GOP Come Claim Your Junk!
– by David Matthews 2
There comes a time in every campaign for a certain chore to be undertaken that nobody wants to have done, but someone still has to do it.
It’s the time after the ballots have been counted, after the speeches have been made, and after the losers have grudgingly conceded and the winners graciously accepted the decision of the voters. It’s the time when someone has to sweep up the confetti, pick up the balloons, clean the hotels of used prophylactics, repair the room damage, and pick up all of those signs that were plastered both legally and illegally all over the area.
That last part is the hardest, of course. Nobody wants to pick up their junk, especially after their candidate lost. Losing is bad enough; now you have to pick up all of the reminders of that loss.
But it still has to be done.
Of course, when it comes to the GOP, they’ve left a lot more than just a few political signs. They’ve left a good part of their campaign garbage just laying around for the rest of us to stumble over.
Here are a few instances…
Spoilsport Business Tantrums – Bad enough that GOP nominee Mitt Romney helped to orchestrate a business campaign to intimidate employees in direct violation of Title 18 Section 594 of federal law, but after the election those same business leaders began throwing childish temper tantrums about all of the supposed million and billions and trillions of jobs that they “would have created” if Romney won, but now they supposedly won’t.
Of course I don’t expect any of them to be frog-marched off to jail by our Attorney General for breaking the law. AG Eric Holder doesn’t frog-march corporate criminals into custody… he strikes deals with them. But their “Going Galt” attitude that has now become a spoiled tantrum certainly shows who the real villains of the Great Recession are. (And for you cons and neo-cons out there that still don’t get it… here a hint: go find a mirror.)
Karl Rove – I was one of the few people that cautioned about writing off the so-called “Architect” following his abysmal failure as a political forecaster. He was far from being the only one that made a shoot-the-moon “landslide victory” prediction, but he certainly was the best example of an unchecked ego in sore need of a comeuppance.
What makes Rove’s case worse is that in addition to his job as a “political consultant” for Fox News and the talk radio circuits, he’s also got his own SuperPAC, which is pretty much like finding out that the local weatherman is also the owner of an umbrella store. Bear in mind this is the same supposed “fair and balanced” news organization that condemns people for simply donating money to a SuperPAC (i.e. Bill Maher) and here they are putting the owner of one such SuperPAC on their payroll as a “political contributor”.
Where is the accountability, guys? You’re supposed to be all about “responsibility” and “accountability” and “keeping people honest”. You don’t want your viewers to presume that it’s all just a huge con job, do you?
Fear-Mongering Conspiracy Nutcases –There are people that still believe to this day that not only did President Barack Obama not present a birth certificate, but they are now claiming that “nobody … has seen an actual physical copy of his birth certificate.” Apparently “nobody” includes the current and previous directors of Hawaii’s Department of Health, from where both the long and short versions of the birth certificate came from and were made available at Obama’s request.
Oh, but if you think the “Birther” issue was resolved a while ago, think again, because these questionably competent people have expanded their tinfoil conspiracy theory to include school transcripts. High school transcripts, college transcripts, elementary school transcripts, admissions forms, scholarship forms, the Columbia Record Club application forms… no matter how mundane, not matter how inconsequential, no matter how asinine the request, they want it, and if they can’t get it immediately then it’s all part of that same “conspiracy”.
And they firmly believe that at some point they will find what they are looking for and it would be enough to have Obama removed from office. All because their fragile narcissistic egos refuse to acknowledge that they are on the wrong side of history and on the wrong side of humanity.
Even the people that believe that the 9/11 Terrorist Attack was an “inside job” are saying that these “Birther” people are crazy! That in and of itself should be the final word, but obviously it’s not because crazy and stupid know no limits.
What’s worse is that these guys have been bolstered not only by talk radio and Fox News, but also by folks like Donald Trump and his Twitter talk of “Revolution” and Ted Nugent and his promise that he’ll either be in jail or dead if Obama is re-elected. Mister Trump, I hope you keep your recent public antics in mind when people stop worshiping your self-branded ego and your ego-centered so-called “reality” television program.
