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Bloodthirsty
Author: BobR    Date: 09/14/2011 12:32:51

So the question I have to ask is: when did the Republicans transistion from the party of slow careful progress into a bunch of bloodthirsty vengeful animals? I know that's certainly a provocative question. But recent actions by both politicians and even the dedicated Republican voters have me wondering how it came to this...

Did 9/11 really change everything? Prior to that, the Republican party represented financial selfishness and a regressive social agenda. After the attacks, though, it seems that the gloves came off, and pro-war chest thumping and accusatory finger pointing became de rigueur. America was hurt, and someone was going to pay, even if it was some unrelated country like Iraq.

Maybe it's that republicans seem to get crazy when there's a democrat in the White House, and this time seems no different. Consider the violent rhetoric of the 2010 campaign, with exortations to "reload", or to apply "2nd Amendment remedies", or with the circulation of maps with crosshairs over targeted districts (including Gabby Giffords, who was later shot). These are all from campaigns, not citizen supporters. The citizens - taking a cue from the politicians - come to Democratic functions with guns strapped to their waists quoting Thomas Jefferson (you know: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.").

None of that, though, prepared me for the audience reaction in two of the recent Republican debates. The first one came when a question was asked of Rick Perry. Part of the question quoted the statistic that over 200 people had been executed under his watch. To that point, the audience cheered and applauded. These people knew nothing of the individual circumstances of each case. They didn't know if the person was convicted with bad or circumstancial evidence (the Innocence Project has proven hundreds of wrongfully convicted people innocent and won their release). To cheer the deaths of so many people is cold-blooded enough, but the reality that some of them may have been innocent is horrid.

The next debate provided another similar case. Ron Paul was asked about uninsured people and whether the government was responsible to provide them with healthcare that might save their life. He responded by saying "That's what freedom is all about, taking your own risks". When pressed further and asked whether society should just let him die, several audience members yelled "Yeah!" and laughed. One has to wonder what kind of person thinks its a good thing (or a funny thing) to let someone die because they are uninsured. It's a particularly apt question for Ron Paul, since one of his staffers - who raised tens of millions of dollars for Ron Paul - died of pneumonia because he couldn't afford health insurance. When did the suffering and dying of one's fellow citizens become an applause line?

It comes down to this attitude of vengeance and punishment that seems to go to the very core of their psyche. It seems that in their mind, it's better that a few innocent suffer than a bad person get away with something. I am wondering if these people lay awake in bed at night, tossing and turning, just knowing that somewhere - someone is getting something they don't deserve, that they didn't work for. That person MUST be PUNISHED.

I don't really have a good explanation for this. It's so alien to my mindset. Are Republicans Old Testament and liberals New Testament? It's a mystery - and a scary one.
 

57 comments (Latest Comment: 09/15/2011 00:41:23 by livingonli)
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Comment by wickedpam on 09/14/2011 12:53:08
Morning

These people tire me out.

Comment by Scoopster on 09/14/2011 12:57:44
Mornin' all..

I've never in my lifetime known the Republican Party or its representatives to be anything but selfish and mean-spirited. Their broader constituency however has developed gradually, probably since the 60s, into the lunatic mob that we see today.

Comment by BobR on 09/14/2011 13:16:02

Right - that's the story I linked to in the blog...

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 13:18:18
This particular Republican electorate is far more bloodthirsty and mean spirited than any I have ever seen. I thought it was rough when Clinton was running, but seriously, cheering the death of dead people?



Comment by TriSec on 09/14/2011 13:19:46
Morning, comrades!

I don’t know, Bob. I rarely deal with Republicans in my life, but there is one place where I do. (Don’t roll those eyes, now.) Scouting is basically a conservative organization. At times, I find myself the exception rather than the rule, even in this Commonwealth, as a liberal wearing the uniform. My pack has at least one bona-fide right wing lovemuffin, as his car is covered with anti-Obama bumper stickers. I’ve also dealt with quite a few folks in leadership positions at the local council that I’ve come to find out over time are extremely differently-winged.

But….I can deal with these folks on an individual basis. In Scouts, politics is strictly verboten whilst in uniform (it’s codified in the regulations), but late at night around the campfire, a man tends to open up about things. There have been many hours I’ve spent with people I have been stunned to find out are completely opposed to what I believe in…but we haven’t killed each other, and we’ve even come up with a viable Middle East Peace Plan once or twice. Maybe it’s because we have a common goal; we’re all there for the scouts, and no matter what my personal baggage is, somehow we’re able to leave it all behind for the common good.

I can’t fathom the behavior of the right on a national scale…perhaps it’s the power of the group. Maybe it’s a Borg-like collective mentality that makes them do things like that. Scarily enough, I see stirrings of the “good German” in some of this. But there is no one person or leader that is inspiring this kind of thought. There is that blind following of an “ism” that is disturbing. Like you said, it’s that mentality that “someone is getting something they don't deserve, that they didn't work for. That person MUST be PUNISHED.”

