“Republican” equals “Birther”

Might as well cut to the chase; call a spade a spade. Stop pretending the Birthers are just some wacko fringe group that “doesn’t represent” mainstream Republicans. I mean, they ARE a bunch of wackoid sickfucks, of course. But they DO represent the Republican Party.

Our local newspaper has a daily online poll question (they’re not claiming it’s scientific). Several days before these survey results started hitting the news, our paper’s daily question was “Do you think President Obama was born outside of the U.S.?” About 35% answered Yes.

This county is fairly conservative by Washington standards, but Obama carried the county in the 2008 election.

Most of the polls I’ve seen since then seem to show about half of Republicans saying Obama is NOT an American citizen. Some “fringe” group. “Oh [ahem] [squirm] we have nothing to do with Them.” “I’m NOT with Stupid.”

Nice try. There’s an article about Republican strategists instructing politicians on how to deal with Birthers if they’re confronted in public. Basically — “distance yourself from them as quickly as possible, but be polite and don’t offend or alienate them.”

Sort of like those road rage warnings we’re always hearing on the TV news. No matter how pissed off you get at another driver, don’t honk at him or flip him off because “you don’t know who you’re dealing with. Too many crazy unglued people out there.”

The Republicans are already being dragged down by a few of their own Frankensteins: “Christian” fanatics who want to turn America into a theocracy; the growing White Supremacist movement; Grover Norquist clones who want to “shrink government down to the size of a bathtub and then drown it.” And now they’ve got the Birthers.

The Birthers need to be brought into the spotlight. Front and Center. Make Republican politicians squirm and try to look away. Make them choose between alienating their “Base” or alienating the other Republicans whose IQs are ABOVE freezing.

The Birthers — and the racists and warmongers and abortion-clinic bombers — are not some sort of accident or a fluke. Republicans can act all surprised and shocked and go “Huh, where’d these people come from?”

Here’s where they came from.

And here.

For over twenty years, Republicans have gotten more skillful at pushing the public’s Hate and Fear buttons; and less skillful at actually discussing and debating an issue on its own merits. It must have seemed like a gold mine in 1988 when George H.W. Bush discovered Willie Horton and the Pledge of Allegiance. “Michael Dukakis vetoed a bill that would require the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited in public schools!” “Willie Horton!” “Hey, this is kinda fun. I didn’t have a plan or any sort of solution to anything, and now it turns out I didn’t even need one. Hee hee hee.”

Willie Horton begat Karl Rove and the Swiftboat Veterans and the morphing of a Vietnam War hero into “Hanoi John.” It was all so easy; until it didn’t work any more.

Like they say, “use it or lose it.” Since the Republican Party hasn’t used any sort of intellect or logic for so long now, they’ve lost it. But look at what they’ve gained: millions of braindead Neanderthals who only respond to “Ugh!” “Hate!” “Fear!” “Homo!” “Brown People!”

And now the Neanderthals have come home to roost. They brought the Republicans to the dance, and now they're going to dance with them.

What a lovely couple.

Squirm, bastards.

cross-posted at Bring It On!