I am currently in the mood to rant. If you don’t want to read a rant, I apologize, but I’m going to do it anyway.
I was listening to the radio this morning and some guy was on there trying to stir up controversy over Obama’s recent remarks about the fact that it’s not surprising to him that people are bitter and that it’s causing them to cling to guns, religion and antipathy towards people who are different than they are. I’ve seen this referred to as “Bitter-Gate”. The guy on the radio was saying how offended he was at being called a racist at which point I had to flip the radio off because my tolerance for asinine bullshit is not what it used to be.
I just want to know, when did we as a nation become such despicable, spineless, whiny, bitches that we get our undies in a bundle any time anybody points out something that makes us uncomfortable? Anybody who has every driven down a freeway and looked at the bumper stickers on the minivans and SUV’s is aware that there really are a massive number of people in this country who are for God and guns, and against immigration and people who aren’t like them. We call them REPUBLICANS. These are major planks in the fucking platform of their fucking political party. Obama pointed out that these people exist because they’re bitter over having their jobs taken away and their way of life dimished and he’s said something offensive? What the fuck? What’s next? If I say how nice it is that there are no clouds in the sky right now am I going to be accused of cultural elitism against people who like cloudy days?
I know that Obama is scaring the shit out of the political establishment on both the Democratic and Republican sides. It’s because he’s actually attempting to be a candidate for the people instead of for the corporations. So, he’s getting attacked on both sides, by Hillary and McCain whenever they even sense that there is a hint of a chance to make a mountain out of a molecule. And we, the public, seem to be OK with it. We watch the fucking talking heads on the television and we let them tell us that this is a big deal and we buy newspapers where they tell us this is a big deal and we swallow it all as if there is something to swallow.
All that really happened here is a man made an observation that is true and two political rivals decided to attack him in tandem and pretend it was racist (it wasn’t), elitist (it wasn’t), offensive (it wasn’t), and out of touch (it wasn’t). McCain called him elitist because he didn’t like the insinuation that people supported the Republican party out of bitterness and fear. Well, guess what McCain? You have an entire party built on xenophobia, bitterness and fear. In the 80′s it was fear of the Russians and a hatred of communism. Today it’s fear of Muslims and hatred of illegal immigrants (building a wall between us and Mexico ring any bells? Tom Tancredo? Ever heard of him?). From Homeland Security to the Iraq War to Bush and Cheney’s “Axis of Evil” you guys live on fear. You manipulate it to get people to support your platform: religion, guns, and antipathy towards people who aren’t like you. It’s not elitist when somebody points out that your fucking strategy works as you intend it to, it’s just embarrassing because if people start to realize how your party has been manipulating their hopes and fears for the financial gain of your leadership they just might start to think and support their own best interests instead of helping you buy your ninth house and making you president.
And Hillary, my god woman, what has become of you? I used to respect you. I used to think you would be a good president. But after the shit you’ve pulled in the last few months I am just in shock. You should be siding with all the angry, downtrodden, disenfranchised people in this country who are sick of seeing thousands of their hard-earned dollars pay for a war they were against before it started even as that same war destroys their economy and devalues the very dollars they’ve worked so hard for. People have a right to be bitter, that bitterness is earned, it’s genuine, and it’s why anybody is even considering voting for Grandpa Munster. I can see little difference between your spin (to paraphrase: ‘I don’t see bitterness, I just see hard working decent people’) and the following from George Bush:
“You work three jobs? … Uniquely
American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.”
—President George W. Bush, to a divorced mother of three, Omaha,
Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005
Now I am also reading that you’re saying these remarks could hurt the Democratic party for years. Well guess what? The only way that a remark like the one Obama made could hurt anyone is if manipulative self-serving dishonest cretins take the remark, amplify it, distort it, twist it and make a controversy where none exists. I expect that sort of thing from Fox News and the McCain campaign, but when it’s coming from you, wow… You really don’t care who you hurt, how much you damage the Democratic party or even if you put McCain in office as long as you still have a thread of a chance to get elected. When did you turn into this person? Have you really been this person all along? Yuck.
Lots of us are bitter. It’s respectful to us when a politician recognizes it and validates it. It’s disrespectful to us when a politician denies how we feel and pretends that the trainwreck of a country we are in right now is all sunshine and roses. So, McCain, Clinton, you’re the ones who have been insulting to us. Keep this up and if it comes down to choice between the two of you I’m voting for Mike Gravel.
More From Ryan Sutter
- The Long Dark Night of the Soul
- Rude People On the Bus
- The Pattern
- The Internet vs. The Watchtower
- Why Can’t Barack Obama Close the Deal?
