Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly (to a lesser extent surprisingly), Ann Coulter, anyone who works for FOX News, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove...Karl Rove, each of these people make me cringe. I'm talking cringing in a different manner than my usual "I don't like politics" cringe. I'm talking about a deeper "I hope they don't believe what they're saying because it sets America back to the '30s" cringe. The previous article about election day illustrated my thought on Obama and Romney, but that's not what I'm speaking of right now. I'm speaking more broadly on the ideals of conservatism and how its base is shrinking in America. After Obama's re-election, many of the personalities mentioned earlier had similar messages to explain the disappointing (to them) results. There were common themes amongst them all: the white establishment is lo longer the majority, traditional America is no more, young people expect entitlements from the government, Latinos are only worried about amnesty and immigration, Blacks and women want to be given "stuff" by the government. They say these things with such confidence not seeing how a young, intelligent man (leave the Black out of it for now) reads between the lines to see what they're actually saying. They have singled out and badmouthed the perspectives of every demographic but one: Old...White...men; the traditional "American establishment." They have had ALL the power so long and don't see that the country has changed. They like things how they were 100 years ago when white men (whether smart, dumb, good, evil, etc) held all the country's power, achieved on the backs of the demeaned "little people" working but making virtually nothing and having no chance for upward mobility; let's just call it the Jim Crow dynamic. "Yeah, women should still make 77% of what men make; that's just good business." "These border-jumping illegals should work as cheap as the Chinese to save the jobs here; they're lucky we let them stay here." "Blacks went from being slaves to being criminals.""We don't need abortion under any circumstances because you can't get pregnant if it was truly rape, it was God's will for you to have that rapist's baby." "Gov't and gov't regulation are always the problem. Privatization is always the answer. What, you don't trust corporate America?" "We liked Bush, Obama is a retard though (courtesy of Ann Coulter)". It's 2012, these perspectives all sound remarkably backwards in today's America. We are a nation full of Immigrants, the only real Americans are Native Americans (now commonly referred to as 'Indians' since Columbus (who was not the first here by the way) missed his intended destination by 8000 miles and couldn't figure it out." Europeans showed up to a place with cultures intact and decided that this was their land to take over; and we have an entitlement problem? How do you argue you're more American than me (an "African-American")? We came on the same ship, it just so happens that you were lucky enough to be in the VIP section while my ancestors were confined like luggage inhumanely below the decks. Despite your actions, we were called 'savages', but it didn't stop you from raping our women thereby spreading previously European STDs to another population. Your plantations, your building, much of pre-Civil War America's infrastructure was ALL built on the backs of dehumanized slaves or other disenfranchised populations (see cartoon above). After the war, the same could be said of indentured servants (paid just enough to not be called a slave), then up to the present minimum wage workers. Then you have the nerve to say "You are weak, you need help prospering. We did it all by ourselves without help". That's the mind state of a place that we all knew existed but Jon Stewart finally named "Bullshit Mountain". On Bullshit Mountain, taking financial/tax loopholes and tax breaks makes you a smart business, but filing for Social Security or food stamps or disability if you qualify makes you a moocher. College is only for those who can afford to pay the tuition with a check book, which is why pell grants and scholarship programs should be slashed. Also, Viagra should be covered by health insurance but contraception should not. There are a million more examples. On the mountain, anyone who doesn't love or pray the way 'the Christian white establishment' wants you to has forfeit their right to reap the benefits of "the American Dream." verall, what conservatives call "being principled" seems now to be holding on to previously acceptable bigotry. To be fair, I know all conservatives don't think the same. But as long as Limbaugh, Imus and others are the voices of the movement instead of Rubio, Christie, or someone who can truly explain their principles with a modern context, they will NEVER have National Appeal. Fuck all the bigotted talking heads I named at the beginning of this article. You are the reason that conservatives look like yahoos and I could never entertain the possibility of seeing things your way. America's better than than, you're not evolving with it. Do Better...
No comments:
Post a Comment