Stupid People
Washington's Permanent Campaign
You People Are Stupid
Everything conservative politicians do and say
fairly screams, “We know you people are idiots
and easily manipulated through your ignorance
and emotions.” Their argument is almost always
emotional, visceral, stirring up anger and
malice. Their only positive messaging involves a
positive attitude contrasting negative behavior:
pro America meaning anti-immigrant, anti-black,
anti-gay. The overwhelming majority of what
conservative political organizations do is
propaganda (to be absolutely fair: at least half
of what liberals do is propaganda as well). The
subtext of virtually all of it is You People Are
Stupid, You People Are Children: Easily
Manipulated And Led By Your Emotions Instead of
Your Intellect.” That may as well be their
campaign theme. Why does this strategy work?
Because the people they are talking to are too
stupid to realize they’re being insulted. These
are, in every demonstrable way, just as stupid
as the GOP leadership (and Sarah Palin, who’s
become rich exploiting Silly and Stupid
Conservative Soccer Moms) obviously think they
are. They will believe any lie, no matter how
preposterous, and believe absolutely anything,
anything at all, about Barack Obama; the more
utterly ridiculous the better.
These people are grossly underinformed and
deliberately misinformed by lunatics like Pat
Robertson and Glen Beck and patently obvious
phonies like Rush Limbaugh, all of whom make
millions upon millions exploiting these
ignorant, superstitious people clinging to their
guns and religion and cloistered in tribal
enclaves where intellectual curiosity is not
encouraged and logic is routinely subverted by a
veil of ignorance which enforces culture over
reason. Politicians understand this and know how
to work these people—including you and I—by
appealing not to our intellect but to our
emotion. Conservatives, specifically and most
demonstrably, encourage negative emotions—mainly
fear—in order to stoke hatred and anger because
hatred and anger, motivated by deep-seated fear,
is the equation for getting people off of the
sofa. Hope and change never motivated anybody.
People voted for Obama not out of hope but out
of fear of Gidget and Grampa; of even the
slightest possibility of a Sarah Palin
presidency. Positive emotion does not motivate
stupid people, and stupid people outnumber the
rest by at least 4-1. Politics is the art of
motivating Stupid People. The way to motivate
Stupid People is to make them afraid. Their fear
will manifest itself as anger and resentment,
and that will provide the ballast to lift their
fat, racist, ignorant butts off the sofa and get
them into the streets yelling and screaming and,
presumably, to the polls.
And so, rather than governing, rather than doing
their jobs and accomplishing any good whatsoever
for the American people, Republicans (in
specific) have cemented a tragic pattern of
obstruction; of effectively halting the wheels
of progress in Washington in an effort to keep
the yelling and screaming going. The
Republicans, in specific, have adopted a
permanent campaign, an abject refusal to accept
the legitimate vote of the American people. And
Stupid People keep these evil men and women in
power. Why? Because even Stupider People vote
for Obama and then go to sleep, when voting for
Obama is only half the job. The other half is
giving the president a Congress actually willing
to accomplish something. Stupid People do not
understand this. Stupid Conservative People do
not understand that life has to be about more
than just beating Obama. The roads need fixing.
Schools need funding. Things need to get done in
America. But they don’t care. Beating Obama—to
whom they’ve lost twice—is all they care about,
no matter how much damage is done, no matter who
loses their home or their job or what happens to
their kid’s school. Stupid People keep
reelecting these Congressional Corpses to
obstruct all legislation, and then blame the
president because they’ve lost their job or
their home or because their kid’s school is
horrible. Stupid People support NOT expanding
criminal and mental illness background checks
for gun purchasers. And Stupid People win, every
time. Why? Because they outnumber everyone else
at least 4-1, and because logic, hope and reason
are not strong enough motivators to get
thoughtful people to take action. Which, to my
point, makes educated, thoughtful, folks Even
Stupider People because Even Stupider People are
the ones sitting out the midterm elections and,
therefore, letting Stupid People run the
country.
No "There" There: Republicans like Lindsey Graham are not nearly as concerned about the tragic loss of life in Benghazi as they are about blaming Obama for it. Benghazi is, for them, only the latest excuse to avoid governing.
In Magog We Trust
It really irritates me when Stupid People repeatedly involve the
name of Jesus Christ as their motivator and guide, as if
ignorance and superstition are somehow qualities of God. Jesus
was not the God Of Stupid People. Nothing, write this down
someplace, nothing of the evil, lying, racist, hateful nonsense
these Stupid People do is in any way related to the personal
example of Jesus Christ. These people demonstrably do not know
Jesus Christ, no matter what their idiotic blathering says.
Jesus was apolitical. He carried no gun. He owned nothing but
the robes on His back. He marched in no rallies. He did not
organize politically. Jesus’ ministry bares absolutely no
resemblance to the freak show going on in conservative politics.
These Stupid People really need to stop telling that lie, that
they are “Christians,” motivated by their love of Jesus. They
clearly do not know and have no relationship whatsoever with the
risen Savior. God is not the author of ignorance. God is not
divided within Himself.
I suspect I am a closet Republican. I believe in smaller
government, lower taxes, and strongly defended individual
freedom. I’m in the closet about it because the Republican
party, once home to progressive thinkers like Abraham Lincoln,
has been co-opted by the hysterical fringe—composed mostly of
bible-pumping, gun-toting racists. I am certainly not one of
those, not part of the belching, anti-intellectual reactionary
crowd the GOP now routinely panders to and has come to
symbolize. I am likely an all but extinct minority: the liberal
Republican. Abraham Lincoln was a liberal Republican. I am less
a George W. Bush Republican than possibly a Jeb Bush Republican.