Which goes back to what I wrote about two Saturdays ago….There is no more collective feeling as “Americans” among the GOP. Whatever it is they want to take the country back to, it isn’t the Constitution or the spirit of the Founders. Ben Franklin warned us about this a few hundred years ago…”We must all hang together, or we shall surely hang separately”. The GOP and their followers seem to be earnestly building the gallows.


Comment by Scoopster on 09/14/2011 13:22:22
Quote by Raine:
This particular Republican electorate is far more bloodthirsty and mean spirited than any I have ever seen. I thought it was rough when Clinton was running, but seriously, cheering the death of dead people?

It's the Westboro Baptist mentality brought into the mainstream.

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 13:23:17
Did you know in Texas, they are going to kill a man they know was not the murderer? In texas all you have to be is at the scene of the crime... Read this story. Randi read it yesterday on air.
Whitehead was a drug dealer, Brosz a chance acquaintance. The 19-year-old planned to study astronomy. "Beth was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people," her mother Janet Shires wrote on a memorial website. The suspects in the murders were tried separately. Woods, then 21, was sentenced to death in August 2002. Witnesses had claimed that he had bragged about the murders. His lawyers didn't dispute his presence at the murder scene but named Rhodes the killer.

Before Rhodes' trial could start in January of 2003, he confessed to killing Whitehead and Brosz alone -- without implicating Woods. In a plea deal, he was sentenced to life, not death.


Comment by wickedpam on 09/14/2011 13:26:28
I believe they put him to death last night

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 13:30:28
OMG -- Drunk Ron Paul Supporter gets DUI

Seriously -- wait until the end.

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 13:31:02
Quote by wickedpam:
I believe they put him to death last night

I thought it was supposed to be in 2 weeks? Either way, this is just terrible.

Comment by BobR on 09/14/2011 14:00:10
That drunk sounds just like Steve Carrell, which makes it even funnier

Comment by wickedpam on 09/14/2011 14:09:27
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
I believe they put him to death last night

I thought it was supposed to be in 2 weeks? Either way, this is just terrible.



Could have sworn Randi said Tuesday at 6pm but I could be wrong

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 14:11:01
Comment by BobR on 09/14/2011 14:11:15

That's a good thought, but I imagine the only thing that would change in that regard is companies being upfront about it.

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 14:15:54
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
I believe they put him to death last night

I thought it was supposed to be in 2 weeks? Either way, this is just terrible.



Could have sworn Randi said Tuesday at 6pm but I could be wrong

No, your not wrong. he was killed last night.

Comment by wickedpam on 09/14/2011 14:17:41
ok Hal does an eerie Bobcat impression

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 14:31:20
Comment by Mondobubba on 09/14/2011 15:13:29



So GSgt Brad Colbert can't use the phrase, "Special Olympic, country and western gay" any longer. He'll be crushed.

Comment by Mondobubba on 09/14/2011 15:14:17
Quote by wickedpam:
ok Hal does an eerie Bobcat impression


Have you ever seen the two of them in the same room together? Just sayin....


Comment by Mondobubba on 09/14/2011 15:15:31


That is because Louie Gohmert is a Special Olympian. (see post below)

Comment by wickedpam on 09/14/2011 15:16:30
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by wickedpam:
ok Hal does an eerie Bobcat impression


Have you ever seen the two of them in the same room together? Just sayin....



Hal strikes me as liking to bathe - Bobcat does not

Comment by Mondobubba on 09/14/2011 15:19:20
Oh and good morning mon peeps. Taking the day off from the mine du salt. Meeting with the real estate lawyer about the flaven and the thing later. Oy!

Comment by TriSec on 09/14/2011 15:35:55
You may have missed it...Wakefield finally wins 200!

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 15:41:07
Quote by Mondobubba:



So GSgt Brad Colbert can't use the phrase, "Special Olympic, country and western gay" any longer. He'll be crushed.

Man, we Marines are so homoerotic. It's all we talk about. You ever realize how homoerotic this whole thing is?

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 15:43:30
PERSON
Oh my God, look at this. "Angry American." Aw. "Get some"? "Don't tread on me"? "Let's roll"? Fuck, man. I hate that fucking cheesy moto bullshit.

COLBERT
Ray, when you're right, you're right.

PERSON
You know, it's like that song "Where Stars and Stripes and Eagles Fly"? Fuck, man, eagles fly in Canada, too. When we got back from Afghanistan my mom tried to play me that song and I was all, "Fuck no, Mom. I'm a Marine." I don't need to fly a little fucking patriotic flag on my car to show that I'm patriotic.

COLBERT
That song is straight homosexual country music, Special Olympics-gay.


Comment by Mondobubba on 09/14/2011 15:47:55
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Mondobubba:



So GSgt Brad Colbert can't use the phrase, "Special Olympic, country and western gay" any longer. He'll be crushed.

Man, we Marines are so homoerotic. It's all we talk about. You ever realize how homoerotic this whole thing is?


Well played madam! Well played indeed! :twirls 19th century villain mustache:

Comment by Mondobubba on 09/14/2011 15:49:48
Quote by Raine:
PERSON
Oh my God, look at this. "Angry American." Aw. "Get some"? "Don't tread on me"? "Let's roll"? Fuck, man. I hate that fucking cheesy moto bullshit.

