Thursday, March 01, 2012

I'D CALL THIS PEAK WINGNUT, BUT I BET WE'LL TOP IT EVENTUALLY

For those who are still in denial about the extremism of modern-day Republicans, the past week -- hell, the past 24 hours -- should have been a cold slap in the face, a big jolt of reality. Rush Limbaugh, praised for years by Republicans, declared an honorary member of the House freshman class in the Contract with America year of 1994, pal to Dick Cheney all through his time as vice president, attacks an advocate of contraceptive coverage as a slut and a prostitute and, after being criticized, doubles down, demanding that the woman "post [sex] videos online" in return for contraceptive coverage. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, honorary Arizona co-chair of Mitt Romney's 2008 campaign, backer of Rick Perry last fall until he dropped out of the race, object of the entreaties of Rick Santorum, holds a press conference today to reassert that the long-form Obama birth certificate is a fake. (Santorum, when he met with Arpaio last week, was briefed on Arpaio's birther "investigation" and didn't immediately distance himself from the sheriff.) Oh, and what else? Nearly every Republican senator voted for the Blunt amendment? Andrew Breitbart died and much of the right concluded that President Obama murdered him? And, five days ago, Rick Santorum declared that anyone who wants more Americans to have access to college is a "snob"?

That's just one week. And yet ...

We will go into the fall election with Obama and Romney as the candidates and Romney will try to portray Obama as "extreme" and "out of the mainstream." He, his running mate, and his surrogates will declare that Obama stands for an extreme, peculiar, bizarre, foreign worldview. And this will be taken seriously. One or two setbacks in the economy or the foreign-policy sphere, one or two good news cycles for the Romney campaign, and we'll be right back to the premise that "real Americans" are Republicans and that it's the Democrats who are the weirdos and freaks.

For the love of God, mainstream media, please remember this moment. And realize that there'll be even worse moments to come.

(X-posted at Booman Tribune.)

5 comments:

Jean said...

It doesn't matter who gets elected. The only thing I will support is TERM LIMITS on both the House & the Senate. Until that happens, it doesn't matter which party gets control, it's a dirty old boys club on both sides of the aisle. That's the bottom line.

BH said...

Well, the thing is, though - you'd still end up with a "dirty old boys club" on both sides of the aisle, unless instituting term limits somehow improved the electorate. The only diff would be that the members would change faces more often, and probably be even more clownishly inept.

Back when term limits was the new GOPanacea in the early 90's, it struck me that for an electorate to embrace term limits seemed awfully close to saying "stop me before I vote again!". Rather pathetic in a way. And, of course, many if not most of those who swept into office bawling about term limits ended up finding a way to stay in office well past the limits for which they had bawled.

Joshua Caplan said...

You left out the fact that we learned this week that Montana Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull forwarded a blatantly racist e-mail joke about Obama's mother.

Steve M. said...

Yeah, I know. I posted about that elsewhere, but I left it out here because he's not exactly at the center of the Republican/right-wing universe. These other people are.

cfaller96 said...

While I assume Barb and others are posting in good faith, what drives me nuts about the "moderates" and "independents" and "oh god just stop the BS and admit that you don't care" crowd is that when confronted with irrefutable evidence that Republicans are nuts, dangerous, cruel, etc., they find some way to ignore it.

Here we have a post about irrefutable Republican extremism, and the first response to that is about how "it doesn't matter" and...term limits. That attitude only emboldens them. Pretending "it doesn't matter" year after year after year is how we go from Roe v. Wade being accepted in our country to having a fight over contraceptives. Or how we go from being the land of opportunity to the land of SuperJobCreators versus moochers/looters/etc. Or how we go from (fill in the blank on and on and on).

To all you independents who like to elevate yourselves "above" all this dirty "partisan rancor:" get your heads out of the sand and get over yourselves, because you're not helping. These people are dangerous, and some of you have voted for them, thus making our problems worse. Cowboy/girl up, admit that you were wrong, and NEVER vote Republican again.