I have a question..or two....

I have a question or two for my "conservative" friends.

Since when did they begin to allow their tv pundits and talk radio guru's to represent them? To be their mouthpiece... And secondly when did conservative and the religious right become the antithesis of love, compassion, acceptance and Holiness? At least in the public forum. And thirdly where are those who make up half the country in the conservative movement to push back loudly and boldly against this type of behavior and rhetoric?

It really stumps me. Truly. As I listened to the outrageous remarks by Evangelist and 700 Club Pat Robertson, on Haiti..and then to Rush Limbaugh having the fucking, yes FUCKING audacity to seize upon the tragedy in Haiti only to politicize and attack our current President defies all reasonable and rational intellect. Not to mention ... defies the basic humanity we all share in moments like these. When the world's citizens actually put aside their conflicts and differences to come together in a show of extraordinary compassion and concern. I guess hundreds of thousands of Haitians that are dead and suffering don't qualify for a nanosecond of..hmmnnn... compassion on Rush Limbaugh's radio program. Where is the love? Certainly not in any fiber of Rush Limbaugh's, sorry ass of a body. Perhaps all that Oxycontin stripped away the last vestige of warmth and humanness from his tiny heart....

As far as Pat Robertson..well, I can chalk his evolving insanity up to his old age..he appears a bit senile at times... but really....as a Christian man.. he really is irrelevant in the National spotlight.

Equally outrageous is that the conservative publication, The National Review (the same one that had it's employee's cheering at the failed Olympic bid for Chicago) could seriously defend any of Rush Limbaugh's remarks. What would have been a moment of supreme integrity for this organization would have been it's captains taking center stage and renouncing and admonishing the vile and sickening sludge coming from Rush. This should have been the last straw for fellow conservatives. Hasn't he demonstrated over and over, time and again his true lack of character? Spewing hate and intolerance in the name of? What? Conservatism? Values? Ratings? More millions for his lavish lifestyle? How can the religious right and conservatives "tolerate" this? I mean he has 2 million listeners or so... It really stumps me. Because there is so much else they don't tolerate. Gay marriage.... choice....lack of moral values in media culture...the government...liberals, socialists... isn't hatred and unloving, unkindness and uncompassionate behavior equally as "sinful" and unacceptable? The Bible says so.
Since when did it become okay to be mean spirited to the point of despicable?

The contempt and covert racism that people like Rush and some of his cronies over at Fox espouse certainly for this President is apparently greater than humanity itself. And... speaking of Fox, the fact that their three top rated programs, O'Reilly, Hannity, and Beck spent a combined total of less than 7 minutes of coverage devoted to the Haitian earthquake..instead choosing to air Glenn Beck's interview of Sarah Palin (OMG- Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum..but that's for another blog....) and O'Reilly discussing the perils of The Daily Show..astounds the mind! Appalling...it's such a sorry state of affairs for our country.

Which brings me to this point. I've had lots of friends on the right and socially conservative acquaintances respond to my rantings about the right wing media and talking heads, etc. Their point to me is that during the Bush years the "liberal" factions in this country were just as bad, just as mean... they constantly harp on the fact the press ripped George Bush apart on a regular basis. Calling him fascist, stupid and an idiot.

Lets see... the name calling wielded at Obama...Terrorist, Socialist, Communist, Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Anti- Christ, mockingly a Messiah, Racist, non- citizen, baby and grandma killer all this even before his first 100 days in office.

Yes, it's true George Bush was the brunt of late night comedy shows. And it's also true he was and still is the target of left wing loathing primarily for an unjust war his administration waged, along with implementing policies that undermined our Constitution, the stripping of habeas corpus, breaking the Rule of Law, lending his unwavering support to Corporate America and basically causing the country to lapse into a economic crisis not seen since the likes of the Great Depression. And yes, he was mocked for the way he walked and talked.
Well, all of these things did happen under his watch and certainly justifies rational criticism...the last two, okay- entirely unfair.

So... while it's true ole 43rd took a beating, nothing compares to the vitriol and nastiness coming out out of the right conservative outlets currently. Sadly most of this is coming directly from the Republican Party itself and it's political wing- FOX news. Their target Operation Obama. No other candidate in modern political history had to endure what this man has..and he's the first Black Pres. Interesting.

This thought that somehow the left wing is saying things just as nasty and the notion they are equally culpable- there is no equivalency. I just don't see it. The left isn't out there shooting up museums, churches, crisis pregnancy clinics, conservative gatherings, or cops.

You have to go all the way back to the 60's or 70's to find anything like that kind of covert political violence coming from the left. Remember Bill Ayers? But beginning in the 80's..the good ole Reagen years.. we've had waves of it coming out of the right- now including nine violent right-wing attacks on innocent Americans since Obama was inaugurated! Militia groups are up 50% and the threats on our Presidents life are up 400% since taking office. It's the right, at present, that has reared it's ugly head. And it just isn't "fringe" any longer. It's unleashed on conservative radio and FOX to millions of listeners each night.

Okay, so the commenters are not goody two shoes on liberal sites either, but the problem has nothing to do with the commenters..it has everything to do with the Opinion leaders who are driving the conversation. It's actually shockingly difficult to name a single major voice on the right who hasn't called for the outright silencing, or harassing- even joking about the elimination of liberals . Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck. Sean Hannity. Bernie Goldberg. Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham,, Michelle Mailkin, Michael Savage. Dick Morris (remember his foot fetish prostitute scandal?) Fox is like the Safe House for those who commit indiscretions or worse.... crimes. Pretty soon, Ted Haggard will be seen with his own line up ....

When Sean Hannity runs a poll on his website asking whether his viewers prefer a military coup, secession, or armed rebellion to overthrow the Government..and armed rebellion wins. This is cause for some concern. Right wingers have built their careers on demonizing the left and liberals. But when they flirt with specific steps that should be taken to deal with them-that is something not to be ignored. Tea Parties and Tea Baggers (do they not still know what that term means?) A conservative Revolution? Taking back the country? Armed rebellion?

Smells a lot like Bill Ayers and his revolutionist actions back in the 60's. Bill Ayers and his ilk also felt to the core they needed to fight an evil corrupt government they couldn't trust. Radical? Yes! Thankfully Bill Ayers didn't have a his own talk show back in the 60's that reached millions of people like Sean does. History could have been very different.

What's so hard for my mind to grasp is that conservatives, and certainly Christians, hold themselves up to a much higher standard. These right wing media pundits don't hide the fact they elevate themselves way above the evil "liberal" media. The thing is they have lowered their standards so low in fact, that they become the very thing they claim to not be... hateful, anti American, bigoted, intolerant, uninformed and I'm throwing this one in- not loving.

The regular diet of venomous anger and hate, floating conspiracies, name calling, dripping sarcasm, and disseminating outright lies and slander make them completely abhorrent. This model should make them completely irrelevant as well. Equally baffling is that conservatives, who boast about their loftier standards, seemingly look the other way at this truly bad behavior. Why?

It really stumps me.