Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Mr. President, When Do We Stop
Running away from who we are?
When do you stop feeding your friends and our values to a pack of mad dogs whose hunger for hate will never be satiated?
What is most affecting for me about this little scene from the "West Wing" is Toby's sense of exhaustion. It isn't merely that the Right gets every one of its "facts" wrong; it is the enervating sense that this is a conversation which everyone has already had a hundred times before.
It resonates so strongly because every Liberal I know has sat where Toby is sitting and knows that no matter how many hundreds of times you correct them, point out their ideology's faults and failures and their leaders' factual mistakes, outright lies and moral hypocrisies -- some small, some large and some genuinely Apocalyptic -- there is absolutely no chance whatsoever that they will ever change their minds or their behavior, or even conceded that your opinion, while different from theirs, might not be part of a vast Rezko/ACORN/Muslim/Commie conspiracy, but an honorable position arrived at by, y'know, reading something other than "Glenn Beck's Common Sense" and thinking something other than what Rush Limbaugh shat into your ear the day before.
None.
When do we publicly stop pretending that the modern Right does not despise this country -- our country -- and can never be appeased and will never be satisfied until everything that we care about and everything this nation should be proud of is buried in an unmarked, mass grave beneath a single, White, Christian Conservative WalMart that stretches from sea to shining sea, and whose Electronics section shows nothing but acre after acre of teevees, all turned to FoxNews -- now just called The News -- featuring an endless loop of President Palin and Vice President Beck ranting and baiting about the next group of sinister, imaginary enemies at which they have decided to point their army of slack-jawed, single-digit-IQ "patriots".
That is the hard truth about what is breaking this nation's back, and your job above all else is to look the American people in the eye and tell us the hard truths that we don't want to hear, and that our media categorically will not discuss for fear of losing market share.
Your job is to lead.
To. Lead. Us.
And if you are not up for that hard job, then what in the world are you doing in our White House?
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7 comments:
I don't even want to hear about what cannot be done. I don't want excuses, or reasons that we must defer what we know is needed. Tell us the truth, Mr. President. Yes we can. Yes we will. Now do your part.
How hard is it to explain this? Do you want to be allowed to subscribe to Medicare before age 65?
Tell me, how many Americans will say no?
And WTF is he doing in OUR White House?
From your pen to . . . everyone's ears!
You are one in a gazillion, Dg.
And we are so lucky to read you.
S
When do we publicly stop pretending that the modern Right does not despise this country -- our country -- and can never be appeased and will never be satisfied until everything that we care about and everything this nation should be proud of is buried in an unmarked, mass grave beneath a single, White, Christian Conservative WalMart that stretches from sea to shining sea, and whose Electronics section shows nothing but acre after acre of teevees, all turned to FoxNews -- now just called The News -- featuring an endless loop of President Palin and Vice President Beck ranting and baiting about the next group of sinister, imaginary enemies at which they have decided to point their army of slack-jawed, single-digit-IQ "patriots".
It saddens me when there is reason to be angry but it pleases me when such anger inspires your well scripted and timely invective. Well played sir.
SJ
He had to at least try bipartisanship, and I'm glad he did. He proved us to be, as my mother put it, "above that sort of behavior." But now, yes, you're right. I'm still waiting for him to make good on his promise in the inaugural speech: that he'd start talking to us like adults. Maybe this week...
- mac
I hope that you all are sending these comments to the White House as well as posting them here. Might not help, but can't hurt as far as I know. (Which isn't very far, I know!)
*clap**clap**clap* Well said!
It's so frustrating to just sit here and watch as the country spins out of control. Money is tight and getting tighter. Getting health issues resolved is now next to impossible unless you have the "good insurance" (whatever that is). People aren't talking because everybody is yelling. Nobody seems to be really listening, even to their own crazy arguments.
I find myself exhausted just thinking about it. Sitting down to write about it is completely overwhelming because it all wants to come out at once and ends up a jumbled mess. Doing anything to change it seems impossible when all I can see is moron after moron dishing out lie after lie and the people eating it up with a great big spoon.
Your post gives me a much needed boost of faith in humanity. :) I just hope that somebody hears us through all the static.
Maybe Bush was too dumb to know what he was doing, but the pervert in the white house basement knew what was going on. They screwed up everything, you weren't even half way through explaining it was wrong when the next one or more turds hit the fan.
We are at a disadvantage - the lies fit on a bumper sticker, the truth requires more time, space, & intellect. I'm getting too old (older than Toby) and tired to debate with the red-eyed crazies anymore. I just call them out for what they are and walk.
DG, you write so much better than I. THNX for all you do.
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