Having My Say ...

The other day, on Facebook, I posted a link to a story about Sarah Palin bombing as the keynote speaker at a real-estate convention. One of my friends, a Republican, and someone I've known since, well, just about forever, posted this as a comment in response to that link:

I'll give you another $20 for the 3 day if you can go one full weekday without a facebook post or tweet about "look at the silly/dumb/stupid Republicans." I get to pick the day next week and it will not be Monday, game?

To which I replied:

"[Name], my friend, I'll stop posting about the silly/dumb/stupid Republicans when Republicans stop doing silly/dumb/stupid things.

Feel free to post about all the silly/dumb/stupid things the Dems are doing. Quid pro quo is fine by me.

Or hide me in your feed.

Or unfriend me if you feel the need.

But I'm not going to stay silent on this front.

Ever.

P.S. I really appreciate your support for the 3-Day, though, and your willingness to contribute again. But I'll keep posting and toss in the $20 myself.

An exchange ensued, a civil exchange. I do appreciate that he is one of my Republican friends who will engage in conversations with me, not simply shut me out, as other Republican friends have done in the face of my posting political links and commentary.

Much of what I wrote that evening are thoughts I've been mulling over, with the intention of creating a post. But why reinvent the wheel?

I'm only including my half of our Facebook conversation here, because these entries say much of what I feel about the situation, and because I don't assume I have the right to publish all of what he had to say.

I wrote:

I've scrolled back to May 14th and I haven't found a "They are idiots." I called the CEO of BP an idiot for something he said. And I stand by that.

I'm not saying I haven't called people idiots. I very well may have. It sounds like something I'd write lately. But if you could point me to it, I'd appreciate it.

And if you're speaking generally, that the tone of most of my political stuff implies that I think they're idiots, well, yeah. I'll stand by that.

A lot of what I see these days is idiotic.

It's not Republican-specific. Blumenthal? Pretty much an idiot.

But I'm not manufacturing this stuff. (I'll refrain from making a Fox News dig here.) I'm just holding up the mirror.

Believe me, I would be THRILLED if the GOP would stop supplying the opportunities, if they'd get over the fact that they're not in power and help run the country, as they were elected to do.

In Britain recently, one guy was named the winner. But the other two aren't doing everything in their power to derail him. They're working together for the good of the country.

And then I said:

I agree, politics and government isn't about holding hands and agreeing.

As for the GOP being against everything, yet financial reform and health care reform passing, we got a watered-down version of financial reform just as we got a severely watered down version of health care reform. We gave up single-payer and the public option early on, in the hopes of appeasing Republicans. Yet we got zero votes. So we should have just forged ahead with what we really wanted to do. They were going to vote "No" either way.

Yes, Obama has gotten a lot done since he's been in office. And thank you for noting that. Given the state of the nation when he took office, he's done a remarkable job, really.

I question if the Tea Party is seeing "success." It's making a hell of a lot of noise and getting a lot of coverage. But it lacks credibility. It's screaming at Scott Brown for voting for financial reform, but one of its tenets if fiscal responsibility. It's pissed off at Obama for his "reckless" spending (which has saved the country from financial ruin, and was begun by Bush), yet where was the Tea Party when Bush was running up the largest deficit in the history of the nation? Where was the outrage then?

As for Fox News, since you brought it up, as a journalist, I am appalled and terrified by that organization. It has a blatant agenda. Some of it is just childish, like cutting the audio of applause out of Obama's recent address, but a lot of it is dangerous. It incites people. People who are willing to believe whatever they're told. It sponsored Tea Party gatherings. NO credible news organization PROMOTES the news. News organizations are there to cover events, not sponsor them. And the existence of Glenn Beck scares the living hell out of me. I thank the stars that his ratings are beginning to fall, at last, that he's finally gone off the deep end enough that people are beginning to tune him out.

I think a lot of people *are* confused. And having people like Palin and others perpetuate the absurdity of "death panels" and such, as in the health care debate, was simply irresponsible. Let's actually talk about the issues. Let's not scare people.

People are very easily manipulated when they're afraid. And that's what I see being perpetuated on the Right.

Today, Glenn Beck mocked Malia Obama's intelligence. Really? Given that just days ago, he was all in a snit about the author who moved next door to Sarah Palin and was emphatic that in politics, the kids be off limits?

Stay classy, Glenn. Oh, and by the way, hypocritical much?

Much to my sincere surprise, he kind of issued an apology on his web site. I truly didn't think he had it in him. But it is backhanded, so let's call it half an apology.

And how about the Sestak "controversy," which the Right tried so hard to brand "Obama's Watergate"? Cue the ominous music: Dun, dun, dun!

Of course, today, all that ado has proven to be much about nothing.

But like I said, I call idiocy where I see it. I happen to see a lot of it on the Right, but Doreen chimed into the exchange to offer some Dem examples, saying:

We got some dumb & crazeee on our side too - sprinkle a little tickle fight with Eric Massa and an idiot affair producing a child by John Edwards and maybe a little possible tax evasion from Congressman Rangel. We have our share.

And the very next day I posted an item about Tim Crawford, from Indiana, who was a member of the GOP, then became a Dem, then withdrew from the Congressional contest in which he was a candidate, then unwithdrew from the race, and who says being gay is "a mutation."

Given that he's former-GOP-turned-Dem, he's sort of a hybrid idiot, but an idiot just the same.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: All I want is for our elected officials to behave like the statesmen and -women they were elected to be.

Which is asking too much, apparently.