Politics in the US of A inherently brings out the best and brightest – but also the gross, ignorant and insipid.
It is the yin and yang of it.
I see this tweet, yesterday. (A tweet, for you great unwashed and disconnected, is a 140-character message posted on Twitter, the micro-blogging social medium which – like politics – offers both concise brilliance and enormously short-sighted inanities.)
So, I see this tweet yesterday.
“Obama hates Jews,” it read. WTF, I thought. That’s just stupid.
Doesn’t President Obama make a big deal of celebrating an official White House Passover Seder?
Not being able to simply let such obvious moronic thoughts pass without a rebuttal, the message was re-tweeted with this note: “this is simply a bald-faced lie.”
Turns out the original tweet was sent by a fervent believer in all things inane and right-wing conspiratorial. The poor woman couldn’t help herself.
“You disagree with me?” she wrote back. Being busy, I didn’t see that tweet for way too many minutes in her mind.
“I want proof that he does not hate Jews,” she insisted. “Give me some facts, quotes, etc.”
And in just a few minutes more:
“Have you come up with a response for your ass-kissing, pathetic president? It doesn’t matter if you’re gay.”
A quick check of this troubled tweeter’s profile revealed her to be “conservative, mom of 2 wonderful boys, politically savvy, real estate agent, creative, marketer and MU Tiger.”
With a heavy sigh – and realizing one never wins a Twitter battle with a stone wall twit – the response finally went back out, in good Southern manners: “Bless your heart. It must be difficult to carry around so much hate.”
But, you see, hate has become the currency of the simple minded wading into the oil-soaked waters of politics.
Take South Carolina – please. (No, wait…sorry…twist on an old Henny Youngman joke.)
The front runner for the GOP nomination to succeed Appalachian Trail hiker Mark Sanford as governor is a woman, Nikki Haley. Because she’s a woman, she’s been accused of sleeping around by a right-wing blogger and former political hack for Sanford and, as it turns out, Haley.
But there’s more. Haley is now Christian – a Methodist, even, which some say is just barely Christian. But she was raised by her Indian parents in the Sikh faith and given the name, Nimrata Randhawa, at birth…in South Carolina.
So along comes her GOP primary opponent, a fellow state senator named Jake Knotts (no relation to Don), who loudly and flatulently proclaimed yesterday, “We already got one raghead in the White House. We don’t need another in the governor’s mansion.”
If you’re keeping track, mark another one down in the column of gross, ignorant and insipid.”
Interesting rhetorical technique on her part, to put the burden on you to disprove her declaration. Good for you for not getting sucked into that quicksand of vacuousness.
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This is one of the most important discussions I ever read in a long time, I’m talking about this component of your post “… Sikh faith and given the name, Nimrata Randhawa, at birth…in South Carolina.So along comes her GOP primary …” it also reminded me about the day I met my long time friend.