A long time ago I read an author's column--it may have been written by Molly Ivins, but I can't remember for sure--but it was a very interesting (albeit simplified) take on the difference in the way Republicans speak about patriotism and the way Democrats speak about patriotism.
It went something like this: Republicans love & speak of the…
A long time ago I read an author's column--it may have been written by Molly Ivins, but I can't remember for sure--but it was a very interesting (albeit simplified) take on the difference in the way Republicans speak about patriotism and the way Democrats speak about patriotism.
It went something like this: Republicans love & speak of their country in the same way a two-year-old loves their Mommy. Mommy knows all and is always perfect. If someone speaks badly of Mommy, why then, that someone is Bad and needs to be punished.
Democrats love and speak of their country as loving adults speak of and to their beloved partners. We know our country isn't perfect (no human construct is perfect); but we also know our country has great promise and we want to help and support our country's efforts to be it's best self, to achieve it's wonderful promise. Democrats are Adults. Serious people.
Repub blather is all about bullying. If you don’t do it my way, I’ll get you back or leave you behind. I haven’t even gotten a whiff of love from anything Repub for decades.
It may be that the two-year-olds are also afraid of Mommy???? I believe Republicans have been warped and twisted by Nixon, by Reagan, by Gingrich, by the MAGA Congresscritters, the Bushes and Trump....how could any Republican get a whiff of love from those who have no love in them?
What could you expect from a man who divorced his wife on her deathbed and later married a woman named CA-LIS-TA, which sounds very much like the sound I would expect a snake to make? A newt and a snake. Hum. Now there's an image for you. I'll just let that one hang out there. You all can fill in the ending.
Watched it happen, every Repub worse than the last one. My b-I-l and I argued about Bob Dole once. He was all in for him. I thought he had been tainted by Newt and the tricksters. When W was foisted on us, he changed his mind and we both thought repubs had sunk to the bottom. And he had put out Hoover signs with his mother when he was a toddler.
They are too busy plotting and snarling and suspecting us lessers of trying to chip away at their pie. Hogs don’t share, the thought makes them constantly pissed…
In "Like a Rolling Stone" Bob Dylan wrote "When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose..." The rich people have a lot to lose, so perhaps they never rest easy, worrying about the vast numbers of employees who [adding: who have little to lose, who] wish they could get their money [adding: which was siphoned off by the oligarchs in the form of too little paychecks for high-value labor] back.
And that reminds me that we were hearing that many self-inflicted life-ending acts have been due to "despair". I think that a significant portion of illicit drug use is a consequence of despair. Lifestyles of the rich and famous, while somebody near me is getting evicted. I think there is more than a little bit of psychopath at the heart of our capitalist economy. Too many don't care about contemporary people, they don't care about the natural world, and they certainly don't care about the long-term future.
You have been reading my mind. I recently heard about a couple who travel to cool climates in the summer because they don’t like the heat. On a tour of Scandinavian capitols, then another scheduled for their special “air. Conditioning,” I am so sympathetic, it was 108 degrees two days ago. I thought of the homeless on sidewalks that could fry an egg. “…there is more than a little psychopath at the heart of our capitalist economy.”
T L, your story reminds me of Colin Kaepernick (born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) who "took a knee" during the National Anthem at their football games, to protest racial injustice and police brutality. I thought at the time, and I still believe, that the people who were upset or offended are the same people who think that our America was perfect from the beginning. Colin Kaepernick was pointing toward some unfinished business that we as a nation are still working on.
I had never heard or read that before - but boy, it is true.
The Repubs horror if someone suggests this country is NOT perfect or exceptional in every way! The same kind of horror when the idea of educating our kids in ALL of this country's history. The book banning is only one of their prescriptions to "fix" our history!
There seems to be a parallel between thinking our country was perfect when it was created, and thinking our world was perfect when it was created (according to the story in Genesis). In both cases, an evolving nation and an evolving universe are foreign concepts to the conservative mindset.
There are many counterfactuals: at the inception of our nation only white men who owned very large estates were allowed to vote, and it took more than a century to achieve a universal franchise. And the fossil record tells us that Earth is much older than the Abrahamic religions would have us believe.
Another dangerous idea that flows from the religious right is that the God described in the Bible intervenes in the physical world. The consequence for people who hold that belief is that they relinquish their moral agency. They throw up their hands, saying there is nothing we can do about climate change because it's in God's hands. (I heard that from a person with whom I grew up from first grade). One alternative to that notion is that all moral agency resides within human beings, and so it is our responsibility to work together toward a more perfect union, and a more perfect world.
The Scrooge party has been no help at all in taking on the existential problems we face as moral, ethical, empathetic Americans.
I agree. Granted its been a long time since Sunday School (not a church-goer anymore) but the God I was taught about seemed to me felt that it was our responsibility to work things out - not sit & wait for him to do it!
A recurring theme that often resurfaces in (what's left of) my mind is "psychopath!" No empathy, no sympathy. If there is any regard for "lesser mortals" it seems that it must be something like "How can I use them?"
No humanity either. Although “lessers” make good servants, especially women and others. But men have their uses too, as Hitler found uses for the strong. And don’t forget how the humanity has been squeezed out of religion so that the “prosperity gospel” is in line with the capitalist zeitgeist.
A long time ago I read an author's column--it may have been written by Molly Ivins, but I can't remember for sure--but it was a very interesting (albeit simplified) take on the difference in the way Republicans speak about patriotism and the way Democrats speak about patriotism.
