Tag Archives: Republicans

The Reasons Behind the Rhetoric, pt. 2

May 21, 2009

I had promised in my last post to explain my point of view as to why the Right is currently acting the way it does.  I could have very easily thrown it in the last post but chose not to do so.  Let’s face it, it would have been rather anti-climatic.

I’m not going to recap my last post.  It’s right under this one, for heaven’s sake.

All of the screaming coming from the Republicans and Conservatives right now is out of frustration for the way they feel that they have been mistreated over the course of the past eight years.  It is as simple as that.

Republicans are currently doing exactly what I did with my, “Idiots to Protest President Obama at Notre Dame” post.  They are angry at a lot of the name calling which was aimed at President Bush and the Republican Party while Republicans were in power.  Republicans and conservatives, being ordinary human beings, are simply lashing out at what they considered to be unfairness coming from the Left.

I admit, that isn’t any major revelation.  I don’t claim to be a great commentator - this is only my fourth blog posting, after all.  I suppose, however, that the result of this reflection is that I feel empathy for the Right at this moment.  They are acting exactly as they believe the Left acted back in 2001.

I am not going to go and post a lot of links to show examples of this.  It would involve digging up events from eight years ago and I admittedly lack the time to do so at the moment.  I think it would be pointless to do so.  I ultimately believe that much of the criticism levied against Bush was quite valid.  Sadly, when it comes to the Conservative view of these events, there is a perception where these valid criticisms which were levied en masse are mixed up with name-calling visciousness which came from the Far-Left.  Case in point - even before 9/11 and the wars which occurred in its wake, there were those who labeled Bush a Nazi, called him a murder, labelled him a racist, and directed all sorts of hateful anger towards both the man and his political party.

These attacks weren’t mainstream.  They came from the Extreme Left, which can be ugly just like the Extreme Right.  A problem, however, lies in the fact that Conservative media has shown a tendency to pull examples from the Extreme Left and present them as mainstream liberal opinion.  Back when I was more conservative, I fell for it hook, line, and sinker.  The fact is that these elements make excellent bogeymen and lead to great sensationalist stories which stir up the conservative base.  The downside, unfortunately, is that what is lost in the process is an understanding that many on the Left reject these fringe elements every bit as much as Conservatives do.

So conservatives came away from the past eight years feeling as though they were accused of being fascists.  They aren’t fascists.  In their hearts, they very much believe that dependency on government programs equates to slavery to those same programs.  I find myself inclined to agree.  They very much view the Bush Administration’s expanded security policies as being a necessary prerequisite to the lack of an attack on American soil since 9/11/2001.  A lot of good, intelligent people with natural misgivings about government power feel this way.  In fairness, and as a means of reaching out to these people, I do believe that the Left really ought to take a step back and consider how many of its cries of “abuses” are really just political rhetoric intended to make the previous administration look bad.  After all, BOTH sides have been known to do this.

Those on the Left really ought to be willing to take a step back and consider how much they villify the Right in this country.  Those on the Right should very much do the same.  We’re all Americans and it behooves us very little to believe that the other side wants to undermine the core of this country: The U.S. Constitution.  Both sides have shown themselves to be masterful in setting up the ugliest of strawmen regarding their fellow Americans, strawmen which only serve to divide us as a people in the face of major issues with which we, as a nation, must wrestle.

I admit, there hasn’t been any great “revelation” in this posting, but it is all something I feel must be said, having personally tasted the fruits of both sides.  I am a registered Republican.  I have no plans to change that, yet I admit it rather upsets me to see my party calling both myself and those with whom I agree, “RINOs” (Republicans-In-Name-Only).  I believe that the future of my party isn’t in the conservative purists who have been running the show of late, but rather in a combined coalition of the more liberal elements of the party, found more especially in the libertarian elements and those whom could best be described as “Rockefeller Republicans.”  I believe one should not have to apologize for being both Republican and pro-choice, and I strongly feel that groups such as the Log Cabin Republicans ought to be permitted to have a more active voice.  I also feel that being a Republican should not mean that one must constantly oppose a sitting president simply because he is a Democrat.  Insofar as we are all Americans, and insofar as we all love our nation and its great institutions, we should always be able to find common ground for compromises and policies which will lead to a better tomorrow for us all.

