GOP Public Stupidity

Sadly for my mental health I've been watching the news, in particular political news. I've been treated to some astonishing statements by people who are "big" in GOP politics. Things started off with real stupidity with Eric Cantor getting up and calling the Democrats out for complaining about violence and violent rhetoric (threats) by saying that a spent bullet hitting an office window not in his district that isn't his office was him being shot at and that anti-Semitic threats came in. Now I don't want to minimize the "badness" of threats and violence but exactly how Cantor can put anti-Semitism into this is somewhat beyond me - it is not exactly a feature or even bug of the Democrats - rather is is extreme far right and certainly not involved in any way with any current legislation. That can be dropped pretty much in the lap of the Medieval Catholic Church and spend-thrift monarchs. Evidently the 2nd A Republicans can't differentiate between a spent bullet and one targeted - odd. This crap was to be understood as "both sides do it." These are supposed to be the "smart guys" in the GOP...

I got to listen to Sarah rah-rahing for McPOW and make the astonishing statement that "arms" refers to votes and "reload" is about taking an election. Now I don't know what those terms mean to anybody other than Sarah but any shooter I know doesn't mean this and about any 6 year old would think something different. I certainly don't have a problem with shooting or owning firearms but I do have a bit of a problem with certain types of rhetoric. Taken along with the film of her amping up the hatred of those who aren't "real Americans" during the campaign I have a real difficulty buying into this convenient re-defining of terms.

For pete's sake, I have an understanding of political exaggeration and spin and I'm pretty sure most of the public understands that it is done and does a certain amount of discounting. There does come a point where spin turns into outright lies and exaggeration turns into exhortation to violence. It isn't as though it is a real fine line that is hard see. It isn't as though this crap is coming from something as fringe as the KKK or the John Birchers (ooops - CPAC sponsors).

How unreasonable is it to bring out the guns when a part of the Federal Government is going to slaughter your Grandma? I think the GOP having made its bed with this crap is going to have to go forward with it and that really bothers me. It bothers me because there is no way they can run on health care and not keep up the same behavior that's gotten us here or take it farther. With the pretty good things in the bill taking effect in front they have a rocky road to persuade or scare people away from it and the Democrats. The GOPers with Primary challenges can't help themselves from going after the "base" and they've got to keep them in the General. Look for more of the fear mongering and the rubes taking it more seriously than they should.

That's the problem with being stupid...