If you’re twisting your face right now at just the mention of
the former Florida Governor’s name, let me ask you: have you
ever heard Jeb Bush speak? Have you read his book or any of his
speeches? Or are you just reacting emotionally to the name
“Bush,” and assuming one Bush is just like the other.
Such emotional reactions is precisely what is wrong in today’s
political process. Presuming something about Jeb Bush based on
our conclusions about his brother is as cripplingly immature as
fringe conservatives’ disproportionate and histrionic hatred of
President Obama; although I remain convinced Obama Hatred has at
its roots the color of the president’s skin and not, as the
lunatic fringe transparently exclaim, his policies. Blacks tend
to react to “Bush” because of the 43rd president’s policies.
Conservative whites hated Obama on spec, before the shampoo in
the Oval Office carpet had even dried.
This is what children do—jump to conclusions and blurt out every
unexpressed thought as it pops into their heads. 90% of what I
see in politics today, on either ideological side, is the work
of two-year olds. It’s all emotion over intellect, intended to
stoke anger and resentment and get us all riled up. Why? Because
politicians know the only way to get us off the sofa and down to
the polls is to get us angry enough to overcome our laziness.
The entirety of last week was about “scandals” exploding at the
White House, Fox News and conservative pit bulls like Rush
Limbaugh having a feeding frenzy on one manufactured “scandal”
after another. Only, when you turn off the yelling and
histrionics and actually read these documents as they are
released, you realize there really was no scandal at all.
So-called “pastor” and former presidential candidate Mike
Huckabee soberly predicted that the president would inevitably
have to resign or be impeached in the wake of the Benghazi
“scandal.” But then the White House re-released original emails
exchanged in the wake of the Benghazi tragedy which reinforced
U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s original statement, that she was
using talking points edited by the CIA. At this writing, there
have been no apologies extended to Ambassador Rice.
Last week, the president faced the IRS “scandal,” and remains
accused of using the IRS to target his political enemies, which
is also utter nonsense. I am amazed none of the pundits have
pointed out that the agency had good reason to look closely at
right-wing reactionary groups applying for non-profit status on
the transparently false basis of their being non-political.
Reactionary right-wing groups have historically been responsible
for fostering hatred and inspiring violence in this country.
They accuse the IRS of giving liberal groups “a free pass” while
missing the point that liberal groups rarely speak openly about
assassinating the president or overthrowing the government. I’ve
never seen liberal activists bring loaded weapons to a rally.
Given the violent language employed by many conservative groups,
added scrutiny into these “patriotic” fringe organizations is,
in my opinion, certainly warranted.
Republicans, most especially, have no interest in governing.
This was made all the more evident in a memo sent
last week urging Republican senators and Congressmen to remain
focused on the “Obama scandals” and not change their focus to,
say, actual governing. The GOP mission, for four and half years
now, has been solely to block any progress the president may
make. Why? So they can win elections. Winning elections is
absolutely the only thing these people care about. They are
completely indifferent to the well-being of the American people
and have no interest in negotiation or compromise. These evil
Old Rich White Men have grossly distorted and perverted the very
concept of America by promoting fear and hatred and blocking, ad homenim, any and all progress in government in service of a
political goal. And Stupid People keep sending these evil Old
Rich White Men, time after time after time, back to Washington.
I Heard About It On The News: Jon Stewart takes a poke at Obama.
A Meeting of The Minds
Compromise is the entire point of representative government.
These people are on a permanent campaign, not even honoring the
traditional eighteen-month window between major elections in
which to compromise and move legislation through Congress. They
refuse to stop campaigning, plotting, working their schemes. The
behavior is pathological. But we really cannot blame these evil
Old Rich White Men and women: we have to blame ourselves for
keeping these people in power.
The midterm elections are where these lunatics live. I have no
idea what it will take to make youth and minority voters
understand that simple fact. Youth and minority voters are
traditionally absent from the midterm elections. They rally
around someone like Barack Obama, and, two years later, you
can’t convince them to get off the sofa because it’s not a
presidential election, it’s just about Congressmen and Senators.
But, hey, STUPID, the people causing all of this destruction,
who likely cost you your job in the idiotic sequester insanity,
are Congressmen and Senators, most of whom are elected during
the midterms. Voting for Obama means absolutely nothing if you
don’t provide him a cooperative legislature, a group of
*reasonable* people willing to move things through Congress. But
this isn’t what we do. Why? Because we’re Stupid People. We
don’t know much about how any of this works. We voted in Obama.
High five. Now back to the couch.
Who does show up at the midterm elections? Old white people. Not
exclusively, but the majority of voters in the midterms are
older white voters, who tend to vote Republican and
conservative, and who think lunatics like John Boehner and Mitch
McConnell are doing a good job. I dare the Associated Press or
major news network to poll midterms voters and ask them how many
black friends they have. Meanwhile, we do nothing. We lie on the
couch. We can’t be bothered. We have no idea who our senator is
and we don’t care. We voted in Obama. High five.
Christopher J. Priest
19 May 2013
editor@praisenet.org
TOP OF PAGE