Discuss it here or debate it at Snarkbate!

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The Reasons Behind the Rhetoric, pt. 1

May 17, 2009

It was pointed out to me yesterday by someone I respect that my last post might have unnecessarily demonized groups of people whom are otherwise acting out of honest motivations, however wrongheaded I might think those motivations to be.

Now, I admittedly was attempting to be inflammatory with my post.  I don’t hide the fact that some of what I do here is done with duel purposes - I am simultaneously trying to express myself while stir up controversy for my Snarkbate forums.  Setting up strawmen is generally useful when you want to push certain buttons for the sake of getting a response and I am not above doing so to stir up business.

A good point was raised, however.  If I consider myself to be a rational individual, what is the point of utilizing the same rhetorical devices and attitudes I see the other side using?  Sure, I might stir up a debate… but defending a position whose presentation was ultimately founded upon rhetoric most certainly limits the opportunity to actually win that debate.  The worst part is when such strawmen actually offend those whom are being mischaracterized.

This made me think.  I usually do not like to offend people.  There are usually much more effective ways to make a point.  Furthermore, reasonable points tend to draw reasoned debate as well, which is actually what I desire on Snarkbate.  What, then, actually inspired me to make an over-the-top characterization of those with whom I am admittedly frustrated?

Then it struck me.  I wanted to give certain Conservatives a taste of what I felt to be their own medicine.  I have been tired of seeing Liberals, both prominent and ordinary, being characterized in certain ways and wanted to put Conservatives in those same shoes.

There has been an enormous amount of vitriolic rhetoric from the Right aimed at President Obama, Democrats, and the Democratic Leadership in the House and Senate.  We have Randell Terry, for example, who, on Fox News, commented that allowing Obama to speak at Notre Dame is like giving Nazi leaders a podium after the war.  Randell Terry, by the way, was responsible for the Terry Schiavo story being brought to the limelight and runs a website called www.stopobamanotredame.com.  We have Alan Keyes, the man who ran against Obama for Illinois’s Senate Seat, being arrested during a protest he informed would violate the school’s protest policies.  This is a man who, on his personal blog, has accused the president of enforcing godlessness, of wanting despotism, of being a Communist, of showing contempt for the Constitution,  and of being “the living incarnation of the glamorization of evil.”  It turns out that he knew full well he would be trespassing should he carry out his protest but did it anyway, obviously desiring to portray himself as a martyr on par with Martin Luther King, Jr.  These are two of the loudest voices and figureheads for the protests I wrote about.

I could outline numerous other cases of vile rhetoric coming from some Conservatives, but I am sidetracking from the point I want to make.

I wanted to lash out against mischaracterizations from the Right.  Yet, in making these reflections, I invariably have to ask myself how much the current antipathy I have observed in Conservative ranks has really been borne out of a desire to lash out against certain mischaracterizations they have perceived as coming from the Left over the past eight years.

I have been struggling to understand some of the actions of the Republican Party after losing the White House last year.  After Rush Limbaugh tore Michael Steele a new one for calling Limbaugh an “entertainer”, Steele kowtowed in apology not wanting to insult Limbaugh’s leadership.  This same Rush Limbaugh insists that Republicans ought to replace their listening tour with a teaching tour, affirming that Republicans need to stick to the same values which ended up costing them the Executive and Legislative branches of the American government.  The organizers ended up changing the tone from listening to what Americans want to teaching them what conservatism is all about.  Meanwhile, the GOP is calling an extrodinary special session to approve of a resolution to rebrand the Democratic Party as, “The Democrat Socialist Party.”

This all seems very self-defeating.

I also think I understand why they do it.  But I will cover that in my next post. *wink*

Discuss it here or debate it at Snarkbate!

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