Friends of Bill
April 19th, 2015 | 
Author: Over the last 25 years republicans have gone from disingenuous jerks to complete assholes. From occasional forays into dirty politics and smear tactics to a no holds barred enterprise of fear, hate and racism. From a tacit deployment of bigotry, to a stentorian campaign of disenfranchising minorities and marginalizing women.
From stupid and selfish to mean and vicious.
From conservative to teabilly.
The worst of you don’t care. You actually believe Obama is a communist, Muslim, Kenyan that just wants to reward lazy, shiftless blacks and Mexicans with food stamps, welfare and endless unemployment benefits on your dime. You don’t care that it’s all thoroughly baseless crap and you can’t possibly back any of it up.
It doesn’t matter at all to you that the bastards who are actually in your wallets are the same bastards you vote for every time.
The worst of you think he wants to overthrow or undermine America.
The worst of you only care that the next president is a white republican Christian male. It wouldn’t matter to you if this required violence.
All this stupidity causes visions of getting my gums scraped to dance in my head.
The punchline is that these are the reasons the worst of you are still relevant.
Having said that, shifting demographics, social evolution and all things actuarial point to the extinction of the worst of you.
Any remaining republicans aspiring to be taken seriously in the real world, and by that I mean outside the absurd right wing echo chamber, have to learn to respond and participate with some civility and dignity or party on ignorant toward that extinction.
So here’s a primer for all of you who would be left behind.
The best of you.
Normal people, regular people, the best of you, don’t call for president Obama to be executed, impeached or incarcerated because you realize it’s fucking silly and it embarrasses you that the worst of you can never produce a legitimate reason for any of it. You understand it is hyperbole to distract the lowest common denominator of rotting mouths and vanishing prospects.
The best of you realize that the president is a decent man,who at least has in common with you the best of intentions for our country. The best of you differ with him, you don’t agree with his execution of the office. You don’t agree with his policies. You don’t like his priorities. You just don’t like him. But the best of you understand that he isn’t out to destroy you or this country or your way of life.
The best of you feel no need to demonize him or resort to the very worst of human nature by analogizing he and his wife to primates. The best of you want simply to disagree and be taken seriously for doing so. You realize he is but a man, not a king, not the anti-Christ, but merely a man who was elected by a solid majority of the voters twice who’s transgressions are certainly no more egregious than his predecessors.
You hope to elect a republican next time around but simply don’t feel the need to impugn this president’s character or disparage his integrity to accomplish that. You realize that you would be horrified to see those sorts of tactics applied to your candidate or president.
The best of you get that this president exemplifies “family values” way better than any of the goofcocks that run for your political party.
The best of you just want political discourse to return to comity and respect. The best of you sincerely wish your already elected representatives would ascribe to at least as much.
The best of you want no part of what goes on here. You would be more comfortable where responsible ideas are dealt with responsibly, without the vitriol and invective. You want a venue where you’re not called names and attacked for no more than disagreeing.
The best of you are grownups.
This blog is dedicated to my friend Bill, for whom I genuinely bear no ill will, but who I wish would just stop posting such incredibly callow bullshit that he just refuses to take responsibility for.
My sincere hope is that my friend Bill will grow the fuck up.
This is not only about your beliefs Bill, it’s about your behavior.
Drinks for my friends.
Posted in Uncategorized
To my friend Charlie A.
Very acute and existential. You hit the target bullseye as usual..however you did omit a growing group of us who realize that who is at the helm matters not at all to what actually happens. There’s an old quote by a surprising source that would admit to as much, “Presidents are selected, not elected.”? Franklin D. Roosevelt… this has been the truth since we began the charade and illusion of the electoral process, never more clearer and overt than in 2000 & 2004. They didn’t even bother to try and hold up a semblance of the “democratic” process that we dare to call one of our greatest civil rights.. its all lies, its all decided as soon as the last election is over. Yet we are so conditioned to believe that we DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE in what happens. WE DON’T!
