This kind of ugly rhetoric is precisely why the far right-wing is destroying the entire GOP. The mainstream Republican party will not cut away this gangrene, so it is stuck with the ramifications of having in their party such violent positions so openly displayed. Just take a look:
'"Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) has seen far better days, and is often little more than a warm body when he is helped into the Senate. Granted, lucidity and coherence is not a priority among Senate Democrats, but Byrd is an embarrassment even for a party that regular drafts the imaginary or dead to vote.
Robert Byrd has been around a very long time, and his many decades of service have made West Virginia a wonderful state in which to manufacture methamphetamine or frame the locals for murder. But it's time for Senator to do the right thing, and expire.
It isn't too much to ask for Byrd to step off for that great klavern in the sky before the Senate vote that may force this nation to accept government-rationed health care. Even a nice coma would do.
Without his frail, Gollum-like body being wheeled into the Senate's chambers to cast the deciding vote, the Senate cannot curse our children and grandchildren with crushing debt and rationed, substandard healthcare.
I suppose some will be shocked and appalled that I'd wish for the former kleagle to die on command. I'd remind them that the party wheeling in a near invalid to vote in favor of this unread monstrosity of a bill is the one that should feel shame."'
Yes, the "i hope you die" political talking point is offensive, but not shocking. Not from this bunch. Let me share with you a story of something that had happened to me recently. I twittered about it mildly - not in fully detail - but I was too angry to fully blog about it. Given this latest display of death -by -disagreement- syndrome, I feel I must share it.
(more after the fold)
The dog-park Christian
Several weeks back I took my puppy to the dog park near my home. Before I proceed, let me remind those of you who know and inform those of you who do not that I have a serious illness called Lupus (more precisely, MCTD). As a result of my illness, I am already self conscious about my appearance. I am also sensitive to "drop dead" rhetoric of the kind I just cited above.
At the park I found a gazebo and sat down while my puppy played with the other dogs. I was one of three people in the gazebo, a man and a woman. They did not seem to know each other, but the woman was speaking at the man non-stop the whole time I was there. I did not pay any attention to her as I was watching my pup having fun. Then out of no-where, this woman turned to me and asked me what I thought about what she had just said - asking me if I agreed. I did hear what she had said and it was offensive, but I did not come to the dog park to get into a political debate. So I answered that I had not heard, but that I was relaxing while watching my pet, hoping this would let her know to not engage me.
So she repeated her vile opinion, which I can summarize as follows: the reason the US is in such terrible shape is because of the decline of family values and the rise of freedoms for "the gays" and the "Tootsies." That we should "go back" to the values this country was founded on.
I explained that I was not interested in engaging in political debate, but that I agreed that we should go back to the values this country was founded on, in particular, those stated in the Bill of Rights and codified in the Constitution.
The woman explained that she was speaking of Christian values on which this country was founded and to which we should return. I again explained I had no wish to engage her, but pointed out that this country was founded by deists and refugees from religious persecution. With that, she turned to the man sitting near us and said something like (paraphrasing) "you can't talk to these people because they are stupid and demonic."
Having heard enough, I gathered my things, found my dog, and moved across the park from this woman. I situated myself on a bench near the exit and let loose my girl to play near there. The man from the gazebo apparently had had enough too, because soon after he joined me on the bench and said something like "I don't know what that was about."
Our quiet, however, was not for long because this Christian values woman marched straight up to us and turned to the man, she said - and I remember this verbatim: "you should be careful who you talk to. i am beautiful because I am good and that is why god has blessed me. she is ugly [pointing to me] because she is evil and god has cursed her. she is demonic." She said all this while pointing to a Scleroderma patch on my ear and mouthing the word AIDS.
I was calm. In response I simply told this woman that she should be ashamed of herself and that although I did not have AIDS, even if I did or something equally terrible, it would not be very Christian of her to say this was deserved to a person she did not know.
Her response? I remember this verbatim too. She said "I hope you are sick. I hope you die too because you are demonic. You deserve whatever you get."
All of this because I disagreed - respectfully - with this woman on her notion of the "gay problem."
Granted that the post above is written in a humerus way and so the delivery is a bit different and a bit less psychotic sounding. Nevertheless, such rhetoric is offensive and inappropriate. Especially because the last thing a sick or dying person should hear from anyone, and in particular from a so-called God-fearing Christian is that they deserve to suffer and die.
My friend Shoq called just then and urged me to write about it. I tried, but was unable to curb my anger enough to limit the use of expletives to a manageable few. So I refrained.
Now, if you go back to the post I cited and read the comments, you will find that such views are not isolated, in fact, certain politicians are being openly threatened:
"I hate to say it but in order to get a return of control of the government to the people, we may have to wish that a number of established politicians meet an untimely end. Have you tried to contact your senator or congressman lately? They aren't listening or responding. My senator in Landrieu and she has turned her phones off. Even the press can't contact her. She will come up for re-election in 5 years and by that time the government will have figured out how to get the Katrina people back here and she will win again."
Then there is a more high-profile version of the same opinion:
"Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is hoping, even praying, that one of his Democratic colleagues somehow cannot manage to cast a vote on health care in the wee hours of Monday morning.
As the chamber nears the first of several procedural ballots to end debate on the bill ahead of final passage, Coburn said, "What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight. That's what they ought to pray."
His suggestion, seemingly a veiled remark aimed at ailing 92-year-old Senator Robert Byrd (D-VA), struck a raw nerve with Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). "I don't think it's appropriate to be invoking prayer to wish misfortune on a colleague and I want him to clarify that," he said. "I've invited him, I wanted to reach out to him. He is my friend and I've worked with him, but, uh, this statement goes too far."'
Seriously, this is ugly, unethical and not remotely "compassionate" Conservatism, Christianity or any other term hijacked by bible- thumpers to make claims about values they themselves do not adhere to.
The GOP, the party of hate, not God. If those on the right disagree with this, I suggest they firmly stand against the likes of Coburn, Bachmann, and others.
