By the way, in the two days that have passed since the shooting, Senator Bennett and Representative Danny Davis have both received death threats

And if you want to respond to this post by saying that Democrats or liberals are doing this too, please cite specific examples - not from commenters on an open website, but examples from liberals similar in stature to Glenn Beck, Sharron Angle, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, hell, I'll even go with someone equal to Michelle Malkin's stature. And that's the difference - there are nuts on both sides, but the conservative leadership is actively courting the crazies. And we warned you that this could have serious consequences. Hell, the night before she was shot, Congresswoman Giffords wrote to friends and colleagues to tone down the rhetoric.

And so, I say, we told you so. But guess what, whatever indignation and anger you might feel is nothing compared to the anger we liberals feel over the shooting. Everyone is losing. Oh, and don't you dare complain about the politicization of this tragedy - the attempted assassination of a political leader is a political.

The Importance of Real Debate

One of the saddest things that have happened over the past several years is the total and utter lack of a real debate over issues in Washington, D.C. There was a time when the leaders of both parties could sit down, have a bourbon (or two) and hash out a solution to a problem Did that solution always work? Hell, no. But both parties were on the same page, and the debate was open and honest. For me, the last time this happened was during the debate on education which lead to the "Leave No Child Behind" bill. Ultimately, the bill was flawed and has been a disaster, but the debate was honest.

In the wake of Ted Kennedy's death, its appropriate to note the lack of a true debate in Washington over health care, torture, or the economic stimulus package. And apparently, the climate change bill is also going to be a rough one. The problem is, essentially as I see it, that the two parties live in two completely alternate universes. So instead of arguing the how - as in how do we fix this problem - the Parties argue whether or not a problem even exists. Health care, for instance, is tremendously overpriced in this country (we spend more per capita than any other country in the world, by far), and that has lead to bankruptcies and poor health. But instead of arguing how health care reform should be structured, Republicans argue that there is no problem, or worse, make up things about health care reform.

Where are the arguments about streamlining the health insurance market? Where are the arguments against burdensome regulation, or tort reform? In short, where is the honest conservative argument about health care? Or torture? Or climate change? The Republican argument seems to be to deny the existence of any problem. And ultimately, these made up facts have become an identity and not a philosophy. And that's a shame because conservatives have good points to make. For instance, the deregulation of the trucking industry was, all in all, a good thing. Welfare reform has been largely successful (I think). In other words, the conservative voice, or the good government voice, has been an important part of the Republic.

What's more, I deeply fear the insanity of identity politics in this country. Every day I see more and more harbingers of political violence in this country. Listen to this:



Now, Glenn Beck is a total nutcase, but he's alleging a coup by election - in other words, Obama has taken over the government by winning an election - something that has been done by both parties since 1801. Beck is practically encouraging the violent overthrow of the United States! We have pastors praying to God for Obama's death, and their parishioners are carrying assault weapons to Obama's events. Only 42% of Republicans are certain that Obama is a citizen of the United States!

True, the Democrats have, in the past, demonized the right. As the years rolled on during Bush's tenure as President, we became more and more strident against him. Though, to be honest, he did a lot to encourage our ire. But that outrage and anger took years to develop, and the anger was over policy - Iraq, torture, climate change, Katrina, etc. And it took even longer for our leadership to even acknowledge the anger we felt - this, by the way, is a continuing theme: Republicans fear their base, and are responsive to them (no matter how crazy the base gets), Democratic Leadership thinks the base voters are a bunch of dirty fucking hippies and ignore them. *bangs head against wall*

Ultimately, the change occurred because the Republicans realized that they could win more debates by being ruthlessly partisan, no matter what the facts were. And politically, that's the right move. What drives me nuts here is that the Democrats having faced this exact problem for the past thirty years have yet to realize that they need to be partisan in return. But despite what the Democrats do, something has to break with the Republicans - they can't keep doing this.

Shit is Getting Scary. . .

Whenever I read shit like this (and I suggest you read it), I become very, very worried about this country. If one reads the accounts of the political discourse prior to the Civil War, its filled with Senators fighting each other, and prior to the War itself, people were literally killing each other in Kansas. And to be honest, I see the country going this way again.

For a variety of reasons, political discourse in this country stopped being about which policy is the best to follow, but rather about which reality to live in. For more than a few right-wingers, reality is that Obama was born in Kenya, that he's a Socialist, that he wants to kill old people and children, that global warming does not exist, and Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9-11 and had weapons of mass destruction. None of these things are true, but are taken as gospel by too many people.

Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are, of course, somewhat responsible. Glenn Beck, in particular, has done a lot to stoke the fires of hatred against Obama. And Limbaugh calling Obama a Nazi is not helping either. But let's face it, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are opportunists - if they didn't chase the lunatic fringe, someone else would. That's capitalism. As a moral matter, if anyone gets hurt, because of the hatred these douche nozzles spew, I hope they burn in hell.

Before someone says something about Move-On, and the Hitler ad, allow me to point out that the ad was submitted to Move-On, and they ultimately scrubbed the ad from their site. Oh, and Bush did invade a country for the purpose of spreading his ideology across the world (and was torturing people, and spied on Americans. . .but that's another post). There is a big, big difference between Rush Limbaugh and some random guy. Don't get me wrong, the left has its loonies (goddamn hippies), but our nutjobs don't have institutional support.

So, how do we walk back from this precipice? From this Democrat's perspective, walking back can't mean giving up the store. No, Democrats need to fight harder for what they believe in. And Republicans shouldn't stop fighting for what they believe in either. But we have to start reading from the same page.