So many of us have “friends” like Bill — people we might like to socialize with more often, if they just didn’t say such unfounded and shallow things about President Obama. I, too, complain about Obama’s actions on occasion — things I wish he’d go full-on progressive about. But, I accept that he’s one person in a vast structure that we call government, which is laded down by history, greedy tentacles of the rich, decades of treaties and business agreements, and the outrageous intransigence of the GOP in congress.
I often think that there are only 3 kinds of conservatives — the ones who are also “good Christians” and think the government should be used to force everyone to “come to Jesus; the ones who are very rich and have not a milliliter of thought about anyone else beyond how they can add to their riches; and the ones who are just perpetually pissed off – at whom, it doesn’t matter – and think that their clever use of put-downs demonstrates that only they know the truth about how to live in a democracy.
Not one of those types of people contribute anything to the progress of our nation, of our earth. They’re sucking the air out of productive conversations and attempts to truly address issues of life and death in this century.
A very long article but mandatory reading…especially if you may be tempted to give Rand Paul a serious look!
In my opinion….one of the most potentially dangerous men/women in politics today!
Article: The Immoral Intellectual Roots of Libertarianism.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/04/15/3646802/libertarianism-immoral/
So they say they want to lead us FORWARD!
Then start by telling us how…what…why you are qualified to do that!
Spending time rehashing a past…never to be changed nor attacking using personal attacks is one sure way to get me to say “fuck off” and turn the channel!
What a fucking joke this election is turning out to be!
A coronation on one side and total assholishness from the opposition!
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/04/14/gop-presidential-hopefuls-launch-united-front-vs-dem-challenger-hillary-clinton/
Spot on brother. I too have few friends like ‘Bill’. I wish they would have the courage to admit their hatred of President Obama is based on the color of his skin. President Obama’s administration has been relatively scandal free. He has improved the economy drastically. He has championed causes to help poor and middle class Americans. He has used diplomacy instead of military force against our “enemies”. He has been civil to his conservative opponents. But that’s not good enough for conservatives. Nothing he does or says will please them outside of resigning our committing suicide. Now they have gone from Obama derangement syndrome to Hillary derangement syndrome. I hope people vote in full force 2016. We must crush Teavangelicals and their corporate pimps once and for all to take back control of our country.
I work with many people who embody the worst of what you have described. It turns my stomach.
I wish I knew or read of some of ‘the best of them’. Have they developed mutism? Are they hiding in fear? Embarrassment? Shame? Are they attacked for having moderate views, common sense and decency in their communications?
Or are they dwindling in number?
The media loves to attend to the squeakiest wheels. Those clicks and ‘Likes’ draw advertisers’ dollars. But I wish the media understood that many of us are hungry for any sane voice from the conservative side. I’d be magnetized to read of how ‘the best of them’ square away, in their own thinking, Republican political attacks on every sector of our society who’s not a wealthy white male. I’d love to see some valid sources, too. Without any references to Fox, please.
But frankly, Mr. Douglass, at this point everything I read on social media leads me to believe ‘the best of them’ you’re describing have gone the way of the black rhino. At the least, they seem to be an endangered species. And I’m hoping that with the absence of their moderates, ‘the worst of them’ turn cannibalistic.
Pass the popcorn, please.
LOVE once again. Thank you for posting.
Michael, I very much respect your writings and the facts you give. I may not agree with everything you write but at least I know you’re not trying to fill me up with bullshit and the opinions you give, are simply just that…your opinions for which you have a right to share. What I appreciate is the wisdom and the time you take to research so that your opinions are not only informative, but certainly very thought-provocative. I value your opinions because they are not your beliefs you are trying to pawn off on others, but sadly truth that makes you realize you don’t have to believe everything on television and that we still have the freedom to listen to all sides. Sadly, many people still feel they are God and were given the right to judge others! The boy I went to school with was always outspoken but a nice guy just the same. It’s a shame he doesn’t know you as I do, nor does he give you the respect we all deserve. Continue keeping your standards as high as they are, and forget those who have no standards whatsoever!
Drinks on me my friend!