Conservative Idiots

Over at Atheist Revolution, vjack asks, “What is Really Driving Conservative Teabagging?” Ultimately, he puts forth the proposition “that the answer lies in lingering dissatisfaction from those who opposed Obama’s election.” There’s something to that, I’m sure. It is, as vjack points out, highly irrational to protest that their own taxes are being lowered while those of the wealthiest are getting increased. I do think, though, that he’s taking the optimistic high ground here. For me, the bottom line is that most of the people rallying behind this craze are just plain ignorant.

For any conservatives reading this – no, I am not calling you stupid (though I’m sure a number qualify for that adjective as well). It’s unfortunate that ignorant has become one of those words that has taken on a popular meaning quite different from what it was intended to mean. I direct you to this Merriam-Webster definition of the word if it isn’t clear to you.

Who can forget the whole “Obama is a Muslim” meme from the election campaign? Or how about all the fuss over Obama’s citizenship? The thing that is so astounding about conservatives is that they take these easily refutable rumors as gospel truth — even when presented with evidence to the contrary. Consider that the Obama-is-a-Muslim myth persisted in spite of the very public scandal involving the pastor of Obama’s very Christian church. To those firmly entrenched in the Muslim myth, it was a front to make people think he’s a Christian. And regarding Obama’s citizenship, the result of his birth certificate being posted online was that the wingnuts claimed it was a forgery.

Then again, I suppose it shouldn’t really be a surprise. These are, after all, often the very same people who accept that a Bronze Age myth involving an Invisible Sky Fairy and his Zombie Son is a better explanation for the world than the last few centuries of scientific discovery. It’s as if wilful ignorance is encoded in their genes (I was going to link to an old NYT article about that, but my Google-foo is failing me). Based on all of this kooky, irrational, conservative behavior over the past several years (“Drill, baby, drill!”), I see opposition to Obama as being an indirect cause of this drive to protest the lowering of taxes. The root of it, and what causes them to so vehemently oppose Obama in the first place, is plain old ignorance.

It’s quite worrisome that a significant minority of the American population are so able to get caught up in this sort of dementia. But you can’t blame most of the people themselves. The thing is, we humans are quite emotional creatures. Get us all worked up, and we’ll protest just about anything. Once emotions are involved, we generally cease to care what the evidence says, if we ever did at all. Even the rational and well-informed can fall victim to human nature. And that’s the key, isn’t it? If there is some common thread of discontent simmering amongst a segment of the population, all it takes is a steady flame underneath to bring it to a boil. And that is exactly what Republican leaders and right wing mouthpieces have learned to do with some amount of skill.

Conservative personalities are very good at propagating an “us vs. them” mentality among their followers. When people are constantly offended and angry, they are willing to believe anything inline with their values (another word that has been hijacked and distorted). We see this time and time again on social and political issues alike — “Liberals want to encourage your children to have sex by giving them condoms”,  “Anti-war protestors are unpatriotic”, “America is a Christian nation”, “Gay marriage will destroy the family and take away your freedom”, “Obama wants your guns”. And it’s nothing new, as Paul Krugman points out. But it doesn’t mean we should brush it off.

But here’s the thing: the G.O.P. looked as crazy 10 or 15 years ago as it does now. That didn’t stop Republicans from taking control of both Congress and the White House. And they could return to power if the Democrats stumble. So it behooves us to look closely at the state of what is, after all, one of our nation’s two great political parties.

Indeed.

Yeah, there may be alot of reasons conservatives are coming out for this teabagging buffoonery. But the root cause of it all is that they are being wilfully ignorant, have been for years, and aren’t likely to change soon. As long as conservative personalities like Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh continue to get people riled up and chanting the indignant catchphrase of the month (“Obama is a socialist!”), we are going to continue to see this sort of nutjobbery.

While Bush continues to make a mockery of Congressional oversight and the Democrats continue to bark with no teeth, Conservative mouthpieces continue to spew copious amounts of Idiocy to the few dimwitted supporters they have left. Chief among them these days is Rudy Giuliani. He’s proving to be a bigger idiot than even Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter, which is certainly no small feat.

When Mr. 9/11’s South Carolina campaign chairman, Thomas Ravenel, became a victim of the war on drugs, a replacement needed to be found. Deciding to keep it in the family, Rudy hired Ravenel’s father, Arthur. That could be seen as a compassionate move, except that Arthur Ravenel is a raving bigot. His support for raising the Confederate flag at the South Carolina statehouse is a controversial issue, to be sure. But more tellingly, he once referred to the NAACP as the “National Association for Retarded People” at a flag rally. What, a cocaine dealer can’t rally the Republican base like a good, old-fashioned, Southern, redneck bigot can?

That’s not the only idiocy Mr. 9/11 has been up to. He’s been making the Top 10 Conservative Idiots List frequently, often twice a week, for a few weeks now. Like other Republicans, he’s taking advantage of the ignorance of the mindless zombies who worship them by rewriting history. Claiming to have done more on 9/11 than he really did, contradicting statements he made as recently as last fall, blaming Clinton for 9/11… You can read about much of that in Idiots 295, 296, and 297.

Giuliani isn’t just an idiot, he’s a liar. Unlike certain other liars in his party, he hasn’t yet proven to be a criminal. How about we not give him the chance to become one, eh?