And Mister Nugent… “dead or in jail by this time next year” you say? Sound an awfully lot like those terrorists that you love to hate. Maybe you ought to take a trip over to Oklahoma City and stand where I stood, where the Alfred P. Murrah building once existed, and see the handiwork of someone who thought just like you almost twenty years ago. You may have heard of him, Mister Nugent. His name was Tim McVeigh. He believed the same things you do now. And he got both jail and death for his actions. Go ahead, Mister Nugent, pay that reflecting pool a visit and stare out at the 168 empty chairs, including the 19 small chairs, that represented the people that were killed because of that very mindset, and try to spread that kind of message there.
“Harmless” you may say? A 57-year old police officer in Jacksonville, Florida, recently said that he’d be willing to assassinate the President. Yeah, “harmless” like Lee Harvey Oswald was “harmless”. Like John Hinkley was “harmless”. They’re all “harmless” until the tragedy happens.
Then there’s…
Mitt Romney – Remember what Senator John McCain did after he lost in 2008? Remember what Senator John Kerry did after he lost in 2004? Remember what former Vice President Al Gore did after he lost in 2000? Remember what former Senator Bob Dole did after he lost in 1996? Remember what Michael Dukakis did after he lost in 1988? Remember what former Vice President Walter Mondale did after he lost in 1984? They all went away, Governor. They took the loss and they went away. There was no public whining about fictional “gifts” and trying to rationalize that loss by marginalizing the very voters you once sucked up to. They just accepted the loss for what it was and then they went away. Some came back, some didn’t, but they all first went away.
And now, Governor, it’s time that you did the same. You lost; just like all of your predecessors lost. You’re not the first, you won’t be the last, and you won’t even be memorable. You’ll just be a footnote for future political commentators like myself to reference when the situation calls for it.
But the worst has to be…
The Secessionists – Just when we thought Romeny’s Spoiled One-Percenters were bitter and petty with their tantrums, these guys come along and make the Business Whiners look tame.
Someone got it into their warped heads that if they can’t win the election that they were going to take “their states” and leave the United States. So they’re using one of Obama’s online petition programs to launch what could be called their “Declaration of Secession”.
Note the arrogant self-righteous presumption that they are speaking on behalf of you and me when they demand that “their” states be allowed to secede from the United States. Note their utter disdain for our American system when it doesn’t specifically work in the way that they want it to. And note their pompous selfishness – not to mention laziness – in their demands that “the country” leave them instead of the other way around, which is what they’ve been demanding of others for years now. When they win the election it’s “America: Love it or Leave it”, but if they lose the election it’s “America: Leave me I hate you!”
If there is any kind of justice in this universe, these secessionists would be publicly shamed and reminded of their secession request at every opportunity. Every time they flew Old Glory, every time they commented on some politician not showing “enough” signs of patriotism, every time they attend a July Fourth parade, every time they sing the national anthem or recite the Pledge of Allegiance, they should be reminded loudly and publicly that they spit on that very nation when they demanded that “their state” leave the United States simply because “their candidate” lost the election.
Let’s get brutally honest here… ultimately all of these things are in the lap of the GOP. All of these things were done under their banner and done for their cause. They were the ones that created the “anything goes” and “do whatever it takes” atmosphere that encouraged these people to do what they are doing now. Each of these people – Nugent, Trump, the Secessionists, the Birthers, the Tantrum 500’s – they all operated with the idea that a member of the GOP would be President, and when denied that goal of a GOP Presidency, they are now carrying out revenge on America. You had might as well stamp the GOP elephant right on each of their foreheads.
I’m sure the counter-argument would be made that in some twisted alternate universe the Democrats would do the same thing if their people lost the election. But they didn’t lose the election. The GOP lost the Presidential Election. That is reality, and it is high time that the GOP bosses and members dealt with that.
These incidents are an embarrassment to the GOP, to our political system, to the process set up by our predecessors by which we select leaders and representatives, and it is an embarrassment to America in general. It is high time that the GOP do the right thing, step up, and clean up their campaign garbage. It has already begun to reek.
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