COLBERT
Ray, when you're right, you're right.

PERSON
You know, it's like that song "Where Stars and Stripes and Eagles Fly"? Fuck, man, eagles fly in Canada, too. When we got back from Afghanistan my mom tried to play me that song and I was all, "Fuck no, Mom. I'm a Marine." I don't need to fly a little fucking patriotic flag on my car to show that I'm patriotic.

COLBERT
That song is straight homosexual country music, Special Olympics-gay.



Cpl. Josh Ray Person: You know, it doesn't make you gay if you think Rudy's hot. We all think he's hot


Comment by Mondobubba on 09/14/2011 15:52:08
Quote by TriSec:
You may have missed it...Wakefield finally wins 200!


Aw, Tri! We would rather bandy quotes from Generation Kill about! :sulks;

Comment by wickedpam on 09/14/2011 15:52:12


Comment by wickedpam on 09/14/2011 15:52:36
oh yeah -she's independent - sure....

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 15:53:10
Quote by wickedpam:
oh yeah -she's independent - sure....

She's very good at reading.

Comment by wickedpam on 09/14/2011 15:54:27
ya know Sue in Rockville sounds like a hoot

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 15:58:06
Quote by TriSec:
You may have missed it...Wakefield finally wins 200!
How about a little Mariano Rivera Love? 600 saves. He's gonna break the save record.


Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 15:58:40
Quote by wickedpam:
ya know Sue in Rockville sounds like a hoot
She does!




Comment by livingonli on 09/14/2011 15:59:32
Good day folks. It's amazing that the GOP types who can spend money getting to spew talking points on talk shows hoping the listeners are brainwashed enough to buy it. But then again if I was a brainwashed minion, I would be taking my marching orders from a drug addict who according to his mother flunked out of college.

Comment by Scoopster on 09/14/2011 16:00:01
Quote by TriSec:
You may have missed it...Wakefield finally wins 200!

Oh sorry.. was busy celebrating Mariano Rivera's 600th save..

(j/k grats to Wake he's a legend with that knuckler)

Comment by trojanrabbit on 09/14/2011 16:03:20
I prefer to think that at least today's Republican = Traitor and should be treated as such. Especially the professional rabble-rousers like Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh.

I've been rather dreading trying to set up my test development software on the new laptop (National Instruments GPIB and Excel VBA if anyone cares), because I've already seen new "features" caused by Windows 7 (64bit) and Office (the template we use to create purchase orders causes Excel to crash, Microsoft knows and for the moment doesn't care). As it is I have to dredge up all the earlier emails I sent to my colleague back at my previous stomping ground to remember all the options I have to set on Excel to get things to work. Fingers are crossed, things are sort-of working.

Oh, they had to bring back one of the contractors from the group let go in February (including me) because they couldn't handle the workload with staffing cut in half (geez, wonder why). I'm very happy where I am, thank you.

Ah, my PC wants to reboot, brb.

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 16:10:38
Quote by Scoopster:
Quote by TriSec:
You may have missed it...Wakefield finally wins 200!

Oh sorry.. was busy celebrating Mariano Rivera's 600th save..

(j/k grats to Wake he's a legend with that knuckler)



Comment by trojanrabbit on 09/14/2011 16:11:28
Quote by TriSec:
You may have missed it...Wakefield finally wins 200!


Finally.

At the moment he is 6 behind the Red Sox team record of 192 wins shared by some idiot redneck Texan and some guy they named the most prestigious pitching award after. To get a shot at it he'd have to come back next year during which he'll turn 46.

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 16:49:17
Quote by trojanrabbit:
Quote by TriSec:
You may have missed it...Wakefield finally wins 200!


Finally.

At the moment he is 6 behind the Red Sox team record of 192 wins shared by some idiot redneck Texan and some guy they named the most prestigious pitching award after. To get a shot at it he'd have to come back next year during which he'll turn 46.
all jokes aside, This is VERY impressive!


Comment by TriSec on 09/14/2011 16:57:13
Phil Niekro threw the knuckleball until he was 47...



Comment by Scoopster on 09/14/2011 17:16:00
I suppose by now you've seen a few news reports about this solar energy company and a purported White House scandal?

Yeah.. why are we not surprised.

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 19:36:07
Quote by Scoopster:
I suppose by now you've seen a few news reports about this solar energy company and a purported White House scandal?

Yeah.. why are we not surprised.

I really appreciate this, Scoop.

I read this from Ezra Klein: 5 Myths about Solyndra

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 19:46:58
Can Fox get ANY more petty and assholish?

Seriously, a binder clip? SMH

Comment by Raine on 09/14/2011 19:49:27
The Mail is a Murdoch owned rag, no?

I think this was HY LAIR EEE US :

• Former vice presidential candidate alleged to have snorted cocaine off an oil drum

• Said to have had night of passion with basketball star

• Husband Todd said to have dissolved snowmobile firm after discovering affair with business partner

• Ex-governor of Alaska has yet to announce whether she will run for president next year