In Which I Berate An Old Friend

The old friend in question is a work colleague who did more to advance my career than I ever did.  I (and many others) owe him a lot.  I think of him as my professional "Dad."

This morning I found the following many-times forwarded e-mail from him in my in-box.   It's actually rather innocuous as political humor goes.  But, by some odd coincidence I had just read this post by Southern Beale, and was in no mood for anything that even remotely suggested that Republicans have any moral, or logical basis for anything they say or do.

I recently asked my friends' little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do? '

She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'

Her parents beamed with pride.

'Wow...what a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house. '

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, ' Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50? '

I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'

Her parents still aren't speaking to me. =============

So, I wrote him this response.

Dear Old Friend -

You know, there has always been a lot of idiocy in American politics. Usually, though, it hovers out at the fringes.  Now is a special and unique time, since the Republican party has made a distressingly successful attempt to mainstream the particular brand of ignorant racist foolishness embodied by the tea party movement.  Everything from "Obama is a Nazi Socialist foreign-born Arab Muslim" to death panels, to "they're going to take away our guns" to Health care reform - which involves access to insurance via private carriers - is socialism.

There was a time when Republicans were responsible politicians, even though they always had their hands deeper into the corporate purse than the Democrats.  But that time is long gone.  The last decent Republicans were Ike and Barry Goldwater, and he (though he recanted later in life) was a god damned loon.

You can joke all you like, but the Republican party is now in thrall to Rush Limbaugh, who is as dishonest a lying bastard as you will find on this planet, and has it's views accurately represented by that flaming moron Glenn Beck.

Are you aware that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld knew in 2002 that the vast majority of detainees at Gitmo were totally innocent people rounded up for bounty by Afghan warlords? They kept this under wraps because the truth was incompatible with their push toward an unjust and unjustifiable war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11. You have to read the Times of London to get real news about the United States.

I am no fan of Democrats, but, for the most part, they have one thing going for them -- they aren't Republicans.

I love you, man, but in the future, please spare me the right wing bull shit.

Best,

JzB

Since writing that, I've run across this exposé of Mitch McConnell's idiotic and hypocritical statement on the Senate Floor yesterday.

”The way to solve this problem is to let the people who make the mistakes pay for them. We won’t solve this problem until the biggest banks are allowed to fail.”

Unless McConnell is even more ignorant and stupid than he appears, he knows that countries NEVER let their big financial institutions fail and wreak havoc on their economies.  Besides, he voted for the previous bailouts.

There can be a serious debate about the appropriate size and scope of financial institutions, but there cannot be a serious debate on any subject with a person who represents a political party that has devolved into such deep cynicism that it has nothing but contempt for this county, its Constitution, and its political processes.  Which, come to think of it, explains Sarah Palin.

God help us all.

Update:
Just a little more on the abject stupidity and grotesque irresponsibility of Repugnicants.

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