On Vitriol

(in response to:http://www.masoncountynews.com/news/115969/)

While I welcome last week's comments, and largely agree with the commenter on the dire need for more respect and less shouting in our nation's political discussions, I do feel the need to point out one set of phenomena that he seems to have overlooked.
I've been a Liberal for most of my life....a Left-Libertarian, to be more pointed....and have spent most of my time on this Earth in rural Texas.
I cannot count the times that the very word, “Liberal” has been used as a pejorative, and equated with treason, evil and even Stalinism.
The word, and the set of ideas and ideals it entails have been used as a bludgeon, repeatedly, for as long as I can remember.
“Commies”, they called us...or “Terrorist Lovers”...depending on what decade it was, and what group we were supposed to be in mortal terror of, that week.
How many times have I been confronted with hatred and vitriol, spittle and froth, for daring to question the various sacred cows of the Right?
For taking the side of the oppressed and the downtrodden?
And for, especially, being Different in a culture that seems Hell-bent on the very conformity that I was told was the reason we were to hate and fear the Soviets?
At what point, after 40+ years of the Left being ridden roughshod, is it OK to turn around and give as good as we get?
At what point, after our repeated attempts at Dialog, and of Comity, should we turn, and punch the bullies in the face?
I am astounded, that when a Liberal dares to raise her head, and finally lash out at those who have so damaged the discourse, and poisoned the very language, these past four decades, that she is told to, essentially, be nice..and sit down.
She is admonished to respect “our” Elected Representatives...those same folks who routinely and spuriously disparage and lie about the President of the United States....who, seemingly out of habit,continually portray the President as, somehow, Dictatorial and Illegitimate....and continue, to this very day, to lie incessantly about the nature and functioning of that President's signature healthcare law...which he, incidentally, lifted almost directly from the Heritage Foundation's website, circa 1993...making it, by definition, a “Compromise” with Republicans.(!!)
Someone once said, “...and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”....
Perhaps some of this newfound consideration for “Healing Words” should be directed into the hearts where it is most needed. The usual false equivalency of “Both sides do it” grows tiresome.
The Gop...and especially that Tea Creature they have set loose upon us all...would do better to look in the mirror on occasion, rather than scold all the rest of us who have grown so very weary of their antics.
If Republicans want my respect, they'll have to first show some respect...perhaps take another look at that much ballyhooed “Autopsy” they conducted at such great expense, after their last trouncing.
Maybe some consideration should be given to the thoughts and feelings of Womyn, and People of Color, and Gay Folks, Poor People and, yes, even Hippies...who it still seems are perfectly acceptable targets for bile and ire.
With all of the hollering and screaming, the outright lies and disinformation...so easily disproven...that we have borne witness to of late, is it any wonder that the Party of Reagan is shrinking?
They have managed to alienate, and even radicalise, the very People that they will need, as demographics change...as the country changes...if they hope to remain a major party.
Just this past week, some ill spoken scofflaw who doesn't want to pay his rent on the People's Land makes his stand for freeloading off us Us, and the usual suspects ride their stick-horses out to Nevada to support him...some with unhinged rhetoric, and quite a few with sniper rifles. This episode is then ginned up into a Jeremiad against the usual targets...Poor Folks, Black Folks, and on and on...
That is, until said Freeloader opens his pie-hole one too many times, and confirms what the rest of us already suspected...that he is a racist, too...and suddenly, the usual suspects rear their stick-horses, and run away.

At some point, the GOP will have to come around to the fact that the nation does not belong solely to Them, and to people they like...it belongs to all of us.
You , me and everyone else...Black, Brown, White and every admixture thereof...
Democrat, Republican, Commie, Libertarian, Green, and None of the Above.
We're all a part of it, this nation of ours...and some of us are beyond tired of allowing a minority of howlers to run the show.
If the GOP wants respect, they should show some.
If they truly want a functioning Government(which I have seen little evidence of), they should learn the actual definition of “Compromise”(hint, it ain't “give us everything we want”), and stop screaming at their opponents.
The “Party of Responsibility” should take a little responsibility, for a change.
Race Baiting Euphemisms, and thinly veiled Eliminationist Rhetoric does not occlude their culpability for much of the dysfunction we see, today.