Did You Find a Message of Unity and Anti-Violence Divisive Today?

 

This night, President Biden talked about the values of our Founding Fathers; about how all people are created equal in dignity and in their rights. He decried violence and said that this was oppositional to a functional democracy. He did not smear all Republicans, and in fact went out of his way to say he didn't even think the violence-inclined MAGAs were the majority of their party--

And I perused the response on Twitter and elsewhere and heard the sound of a million or so hurt dogs being very, very hit. NO! They want to believe he just demonized HALF THE WHOLE COUNTRY. And this means WAR!!!!!

I think it might be asking too much of Biden's extreme detractors to actually pay attention to the words he said, because words trip them up. They can't hear Biden's words, simply because of where they ideologically came from. This is how their minds work. Just like they can't see the classified docs Trump took as being problematic, they can't imagine anything a Democrat has to say about where we are going as a country can be relevant. It's like a programming problem. They fail to read what it means because liberalism is just an alien program to their hardware and they can't bootstrap compatibility. 

This is largely the fault of conservative media for firewalling them from outside influences, but mainstream media isn't exactly helping, here, dwelling on optics over content and failing to use historical context to appreciate the message being sent.  Why no--it isn't partisan to appeal to all Americans to live up to what were supposed to be our shared values, and I don't understand why bills that benefit our citizens are supposed to be seen as "partisan" even if it should be clear based on voting records that Democrats are more likely to use their office to do things that actually benefit people. 

If this knowledge makes the right wing mad. man, I don't know. Maybe sit and think about it. Why don't your GOP leaders want you to have nice things? Why would they want to go to court to strip you of student loan forgiveness or even stop you from getting good health benefits? Are you some kind of masochist? Why don't they want enough money in their state coffers to fix the roads and the water supply? How come they do culture war stuff and forget to fill potholes and support hospitals and schools? 

Our former president, fresh from getting his Florida residence searched by the FBI, suggested today he would pardon the 1/6 insurrectionists (promoters of the politics of violence) probably because he foresees another incidence where them rioting will benefit himself.  It isn't hardly the first time he said this thing. 

Look, I am not either disappointed or surprised by the GOP pushback over this basically positive speech that if we stood united as a country, we could do great things.  They have been telegraphing who and what they are about for a long time. And I have to give you all a shout out for Dana Milbank's pretty damn good (and infuriating, if you have the kind of memory where you relive experiences like they were new all over again) book: The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-up of the Republican Party . 

He marks the decline pretty much where I do--with the rise of Newt Gingrich and the Contract on America.  Funny enough, Newt Gingrich just exploded back into view via the 1/6 committee. Newt Gingrich has always been fundamentally un-American, divisive, and a hater. He is basically a provocateur and has always been about his own thin sliver of influence and never about promoting America as a goal for others, because he doesn't understand power as anything but abuse. Witness his failure to understand we, too, in the US, are anti-colonialists because he has disdain for African anti-colonialism. His PHD thesis regards the atrocities of the Congo worth it because they got civilization, and I would bet you a waist-high stack of severed hands it did no such thing. 

Anyways, I love America and our Constitution and salute the flag for which it stands and think I want great things under our current president, and if you are a GOP asshat carping about it, wanting Civil War--um, what exactly the fuck?  Why exactly? And did you notice Trump is an insane and corrupt game show host? Because he really is. No one is taking your country from you. And if people are different from you and you feel some kind of way about it (LGBT people, atheists)--maybe wonder if their path isn't your business, after all.  And try to not feel any way about it. They can just do themselves and you do you. 

What if we had good boundaries and just didn't hurt each other? What if we tried to coexist? What if we used our thoughts more and implied physical force less? 

I'm mad that a speech about shared values is demonized. But I know that how it makes me feel is a signifier of what I want to always confront, oppose, vote against, protest. They demonized a speech about getting our US asses together and doing our values right. The MAGAs who still signify against this are just showing their love of party over country.  They show their fascism. And unfitness. 

UPDATE: You have to enjoy Milbank's snark re: the apology the MAGAs think they are owed for being called what they are.