It went something like this: Republicans love & speak of their country in the same way a two-year-old loves their Mommy. Mommy knows all and is always perfect. If someone speaks badly of Mommy, why then, that someone is Bad and needs to be punished.
Democrats love and speak of their country as loving adults speak of and to their beloved partners. We know our country isn't perfect (no human construct is perfect); but we also know our country has great promise and we want to help and support our country's efforts to be it's best self, to achieve it's wonderful promise. Democrats are Adults. Serious people.
Repub blather is all about bullying. If you don’t do it my way, I’ll get you back or leave you behind. I haven’t even gotten a whiff of love from anything Repub for decades.
It may be that the two-year-olds are also afraid of Mommy???? I believe Republicans have been warped and twisted by Nixon, by Reagan, by Gingrich, by the MAGA Congresscritters, the Bushes and Trump....how could any Republican get a whiff of love from those who have no love in them?
Gingrich leaves an evil stench on the Republican party that cannot be eradicated.
What could you expect from a man who divorced his wife on her deathbed and later married a woman named CA-LIS-TA, which sounds very much like the sound I would expect a snake to make? A newt and a snake. Hum. Now there's an image for you. I'll just let that one hang out there. You all can fill in the ending.
Watched it happen, every Repub worse than the last one. My b-I-l and I argued about Bob Dole once. He was all in for him. I thought he had been tainted by Newt and the tricksters. When W was foisted on us, he changed his mind and we both thought repubs had sunk to the bottom. And he had put out Hoover signs with his mother when he was a toddler.
Good question.
And none of the Republicans seem to smile. They have all this wealth but they never seem to smile.
They are too busy plotting and snarling and suspecting us lessers of trying to chip away at their pie. Hogs don’t share, the thought makes them constantly pissed…
In "Like a Rolling Stone" Bob Dylan wrote "When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose..." The rich people have a lot to lose, so perhaps they never rest easy, worrying about the vast numbers of employees who [adding: who have little to lose, who] wish they could get their money [adding: which was siphoned off by the oligarchs in the form of too little paychecks for high-value labor] back.
Reminds me… Kris Kristopherson said that when his mother disowned him, he had nothing left to lose. Sorry, off topic but…
And that reminds me that we were hearing that many self-inflicted life-ending acts have been due to "despair". I think that a significant portion of illicit drug use is a consequence of despair. Lifestyles of the rich and famous, while somebody near me is getting evicted. I think there is more than a little bit of psychopath at the heart of our capitalist economy. Too many don't care about contemporary people, they don't care about the natural world, and they certainly don't care about the long-term future.
You have been reading my mind. I recently heard about a couple who travel to cool climates in the summer because they don’t like the heat. On a tour of Scandinavian capitols, then another scheduled for their special “air. Conditioning,” I am so sympathetic, it was 108 degrees two days ago. I thought of the homeless on sidewalks that could fry an egg. “…there is more than a little psychopath at the heart of our capitalist economy.”
Yes Susan
I’ve been noticing that particularly this year And, they now look grim.
T L, your story reminds me of Colin Kaepernick (born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) who "took a knee" during the National Anthem at their football games, to protest racial injustice and police brutality. I thought at the time, and I still believe, that the people who were upset or offended are the same people who think that our America was perfect from the beginning. Colin Kaepernick was pointing toward some unfinished business that we as a nation are still working on.
I had never heard or read that before - but boy, it is true.
The Repubs horror if someone suggests this country is NOT perfect or exceptional in every way! The same kind of horror when the idea of educating our kids in ALL of this country's history. The book banning is only one of their prescriptions to "fix" our history!
Maggie, you reminded me of an idea.
There seems to be a parallel between thinking our country was perfect when it was created, and thinking our world was perfect when it was created (according to the story in Genesis). In both cases, an evolving nation and an evolving universe are foreign concepts to the conservative mindset.
There are many counterfactuals: at the inception of our nation only white men who owned very large estates were allowed to vote, and it took more than a century to achieve a universal franchise. And the fossil record tells us that Earth is much older than the Abrahamic religions would have us believe.
Another dangerous idea that flows from the religious right is that the God described in the Bible intervenes in the physical world. The consequence for people who hold that belief is that they relinquish their moral agency. They throw up their hands, saying there is nothing we can do about climate change because it's in God's hands. (I heard that from a person with whom I grew up from first grade). One alternative to that notion is that all moral agency resides within human beings, and so it is our responsibility to work together toward a more perfect union, and a more perfect world.
The Scrooge party has been no help at all in taking on the existential problems we face as moral, ethical, empathetic Americans.
I agree. Granted its been a long time since Sunday School (not a church-goer anymore) but the God I was taught about seemed to me felt that it was our responsibility to work things out - not sit & wait for him to do it!
Love the Scrooge Party, but they are the Fat Cat Party for some
A recurring theme that often resurfaces in (what's left of) my mind is "psychopath!" No empathy, no sympathy. If there is any regard for "lesser mortals" it seems that it must be something like "How can I use them?"
No humanity either. Although “lessers” make good servants, especially women and others. But men have their uses too, as Hitler found uses for the strong. And don’t forget how the humanity has been squeezed out of religion so that the “prosperity gospel” is in line with the capitalist zeitgeist.
You put that beautifully. Thank you.