Monday, November 09, 2009

"But, We Used To Be Crypto-Hateful!"

Some crybaby fucktard at Andrew Sullivan's page (one guess which party the fucktard is a member of) whines that it isn't fair to hearken all the way back to 1994, the supposed Republican Revolution, the takeover of American politics by a third-rate history prof from a fourth-rate college, the handover by the libs of all that was sacred and holy and that actually worked so that the GOP could "starve" it and beat the citizenry until it agreed that government was not the answer and they came to this realization all on their own (but the beatings helped); ...anyway where was I, oh yes: it isn't fair to look at 1994 as the beginning of the unmitigated disaster of Republicanism that we now observe. See, the GOP wasn't always crazy, so, uh, give it a break because it now is...? I don't know what the fucktard's point is.

Supposedly, 1994 was built on "positive" feelings and pro-something policies, like welfare reform, ethics reform, and spending reform. And that is true, if we view 1994 the same as a shame-filled Republican donkey who isn't accustomed to thinking deeply or inwardly about anything.

I remember 1994, those halcyon days of my 16th year, as being about demonizing black mothers (that old "welfare reform" bit, you know), poor people ("workfare" will teach them...that it was much better to be under welfare), Democrats (they're all a bunch of philanderers, you know. Right, Henry Hyde? Would you like to ask the president a question? Or you, Newt?), and "starving the beast" so it, the American government, the shining beacon of reason, liberty, and freedom to the entire world, could be "dragged into the bathroom and drowned in the bathtub" by Grover Norquist, a person whose nerd rage undoubtedly stems from the fact that he has never gotten laid ever.

No, that whole grab-bag of demonizing policies isn't hateful or crazy. Just because Republicans chose to call it the "Contract with America," which is meaningless, and chose at that moment to explicitly split the nation into real and fake parts, and roll up the notion of the silent majority into the party's strategic message, heck, that should never be mistaken for loony, divisive, pandering bullshit! It was all about good feelings, y'all, the same ones you have after leaving the hospital where you told your wife you were kicking her and the kids out while she was receiving cancer treatment. I mean, manly, Christian good feelings. The kind all Americans, REAL Americans, can relate to. No connection whatsoever to the present mindset of the GOP.

In all seriousness, in 1994 the Republicans tried to change the paradigm of American politics and succeeded. But they changed it by shoving everything downward, discourse, policies, ideas, everything. They eschewed expertise and shat on the promise and real success of government -- even while they fought tooth-and-nail to control the government (truly they were visionaries. Or hypocrites.). But to say that the seeds of the current insanity were not on full display in the small-minded, crude, culture war-as-political party policies of 1994 is like saying that the craziest GOP reps today must, by deductive reasoning, be 15 years old or younger, because 1994 didn't create them or even influence them. Happy 15th birthday, Sue Myrick!

Historians will write about our age someday. I doubt they will skip over 1994 as Sullivan's reader hopes, roping it off as some kind of sacred period of good feelings that, in its holier-than-thou attitude and effect somehow was unconnected to the batshit crazy level of paranoia and sense of entitlement of Republicans in the new millennium.